9 ms·

I wonder if more companies use web domains as "investments" aswell

by dvaplima 29d ago

sparkling 29d ago
Domains investors (or squatters, as one may call them) have been around since the beginning of domains.
- reticulates 29d ago
  I think you mean landlords, not squatters. Squatters are the people who occupy owned property without permission, landlords are the people who hold property, do nothing, and collect profit.
  - embedding-shape 29d ago
    In the context of domains, a domain squatter would be more like someone who holds and keeps a domain without any intention of actually using it or taking it knowing someone else might have use of that exact name, they just want to sell it later for more money. In real-life I agree with your definition though, I guess it not 100% comparable, bad name that got stuck.
    - tough 27d ago
      Digital piracy has little to do with real life piracy and yet the naming stuck too somehow
- hanuffs 28d ago
  Domain trolls. Similar to patent trolls that buy patents only to resell or license them.
reticulates 29d ago
There are domain name investment companies, yes. HugeDomains owns over 5 million domains! As for product companies, like Ramp, buying domains as an investment is generally a terrible idea. Domains are not liquid, the (hypothetical) $5 million that Ramp paid is not a price Ramp could achieve when selling the domain tomorrow. The previous owners owned Router.com for over 20 years before Ramp came along, willing to pay a lot of money for it. Sometimes a company will buy a domain, use it, shut down whatever it was, then end up with the domain on their balance sheet for years, even decades, before someone tracks them down and offers to buy it. In those cases, the company can make money off the domain, but for every time that happens, there’s thousands more domains on balance sheets that nobody wants to pay a good amount for. More broadly, domain name investors make their money by buying lots of domains and holding them over the long term, making their money from the very small number that sell. Part of why good domains are so expensive is that 1 sale needs to cover the cost of hundreds of even thousands of other domains that don’t sell.

I wonder if more companies use web domains as "investments" aswell

sparkling 29d ago

Domains investors (or squatters, as one may call them) have been around since the beginning of domains.

reticulates 29d ago
I think you mean landlords, not squatters. Squatters are the people who occupy owned property without permission, landlords are the people who hold property, do nothing, and collect profit.
- embedding-shape 29d ago
  In the context of domains, a domain squatter would be more like someone who holds and keeps a domain without any intention of actually using it or taking it knowing someone else might have use of that exact name, they just want to sell it later for more money. In real-life I agree with your definition though, I guess it not 100% comparable, bad name that got stuck.
  - tough 27d ago
    Digital piracy has little to do with real life piracy and yet the naming stuck too somehow
hanuffs 28d ago
Domain trolls. Similar to patent trolls that buy patents only to resell or license them.

reticulates 29d ago

There are domain name investment companies, yes. HugeDomains owns over 5 million domains! As for product companies, like Ramp, buying domains as an investment is generally a terrible idea. Domains are not liquid, the (hypothetical) $5 million that Ramp paid is not a price Ramp could achieve when selling the domain tomorrow. The previous owners owned Router.com for over 20 years before Ramp came along, willing to pay a lot of money for it. Sometimes a company will buy a domain, use it, shut down whatever it was, then end up with the domain on their balance sheet for years, even decades, before someone tracks them down and offers to buy it. In those cases, the company can make money off the domain, but for every time that happens, there’s thousands more domains on balance sheets that nobody wants to pay a good amount for. More broadly, domain name investors make their money by buying lots of domains and holding them over the long term, making their money from the very small number that sell. Part of why good domains are so expensive is that 1 sale needs to cover the cost of hundreds of even thousands of other domains that don’t sell.