Israel.com sells for $5.88 million!

Another geo domain, Israel.com has been sold for $5.88 million to an unidentified buyer by its previous owner, Joel Noel Friedman, a 46-year-old Jewish American who bought the domain name originally in the year 1994.

The domain auction was managed by one of the leading domain name registrars, Moniker.com.

The new domain name owner has apparently parked the domain with SmartName.com hoping for some quick ROI (return on investment) through click monetization considering the interest the domain is currently generating in the cyber world owing to the publicity of its high profile sale.

This domain name sale is yet another example of how the business of domaining is on a roll with the booming virtual real estate market. A few prominent sales reported earlier this year include the $10 million sale of Fund.com, $2.6 million for Pizza.com and $1.7 million for DataRecovery.com

Also, another premium domain name America.com is up for sale and is expected to fetch record price.

America.com up for sale!

An ultimate geo domain,  America.com is on auction at Sedo.com and the domaining arena is abuzz with speculations that it could easily fetch one of the highest prices ever paid for a domain name.

There has to be a very strong interest among prospective buyers for such a premium domain and it remains to be seen if the final sale price exceeds the estimated $12 million paid for Sex.com a few years ago and considered to be the highest price paid for any domain name.

Geo domains, that contain the names of cities, states, or countries, have emerged as one of the strongest interest area for serious domainers and Sedo brokered Chinese.com for $1.1 million last year. The sale of America.com could turn out the largest sale ever for Sedo, which managed the auction of Vodka.com, its largest sale till date, for $3 million by a Russian vodka company planning to enter North America.

The potential of this domain name seems to be virtually unlimited as the buyer will be able to conduct almost any business from the domain, from hotel rooms to vacation packages and air tickets to real estate! You can be sure that the final buyer’s multi-million investment will be recovered within the first few years itself if he implements a sound business strategy.

In fact, I believe he could be making more money off this compared to any other business he could think of! Just imagine if he had a whole lot of subdomains like newyork.america.com, losangeles.america.com, vacations.america.com, realestate.america.com, onlinecasino.america.com, poker.america.com, sex.america.com, insurance.america.com and more… with each subdomain having its own business strategy headed by experts! The potential is indeed UNLIMITED, I say!

With a domain like that he wouldn’t even required any publicity to build his business. What do you say, guys?

Network Solutions takes down site against Islam

US based domain name registrar Network Solutions has reportedly taken down the promotional website of a 15-minute film that is said to be derogatory to the religion of Islam.

The domain name and website, which belong to a Dutch lawyer and filmmaker Geert Wilders, have been taken offline after Network Solutions reportedly received complaints about the offensive nature of the film.

The film is said to have described the Islam as “the enemy of freedom” – a statement that is worrying Dutch officials about possible violence, similar to the results of the controversy surrounding Dutch newspapers’ publication of an illustrated depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.

I wonder if this move will be able to stop Mr. Wilders from releasing the full version of his movie as he says he will do within a month’s time. If no other domain registrar or web hosting company allows him to do it, he can always put it up on Youtube and other similar sites that have enormous visitors every day.

Supposing that Mr. Wolders does this and even if subpoenas were served to Google for taking down the objectionable videos from its subsidiary Youtube, millions would have already seen the video and that serves the purpose of Mr. Wilders. Not to mention the enormous amount of publicity this issue has already garnered.