I don’t regularly see large companies looking to sell excellent one word .com domain names, so I thought I would share a sale listing I recently noticed. Swirl.com has gone up for sale via MarkMonitor and Sedo. The domain name currently hosts an inquiry form to get in touch with a broker from the brand protection service where the domain name is registered.
Whois records for Swirl.com show the domain name is registered to DNStination Inc., MarkMonitor’s privacy proxy service. Recent historical Whois records from last year show the domain name was registered to BBY Solutions, Inc., with an @bestbuy.com email address.
A bit of searching show that Swirl.com was previously owned by a company called Swirl Networks. The company’s Crunchbase profile shows that Swirl Networks had raised $32 million in funding. The company was reportedly acquired by Best Buy in early 2019 for an undisclosed amount. Strangely, I could not find any coverage of this acquisition beyond the Crunchbase mention. I would imagine Swirl was acquired for its technology and perhaps its employees.
According to its listing on Sedo, Swirl.com has a minimum offer of $200,000. Given this starting point, it is beyond what I would spend to acquire the domain name. Swirl.com is an excellent domain name, and I will keep my eye on it to see if it is sold.
Best Buy is still in business?
(Checks BBY ticker symbol)
Woah! Guess it still is. ($119.70 for 1 share)
Samer
“excellent one word .com domain names”
Elliot, I’m sure you saw the movie “Almost Famous,” right? It’s quite a classic and I recommend it if you didn’t
Remember when the Philip Seymour Hoffman character was advising the main character on how to stoke his contact at Rolling Stone and get him all excited about the story idea for magazine? That was priceless. You are like that contact at Rolling Stone when it comes to one-word .coms. There’s virtually not a single one word .com in existence you are not going to always glow about.
However, from a real world end user perspective, it may be one word, it may even be “short,” but it is not an “excellent one word” domain. In fact, from that honest perspective it actually kind of even sucks. Similar to a short one word domain like Lane.com which was discussed a while ago, for instance, with Rick Scwartz pointing out a similar idea and how longer two word domains like FastLane.com were better in his view. In this case, however, even “Lane” is better and I would leave a word like “swirl” out of my business pursuits and thoughts entirely, speaking from an end user perspective with real commercial contemplation.
So I hope they do just fine, but I would not want to be the person who pays six figures for one like that or even five.
I have several one word .coms that are just “ok.” For instance, Advantageous.com, Observations.com, Cooter.com, Phenoms.com, Amethysts.com, and Pulmonology.com are all ok. They’re not super valuable and I would be happy to sell them all for reasonable prices. I do not believe all one word .com domain names are gems, and I readily admit it without any sort of reluctance. I think this type of valuation awareness is critical, otherwise I would either be broke and/or not growing my business.
I would pay $40,000 USD for Swirl.com today. I bet Braden, Nat, Andy, Drew, Brent, James, Jack, Richard, and others you may have heard of would pay even more for this domain name.
I’d bet that too, Elliot. In fact I even “accidentally told the truth” in giving my assessment about how much one of those very guys paid for a certain one word .com a while ago when I didn’t know who it was, whereas I would not have said anything if I had known who it was. That’s right, I sometimes practice restraint for various reasons believe it or not. What I would not have done, however, is lie about it vs. just not saying anything at all at that time.
Something majorly wrong with your domaining knowledge if you think Swirl.com is not a good domain. I would strongly suggest that you do the DNacademy course John.
LOL. No Snoopy, you might want to rethink that.
Good name for an ice cream or frozen drink company.
But it will probably be used as a brandable name that will have nothing to do with frozen desserts. SMH
Exactly. Pretty much anyone might immediately think of the “ice cream” type of idea, and I certainly did. And that just makes a domain like than a very expensive lottery ticket, i.e. “Maybe someday, someone will want to give this “swirl” a whirl for such a purpose, I hope, I hope, I hope…” Otherwise, I definitely do not recommend the “brandable” non-obvious route for one like that.
One word with diverse applications. End-user potential is easily low six figures, or to set your expectations in the 7 figures wouldn’t be silly either. Something as basic as an app/tool which generates things after hitting a ‘swirl’ button, or concise user-generated content similar to tiktok. Or any agency or studio which produces creative content. Quick/fast, edgy, creative, generative, fun, x-factor, full-circle …
What is the big deal about Swril.com. I think it is mediocre at best. How can one really judge? Easy. What would a savvy domain person like Elliot write a check for? I do not think I would pay 50K on spec. Would you?
In my opinion, I think Swirl.com is a solid one word .com domain name, and it is blogworthy that a company like Best Buy would list it for sale. Most of the time, larger companies are wiling to consider offers on domain names they no longer use but only infrequently put them up for sale in this manner.
As I mentioned to John, I would pay $40,000 right now to buy Swirl.com. It’s a neutral sounding name that could be used for just about any type of business.
In fact, I will submit that as an offer to MarkMonitor after hitting post on this comment.
My $40k offer was rejected, and I was told higher offers have already been received.
Rethink your domain valuation skills. This domain can be immediately sold for over $100,000 so to say no at $50,000 think the name is mediocre is all wrong.
to who for 100K? Would you buy it? No chance.
Yes 40K seems like a decent price to pay. I would bet that there is NO chance that you get it for that.
But yes, certainly try. I do not buy many domains any more. Here and there with no intended exit plan. I did happen to buy what I think was a great one a few weeks ago. I would not sell it for 10X what I paid. This is rare! But if you look, bid, offer, it does happen from time to time.
Sent. I am sure they will tell me the seller is looking for mid to high six figures, as they should. I doubt they need to sell, so it will probably sit on the market, like Peach.com and Bridge.com did, until the right buyer comes around and pays up.
Detractors are funny. Swirl.com is a great potential brand for a dance troupe, a Broadway musical, dance apparel ecom brand, a toilet, a bidet, an amusement ride company, a production studio, an ad agency, an ice cream brand, a water purifier, a turbine company, a spa or bathtub company, a brandy company, a wine brand, a wine glass brand, a high brow bar, a flouncy dress fashion brand, a sewer decontamination brand, a wig company or hair styling brand for the $XXB curled hair markets, an espresso brand, etc. We do zero to advance the power of domains to leverage into more eyeballs in an industry, when we are so negative over nothing. Thanks for reporting on this great domain, Elliot.