Does Paying Top Dollar For Domains Still Make Sense In The Age Of Apps?

fastcompany.com — A friend of mine received an anonymous offer for $120, via GoDaddy, for a domain he had owned for years called FuzzWire.com. He did not know the nature of the offer--that is, whether it was from a well-financed startup--but he at least knew that since it came from GoDaddy, and was not just some personalized plea sent by email, that he should test the offers limits. So my friend, an entrepreneur, matter-of-factly countered with $10,000. By the week's end, the interested party agreed to the offer and moved $10,000 to escrow. Jul 21, 2011 View in Crawl 4

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Does Paying Top Dollar For Domains Still Make Sense In The Age Of Apps?

9 Comments

nonmagical Jul 21, 2011

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Seems FuzzWire.com is for sale again. I have a feeling the new sellers won't likely make their money back.

johnnysoftware Jul 22, 2011

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FuzzWire sounds like something a computer security or a music company would be interested in using as a name for a product or whatever.

johnnysoftware Jul 22, 2011

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Yeah, well, I have a Twitter app but I still use the web site too. Depends on what I am doing. They have different UIs and sometimes one is better for a particular thing I am doing.

Plus, most programs send data, signals, etc. Someone who knows what they are doing likes to know where their data is being sent to or coming from so having a recognizable name is useful.

vixitor Jul 21, 2011

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right on man

getlimedtoday Jul 21, 2011

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No matter how long you think a product will last, a catchy name can definitely put you in a higher orbit!

dusanmal Jul 21, 2011

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Apps are fad, novelty with limited access. Particularly when they are on a single platform (and many are). Author, as most technical journalists nowadays fails to distinguish between themselves - "superuser" class living in SF and reporting on cutting edge tech' and general population. If you want to reach general population, not the top fraction of a percent - keep those websites and URLs. App space is overcrowded for easy access (hundreds of thousands vs. couple handfuls typical user has on his device, if he has one - remember that only about 1/3 of cell phone users have smart phones...) and if customer needs to "install" something to reach you instead of just reaching you on web page - you are climbing much higher threshold to captivate him.

twitrestaurants Jul 21, 2011

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As a domain investor and app owner, investing in building out our web site for RecipeCostCalculator.com was worth the investment for increased app sales.