Leroy de Rouwe
Leroy de Rouwe registered the domain name WhatsApp.com in 2008, as a “brand moment”, motivated by the rising usage of tablets and mobile phones.
Surely, nobody can predict the future, including how popular the WhatsApp application would eventually become; Facebook eventually acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion dollars in cash and stock.
But let’s go back in time.
In 2009, Leroy sold the domain to Jan Koum, the Ukrainian co-founder of WhatsApp.
Leroy de Rouwe at his company’s office in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Here is Leroy de Rouwe’s story, directly from the source; Leroy decided to keep the selling price for the domain name private for now:
” Originally, I registered the domain [WhatsApp.com] in a time where the tablets and mobile phone usage was rising tremendously, and with that, the use and quest for the best apps possible, hence my idea to create a website where I would collect the best apps and possibly publish reviews.
Keep in mind I have a lot of ideas, and keep producing even more of them. This idea seemed so good at the time, I registered the domain right away. Because, let’s be honest, it’s a darn good name, WhatsApp! Things at work where quite busy, so I never came around to a good concept and possible setup.
I’ve had a few requests on the domain name at the time, of which only a few where serious. Jan Koum contacted me at that moment, with a request to take over the domain. Openly I told him I would only be interested if he had a solid idea and approach, because I wanted to avoid selling it to those all-too-familiar domain hijackers.
He explained his idea in detail, and convinced me of his enthusiasm. This, for me, was the most important part, and made me decide to agree. This was the moment I transferred the domain to him, and just a few months later, BAM! WhatsApp was the number 1 app in the appstore, success 🙂 (my friends were also kind enough to remember me a few times a day of this fact.)
Humorously your title contained the part “a Dutch domainer cries tonight”, which made my day! Perhaps I could have been a mil/billionaire as well, but money isn’t what brings happiness.
I’m sincerely happy for Jan and Brian that their effort have transformed just an idea into a big success. Next to that, I have a great story to tell on any birthday or party I’m at, which is also a small bit of happiness. So I didn’t loose any sleep or cry at all last night 🙂 ”
It’s obvious that Leroy is a happy man, not having to worry about managing huge amounts of money. He’s focused on his web development business, at BAMeffect.
Thank you, Leroy, for sharing this info with us and best of success for you in all of your future ventures! 😀
This post is 100% true!
