A web traffic solutions company acquired the domain Sumo.com for $1.5 million dollars, rebranding from SumoMe.com.
Following on the heels of Snapchat becoming Snap via the acquisition of Snap.com, the company’s choice of a domain was the result of several months of hard work:
“We hired multiple private domain sleuths to help us acquire the domain (#failed); we bought SumoS.com to help make us feel better (it didn’t); people sent fake emails on our behalf to see if the owners would sell (they didn’t). “
But was it a great idea to spend $1.5 million dollars on an ultra generic, dictionary word domain, other than to claim the alleged prestige it carries?
There are several issues with this train of thought, and in our opinion, switching over to Sumo.com was not a great idea after all.
Here are some issues behind this domain rebranding decision:
- Sumo is a form of Japanese wrestling, and the word is far too generic to be associated solely with the secondary meaning the Sumo.com company uses.
- There are several existing trademarks for “Sumo” each with their distinct purpose.
- Even with acquiring a stronger secondary meaning, “sumo” still means Japanese wrestling to the consumer.
- Ranking high in Google, at the first page or top spot even, is very hard from an SEO perspective, due to the generic qualities of the word.
Sumo – Big in Japan.
While the bragging rights of owning a short, dictionary .com domain are understandable, spending a much lesser amount could have avoided these issues, perhaps by focusing on the following type of domain acquisition: Getting a domain that defines, describes and delivers the company’s functions, in order to overcome the generic nature of their core brand.
For example, Sumo.Solutions is catchy and available. SumoSolutions.com even, looks barely used. SumoTraffic.com would have cost much less. SumoSlap.com could be a great choice of a brand that would rank high in the search engines.
Any of these domains would rank high in Google, unlike the potential of Sumo.com. The latter, will now require some lengthy, aggressive SEO tactics, and that means spending additional time and money on top of the domain’s cost.
Sumo.com is a nice name, and it would be perfect for a sumo wrestling association, or a brand closely related to the sport itself. The real issue here is not the amount paid, it’s the lack of relevance of the word to the brand, without tagging a secondary identifier to it.
As a corporate brand for web traffic solutions, the domain Sumo.com falls short, in our opinion, and does not deliver the heavy-weight effect the company seeks for its own brand of products and services.
But it definitely looks great on business cards!
