Most Expensive Domain Name Ever Sold
Contrary to popular myth, sex.com is not the world’s most expensive domain name. But it may set a new record now it is up for auction, with bids starting at $1 million. Here are the most expensive domain name ever sold.
1. Insure.com, bought for $16m in 2009
Originally bought in 2001 for a tenth of the price ($1.5 million), the $16 million price tag some eight years later set records as the most expensive domain name of all time. The new owner, QuinStreet, an “online marketing services and technology company”, experienced a mixed response when its shares hit Wall Street in February this year. You’ll probably be unsurprised to learn that insure.com provides insurance quotes for US consumers.
2. Sex.com, bought for between $12m to $14m in 2006
Yes, sex costs more than porn. The owners of sex.com have been rather coquettish about the price they paid, but it was believed to have been bought for between $12 and $14 million from one very lucky previous owner in 2006.
3. Fund.com, bought for $9.99m in 2008
And back down to earth with Fund.com, a financial services site that gives information and advice on investment fund options, whose owners invested just shy of $10 million in the name.
4. Porn.com, bought for $9.5m in 2007
Porn.com does exactly what you’d expect. Unsurprisingly, it’s not safe to use at work (and wouldn’t be so popular if it was). If you are wondering, it hosts free x-rated videos in a variety of ‘flavours’.
5. Business.com, bought for $7.5m in 1999
Record-setting when it was bought for £100,000 in 1997, business.com was subsequently bought for a significantly higher sum – £5 million – in 1999. It was home to a business search engine and directory.
6.Diamond.com, bought for $7.5m in 2006
A diamond jewellery e-tailer, the owners of diamond.com are ice.com: an almost identical jewellery site. Diamond.com offers diamonds every which way on every conceivable type of trinket. You can even buy a bunch of loose diamonds via a monthly instalment plan.
7. Beer.com, bought for $7m in 2004
Beer.com is as unfussy a site as the drink itself; it’s essentially a list of alcohol-related links. But with a largely empty homepage, it’s possibly the priciest blank space on the internet.
8. Israel.com, bought for $5.88m in 2004
Probably the only top 10 domain name originally bought for kind intentions. In 1994, a Jewish American named Noel Friedman decided to buy the domain to prevent anyone misusing its potent name. Now under new ownership and chock-full of Israel-related links.
9. Casino.com, bought for $5.5m in 2003
A little bit of Vegas online, Casino.com is actually licensed to run as an online casino from Gibraltar. For a territory of about 2.5 square miles, the island has rather a lot of similar enterprises operating out of it.
10. Toys.com, bought to Toys ‘R Us for $5.1m in 2009
A domain name that makes absolute sense, toys.com is the online home of ToysRUs and the companies it owns. The domain was bought at auction, with only one rival bidder (National A-1 Advertising: owners of various high value one-name domains) going toe-to-toe with the toy giant once bids went beyond $3 million.
Other top dollar domain name sold:
Candy.com, sold for $3 million in June of 2009.
Vodka.com, $3 million
CreditCards.com, $2.75 million
Computers.com, $2.1 million
Seniors.com, $1.8 million
DataRecovery.com, $1.66 million
Cameras.com, $1.5 million
Tandberg.com, $1.5 million
