The most expensive domain names in history
In the past, dozens of domain name sales have exceeded $3 million buyouts.
Voice.com is the most expensive domain name sold in the world. 30 million is the world record for a domain name buyout.
Buying a domain name for a few dozen euros from a registrar and selling it for millions of dollars? This sweet dream sometimes comes true in history.
Domain name buyback 2022
In the summer of 2022, DNJournal reported the sale of the nfts.com domain name for $15 million. The sale took place via the Escrow.com escrow agent. It is regularly used to secure high-dollar buyouts. According to the news site, the Domainer and GoDaddy platforms (also responsible for GlobalBlock) negotiated the transaction. However, the identity of the buyer is not yet known. This anonymity may have raised doubts about this domain name buyout.
Nevertheless, the plural nfts.com domain name refers to the Non Fungible Token (NFT). This is a non-fungible token used in particular in crypto-currencies. This sector also saw the sale of nft.com in the singular in 2021 for “only” two million dollars.
In 2017, eth.com for Ethereum, another crypto-currency, had also changed hands for $2 million.
In addition to this record-breaking transaction for nfts.com, other major domain name takeovers took place in .COM during 2022. Among the forty or so known domain name sales in excess of $3 million, there was it.com ($3.8 million). This domain name itself offers to buy sub-domains of it.com.
Finally, HubSpot, an American inbound marketing software company, is reported to have paid no less than $10 million for the connect.com domain name.
Voice.com tops the list of the most expensive domain names in history
In 2019, a startup in the crypto-currency sector named Block.one, reclaimed the existing domain name voice.com for $30 million in cash.
Records for domain name resales may cite other transactions such as lasvegas.com or business.com. However, these are domain name sales with payment in instalments, or with the business attached to the domain of the previous website. This is the case of the domain name business.com, whose package was resold for $350 million.
most expensive domain names 2022
The list of the most expensive domain names of all time concerns only publicly disclosed cash redemptions. Many transactions for existing domain names remain confidential. If you mandate Solidnames to buy a domain name, the sale price remains confidential.
Buying generic domain names
Several easy-to-remember generic names such as insure.com, diamond.com or clothes.com are among the most expensive domain name takeovers in history.
Travel agency Expedia bought the hotels.com domain name for $11 million.
Among the many record sales of domain names, there are several descriptive names for the adult industry (sex.com, porn.com or porno.com).
Other sulphurous domain names linked to alcohol (beer.com, whishy.com or vodka.com), drugs (marijuana.com) or gaming (casino.com, slots.com) have been bought out at high prices.
Short domain name buybacks
Many short domain names, consisting of one, two or three letters, are also sold at very high prices.
Social network Facebook has bought the fb.com domain name for $8.5 million. Yellow Pages acquired the yp.com (Yellow Pages) domain name for $3.8 million.
The most expensive domain names in history also include well-known brands such as tesla.com ($11 million) and iCloud.com ($6 million), the cloud service published by Apple.
Negotiating the purchase price of a domain name
The domain name market has its records. Finding an available quality domain name is almost a mission impossible in.COM, the world’s most registered Internet extension.
However, it is possible to choose a domain name that has already been taken if you buy it back. A domain name buyback budget of a few thousand euros is often enough to recover the desired name.
You can contact SOLIDNAMES to find out how to buy your future domain name already registered.
Author’s note: Article previously published on 21/06/2019, updated on 12/09/2022 with new sales known since