In this week’s Sales Roundup, I’m looking at five sales from the DNJournal chart published on April 1st, 2020. I’ll be looking into the stories behind these sales, to decipher exactly why each of the domains managed to sell for the price they did. There are some interesting backstories to the buyers of some of these domain names.
Table of Contents
Cico.com – $49,050
This four-letter .COM topped the chart with a sales price of $49,050. Sold at Sedo, the name used to belong to the Central Information Co, but based on Archive.org’s records, there hasn’t been much activity on the domain name in recent years.
As of writing, the domain is showing a basic personal Chinese blog for a senior investment manager. Does the domain have a special meaning in Chinese? Is that why it sold for a price that could be considered higher than a typical four-letter CVCV end-user sale?
No. In fact, you could say that the domain was acquired for a bargain price. The current owner of the domain works for a Chinese state-owned company called Zhejiang Communications Investment Co. The company has around $50 billion in assets to its name and mainly deals with maintenance of China’s transportation links.
I spoke to the buyer of Cico.com, and he said he intends to transfer Cico.com to his bosses to allow the company to upgrade from its current domain, CNCico.com, to simply Cico.com. I think the buyer got a bargain here, do you agree?
PrivateDebt.com – $27,000
In at number two, here is PrivateDebt.com. This name was sold by Mike Mann’s DomainMarket for $27,000. It’s one of those two-word .COM names that Mike seems to have in abundance in his vast portfolio of over 360,000 domains. This year alone, he’s sold names such as SendHugs.com, StellarHealth.com, and RealCraft.com.
According to the Financial Times, Private Debt is a hot topic among fund managers. The same article, written in March 2020, claims that there is a boom in private debt. Private debt is defined as the lending of money to individuals and companies by private entities other than banks.
While it’s a seemingly popular financial term, is it a popular company name? According to LinkedIn, there are currently over 7,000 results for “Private Debt,” which may signal many potential end-users for the domain.
The domain was acquired by Private Debt Partners, a new Canadian company that is looking to capital to “mid-market borrowers in targeted niches.” According to its website, the company is aiming to raise a $750 million lending fund.
It’s a sensible decision for the company to acquire PrivateDebt.com before starting their venture.
HNTV.com – $21,529
Sold at NameJet and in at number three here is HNTV.com. My initial reaction is that this is a high price for a four-letter .COM domain sold on NameJet, primarily a platform for domain investors. In comparison, NameJet previously sold domains such as DGTV.com and WITV.com for low four-figure fees. Why did HNTV.com go so much higher?
Someone in China acquired the name, and I can only think that the value comes from HN. HN is the common abbreviation for the province of Hunan in south-central China. Previous domain sales that begin with “HN” include HNBC.com for $6,388 and HNWTV.com for $4,025.
The HN alone doesn’t make this a valuable name. Recently, HNVH.com, HNBE.com, and HNJO.com have all sold for between $100 and $300 each. I believe that the “TV” ending (the common initialism for television, even in China) combined with HN provides the value. The domain is developed, which may indicate an end-user acquired the name.
UMO.com – $21,200
Another NameJet sale was that of UMO.com. Based on similar sales data, $21,200 looks to be a bog-standard price for three-letter .COM domains at the moment. Similar sales include UMW.com at $21,251, and KPH.com at $24,999.
UMO is an acronym used by several potential end-users, but I’m not sure that many of them would pay a significant amount for the domain. The first results for me on Google show a London-based wellbeing support service for students and a site for the University of Mount Olive.
As of writing, the domain resolves to a GoDaddy default page and is under WHOIS privacy protection, so we don’t know who the current owner is. Based on the fact that it sold at NameJet, a primarily domainer-centric platform, and sold for around the average liquid price for a three-letter .COM at the moment, I’d suggest this was an investor purchase so that it could be sold for a higher price in the future.
Giftee.com – $20,000
We round off this week with a sale from Sedo. Giftee is a dictionary word, but I wouldn’t consider it to be as commonly used as “Gift” or “Gifted.” Nonetheless, Giftee.com sold for $20,000. The name was acquired by a Tokyo-based company called Giftee.
Founded in 2010, Giftee allows its users to send thank you notes with small gifts by Twitter and email. In total, Giftee has raised ¥852 million, which is equivalent to around $7.9 million. Giftee is also publicly traded on the Tokyo stock exchange.
The company owns and operates Giftee.co.jp (the Japanese extension), as well as Giftee.co. Now, the company has Giftee.com, too. I’d expect Giftee.com to replace Giftee.co.
I thought CICO.com would be a good brand for a calorie counting company based around CICO. (calorie in, calorie out).
Darryl,
That’s true! That would be a great usage.