Salesforce has just bought the domain name Quotable.com through BrandBucket.com
According to DomainTools.com the owner of the domain name was Baroda Ventures LLC of Beverly Hills, who seemed to own the domain for many years.
The live whois records changed yesterday to reflect that SalesForce.com bought the domain name which is now registered through brand protection company and domain name registrar MarkMonitor.com.
The domain Quotable.com is already being forwarded to SalesForce.com.
It seems the domain name was for sale on Sedo.com as of May last year according to ScreenShots.com with an “asking price” of $10,0000, but had moved over to BrandBucket.com since then.
There goes another brandable domain name.
Congrats to the seller and buyer.
Its not a brand-able domain, it’s an actual dictionary word. If sold for 10K range, it’s too cheap.
It’s in fact a one word and brandable .com.
In my book..
The term “Brandable” is chosen if a domain name as the potential to be used as a brand name.
Sold very cheap, another great brand able sacrificed on BB fixed pricing.
I love it when people say this, it was there for the picking guys, anyone could have tapped that BIN, to actually reach into your pocket, and pull out $30K well that is another story isn’t it.
Very interesting to see that salesforce uses brandbucket for acquisitions.
A big win for that site/venture!
They likely just landed on the site because the domain was there.
Listed at $28,800 at BrandBucket. Once again another real word brandable that BrandBucket had no hand in selling. Buyer likely linked to it from the landing page. Seller gave up 30% in commission for a name that needed no help in selling and probably gave up a $75,000 sale because of a Buy Now listing.
Guys pay more in the drop auctions, actually most are over paying, just ask poor old hiphop can’t even win an auction anymore. I am surprised he is still bidding, or being outbid, after how many tens of millions does one not desire to sit at a computer, and backorder domains anymore?
I’m not surprised he didn’t oblige you with a reply. I’d never domain again for $30M. It’s a flat out addiction for him.
I’m going to agree with you here.
What’s the value of a one word .com brand to a top software company?
They routinely spend millions of dollars on just the tv spots.
$5 million for 30 seconds for that last football game. Although the ads may linger longer in memory than the game will. Still, $5 million gone in 30 seconds, versus a name which can be used for marketing for however long the internet lasts. Surprising more corporations don’t buy up more premium names than they do. Names are cheap by any marketing expense comparison, given what the return on investment is. Besides, after you spend $5 million on a 30 second spot, you don’t get to resell that later do you? Whereas a name, you might actually be able to use for an extended period. And sell later for a profit.
@xavier.xyz
You’re correct. And many people confuse the term “brandable”.
In my book, to continue with what’s in yours, a brandable is one that can be trademarked, if it is NOT descriptive of the services or products offered.
For example: Quotable: Class 9: Computer software for Enterprise Cloud Services offering payment options…..
@Todd – When brokers approach potential domain acquirers, as they have done in the past with Salesforce.com per “Social.com, “Data.com” and more, they have a targeted sell price.
When marketing and ad teams or internal marketing come up with a list of potential names for a future product offering, they first conduct a “clearance” (trademark, then domain name availability) , the do a cost analysis.
We never really know the dynamics of the decision making process. Perhaps the $28,800 price for the domain was one of those factors. But probably not — as Salesforce.com spends 50% of revenues on marketing and advertising. Apple spends less than 10%
@Steve
Any company that pays 2.6 million for Social. com and 4.5 million for Data. com would easily have paid much much more than $28,800 for a good brandable. Price was a non factor in this purchase. SalesForce puts quality of domain above purchase price every single time so obviously they loved the Quotable name and it just so happened to be given away at a bargain basement price.
Sedo advice is poor they stack high & sell cheap
What make it brandable is the .com brand ask anyone in China
@Todd
I agree with your assessment. No doubt Salesforce.com would have paid much more. But we, or at least, I do not know the “financial situation” of the seller. Did he lose a job? Was his stock portfolio down?
I think Quotable.com is a terrific domain. Did Salesforce.com get a great deal? You betcha. Does the seller now have buyer’s remorse? I’d imagine. I know I did after I sold a nice domain to a “bootstrapped startup” for a bargain price, which turned out to be one of the largest healthcare companies in the world —
And I also remember when the owner was trying to sell Social.com for $80 K in 2009. He had no idea of the value and he was soliciting offers on one of the domain blogs. He had launched a dating site with the name years ago, but it never got traction. My biz partner and I tried to buy Social.com for his desired price, but after he let the cat (domain) out of the bag, the brokers came calling — Moniker & MarkMonitor (if I recall)
How many people here have ever dealt with salesforce in regards to domains?
They use mark monitor, and they do not just throw money around, I completed a deal with them, and it took just over 3 months, lots of back, and forth.
Did you approach them or was it the other way around?
You don’t approach Mark Monitor, they have lots of angles up their sleeve, they are smarter than the average domainer thinks.
You completed a deal with them as a buyer or a seller?
Of course it is brandable. being brandable and in the dictionary are not exclusive lists.
MarkMonitor works strictly on behalf of its clients. The people there are really quite friendly. Lots of people with linguistics degrees, legal backgrounds, and of course, business. They pretty much do what the client advises them. For example, register any variation of this domain that could harm our client, research this, manage this portfolio, investigate this, that.
For example, you don’t approach MarkMonitor and say I own “ipad.com”. Could you see if your client wants to buy it?” I’m not even sure if they represent Apple. Probably not, as Apple likes to keep everything confidential and in house.
I’m pretty sure MarkMonitor never advises a client to buy a domain, unless it’s already in the contact wherein they’re authorized to make purchases or registrations under a certain price point.
Thanks again Michael for an excellent post. I have a couple of questions.
1. How were you able to know the domain sold on brandbucket.com, as I couldn’t find it in this list at dnbolt.com
2. How were you able to know the details of the previous domain owners.
I will appreciate if you share more light on this thanks.
If you read carefully he mentioned he used domaintools.com, also by checking the url you provided I saw Quotable.com at http://brandbucket.dnbolt.com/monthsales.php at line number 11
I know brandbucket do not publish their sales so how was this list compiled?
John
Domaintools.com
Screenshots.com