In my DomainTools Registrant Monitor alert email this morning, I saw that IGTV.com has been acquired by Instagram. The domain name was appears to have been previously registered to an entity in California, and it had been parked using Sedo’s nameservers. Instagram is often referred to as “IG,” so the domain name acquisition makes sense. As of the time of publication, IGTV.com does not resolve to an operational website.
I looked through my email records, and I do not see any domain broker emails offering IGTV.com for sale. I also looked at NameBio, and I do not see any public sales records for the domain name either. Sedo’s recent sale RSS feed does not show IGTV.com listed, so if it did sell via Sedo, privacy was requested on the sale and the price won’t likely be reported.
According to Trademarkia, Instagram filed for a trademark on the IGTV term. The pending trademark is quite extensive and covers many different potential uses. I would be somewhat surprised if Instagram actually uses IGTV.com for a separate website given the nature of its current branding, but I would not be surprised to see the company forward IGTV.com to the product or service within its Instagram website.
I am going to reach out to the most recent registrant of the domain name (prior to GDPR blocking) and see if I can learn and share the sale price for IGTV.com. One thing that could have helped the seller is that it was probably pretty clear who the prospective buyer was if the buyer approached the seller anonymously. I will share an update if I learn more about the sale.
I think it can be a redirect to one of its features…Instagram stories.
I don’t use instagram and didn’t know it is often referred as IG…the name itself sounds like a one word…that popular it is.
Elliot, do you often reach out to old registrant to find about sale price or any details related to sale ?
I thought you gather data only through alerts and domain tools etc.
do you get positive replies when reaching out like this?
Thanks,
Ravi