Press Release: Cruises.com.au Sells for Over $100k

Cruises com auA 6 figure ccTLD domain sale was announced this morning, and I want to share it with you. According to a  press release  I read, “domain name broker, dtrade, has successfully closed Australia’s largest domain name transaction in 2013, over cruises.com.au, valued at $110,000 AUD (approx. $102,000 USD) in a cash deal.”

The buyer is an end user company called Ozcruising Pty Ltd, and the company currently uses Ozcruising.com.au for its corporate website.

Prior to the purchase, the domain name was a fully developed website, as evidenced by a screenshot from 2011. Based on the lead in to the press release, the domain name sale was broken out from the full transaction price, reported at $165,000 AUD, which is around $156,000 USD. I am not sure if Ron Jackson will report it in his weekly domain sale report on DNJournal because it was developed prior to the sale, but it is certainly notable.

Prior to this reported transaction, I had never heard of dTrade before, but it appears that the brokerage specializes in .com.au domain names. You can learn more about the company by visiting its  website.

I am not a ccTLD investor, but I believe there are a number of ccTLDs that would make worthwhile investments. My advice would be to do plenty of research to see where the active markets are, and be sure to purchase domain names that have value to potential buyers. It would probably help to have considerable knowledge about the local market and language.

Congratulations to all of the parties in this deal. It seems like an excellent price for the domain name.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

2 COMMENTS

  1. It’s actually a dismal result. The domain, given its history of development, is worth closer to $1 million. I’ve seen and received several six figure offers on .com.au domains, some of them high six figures. dTrade is trying to drum-up business for themselves by heralding cruises.com.au as “the largest domain name transaction in 2013”, but the reality is most domain name sales in Australia go unreported due to our stringent policy environment. And the higher the sale, the more likely it is to go unreported. Six figure sales occur frequently, as Australians are more loyal to their ccTLD than any other country.

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