City Journal Article |
Buy Dot-Com
With home sales slumping, Boston's hottest real estate may be online.
By Julia Kaganskiy
Web addresses can fetch killer prices, as thriving local URL-selling firms (like Newbury Street–based Internet Real Estate Group) know well. To get a taste of the market, we asked analysts at two of these companies, NameMedia and Sedo, to appraise a few locally owned domains for fun. Though their policies prohibit dealing in already trademarked names, they were happy to play along.
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| APPRAISAL | : $2.4 million. Geographical names limit potential audience, says NameMedia, but they still draw lots of ad revenue. | $60,000. Cameras.com sold for $1.5 million, but value decreases for singular words and dot-orgs, NameMedia says. | $5,000. "It's questionably an ‘adult' term, but dating/adult names can go for a ton," says a Sedo rep. |
| OWNERS | The Boston Globe | The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (C.A.M.E.R.A.) | Canton-based retailer Casual Male |
| WOULD THEY SELL? | "We're not comfortable commenting on the acquisition of the site, even in a lighthearted manner," says a spokesman. | Yes—for $10 million. "It would create a permanent endowment for [us]," says associate director Alex Safian. | No, says CEO David Levin. "Our URL makes it clear who we are" (and that's a company selling clothes, not porn). |
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