Thanks to an article on Business Insider’s Australian website, we now know that the company now known as  Freelancer.com acquired its exact match domain name for $325,000. Prior to the acquisition of this domain name, the company went by the name GetAFreelancer.com. Because a great exact match domain name can easily become a brand, the company rebranded itself as Freelancer.com.
The BI article shared some interesting details about how the company was able to negotiate a deal to acquire the domain name. Briefly, it seems that the former owner wasn’t too receptive to the low opening offer, but after a bit of time, the two were able to come to a deal. When you own an exceptional domain name like Freelancer.com, you have quite a bit of leverage, especially when the company inquiring really wants the domain name.
Obviously, the acquisition has paid off for the company, as it has become a well recognized brand in the freelance space.
This tweet from George Kirikos tipped me off to the article:
Amusing negotiation for the $325K http://t.co/ntcMdvb5Am domain name http://t.co/VHkYddUSI1 “get f**ked” “go away” #lowballers
— George Kirikos (@GeorgeKirikos) September 19, 2014
It’s a nice story and done well, but the flipside are the others that file a udrp or legal action on the owner to try and squeeze them.
I think GAF bout Freelancer.com at discounted rate. Even in 2009, GAF was a biggest Freelance portal and making huge money.
I wonder what they really will do with their new site FreeMarket.com
I mean: they are positioned differently respect Flippa, since they have even Freelancer.com. They can do for sure even much more better than what Flippa already does, having the Freelancer community. Anyway the two platforms are still completely divided and it seems to me they were looking for some thousands of new emails of domainers to which send their daily newletter instead than, let say, quality domains for their community.
I wonder for instance if they are promoting FreeMarket within their members and/or sending newletters with domain auction targeted for them etc.
Maybe they could create a frame within the account of their Freelancer.com members where showing domains up for auction based on the skills of each single Freelancer, for instance, etc.