The other day, I noticed that Doc.com was in Afternic’s escrow account. I reached out to the former owner to ask about a sale price, but I did not receive a response. Yesterday, I noticed the Whois changed and the new registrant is listed as SIDRESE SA de CV. A Google search for that entity took me to the privacy page on the website of Docademic, a company that provides “free basic healthcare for the world with the help of AI and Blockchain technology.”
I reached out to Docademic via email to ask about the purchase and see if they can share the purchase price, but I did not receive a response. The company did reply to a tweet I posted to confirm it acquired Doc.com, but the purchase price was not shared.
A few minutes ago, Docadmic publicly shared that it acquired the Doc.com domain name in a tweet:
We are happy to announce that now, all the Docademic services can be found within the domain https://t.co/bYLNwoczWd, this three-letter domain gives us great authority within the medical field and ensures a constant flow of traffic to our platform throughout the world. 💪
— Docademic (@Docademic) July 24, 2018
According to CrunchBase, Docademic has raised $1.1 million in funding since its founding in 2012. According to CoinMarketCap.com, Docademic has a cryptocurrency with a current market cap of $36,981,203 USD. The crypto symbol for this coin is MTC. In June of this year, it looks like the market cap was over $115 million USD.
Doc.com is a high value domain name. Back in 2015, someone emailed me to tell me they were “running an invitation-only auction for doc.com domain.” When I asked the price, I was told the target price was $2 million. Based on historical Whois records, it does not appear that the domain name sold around that time since it was owned by the same entity in 2018 as it was in 2011. Since the time I was emailed, I don’t recall seeing it marketed for sale elsewhere. I would guess this domain name was either a high six figure or low seven figure purchase, but that is just a guess.
Doc.com is currently forwarding to Docademic’s website. It remains unclear how Doc.com will be used in the future. The company could rebrand or use it for a complementary website – perhaps for its crypto offering.
Should I hear back from Docademic, the former registrant, or even GoDaddy (I emailed them because of Afternic escrow) with additional details, I will share an update. For now, we can mark this as another big acquisition from a company in the cryptocurrency space.
Great domains receive great funding. Only 1.1 million in funding since 2012? Expect that number to increase by 10 in the next year or two. We can probably easily assume that they are not profitable yet and have burnt through a good amount of that 1.1 million in the past 6 years. Pegs the Doc.com number at probably between 250-500 grand purchase price.
Doc.com has just received funding for $500 million dollars. Second largest investment in crypto history. There is a notice in the news section on their website
I just read the article I believe you are referencing: https://doc.com/2019/03/19/doc-com-hichens-harrison/
I could be wrong, but it doesn’t sound like there is a firm commitment based on what I read:
“In order to keep up with this progress, Doc.com has been meeting with Hichens Harrison & Co., an investment fund and brokerage to bring in over 500 million USD in investment over the next few years.”
Hichens Harrison have not made a formal announcement yet. I believe this will come in the next few weeks. This deal stems from a presentation in January at the Wall Street Conference in Mar a Lago. Doc were supported by the UN and Coinbase. Reports afterwards from the CEO were that the investors were blown away and even in the very beginning of the funding round, $49 million were already raised. I do believe this to be true, although I do understand your hesitancy. It is after all a soft release to the community.