Translate.com sold via auction on Flippa for $853,000, as reported on NamePros. This was not simply a domain name sale. I believe the deal includes the revenue generating website as well. Since the Flippa auction just ended, I doubt the deal has closed yet.
Assuming the deal closes without issue, I thought it would be interesting to hear what you guys have to say about the purchase price. You can see the reported revenue and profit on the Flippa listing and in the NamePros thread.
Do you think this was a good deal for the buyer, a good deal for the seller, or a fair deal for both parties?
Is Was Amazing sale Perfect
I think the price was way too low, considering the website business that went along with it. It probably could have sold for a lot more through a domain/business broker.
I just don’t understand why the seller sold it the way he did, ie, no reserve/flippa. the name alone is worth $2-5 mil.
Surprised Google or Facebook din’t pick this name up. I am tired of typing translate.google.com…
According to the Flippa listing they have 2 MILLION visitors/month and 385,000 registered users!
In my opinion the name alone Translate.com is worth in the millions, as in 3+ million USD.
The BUYER that bid and won the auction at 853K got a steal of a deal!
I don’t believe the buyer is known yet, so perhaps a large company did buy it.
Very low price.
I suspect translation websites have been “Googled”. Type in a foreign phrase into google and it comes back in English. So where is the demand for this website going to be long term? I think that is why it sold on a very low multiple. 2X can easily turn into 20X if revenue halves each year.
The business sold for a significant premium over my expectations – suprised it broke 600k, for what is essentially a brokerage service getting 2 random people to proofread/edit computer auto-translated text
I clearly see these things very differently to most; ~2 million visitors/month and operating for years, yet only has about 1% signup rate and of that 1% gets a 0.3% conversion to paying client seems like a very niche business that “better AI” would kill completely [ sub 1000 paying customers ]
As to the domain value – only domainers with inventory they’ll never shift could think any name would fetch millions of $ – that market has long gone IMHO
Hi Rob – My name is Alex Verdea. You probably haven’t heard of me. I take full responsibility for that.
Question for you man: Would you rather have 2 million friends month after month forever, or 2 million USD CASH?
Man I agree with you completely! You are right. The conversion rate the previous owner had operating Translate.com was an atrocious conversion rate. That is EXACTLY WHY I think this deal was amazing for the new buyer.
How do I make sense of this? Well my local bank is offering a “whopping” 1.10% APY interest rate on my savings, so if I had 853k liquid and in the bank I would get $9383USD after 12 months!
Looking at the Flippa listing the worst month in revenue for Translate.com was February 2018 with $13,728USD in revenue. I am going to be a pessimist and make a projection that every month for the next 12 months is going to be the lower 13.7KUSD/month revenue so that’s roughly $164,000USD/12mo.
I come to find out that 164k revenue is about 19% ROI on my 853,000USD investment.
Now Rob, what other investments can I put my money in TODAY that will pay me back at least 19% ROI year after year and building equity??? Please tell me sir.
What’s the POTENTIAL of Translate.com if the new buyer fixes the conversion rate??? YEAH…I AM THINKING BIG, and I am sure the new owner did too.
All the value is in the domain name itself. Over 37million exact match searches and over $3.00CPC. The business model and the crazy low conversion rate are to blame on the previous owner, and EVEN WITH that business model you are set with at least 19% ROI! Haha
So for all of you that think 853k is a LOT OF MONEY for this business and domain name, think again!
“Money follows attention folks” I would much rather have 2 million friends then 2 million USD! You must get attention, and money will follow…
Look at the Kardashian’s of the world….how did they get their attention?? haha and now selling more cosmetics online then corporations that have had 100years head start before them!!!!! Those women are genius!
That’s my 2 cent for today…
@Alex Verdea
>>Well my local bank is offering a “whopping” 1.10% APY interest rate
>>if I had 853k liquid and in the bank I would get $9383USD after 12 months
Ah, but without loss of the principal, without doing any “work”, etc, so not remotely a fair comparision (risk // reward ratios and all that jazz )
>>Looking at the Flippa listing the worst month in revenue for Translate.com was February 2018 with $13,728USD in revenue.
Revenue is (largely) irrelevant _profit_ is really what matters IME 😉
>> a pessimist and make a projection that every month for the next 12 months is going to be the
>> lower 13.7KUSD/month revenue so that’s roughly $164,000USD/12mo.
>> I come to find out that 164k revenue is about 19% ROI on my 853,000USD investment.
You may have forgotten to take out the _costs of running the business, what _net_ figure are you expecting etc
(well have to debate the correct use of ROI over beers at namescon or something)
>> and building equity???
Except you’ve “spent” the original principle, the business is highly “distruptable” (so needs exactly the right people and plan behind it to succeed), the notion of “building equity” on the domain seems laughable in the 21st century
Unless it’s a pure gamble/flip (which I doubt) then whether the over or under paid is guesswork as we dont (yet) know the people behind it – We’ll have to agree to differ, I think they overpaid but my valuation methodologies are clearly different to yours 🙂
@Rob Golding
Haha would love to chat with you and grab some beers. I need to make it out to namescon, however this year I am going to be in Europe during namescon…
–Ah, but without loss of the principal, without doing any “work”, etc, so not remotely a fair comparision (risk // reward ratios and all that jazz )
I don’t see it as a loss of principal, because I see 800k worth of value in the domain itself. Plus money in the bank is dead money…. Spend the money and dominate the space. I want multiple flows of income and massive attention, then the universe will rain treasure on my bank account… 🙂 That’s how Facebook, Google and the greats do it. Money has no value until you transact. That’s why I see NO current value in Bitcoin(that’s another crazy topic). When do I transact with it?I can’t just buy my plane ticket to Europe with it…can’t pay my rent with it etc. not invest-able and volatile market.
–Revenue is (largely) irrelevant _profit_ is really what matters IME 😉
I only care about flows of income and revenue. Profit can be figured out and tweaked as you go along. Clearly the previous owner even with an atrocious conversion rate made some profit, and hoping the new owners take it to the next level.
What’s the profit if you don’t invest and make a move?:)
–You may have forgotten to take out the _costs of running the business, what _net_ figure are you expecting etc
(well have to debate the correct use of ROI over beers at namescon or something)
I think they mentioned on their listing that they had only 2 admin people running the biz. I would have to double check. Pretty sure they didn’t have a target figure LOL
–Except you’ve “spent” the original principle, the business is highly “distruptable” (so needs exactly the right people and plan behind it to succeed), the notion of “building equity” on the domain seems laughable in the 21st century
Read Jamie Siminoff’s interview. He bought Ring.com for $1,000,000USD and took his business to the next level in a BIG way. He mentions that the domain was critical to his business success and said the name alone was worth $30,000,000- $50,000,000USD to him and his business!
That was before he sold his company to AMAZON for 1 BILLION DOLLARS! What’s the equity in RING.com today?? You couldn’t come up with a price BIG enough to buy it from Amazon! No way, no how! 🙂