The record for Australia’s most expensive domain name sold in a public auction has now been broken, with investmentproperty.com.au selling for $125,000 through registrar NetFleet, after a bidding war between two businesses pushed the price even higher than the original buyers intended.
The large price tag comes after a number of other popular domains including hardware.com.au and electricity.com.au have sold for over $30,000 each, as controlling domains becomes an even more crucial practice of starting a business.
However, the losing bidder says the price is overvalued and he expects the winner – property developer Vision Homes – to sell it within 12 to 18 months.
“I don’t think businesses realise the value of certain domain names. I think there are people who are good at business, and good at being online, but it’s very rare to find someone who’s good at both,” says Mark Mendel of Find Investment Property.
“I think there is value there, but I definitely think the winner has overpaid.”
Mendel says that based on the “very little information I know”, the winner will sell the domain in 12 to 18 months. “I don’t think they’re going to get the value out of it that they might expect,” he says.
Vision Homes declined to comment this morning.
NetFleet shows the investmentproperty.com.au domain sold for just over $125,000, after the original domain had expired. Anthony Ziino is listed as the previous owner, whom Mendel says he has been friends with for a number of years.
“He said that if he ever wanted to sell it, I’d be happy to buy it from him. But for some reason recently I just started browsing on the web, and there it was. I thought it was my lucky day.”
“I assumed that if there wasn’t anyone in the industry bidding for it, it would go for $10,000 or $15,000, and maybe if someone in the industry wanted it then $25,000 to $50,000 at the absolute maximum.”
Mendel says he set a limit of $85,000, and then abandoned the process after that point, saying he didn’t see any value in the domain with that price range. The bidding war raises questions about the value of domain names and how far businesses are willing to go to ensure they have the best URL possible.
“The value of the domain really depends on the business, and every business has different costs. In my business we look at the domain name, the market space, our competitors, a whole range of factors, and then decide on what we should pay.”
“We’re still number one in Google for our search terms – investment property. So you can have a good domain name and be a bad business, and vice versa.”
However, Mendel says he’s prepared to speak with the current owners when and if they choose to sell the domain.
“I think it can open up other opportunities if people have the know-how to use it correctly.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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