For over half a decade, Business.com reigned as the world’s most expensive domain name after its 1999 sale for $7.5 million. That was shortly after the site was founded by former Walt Disney Internet Group chairman Jake Winebaum and Earthlink founder Sky Dayton. The domain retained its record until 2006, when Match.com founder Gary Kremen decided to get out of the adult entertainment industry and sold Sex.com for $14 million (or $12 million, depending on who you ask) in 2006.
While the current market for internet domains is nowhere as solid as it was during the dot-com peak, the market remains strong and is experiencing solid growth. Each year tens of millions of dollars are exchanged during the resale of domains.
The record for most expensive domain name ever sold changed hands again in late 2009, when internet marketing firm QuinStreet purchased Insure.com for $16 million. Other top dollar domain sales of 2009 include Toys.com, purchased by Toys ‘R Us for $5.1 million in March of 2009, and Candy.com, sold for $3 million in June of 2009.
Enough with the preamble, though—check out the world’s top ten most expensive domain names:
1. Insure.com, sold to QuinStreet for $16 million in 2009.
2. Sex.com, sold for $12-$14 million in 2006.
3. Fund.com, sold for $9.99 million in 2008.
4. Porn.com, sold for $9.5 million in 2007.
5. Business.com, sold for $7.5 million in 1999.
6. Diamond.com, sold to Ice.com for $7.5 million in 2006.
7. Beer.com, sold for $7 million in 2004.
8. Israel.com, sold for $5.88 million in 2004.
9. Casino.com, sold for $5.5 million in 2003.
10. Toys.com, sold to Toys ‘R Us for $5.1 million in 2009.
Related
Similar Posts:
- Most Expensive Speeches
- Most Expensive Item on eBay
- Most Expensive Blog Ever Sold
- Most Expensive Streets in the UK
- Most Expensive Office Location
- Most Expensive Amazon.com Sale of 2005
{ 54 comments… read them below or add one }
Sex.com actually sold for $12 million, according to Reuters. I wonder what the owner of http://www.TheRecordBreakingDomain.com is going to since he was trying to break the business.com record himself.
Hi
I think this record can be broken !
http://www.themostexpensivedomainnameintheworld.com/
bahah thats such as a waste of time, I hope no one buys it
never says never. 7.5 million is not a big amount for a big enterprise.
I think that a pricey domain name is not allways necessary – let’s look at domains like amazon.com, google.com, yahoo.com – they are more succesful than ie books.com or search.com
What about wallstreet.com?
I wonder what this 2 digit domain can sell for?
This is wrong, the domain name http://www.italia.it was recently bought for 45 million dollars by the italian government. Yet though the website was closed after a couple of months due to a lack of popularity
MostExpensiveDomainSold.com has announced a
domain charity raffle to compliment the grand opening of its charity drive.
Raffle participation is free and allows participants to contribute to a worthy
cause.
This one can go down in history as the
most expensive domain sold
for charity.
These are all copycats from my idea. I register worldshighestprice.com and mostexpensivedomain.com back in june of 2005 and put them on ebay to sell to set the record. Check the day these two where register. Then therecordbreakingdoain.com was register four monthe later. I own several including worldsmostexpensivedomain.com and also worldshighestpricedomain.com So I am the orginal and I do own the worldsmostexpensivedomain and the others. So if the record was to be broken Surely they would want mine wouldn’t you think? God Bless!
wow… 45 millions dollar for nothing?
i guess that was a big loss for italian government
More than $4 Million in Domain Names Sold At Moniker’s T.R.A.F.F.I.C WEST Live Auction
Families.com, Greeting.com, Blogster.com, RealEstate.mobi, and ET.com were among auction’s big sellers
Wish I’d bought up a bunch of the simple ones way back in the day…..
RJB, you are not alone…
My cousin is selling his domain votalk.com for $35,000 I should tell him to sell it for more after reading this. You could make a living on this
How much should EASYWEAR.COM be worth ?
Any guesses ?
how will you know the price of a domain name? Wow wish I can make my website as expensive as that! yay!
i literally own the most expensive domain name – http://www.iownthemostexpensivedomainname.com It’s for sale. But can you afford it?
I will work hard to make my website pricey. hehehe. But i dont even know how to design it. How will we know the price of the site? Is there any calculator for that?
How much should WEBMASTERCAFE.ORG be worth ?
Here is a name that will bring in millions in sales. The ultrasonic industry is a multi Billion dollar industry. The name ultrasonics.com will be to the ultrasonic world like cars.com is to the automobile industry
the most expensive domain is micheljackson.com for a cool 21 million
Anyone interested in moneypotential.com?
Domain names continue to grow in popularity and price as each year goes by. If you take a look at fund.com, you will see that it sold for just under $10,000,000. I actually just released a post about the Top 20 Most Expensive Domain Names and it’s amazing what some of them have sold for.
One controversial domain that made the news recently is
capitalismisevil.com because it was missed by Michael Moore for his upcoming movie theme.
HEY GK, EASYWEAR.COM IS A NICE DOMAIN NAME AND YOU COULD SELL THAT AT LEAST A HUNDRED GRAND.
umm, easywear is not even worth 1 grand
john gilbert is just trying to hype up his domain name, michael moore didnt want that, stop lying.
What about science and geography domains
unbelievable!! .. I just cannot imagine how…
I will work hard to make my website pricey. hehehe. But i dont even know how to design it. How will we know the price of the site? Is there any calculator for that?
tell them to find some web designer.
How much do you think can be sold a website like diordesign.com? is it worth to put it on sale now?
anyone want to start bidding….
with alcohol sites selling for millions, and prescription sales being huge. what would you consider bidding on ReeferRX.com 14 some odd states have legalized medical marijuana sales, and many other countries have done the same already.
The most expensive domain sales have not been published.
Super short generic 2 letter domains like LG.com
recently bought by million dollar companies like the korean technology conglomerate LG Corp
have reached much higher prices – vb.com/fame.htm
give a list of some of the most expensive domaines
what do you think about abord.org could it be sold for a good price ?
How much should YARDRAY.COM be worth ?
I have two great domains for sale:
finishbook.com and friedchickenstrips.com
How much does anyone think I could get for each one?
I have DealGarant. com
Does anyone know, how much I could get for them?
What website do you go to, to buy domains?
SL – look at Sedo.com. Anyone interested in GourmetMeals.com? Get domain for a food company or recipes!
Most of the sold domain names are dot com. But there is few “not .com” domain names which break the record, for example bank.ht was sold for USD 1.4 million, inn.im for USD 1.8 million and motorcycle.se for USD 1.1 million
How about ipriceonline.com, eflybay.com, ideasbay.com, churps.com, Dealsviaweb.com, offers welcome….
This site is for sale right now for $10 million!
palazzo-versace.com
Does anyone think U-OK.com
would sell ?
I remember the sale of 21st Century fox. I think if you have a good domain nowadays then your in for the money, or if you search for new businesses and hope they become successful – purchase the domains now
man if i could sell my domain for 10K i would be over the moon!
You can check the real value of your domains with a proper domain appraisal in sedo , my domain MuscleTypes.com is worth about 7k using a free appraisal service, but I will definitly purchase a proper domain appraisal if i ever decide to sell my site!
Such interesting information, thanks a lot! These are really big prices, but domains are really useful, they cost it!
nexglosser.com it is an kodak's big machine but i bought that domain
wow… 45 millions dollar for nothing?
great when my site will be sold
publicaccess.com is going on the block. Looking forward to see what it will bring. Perfect for global communication and wifi. Hopefully make this list:)
i got THISISNOTREALLYAWEBSITEatall.com, if anyone is interested., think it is work a trillion easy!