MostWantedDomains.com Brokers The Sale Of Meet.Me For A World Record Price Of $450,000
I’m proud to announce that MostWantedDomains.com has successfully brokered the sale of the domain name Meet.Me for $450,000 in what we believe is a world record price for a .Me domain name.
The Domain was jointly owned by My company, Worldwide Media, Inc., Rick Schwartz and Ammar Kubba.
The domain name was acquired at the silent portion of a TRAFFIC auction for $5,890 back just over three years ago.
The domain will become the 7th highest sale of the year on DnJournal.com YTD chart and the 3rd highest non-.com sale of the year.
Beyond the money, there are some other important takeaways from the sale.
1. It’s a recent transaction.
Some of us older domainers (and it pretty hard to find domainers older than myself and Rick, although it should be noted that Rick is MUCH older) get tired of hearing that we are only successful because we got started back in the day, usually meaning the mid to late 1990′s and are riding out all of those hand registered domains all these years later.
Here is a domain that was purchased just a few years ago in an auction opened to all and for a pretty modest sum.
I believe there was only one other bidder in this auction and the reserve was set at $5K.
The domain name was bought from the Registry who at the same auction sold date.me and marry.me which we as a group also purchased.
As a personal note being involved in a sale with Mr. Schwartz is quite an education even for an old domainer like myself and the power of the word “no” that Rick frequently chats about cannot be underestimated.
2. The buyer is a big boy
There is another line of reasoning that I see in many comments that buyers of a non-com are uninformed or simply can’t afford the .com.
They buyer is a public company and owned the matching .com meetme.com but still felt it important enough, $450,000 important enough, to get the matching .me domain.
In actuality the buyer got a great deal.
With this .com they have locked up the space and is in a position to take there online conferencing business to the next level.
3. The bar has been raised on .Me domain name values, especially the domains with verbs, call to action type of domains as well as other bang on domain in other right of the dot extensions other than .com.
I have spoken about the expansion of the domain space for a few years and people have accused me on on other blogs & forums that I’m shilling for new extensions.
I guess they have ignored that I have actually invested hundreds of thousands of dollars, putting my money where my mouth is.
The only reason we sold the domain at this level was to raise the bar on valuations of other .Me domain names which we jointly and individually own.
Of course it also raises the value of .Me domains owned by a lot of domain investors.
Great domains for the extension, just got a huge boost.
No it doesn’t make a crappy .Me worth more but domain names like date.me, marry.me, love.me that we own jointly as well as domains I own like use.me and text.me are worth more now.
Yes I see opportunities in the right of the dot extensions.
At the most recent TRAFFIC Conference auction we once again were a buyer of a new extension this time .XXX.
Don’t be surprised to see a similar story to this one in a few years announcing the sale of one of those domain names.
Yesterday we saw a .ly sell for $100K
The domain space has an is going to continue to expand.
It’s just not a 100% .com world any more.
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Robert
I already told that story
http://www.thedomains.com/2011/01/01/its-january-1-we-are-750000-in-the-hole/
oh yes, I see.
but to all these hi fivers and readers just salivating reading this story and seeing the numbers
they may get the wrong idea.
if you too had 75,000 domains, I can guarantee that you will have some sales as well.
But what is most prominent to note is that the sale was
number #1 a high value sale and
number #2 that it is in a cctld
this is where the game changer is.
No one can and will look at cctld like
.Co .Me .TV and even .net .org .edu
the same again.
In my opinion this is Midway,
this is where the inflexion point is
this is where it now shifts to the right of the dot.
remember it is less than a few months away now.
So ConferencePlus bought the name. You positioned yourselves but it was pure luck…Even Fuck.me and Sex.me wouldn’t command a price in that range.
We bought energy.me earlier this year and branded our entire company based on the domain name. Happy to see a big .me sales comp.
@Jason Thompson
None of us really knows how successful about.me is with or without those domains. Maybe they are feeling pressure because they don’t own about.com or aboutme.com. You’ve countered Wick’s points without a complete picture. Just because they use a .me and people use their site, etc does not make them an example of “what works” in alternative extensions.
I’ve just talked to an entrepreneur who did market research and found that the general populous has no clue about the “right of the dot”. Early adopters, venture backed guys, angels, tech crunch readers and those of us in the know understand that about.me is “about dot me” but the general public, from what I’ve been told, still don’t.
I love the creative new extensions and definitely wouldn’t pass the chance to make some cash on the upside, but the vibe I’ve gotten from entrepreneurs is, if you are going to aim to be a globally recognized big brand and appeal to the widest consumer base possible you can’t do it without the .com .
@.ME Of Course!
f-ck.me is still held by the registry……………
I found that out last week, so I hand reged F-*-*-*.me and listed it with Sedo with a $500
“buy it now”. When I got home tonight, I got a letter from Sedo’s legal dept, saying that they
“removed” it from sale because they felt it was “obscene”. I sent them an email saying you need to type in F*** in your search portal and see the thousands of names listed for sale with that word. I’m curious to see what they say about that.
In any case, when F***.me is released, they will have to find another selling platform to sell it!
The amount of “knowledge” in this thread has become overwhelming !!!
certain _former_ runners. that organisation which verifies athletic records is internationally recognised with a history going back to the early 1900′s. before the web and more recently blogs, it was not so easy for anyone to publish anything to a large international audience with zero oversight and without a significant degree of scrutiny. the organisation that keeps athletic records like bolt’s was operating in that environment for 90 some odd years before “just say whatever’s on your mind” blogs came along.
those record keepers are not still competing. they’re not trying to sell assets to make money to pay business expenses. and the records they keep are not influential on markets for those assets in which they are participants.
what a strange comparison.
congrats on the sale.
That’s a cool price
“So ConferencePlus bought the name. You positioned yourselves but it was pure luck…Even Fuck.me and Sex.me wouldn’t command a price in that range.”
This was not pure luck – this was the business of making dough off a very very very very very very small niche – and absolutely nothing do do with .ME . LY or whatever non.com.
This is pure sales for something that will ultinately sit on the fireplace mantle – but who cares – they made a sale – and that is good for the domain investing business.
Congratulations to your group, Michael as well as to the buyer.
It’s possible that they’ve noticed the huge success of LogMeIn’s online meeting and conferencing service Join.me and purchased the name with an eye to creating a similar offering. By the way, Join.me also owns Joinme.com but operates on Join.me. Check the traffic numbers for the site, they’ve been experiencing very strong growth.
Google has taken over the domain name Schemer.com
techcrunch.com/2011/11/11/whats-google-scheming-over-at-schemer-com/
that is a phenomenal sale!
what all this tells us is that
the adoption of the
“Right of the Dot”
is going better than
anyone ever expected.
more companies are open to using it
and most people are certainly open to seeing it.
XQS.me nice hack for sale.
Congrats, Michael!
What a sale !!!! That is fantastic news for .me domain owners, perhaps someone might now will take a good look at my SPONZOR.ME and give me the break I have been waiting for. .Me – is about You….
I’m NOT too impressed with that world record…
I’m more impressed with this new world record…
Over 100 responses on this story…
Now thats a world record within a world record…
Nothing to sneeze at…
I’m impressed!
No wonder you got the Blogger of the Year Award!
Wow!!!
@Anunt
Of course creating sub-pages is all about the playing the Google SEO game – but the content Michael is significant and so relevant to all parties – even the crusty old .com’ers !!!
We all know that
@Anunt
you must be a newbie. this ain’t no record. we’ve had over 150 responses on
.Co
stories in the last year.
sponzor.me I would not touch that with a 10′ foot pole.
do not be a follower, be a leader.
Intuitive.it sells for 20,000 Eur on Sedo
as I’ve said
I think
the right of the dot is beginning to gap open wide.
”
do not be a follower, be a leader.
”
OK R.cObert .CoLINE – We all want you to get out whole friend
How Will The New gTLDs Impact ccTLDs?
09. NOV, 2011 0 COMMENTS
New gTLDs has been one of the hottest topics in the Domaining industry all year, and with very good reason. There is no doubt that the new gTLDs will impact the space, some think it will be a good thing, others think it could hurt the value of existing TLDs. In the great gTLD discussion I find a lot of times the discussion is about the impact of gTLDs on .COM, .NET, and .ORG. Since this is ccTLDInvestors.com I thought now would be a great time to discuss the impact I think the new gTLDs will have on the ccTLD market.
First things first – there is no right or wrong answer here. When it comes to gTLDs the best we can all do is speculate, only time will tell the real impact. That being said, as investors it is absolutely critical for us to do our best to understand the market and how it is changing to make sure we end-up making the best investments possible.
I personally think one of the biggest impacts that the new gTLDs will have is growing awareness for the Domain Investing space. Never before have domain names or even the acronym “TLD” been in the news more than this year. More and more people are learning about our industry every day and more investors are entering the space than ever before. This is a good thing for all TLDs since more investors in the space means higher demand and greater liquidity.
The ccTLDs that I think will benefit the most are those that have seen the most liquidity and highest sales over the last few years like .CO, .DE and .CO.UK. Think about it, when a guy in Germany learns about the Domaining market for the first time after reading an article about gTLDs one of the first TLDs he/she will look to is .CO. The same is true in England for .CO.UK and India for .IN and .CO.IN.
Past sales data will provide an inspiration as well and if you scan a list of ccTLD sales it’s pretty easy to see that .CO, .DE and .CO.UK have been the leaders of the pack for quite a while. This is why I think investors anywhere in the world that find-out about the space and want to get started will lean towards the dominant ccTLDs. In this respect the new gTLDs are actually inspiring new investors and putting even more demand and liquidity into the top ccTLD markets.
Now for the negative. That’s right it can’t all be rainbows and lollipops. I do think that the new gTLDs will impact the geo-Domain ccTLD space. If a TLD like .LONDON become available then I think geo-targeted ccTLDs like LondonRestaurants.CO.UK or LondonHotels.CO.UK could become a second choice next to Restaurants.LONDON or Hotels.London. This is the only place that I can really see gTLDs taking business away from ccTLD Investments. Still, there’s a flip-side to this as well. I think that if a major company buys a name like Restaurants.LONDON they will probably want to own LondonRestaurants.CO.UK as well for brand protection and expansion. This could put premium price tags on select geo-domains buoying the market as a whole.
So what can you do as a ccTLD Investor to stay ahead of the curve? At the end of the day, investing is all about data. You need to make sure you are staying on top of every piece of data you can. When a new gTLD is released look at how many registrations they get, what names sell for the most, etc. Now is the time to invest carefully and learn absolutely everything you can about your market as it changes.
There is no doubt that the coming flood of new gTLDs will change the ccTLD market forever. The question for you is, how can you turn this change into an opportunity?
“It’s just not a 100% .com world any more.” – enough said.
Really nice sale of a really nice domain. Congratulations to the sellers and the buyers.
@ Robert Cline “sponzor.me I would not touch that with a 10′ foot pole.”
What are you talking about ? You don’t make sense of all you’ve been saying and for your information the keyword “Sponzor” means “Sponsor” in English and I repeat; for your information it is a widely used generic word in these upcoming and fast developing Eastern European Countries including: Czechoslovakia, Croatia, Slovakia. Finally, in future refrain from posting line after line of non-.me related posts as we were discussing the sensational sale of Meet.Me.
Have a nice day,
Alex
@Alex
good luck with that.
it may be a long shot but
it’s better than the lottery, right ?
@ Robert Cline !!! You’re starting to get on my TITS ….. Whats your problem ? Have you not got anything else to do apart from pigeon shitting your random comments here and there. I most certainly don’t need your good luck, I’ve got plenty of my own to go around a lifetime, so take this up your pipe and S.M.O.K.E it. End of Conversation
Have a nice day,
Alex
wow first i have heard of this …………my only .me is opportunity, seems to fit this thread well
That’s a great price for that domain….I have collected just
a few .me’s over the past few years FHA.me, MortgageLender.me, MortgageQuote.me, AllStar.me, AllState.me, Hangover.me, PrivateMoney.me, HardMoney.me, HomeEquity.me, Overweight.me, PimpleFree.me as well as a few others…. A few more sales like this will do well for all of us .me collectors.
@Anunt, you said, “I’m NOT too impressed with that world record…
I’m more impressed with this new world record…
Over 100 responses on this story…
Now thats a world record within a world record…”
Actually, this is nowhere near the record for domain blog post comments, however it turns out that MHB DOES hold that specific record, for another of hist posts on 3D domains which has garnered over 4,200 comments and still growing, as I’ve recently detailed on my blog: http://www.domainanimal.com/15-months-later-3d-acolytes-and-the-most-commented-domain-blog-post-in-the-history-of-the-internet/
Based on the fact that you partnered with Ammar and Dick on a 5K domain name I surmise that you didn’t have that much faith in the extension otherwize you woulda gone it on your own. As you partnered with Rick and came away with cash in your hand you should indeed consider yourself very very lucky. I bought some shares in flowers.mobi on some domain trading stock exchange type site and Shwartz sold the domain out from under all the shareholders for a song and a dance. And than man can not sing or dance. How many dot com names with an acquisition cost of 5K did you partner up with others on? I am sure very few. Truth is, its nice not to be the only one going down on a sinking ship right MB.
LD
I don’t know how buying a part of a domain for $6K and selling it for $450K is a sinking ship
The domain trading exchange you referred to, well I wrote about that one when I was out and warned people about it in May 2008
http://www.thedomains.com/2008/05/12/selling-buying-domain-interests-on-fusucom-is-it-legal/
Finally out of the 75K domains we own 50 or so are jointly own with another person or persons and some of them are .com’s
@Lucky Duck -
Your comment is fair game – but candidly a bit naive.
Sure .me is absolutely worthless except for the few verbs that make since (by removing the DOT and adding .com to the end) leaving ten of thousands of .ME domain investors with their tail between their legs. And yes – “.MOBI DICK” did not even have that as you state which is why it has gone back out to sea to the Bermuda Triangle never to be seen again.
But the real issue here is distributing risk in the few .ME’s that do make since – Sure the $450K in Meet.me is huge – but will that even begin to cover the legal cost in protecting his / their Move.me from Sony’s application with the PTO for MOVE.ME:
“2011-08-16 – Extension Of Time To Oppose Received”
Life is not about winning – it is about mitigating your loses in Court – and that is a lot of mitigaing these guy have ahead of them selves.
There is a big gap between domain name collectors and investors, though.
”
get tired of hearing that we are only successful because we got started back in the day
”
seriously, how else could you have done it without the luck?
and if you’re so smart how did Frank buy up all of the generics years later? that makes you dumb if you’re claiming you did it on pure smarts
”
In actuality the buyer got a great deal.
”
they did not. its some newbie at a big company spending someone elses money
“they did not. its some newbie at a big company spending someone elses money”
the company is westell, inc.
they manufacture networking equipment. customer networking equipment.
and they sell conferencing service to telecoms through a subsidiary that purchased the name.
if they overpaid i doubt it’s because they are new to the domain name market.
maybe just the opposite. they probably believe in the potential power of the dns more than most companies would.
Congrats Rick Schwartz you found your end user.
”
get tired of hearing that we are only successful because we got started back in the day
”
Getting tired of early domain guys asking for more credit than they deserve with stories that get more and more fanciful by the day until even they believe it lol
hmmm
VISA, launches V.me a great boost for .me extension
And Delicious is already using D.ME: http://links2.me/~Dwd1$XJ
So, I guess I should get MostWantedDomains.com to help broker my sale of know.me. Seems pretty close to meet.me…
The verdict of DNJ: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2011/dailyposts/20111110.htm
@Adam et al: “knows.me” can be yours cheap.ly.
Sales prices can indeed reflect exploitation of buyer’s brand / idea as much as the value of the domain.
An item is worth what a buyer is willing to pay. The fair price is something else entirely. The buyer should only have to beat the next best bidder. Domain market is one of the few where sellers get to ignore this rule.
Lev
I disagree with you.
A domain like any other asset is worth what someone is willing to pay for it and what the owner is willing to sell it for.
I has nothing to do with having another bidder.
Back in the real world did you see this story today?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2076017/Russian-billionaire-buys-New-York-Citys-expensive-apartment–88MILLION.html
So this Russian Billionaire just paid $88 Million the full asking price of the seller for an apartment in NY.
If the seller asked only $60M that’s all he would have gotten.
There was no 2nd bidder to prove the apartment was worth $88M.
and before I forget, the Seller of the Condo only paid $42.4M for it a few years ago.
So he doubled his money in the worst economy and worst housing market of our lifetime.
Hi @ MHB! Nice argument!
Another dot me: http://unroll.me
Another dot me:
http://www.moneto.me