If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that sex sells.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the Web’s simplest sex-based domain name — sex.com — has just sold for a reported $13 million. Or, to put it in a rhyme, 13 million bucks for a synonym of … well, you know.
Sex.com: The $13 million domain
A company from the Caribbean called Clover Holdings is behind the $13 million sex.com bid, according to the BBC. It’s not yet clear what Clover plans to do with the sex.com site (though I think we can all take a guess).
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To be sure, 13 million’s no small chunk of change, even in the high-stakes domain game. In fact, if the sex.com sale goes through — it still has to be approved by a court — the name stands to be one of the most expensive in the history of the World Wide InterWebs.
Get this, too: The last sale of sex.com is also among the grandest domain transactions of all time. Back in 2006, original sex.com owner (and Match.com founder) Gary Kremen sold the domain for $12 million. The company that bought it ended up declaring bankruptcy, leading us to where we are today.
Sex.com and other expensive domain names
So if sex.com is worth $13 million, what other domain names can fetch that kind of cash? According to some records, the current top dollar-grabber is internet.com. A company called QuinStreet reportedly bought the domain for a cool $18 mil back in ’09. QuinStreet is also said to have forked over $16 million for insure.com that same year.
Other high-priced names, according to industry magazine Domain Name Journal (as reported by ABC News):
- Fund.com: $9.99 million
- Porn.com: $9.5 million
- Diamonds.com: $7.5 million
- Slots.com: $5.5 million
- Toys.com: $5.1 million
- Vodka.com: $3 million
-
Candy.com: $3 million
- CreditCards.com: $2.75 million
- Computers.com: $2.1 million
- Seniors.com: $1.8 million
Man — if we could only find a way to combine a bunch of these into one mega-spectacular super-domain, we’d have a billion dollar idea on our hands.
Wait! I’ve got it: VodkaCandyForSeniorsWhoPlaySlotsOnComputersWithCreditCards.com.
Big money, here I come.
JR Raphael is a PCWorld contributing editor and the co-founder of geek-humor site eSarcasm. You can find him on bothFacebook and Twitter.