On June 29th, 2021, GoDaddy released a slew of data disclosing 20 sales that GoDaddy facilitated in January 2021. The data released by GoDaddy is always delayed by several months, but it’s welcome nonetheless.
Here, in the first of three GoDaddy sales roundups I’m performing for the data that the company released in June, I look at 5 sales from GoDaddy’s list to see why they may have sold for the prices that they did.
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Steam.com – $390,560
When GoDaddy revealed that it sold Steam.com for $390,560, most assumed that gaming company Valve would have been the buyer, upgrading their popular gaming store from SteamPowered.com to Steam.com.
That isn’t the case, though. The buyer was from China, and I believe that it was a domain investor that purchased it. The name holds similar WHOIS data and landing pages to Gold.com, HD.com, and Soft.com among other names. A fee of $390,560 could certainly be a domain investor purchase, especially in this market.
Symphonic.com – $115,000
Symphonic.com for $115,000 represents a healthy end-user domain sale, I believe. The domain was acquired by Symphonic Distribution, a digital music distribution service founded in 2006. The company previously operated on SymphonicDistribution.com, so this represents a significant upgrade for the company.
There’s no publicly disclosed funding that coincided with the upgrade, something that often happens. The buyer simply seems to have been motivated to improve the company’s online branding with this six-figure purchase.
Archive.org suggests that Symphonic.com was acquired from Symphonic Capital LLC, so an end-user purchasing from an end-user.
Pulseoximeter.com – $90,000
Why is Pulseoximeter.com worth $90,000? On face value, the domain doesn’t have much going for it. Long, difficult to pronounce, difficult to spell. However, according to one estimate, “Pulse Oximeter” has 27,100 exact match searches per month with a $1.89 CPC. A pulse oximeter is a non-invasive means of monitoring a person’s oxygen saturation, and it makes sense that the domain name was acquired by a manufacturer and retailer or pulse oximeters.
Zacurate is the manufacturer and retailer in question. It sells pulse oximeters on its website for anything up to $29.99 and as a leading manufacturer of these devices, it does make sense for the company to own the exact-match product .COM domain. As of writing, Pulseoximeter.com redirects to Zacurate’s main website.
TheCompany.com – $60,000
Domain names with a “The” prefix can sell well, if the appending word makes sense. NameBio lists the likes of TheMortgage.com selling for $500,000, TheStores.com for $50,000, and TheRecRoom.com for $89,888. TheCompany.com, then, fits in as a strong “The” prefix sale.
As of writing, TheCompany.com resolves to a default server page. I have my suspicions as to who acquired the name, but nothing that I’m sure enough to post publicly. I believe this was an end-user purchase.
WhatIsLove.com – $57,250
In 2018, WhatIsLove.org sold for $5,000 and it seems that the buyer of that name may have come back to acquire WhatIsLove.com, too. WhatIsLove.com currently redirects to WhatIsLove.org, but the site based at the .ORG domain is password-protected, so there are few immediate clues as to what the name is used for.
WHOIS shows that WhatIsLove.com is owned by Paradisus Dei (Latin for the Paradise of God), an organization founded in 2001 by Steve Bollman that describes itself as building “stronger marriages and families by helping individuals, couples and youth understand and fulfill their holy calling, putting them on a lifelong pathway to holiness.”
Next Saturday, I’ll be publishing part 2 of my GoDaddy roundup.