There have been several publicly disclosed domain deals at over $1 million this year, but many other seven-, eight-, or nine-figure domain sales are never reported. In the first of a three-part series, I’m looking at five domain names that likely sold for $1 million or more in 2021.
Table of Contents
Clubhouse.com
Clubhouse has become one of the hotter apps of the past twelve months. After the hype of the invite-only platform in late 2020 and early 2021, Clubhouse opened up to all users on both iOS and Android devices.
The company also bought Clubhouse.com in 2021, upgrading from JoinClubhouse.com around the time of its Series C funding round which valued the company at $4 billion. Clubhouse purchased Clubhouse.com from Reflex Publishing, an Internet publishing firm that owns a vast amount of quality domains.
The fee paid for Clubhouse.com was never disclosed, but I’d feel confident in surmising that this was a $1 million+ sale.
Bulletin.com
Before launching its new newsletter service Bulletin, Facebook bought the Bulletin.com domain to host its newest project. Facebook isn’t afraid of spending big on domains, with previous purchases including the $8.5 million fee paid for FB.com.
There was some speculation in an article by Recode that Facebook paid in excess of $6 million to acquire Bulletin.com.
Cool.com
Cool.com, arguably one of the best names on the Internet, sold for an undisclosed fee this year. The deal was brokered by Saw.com, who worked on behalf of the long-time owners, Future Media Architects. According to an article on DomainInvesting.com, Cool.com held an asking price in the high seven-figure range.
Based on my research, the name may have been acquired by an individual or company in China, but the identity of the buyer is unknown, as of writing.
Future.com
In April 2021, Media Options CEO Andrew Rosener confirmed that his company brokered the sale of Future.com. At the time, the domain’s buyer was unknown, but it later transpired to be Andreessen Horowitz, the famous venture capital firm.
Now, Future.com is used as a part of Andreessen Horowitz’s guide to technology and innovation. Prior to selling, the name was registered to Domain Capital, the specialist domain financing company.
Titan.com
Titan, an asset management company founded in 2018, made a sizable domain upgrade in 2021 after moving from Titanvest.com to Titan.com. An article I wrote for DomainNameWire has more details of the upgrade, but essentially, the purchase happened just after the company raised a $12.5 million Series A funding round.
While unconfirmed, many have speculated that this was a seven-figure domain sale.