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Competition Remains Hot for Web Domain Names
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RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Unidentified Man #1: I'm at 150,000? Now 175, 150, now 175.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
YUKI NOGUCHI: At a live auction last week, there was a bidding war for Sagittarius.com, and the winner was Andy Booth. He took home the prize by paying $33,500.
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ANDY BOOTH: Women have a tendency to spend an awful lot of money, usually on the Internet. So I thought it was a perfect opportunity.
NOGUCHI: An opportunity to sell ads targeted at horoscope watchers, or Booth could flip it to someone else willing to pay more for it.
BOOTH: I expect that I'll find some way to find a higher paying bidder. That's what it's about generally in this market.
NOGUCHI: Web properties are appreciating. The reason: more companies realize there's advertising potential. Plus a diminishing pool of good names drives prices up.
JEREMIAH JOHNSTON: We like to think of domains as virtual real estate. And like real estate there's a scarcity to domains. So the fact that there are only so many available words out there to turn into domains, that brings a value to each of these properties.
NOGUCHI: Take Rich Schwartz. He doesn't do much with the 6,000 sites he owns. On most of his sites he simply posts links to other companies and collects millions in advertising by redirecting traffic to those places.
RICH SCHWARTZ: I don't have a candy store. I don't want a candy store. But guess what? Fifteen hundred people a day come to Candy.com. Do you know any store in the world that has 1,500 people lined up every single day of the year?
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NOGUCHI: OK. That sounds easy as pie. But back when Schwartz bought some big names like Candy.com, few others were doing what he did.
SCHWARTZ: In 1997, when I bought Porno.com, it cost me $42,000. I call it the shot that was heard around the world. Absolutely nobody could believe that anybody could be stupid enough to spend that kind of money on a domain name.
NOGUCHI: But once in a while, someone registers a name that later becomes popular. Jeremiah Johnston.
JOHNSTON: MySpace.co.uk was a domain that was registered by a gentleman in England who got the domain before the company MySpace even existed.
NOGUCHI: Unidentified Man #2: These are great names, folks. Three hundred thousand three and a quarter. Go three and a quarter. Go three and a quarter. Go three and a quarter. I'm a 300,000. Bid once, twice, third and final call. I'm going to close the bidding at 300,000.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
NOGUCHI: Yuki Noguchi, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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