The super short domain name On.ly forms what is known as a “domain hack” – the formation of a keyword from the two parts on the left and on the right of the dot.
On.ly was sent to Escrow.com, ready to be sold for a cool $1,000,000 dollars. The buyer was Leo Radvinsky, owner of the adult platform, Only Fans.
On.ly – A short domain hack opportunity
It’d make sense for Only Fans to operate from On.ly and the million dollar purchase price was negotiated for a month and a half. Its registrant, Thomas Weinstein, explained why that deal fell through, costing $8,000 dollars in Escrow.com fees to the buyer who canceled the deal:
First, it was: “Unfortunately I am unable to transfer this .ly domain to my account at Godaddy or any other standard registrar.
Then it was: We are unable to create an account with the Libyan registrar for .ly domains due to sanctions and other concerns.
The seller did not communicate to us that working with Libya would be necessary to facilitate this transaction.”
Then it was: Unfortunately, we have to cancel due to our compliance requirements and not dealing with Libya.
Last, from Imran at Escrow .com: The Buyer had been in contact and advised he does not feel comfortable owning a .ly domain due to the instability in the country.
According to Mr. Weinstein, the Libyan domain registry has terms and conditions for using “.ly” domains.
Basically, the terms say you cannot use the domains for pornography, gambling, or hate-speech-related content. Following that incident, Mr. Weinstein wrote a report that explains the rules and the history of “.ly” domains, just in case he runs into this question with future partners/investors/buyers.
View the exchange on Twitter.
