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Domain Sales

Macro.com Was Acquired for $600k in 2022

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In 2023, I noticed a company called Macro had announced a big funding round, and it was using Macro.com for its website. Its brand matching domain name caught my attention, and I learned the company had rebranded after being founded under the Coparse brand:

Last night on LinkedIn, Macro CEO Jacob Beckerman shared some background about the domain name acquisition, including the purchase price.

Atom.com Listing Levels Getting Confusing

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Atom.com introduced new listing levels for domain names listed for sale on its platform. Each comes with a different marketing opportunities as well as differing commission rates. Bob Hawkes shared a breakdown of the new listing levels:

I agree with Dot TV’s reply on X that the listing level tiers are getting too complicated.

Unstoppable Domains Building Outbounding Tools

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Outbound marketing can be an effective way to sell domain names. It can help inform prospective buyers about a domain name being listed for sale or having a price reduction. This personal interaction with a prospective buyer can help facilitate a domain name sale.

It can be very difficult to find the right buyers – and even the right decision maker. It can also be challenging to close a deal with a buyer due to budgetary or pricing reasons. Outbound marketing is not without risk – particularly legal risk due to potential issues of trademark infringement or even a misinterpretation of trademark law.

Put simply, selling domain names via outbound marketing can be rewarding but is challenging.

My YoY Sales were Flat – What That Could Mean

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My 2024 domain name sales were relatively flat year over year. I sold more domain names in 2024 than I sold in 2023, but it was by a slim enough margin that I will call it flat. My sale revenue was also slightly higher in 2024 than in 2023. I would still say the year was *good* but it’s always nice to see growth.

In looking at year over year sales at Namebio, the number of sales was relatively flat (145,025 for 2023 vs. 144,633 for 2024). I am sure there will be more sales added to the database, but it will likely be relatively flat YoY when all is said and done. Domain name sale dollar volume was higher in 2024 ($185.3 million) than in 2023 ($159.2 million). Keep in mind that this data only counts publicly reported sales.

Grok.com Acquired by xAI

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Another leading AI company acquired its brand matching .com domain name. This time, it is Grok.com, which was acquired by xAI for its Grok chatbot. The acquisition was first reported and shared on X late in the day yesterday:

Whois records are currently “redacted for privacy.” However, an historic Whois record from DomainTools show the domain name was briefly registered to xAI at GoDaddy in early December:

Anthropic Appears to Have Acquired Claude.com

A month ago, I noticed the Claude.com domain name transferred from Network Solutions to corporate domain registrar MarkMonitor. The domain name had been registered under Whois privacy, and it is currently registered to DNStination Inc., Mark Monitor’s privacy service. The domain name transfer was brought to my attention with the help of DomainTools’ Registrant Monitor tool.

In my post about the domain name transfer, I mentioned that Anthropic AI chat platform is called Claude. The company uses the Claude.ai domain name for this platform.

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