Glitter Launches on Glitter.club

Betaworks-backed Glitter is a personal trading cards app http://t.co/s8VBIypHm9

— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) August 3, 2015

Whenever I hear about a company or business using a descriptive brand name, I immediately wonder if they got the exact match .com domain name or opted for an alternative. I saw the tweet above referencing  a  TechCrunch article about a new app called Glitter, and when I checked the url, I learned that the startup is using  Glitter.club  for its website.

According to the article, “Glitter is a personal trading cards app, which lets users create mobile, tradable cards that feature all types of ‘ingredients,’ as the company calls it.” Sounds like an interesting concept.

I did some research on the Glitter.club domain name, and I saw that it  was registered to .CLUB Domains, LLC (the.Club Registry) in March of this year. In April, the domain name changed hands and was  registered to Betaworks. I reached out to Jeff Sass,  CMO of the .Club registry, and he informed  me that  Glitter.Club was a registry reserved premium domain name that sold for $1,500 via Sedo.  The app  is not a part of the registry’s Startup.Club program.

Jeff shared some additional thoughts about the domain name with me:

“[I]t was not part of startup.club.  But, it is a great example of a startup being able to get a great, brandable name at a reasonable price.  Plus, as has been shown so many times already, .CLUB is a great extension for anyone trying to build a community around a product or service, something that is inherent in any mobile app.  An app’s success revolves around it growing into an active community… a club of users!”

The Glitter.com domain name is owned by  domain investor, Garry Chernoff. I had previously chatted about Glitter.com with Garry when SendYourEnemiesGlitter.com was in the news. Not surprisingly, the asking price of Glitter.com is very high due to its generic nature and the fact that it can be used by any number of companies. Interestingly, another company has owned GlitterClub.com since 2005.

When a startup like Glitter uses a new gTLD domain name, I think it helps generate awareness for the entire new gTLD program. It will be interesting to see how the app grows.