With all due respect to Virginia Tech, Patrick Bet-David and his media company Valuetainment are now the proud owners of the domain VT.COM.
Bet-David made the announcement during his four-day Vault Conference, a business and leadership boot camp that concluded last week at The Diplomat Resort in Miami, Florida.
Just acquired a 2 letter domain for Valuetainment.
We’ve come a long way. Big things coming soon.
Future looks bright. pic.twitter.com/kZFYSoTCsc
— Patrick Bet-David (@patrickbetdavid) September 3, 2023
The domain required a major investment, given the rarity and exclusivity of a two-letter domain. Securing the domain had become a mission for the Valuetainment CEO, who had been pursuing it for nearly five years.
“Let this be a source of inspiration for many of you that anything big at one point started off with somebody that had a dream, that they wanted to cast it to others and then they were serious about it,” Bet-David said to a crowd of over 3,000 conference attendees. “They made a couple of bold moves, it was a clear vision and then the right people showed up and this thing all of a sudden took on a life of its own and the rest is history.”
Acquiring domain names is a big business and can change the trajectory of a company. Here’s a list of the more significant two-letter domain transactions:
- FB.com – Facebook purchased this from the American Farm Bureau Federation for around $8.5 million in 2010.
- IG.com – This domain was bought by finance trading firm IG Group from Instagram for a reported $4.7 million in 2013.
- MI.com – Chinese electronics company Xiaomi bought this domain for about $3.6 million in 2014.
- LA.com – Tribune Publishing, the publisher of The LA Times, acquired this domain for $1.2 million in 2016.
- WE.com – Sold to a Chinese company Ren Ren Dai in 2015 for a reported $8 million.
- YP.com – AT&T sold its Yellow Pages business, including the YP.com domain, to Cerberus Capital in 2012 as part of a $950 million transaction. The domain’s exact value in this sale is not publicly known. This domain had previously been sold by Nevada-based company LiveDeal to YellowPages for $3.85 million in 2008.
- MM.com – This domain was sold to Chinese company Hangzhou Duomai E-Commerce Co. for $1.2 million in 2014.
- 20.com – Sold to a Chinese domain buyer for $1.75 million in 2017.
- HG.com – Sold to a Chinese buyer WanJiaHuanGou for a reported $3.77 million in 2016.
- JD.com – Sold for $5 million in 2014.
It is worth noting that two-letter domain sales, especially in the .com space, are incredibly rare, and these domains often remain with their owners for extended periods due to their value and utility.
Additionally, here are some of the top overall domain transactions that were made public:
- Cars.com – Purchased for $872 million.
- CarInsurance.com – Purchased by QuinStreet for $49.7 million in 2010.
- Voice.com – Purchased by Block.one for $30 million in 2019.
- Insurance.com – Purchased by QuinStreet for $35.6 million in 2010. The domain was sold along with the website, but the domain alone is believed to account for a significant portion of the price.
- Sex.com – A notorious domain that was sold for $13 million in 2010.
- 360.com – Purchased for $17 million in 2015.
- PrivateJet.com – Bought for $30.18 million in 2012. Like Insurance.com, this price also included the website and assets beyond just the domain name.
- Internet.com – Purchased for $18 million in 2009.
- Insure.com – Purchased for $16 million in 2009.
- NFT.com – Purchased for $15 million.
- Hotels.com – The CEO later admitted in an interview that they bought it for approximately $11 million in 2001.
- Connect.com – Purchased by HubSpot for $10 million.
- Fund.com – Sold for £9.99 million in 2008.
- Porno.com – Sold for $8.8 million in 2015.
High-value domains can represent brand authority in their respective industries or can be seen as vital digital real estate for businesses. According to Forbes, in recent years exact match keywords have become even more important on the web. Whereas generic names like “Cars.com” or “home.com” were all the rage in the early days of the internet, now single-word iconic brand names are selling for high amounts.
As Forbes articulates, ensuring your brand has an immediately recognizable and easy-to-remember name can make or break your advertising initiatives, as people can more easily follow up with your company after seeing a split-second ad.
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