“Israel.com” domain name was sold for $5.88 million. The identity of the buyer is still not revealed.
In May, 2008, Moniker, a internet domain registrar announced in their website that they would be auctioning the domain “Israel.com” for a price of $5.5 million. Many felt that the price is unrealistic and would not turn out to be a postivite bid. The auction website www.auctioninfo.org carried out the process. Surprisingly, the domain auction ended within six days on May 23rd.
Currently, the domain still does not contain a website and just contains PPC advertisements redirecting users to tourism, history and travel websites. It would be interesting to note the content of the site when launched.
Joel Noel Friedman, aJewish American was the previous owner of the domain, “Israel.com”. Speaking to www.auctioninfo.org, Friedman mentioned that he didn’t expect the domain to be valuded so high when be bought it in 1994.
The 46 year old further mentioned that he had originally registered the domain name in his name fearing that the domain might be misused by someone else. He had auctioned the domain name as a tribute to the Israel’s 60th anniversary.
Buying domain names with popular names is common and is considered as an investment as the domain is usually sold for a higher rate. Some resort to buying common mistyped company names or resemble any popular company to make some quick traffic. To overcome this, major companies buy all related domain names. The cost of common .com domain names are around $10 while popular keyword domains are sold in thousands.