Tech giant Microsoft has secured another one-word, premium domain to add to a portfolio that is stuffed full of domains, including Office.com, Start.com, and Zone.com.
In 2018, Microsoft acquired education startup Flipgrid for an undisclosed fee. Flipgrid, according to CNBC, provided an app that let students record and share videos on specific topics with their classmates.
Under Microsoft’s guidance, Flipgrid broadened its horizons beyond education to offer anyone the ability to share videos and build communities.
At the end of June 2022, Flipgrid announced a rebrand. The company had dropped the “grid” to become Flip. While the company boasted about a new name, a new logo, and a new mascot, domain consultant and researcher Jamie Zoch noticed that the company had quietly secured Flip.com.
Ultra premium domain name https://t.co/C547bFl86Y appears to have been acquired by Microsoft and has launched a new video discussion service on it. The domain was last owned by Advance Magazine Publishers Inc.
— Jamie Zoch (@DotWeekly) July 20, 2022
The Flip.com domain was previously owned by Advance Magazine Group, which itself acquired Advance.com in 2017 for $300,000 in a deal brokered by Kate Buckley’s Buckley Media Group.
According to Whois, the domain may have changed hands in May 2022, around a month before Flipgrid rebranded, when Flip.com’s nameservers switched to point towards Microsoft’s Azure DNS service.
The majority of Microsoft’s domain portfolio is registered with MarkMonitor, but Flip.com remains at rival corporate registrar CSC. It’s unknown why the domain hasn’t moved to Microsoft’s MarkMonitor account or even to the Com Laude registrar account that houses the Flipgrid.com domain.
Nonetheless, Flipgrid has rebranded to Flip and smartly switched to Flip.com prior to the rebrand.
Since 2020, there has been an awakening amongst end users to the true value of dot-Com EMD brand names unlike before 2020.
Corps and startups have an infusion of digital marketing focused decision makers less hesitant to purchase needed domains as soon as it is feasible.