According to a story appearing in techinasia.com , a Chinese search engine, Qihoo 360 spent “millions” to buy the domain name So.com.
According to the story, the the company shell out the millions for the domain because its “more than a short pronounceable word ,‘S’ stand for “safe” and ‘O’ stands for “open” in English. That’s in line with what Qihoo, which started out in the anti-virus business, is mainly selling and promoting: security”.
“When 360 Search launched, they used the rather awkward “so.360.cn”, and they changed it a couple of times along the way. ”
“They had domains like “360sou.com” and also “360so.com”. ”
“Furthermore, So.com was only decided after a long discussion and debate among Qihoo’s management. ”
“Zhou commented on his Weibo account, saying that the more trendy staffers in his office prefer so.com because it’s short and easy to remember; the more traditional ones prefer sou.com as it is the proper pinyin (Anglisized) version of the word “search” in chinese. And there are those in the neutral camp who couldn’t make up their mind on which is better, and suggested Qihoo.com.”
This press release doesn’t pass the smell test for me – I trust absolutely nothing in way of news releases like this from Chinese companies…to a fault, they almost ALL lie, consistently.
I’ll bet the real price was in the $100,000 range.
maybe I can interest them in the real deal, seo.com
Maybe they’ve noticed that So could also stand for “Safe Online”.
Good for a security company.
Nevertheless I agree with VegasPirate44, the price is probably exaggerated.