The domain SayCheese.com dropped, and its expired auction is in the final hours at DropCatch.
The popular phrase “say cheese” is a reference to a photographer’s prompt to their subject, in order to get the “perfect smile.”
More than 320 million results in Google for “say cheese,” so why did such an ultra common phrase’s matching domain drop?
Registered in 1999, SayCheese.com was in the hands of Lexar, producers of “digital film” and a company that was founded in 1996.
As early as in 2000, Lexar had developed SayCheese.com as a resource portal for digital photography education, making it the perfect platform to share photography information and to promote its products.
From a capture of that time, via Archive.org, John Reimer, CEO of Lexar at the time, stated:
“When I began delving into this new area of photography, I realized there was a lack of great educational resources for those interested in making the most of both their introduction into digital photography and their experience working with it.
From this realization sprang the inspiration for SayCheese.com. And since Lexar Media is the leading supplier of digital film and is totally focused on supporting the growth of digital photography, it makes perfect sense that we would be the ones to sponsor such a site. We, at Lexar Media, created this Web site not only to address the needs of consumers buying their very first digital cameras, but also to share the experiences of all digital camera pioneers, planning to take full advantage of their digital environment.”
The use of a generic, non-brand domain to deliver the brand, seems remarkable for a company’s actions 20 years ago. And yet, SayCheese.com was allowed to drop, after Lexar was acquired by Longsys, a Shenzen, China-based flash memory company.
Unfortunately, this is not the first premium domain formerly owned by Lexar that was allowed to drop. Last year, Lexr.com dropped as well, after 22 years.
It’s unfortunate that Longsys fumbled the digital assets ball, once again.
Currently, SayCheese.com is being auctioned at DropCatch, with only a few hours left. The current bid stands at $6,938 dollars, and 78 bidders have placed 131 bids. It has the potential to end in the five figure range!
Update: The auction ended at $8,455 USD.
SayCheese.com in auction.
