Digital.com sold in the Heritage Auction for $325,000 and with the buyer’s premium the total price to the buyer came to $373,750. After the auction we communicated with the gentleman who purchased the domain name, Richard Kershaw.
We decided to ask Richard a few questions about what he does, why he purchased the name and how high he would have bid if there was a bidding war ?
TheDomains.com: What business are you in?
Richard: I own two internet businesses, both based in London:
#1. Wish.co.uk, an e-commerce startup (most famous for our zombie experience days: http://is.gd/Cgif3s). We’ve had press in 50+ countries and every continent except Antarctica (PR info here: http://wish.co.uk/press/)
#2. WhoIsHostingThis.com, a popular webmaster tool that has been featured in Time.com, Daily Mail and the New York Times.
I also own several hundred generic domains, such as yacht.co.uk. While I have done many deals in the $XXXX-XX,XXX range, this is my most substantial domain purchase by some distance.
TheDomains.com: What are your plans for Digital.com ?
Richard: I have specific plans for Digital.com in 2015, but for now I will plead the fifth. Watch this space!
TheDomains.com: Are you concerned about the new gTLD’s?
Richard: No. I believe .COM – and the equivalent CCTLDs, like CO.UK – will remain the “gold standard” of domains for the forseeable future.
Can you imagine anybody building a serious brand on a .NINJA or a .ROCKS domain? I can’t.
I’ve no doubt that a handful of gTLDs will become moderately succesful – perhaps akin to the .BIZ or the .INFO of this decade – and predict that the succesful ones will be those closest to existing TLDs familiar to consumers (like .WEB).
However, I believe that the majority of gTLDs will struggle or fail, and we’ll see a race to the bottom, with registries discounting heavily in a desperate attempt to attract limited retail interest.
We’ve already seen this kind of behavior to attract market share. This reminds me of $0.99 .INFO domains and .TK free domains in the past, two promotions that more or less guaranteed that these TLDs were most famous primarily for their spam/malware problems.
I anticipate that the value of premium .COMs (and their local ccTLDs equivalent) will remain steady. Regular consumers – not domainers or webmasters – will be typing .COM into their browsers by default for decades to come.
To that end, I have just placed a $373,750 bet to put my money where my mouth is.
TheDomains.com : How much would you have been willing to spend on the domain if others bid on it
Richard: Significantly more than I paid for it. I never dreamed I’d win the auction with that bid. I had predicted prior to auction that an ad agency or media agency would win with a seven-figure sum.
