Almost all websites use a domain name to allow people to access them (although you can also use an IP address). A typical unregistered domain name costs around $10 per year. Although it’s not uncommon to see branded and specific domain names sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
These are the most expensive domain names that we were able to find and put together (most domain sales are done privately and the sale is not always reported).
1. Cars.com – Sold at 872.32 Million US$
The record for the most expensive domain name is 872 million US$. You heard us right! Cars.com sold for 872 million US$ in 2014. The company itself was launched in 1998. You might be questioning like many other people why this domain sold for almost a billion dollars.
The domain was originally sold back in 2003 for 100,000 US$, and was set forth to the public that it was going to put listings on ‘Yahoo! Auto Service’ in 2007. Then, throughout the years, they stopped selling on Yahoo and got re-bought for 872 million as its yearly revenue was 496 million US$ at the time.
2. Lasvegas.com – Sold at 90 Million US$
Lasvegas.com is a domain that was paid for over the span of a couple of years. VEGAS.com LLC bought lasvegas.com in 2005 to increase their branding. Sooner than later, lasvegas.com was taken control by Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).
When the domain was owned by VEGAS.com, the annual revenue was 10-50 million US$. But since it’s now owned by the Las Vegas Council, their revenue is much lower at 1-5 Million per year. VEGAS.com had paid off the 90-million-dollar hole they had in their debt before they lost authorization.
3. Carinsurance.com – Sold at 49 Million US$
The company QuinStreet took over the domain carinsurance.com in 2010 for 49.7 million US$. QuinStreet is a company that likes to play around with domains. Carinsuarace.com was founded in 2003. Carinsurance.com, or QuinStreet, has an annual revenue of 2.2 million US$. Each of their clients must pay $1682 annually for car insurance, which means every client, they are getting around 1.5K per client. The company also purchased other assets and domains that appear on this list.
4. Insurance.com – Sold at 35.6 Million US$
This domain is also owned by the one and only QuinStreet. As we said, QuinStreet is a company that likes to play around with domains. The company bought this domain (including other assets) in 2010 for the over-the-roof price. According to QuinStreet’s conference, they said themselves “we paid for; a website, media, and technology assets”, which sums up the grand price of $35.6 million, which is a pretty big price to pay just for the including assets.
5. Vacationrentals.com – Sold at 35 Million US$
Vacationrentals.com was sold in 2007 to ‘HomeAway’ for approximately $35 million. The CEO of HomeAway bumped the price up in the auction by $400,000 to steal the domain away from Expedia. From that point on, the price became 35 million and Expedia stopped bidding.
6. Privatejet.com – Sold at 30.18 Million US$
privatejet.com was sold to Nation Luxury Transportation LLC which already had a domain named dontlookmedia.com. The company provides travel services.
e.g. flights, flight-seating charts.
The domain was purchased in 2012 for 30.18 million US$. It is believed that since this domain was paid in by cash in hand, it was the topper for the most-pure-bought domain in the world. ‘Don’t Look Media’, the company which bought the domain is filing a lawsuit to sue another company that tried to expose fake content and say that they were the owners of the company to gain fame.
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7. Voice.com – Sold at 30 Million US$
Voice.com was the most recent sale of an expensive domain. It was sold on the 18th of June 2019 to the company Block.one which is a social media app that was made for block-chain. This domain was first owned by MicroStrategy Incorporated, which is a company that was created/founded in 1989. It is also the most expensive publicly reported cash domain purchase.
While Block.one on the other hand was launched later in 2017 and aims to change voice.com very widely and broadly. MicroStrategy is a cryptocurrency company that put $425 million into bitcoin! All the profit from the initial investment got them enough money to purchase the domain. Block.one is also a cryptocurrency and blockchain company.
8. Internet.com – Sold at 18 Million US$
QuinStreet bought another domain yet again in 2009 for 18 million US$. There were so many other domain names to choose from, but QuinStreet chose the simple one – internet.com. This is new news that not many people are exposed to, but QuinStreet is thinking about selling internet.com for 35 million US$ although it hasn’t got any offers yet.
9. 360.com – Sold at 17 Million US$
Qihoo 360 Technology Co. is more thoroughly known as a security company situated in China. Qihoo bought this domain back in 2005 from ‘Vodafone’ for the price of 17 million US$ and was called com. After Qihoo bought the domain, they decided to change it to 360.com as said before. The company that bought it already had a website called 360.cn – cn meaning China but they wanted to expand their branding so they bought the other domain to gain more sales for their business. The old domain was originally founded by Qihoo 360 Technology.
10. Insure.com – Sold at 16 Million US$
Insure.com was sold for $1.6 million in 2001 and Quinstreet bought it in 2016 for a whopping 16 million! That means it sold for 10 times more than in 2001. The company, QuinStreet, then paid another 2 million to get security features, technology assets, and a range of other items as well.
