In 2021, some incredible domain names changed hands. Here, I’m profiling 5 of the best end-user acquisitions from 2021 including NFT.com and Home.com. All 5 are, I think, savvy purchases or upgrades.
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NFT.com
2021 is the year when NFTs hit the mainstream. Many domain investors have made serious money from buying and selling NFTs, non-fungible tokens. Before the craze truly kicked off, MediaOptions CEO Andrew Rosener reported selling NFT.com.
We later found out that the name had been acquired for $2 million. It was acquired by Immutable Holdings and has now been developed into a full NFT platform. Ownership of a category defining domain such as NFT.com can truly make a brand stand out from the crowd.
OpenSea.com
Speaking of NFTs, OpenSea has been the number one marketplace for NFT projects for quite some time. The company has always operated on OpenSea.io, but last year, it acquired OpenSea.com. In October 2021, OpenSea.com transferred registrars from Enom to NameCheap under WHOIS privacy protection, suggesting that the domain may have sold.
OpenSea.com then began redirecting to OpenSea.io. With plenty of misguided traffic and emails making their way to OpenSea.com rather than OpenSea.io, it was an important purchase for such a big business.
Home.com
One of the best domains on the Internet was sold last year, courtesy of domain brokers Larry Fischer and Andrew Miller. The pair managed to close the sale of Home.com for an undisclosed fee.
The domain was acquired by Fairway, an independent mortgage corporation. The company also acquired Fairway.com last year, too.
Since its acquisition, Home.com has featured in TV commercials and has been seen on TV screens at a baseball game. A mortgage company couldn’t ask for a better digital asset than Home.com, and the name is helping Fairway to land plenty of new business.
Clubhouse.com
In early 2021, the audio-based social network Clubhouse became a popular destination for thousands of people around the world. At the time, Clubhouse was operating on JoinClubhouse.com, but in April 2021, it upgraded to Clubhouse.com, acquiring the domain from Reflex Publishing.
Acquiring Clubhouse.com cemented Clubhouse’s ownership of the Clubhouse brand, and it has become an important asset for the company as its website becomes more important for interaction with its users.
The dominance of Clubhouse and its acquisition of Clubhouse.com forced another company named Clubhouse, which operated on Clubhouse.io, to rebrand entirely.
Mountain.com
A successful rebrand came in the form of SteelHouse’s transition to MNTN. The advertising software company unveiled its rebrand in June 2021, when the company’s CEO noted that a new name was needed to match its scale and growth.
SteelHouse became MNTN, pronounced Mountain. MNTN wisely bought Mountain.com before rebranding and also acquired MNTN.com shortly after launching.
The two names solidified MNTN’s brand ownership and brought with it new publicity and attention.