Archeo Domains Website Launches in Beta

Marchex is a publicly traded company that owns many great domain names, and the company is pursuing a big change in its organization. According to a note on the Marchex website, “Marchex is pursuing the separation of our business into two distinct entities to increase strategic focus, build on our unique assets and accelerate growth. Upon closing of the transaction, Marchex will be divided into: (1) Marchex, a pure play mobile advertising company focused on calls, and (2) Archeo, a premium domain and advertising marketplace.”

A domain marketplace was recently launched in beta on ArcheoDomains.com. Although I don’t know the extent to which the marketplace is being advertised (if at all), if you visit a Marchex-owned domain name like Georgetown.com, you’ll see a note in the top corner that says “This domain may be for sale. Click here for more information.” Clicking the link will take you to the sale listing on ArcheoDomains.com.

On the homepage of the beta website, you can select various categories of domain names to see domain names that appear for sale. From my brief searching, most of the domain names do not appear to be priced. On the right hand side of the home page, you can see a list of recent domain quotes. The about us page says, “Archeo Domains is a marketplace consisting of over 200,000 unique domain names that are available for purchase.”

Interestingly, the company owns Archeo.com, and it is being used to provide more information about the proposed spin off. At the moment, it is forwarding to the page within the Marchex website that is referenced above.

I am not sure if Archeo plans to only sell house-owned domain names or if the company intends to open the marketplace to listings from others. It’s a new marketplace to keep our eyes on because of its considerable end user reach.

Thanks to Bill Sweetman for sharing this with me.