March 14, 2010 by Matt Thomas
The theory that sex sells has never been disproved, many of the most visited sites on the internet that do not have any affiliation to searching or social networking have something to do with sex. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that the domain name ‘Sex.com’ is the most expensive in internet history. Well, get your chequebooks out because it is going up for auction.
The bidding will commence on March 18th and will start at $1million, approximately £670,000 and could rise to anything up to $15million or more. It was last purchased in 2006 for an estimated $14million Dom Partners LLC, a lending company based in New Jersey. They have had no choice but to foreclose on the ‘internet property’ after the actual owners Escom have failed to pay off the loan that they originally took out to purchase the domain.
These types of auctions of always proved a great opportunity for internet entrepreneurs and shrewd businessmen, in the past many of the most domain names that were forecasted to be popular were bought up by such people for a basic rate and then sold on for a handsome profit. Good examples include Israel.com which was sold for $5.88million and pizza.com which fetched $2.5million, sex.com is expected to be more then double either of those, a testament to the selling power of sex.
Unsurprisingly the domain name has got somewhat of a dirty past after having been the focus of a five year legal battle between its original owner Gary Kremen who bought it in 1994 and Stephen Cohen who received ownership of it in 1996 after an elaborate scam. Kremen was eventually awarded $65 million in damages and the rights to his site which he then sold to Escom for $14million in 2006.
The domain is reported to have made $15,000 a day at one point and will surely be a cash cow for anyone with the money to buy it. One thing is for sure, it will be interesting to see just how much sex sells for.
Related posts:
