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 second of a three-part series, I’m looking at five domain names that likely sold for $1 million or more in 2021.
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iBox.com
While there was no fully verified sales data for this domain, it was reported (including on my blog) that iBox.com sold for roughly $1.56 million. The information on this sale came from Chinese domain investor Yue Dai. Yue Dai sent a screenshot privately to me indicating that iBox.com was acquired for a fee of 10 million RMB (Chinese Yen), which equated to around $1.56 million at the time of publishing.
The domain is now being used to host an NFT project.
Universal.com
In May 2021, investor Andy Booth revealed that he acquired the Universal.com domain name. Just over a month later, the name changed hands with Universal Studios acquiring a domain that many assumed it already owned. The deal was facilitated by broker Andrew Miller.
DomainInvesting.com broke the news of Universal.com’s sale and while the details of the sale were the subject of an NDA, I would be extremely surprised if the name sold for anything but $1 million or more.
Home.com
Andrew Miller was also responsible for the sale of Home.com, with Miller representing the buyer and Larry Fischer representing the seller. The Home.com domain was acquired by Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation for an undisclosed fee.
The domain was sold by Fischer on behalf of Anything.com. Fischer has also brokered the sales of Near.com for $1.15 million and Marketing.com for $2.5 million on behalf of Anything.com this year. Given the motivation of the buyer and the sales record of Anything.com, combined with the desirability of Home.com, many within the domain name industry have considered this to be an eight-figure sale.
Candy.com
In 2009, domain investor Rick Schwartz revealed that he sold the Candy.com domain for $3 million, plus royalties. The name was used for over a decade as the digital shopfront for a candy shop, but in 2021 the name sold again for an undisclosed fee.
Like several other high-value names in 2021, Candy.com was acquired for an NFT project. In this case, Candy.com became the brand name for an NFT venture, backed by entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk amongst others.
The sale was facilitated by brokers Andrew Miller and Amanda Waltz (Saw.com).
AI.com
Another sale that Saw.com was involved in was the AI.com deal. AI, which is the popular initialism for artificial intelligence, is at the heart of many businesses. A reported $20 billion worth of funding was pumped into AI startups in Q2 of 2021 alone. Owning the exact-match .com, therefore, is a powerful move. This name almost certainly sold for a seven or eight-figure fee.