Coya Buys Coya.com Before $10 Million Funding Round

Elliot Silver
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10

CrunchBase reported that an insurance startup called Coya received $10 million in seed funding at the end of August. A quick check showed that the company is operating its business on the Coya.com domain name, which had previously been owned by Frank Schilling’s Name Administration. Jamie Zoch reported the sale of Coya.com at the end of July, although the price was not published.

I reached out to one of the founders of Coya via email to ask what the company paid to buy the domain name and what url the company was using prior to the acquisition. Unfortunately, I did not hear back from him.

I also reached out to Jeff Gabriel, Vice President of Sales at Uniregistry. Jeff let me know that the domain name was brokered by Ryan May of Uniregistry, and the sale price for the Coya.com domain name was a very reasonable

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Zero Click Landers Can Hurt Sales

Elliot Silver
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5

I believe that some parking companies use zero click landing pages to generate revenue for the domain owner. As an Internet user, I dislike zero click landers because they seem to land on some sort of shady page that suggests a download or they take me somewhere I don’t want to go. As a domain owner, I think a zero click landing page can hamper a sale.

This morning, I visited a domain name that is listed for sale. Before making an offer on this domain name, I wanted to see what effort the owner is making to sell the domain name. Obviously if there is a huge notice that the domain name is for sale, it means everyone else that has been interested in the domain name has seen the for sale message. When I visited the domain name, I noticed it was using a zero click lander that took me elsewhere. I think this could be hurting the sale potential of the domain name.

I can’t speculate about whether the domain owner knows (or cares) that there is a zero click landing page, but because of this type of parking, there is no “for sale” or “make offer” banner at the top. A prospective buyer interested in the domain name who wants to see how it is being used will not know that the domain name is for sale simply by visiting the landing page. I receive offers and inquiries regularly from people who click the inquiry link, and this is not happening for that domain owner.

Aside from this, a prospective

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Efty Reports All-Time High # of Inquiries in August

Elliot Silver
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14

The Summer months tend to be the slowest time of the year for my business. I typically see fewer inquiries and do less deals during the Summer. In a tweet sent early this morning, Efty reported that there have been a record number of inquiries made via its platform in August – and the month hasn’t even ended:

One reason for the increased inquiry activity could be the growth of the platform. Earlier this month, the company announced it had reached one million domain names on its platform. With more domain names being added to the platform, one can assume that more

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Use Escrow for a Deal Closing in the Future

Elliot Silver
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8

It is important to use an escrow service when transacting on a domain name acquisition or sale. I think almost everyone in the domain investment space knows this or should know this by now.

If you reach an agreement to sell a domain name that won’t close until a date in the future, it may be a good idea to set up escrow when the agreement is signed, even though the deal won’t close right away.

Let’s say you are selling a domain name that you are using for a website. Once you reach a deal to sell the domain name and the purchase agreement is signed, the buyer should remit the payment to an escrow service and the seller should push the domain name to the control of the escrow service. The seller can notify advertisers and visitors about the sale of the domain name, and the domain name can be used to inform visitors of the pending sale. Once the transaction time comes, the buyer will receive the domain name and the seller will receive the funds.

This is important for two reasons. First, it is

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George Kirikos Uncovers Sale(s) of First.com

Elliot Silver
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13

It looks like George Kirikos has uncovered the sale (well, sales) of the First.com domain name. He shared the information he found in a Twitter tweet early this afternoon:

The source of George’s information is a SEC filing from Sitestar Corporation, the company that bought and sold First.com. The information was shared in a press release announcing the company’s Q2 2017 results. Here’s an excerpt from the SEC filing:

“Additionally, the subsidiary closed on the sale of First.com, a domain name that has been actively marketed since the first quarter of 2016. The domain name had a cost basis of $200,000 and was sold for net proceeds of $200,000 including broker and commission fees paid.”

It seems that this deal will not be published in DNJournal or NameBio because the most recent exact sale price was not shared. We could probably make a good estimate based on a 15% commission rate, but unless the broker or brokerage shares the actual price, it will probably remain unpublished. My guess is the deal was somewhere in the ballpark of $235,000, which seems like a very reasonable price for a name of this caliber.

Assuming I am reading the report correctly, it looks like the company paid

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Aron Meystedt Sells XF.com and OC.com

Elliot Silver
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7

Aron Meystedt emailed his contacts this evening to let people know his @xf.com email address was changing due to the sale of his XF.com domain name. Aron told me XF.com was sold via a China-based domain name broker. His company owned the domain name for approximately ten years.

Aron also announced that he sold OC.com as well. I wrote about his OC.com acquisition at the end of July. This domain name was also sold via a China-based domain broker. I am not sure if both domain names were sold to the same buyer.

Commenting on the two sales, Aron said the following:

“I’ve owned XF.com for 10 years and it was just time to sell it.
I also sold another two letter name of mine this week, OC.com. It was an interesting week to say the least.”

Unfortunately, Aron is unable to disclose a sale price or price range for these domain names. He previously told me that

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