Sex.com has just lost its #1 position as the most expensive domain ever sold; various sources are confirming that 360.com went to Qihoo for a staggering $17,000,000 dollars.
Hardly unexpected as the company has a $7 billion market capitalization, and the seller – Vodafone – is bigger by a factor of 16.
The news was independently confirmed by expert Chinese investor, George Hong, and Andrew Rosener of Media Options, whose Vodafone connections “nodded” that the selling price was $17 million USD.
Wow.
Repeat after me: 360.com was sold for $17 million dollars, almost twice as much as Porno.com.
Qihoo CEO, Zhou Hongyi, often referred to as “domain gangster” by the Chinese media, must be throwing a lavish party just about now over this record, and the acquisition of a global domain for his company.
Zhou Hongyi, Qihoo CEO. Source: Forbes.
Depends. If you offset inflation, SEX.com is still better one.
There are plenty of higher unreported sales, so it is hard to say who is the #1.
But for sure the value of short .com names is growing rapidly.
but ya gotta remember… 17 million isn’t as much as it use to be.
Marek – No unreported sale is big enough to have been bigger than sex.com, as far as a domain goes.
RaTHeaD – Indeed, what’s $17 million these days, not even $18 million.
@DomainGang:
You don’t think there is a possibility that a >$15mm sale has gone unreported?
J – No. Unless you know something I don’t. Also, PrivateJet.com was never confirmed that it sold for $30 MM.
WOW… great sale.
In less than 5 years 360.com replaced #1 position in To Sale Domains. What’s next?
Wow indeed! That is crazy! Just goes to show you that beauty is in the eye of the ‘minted’ beholder!
Great article as always! Having the opportunity to be the person who sold Sex.com I knew there would come a day that a public sale would break the number. A few years from now I am sure this one will be replaced by another, and so on. This is great news for everyone in the industry. Hopefully, I get another chance to break the record that broke mine.
@Marek I love your thinking!
What a great start to 2015!
Jeffrey Gabriel
VP of Sales
DomainNameSales.com
You people are so naive, you simply believe anything and everything on the internet or the media. if if it is true, this is nothing but marketing for 1) .com 2) for the domain and its website 3) for the company
$17 Mil can buy the same domain in all available extensions and renew them for the next few decades or you can order your own custom dot anything from ICANN !!
LOL.
Some cyber-digging in the web archive shows that 360.com’s was more of a website than a stand alone parked domain.
Actually it looks like it was utilized as a redirect traffic domain to vodafone360.com for many years then to vodafone’s homepage.
Either way if it was sold as a website property or domain asset it’s still a great sell for vodafone.
Well it happens all the time for smaller sales. 360.com is not as appealing as sex.com but it really depends upon what you think of keyword and how desperate you are !
Mike – Who exactly is “you people”? Don’t let your bitterness over the success of others blind you completely.
Jeff – Thanks. While the adult online industry is quite healthy, many other industries are far healthier and the sale of 360.com signifies just that.
jayjay – Yes, 360.com was used as a redirect. We don’t expect it to be anything more than a domain sale, not one of other assets combined with a domain as buyer and seller are in different industries and markets.
Rohit – 360 is a perfect number – the number of degrees in a circle and thus universal. Sex, well, is sex.