In August of this year, DomainGang reported that Door.com was likely acquired by Latch, Inc., the company operating on Latch.com. Theo noticed this as a result of a trademark filing in the USPTO. In fact, the domain name was acquired, and Latch was rebranded as Door.com, according to an article in The Verge.
In the DomainGang article, Theo wrote that “[T]he domain was brokered this year by brokerage powerhouse, Lumis. No information was released about the amount involved in this transaction.”
In a Form 8-K SEC filing from Latch, Inc. on September 18, 2023, the acquisition price of the domain name was revealed – $1,400,000 via 24 month payment plan. Latch made an initial payment of $763,000 and will be paying 24 monthly installments of $29,167. Here’s an excerpt from the SEC filing with those details:
“On April 24, 2023, the Company acquired the domain name “Door.com” for $1,400,000. The purchase price consisted of an initial payment of $763,000 and 24 monthly payments of $29,167, beginning on May 1, 2023. The purchase was made to utilize the “Door.com” branding as part of the Company’s future go-to-market strategy.”
NameBio shows that Door.com was previously acquired in 2007 for $65,000 via private sale. According to the DomainTools Whois History Tool, it appears the domain name was previously owned by Anything.com until early 2022. After that, the domain name transferred to GoDaddy under Whois privacy. I presume this means Anything.com sold it to an unknown entity, and that buyer re-sold the domain name earlier this year.
Because the domain name was acquired using a payment plan that has not been completed, the domain name sale won’t be recorded in DNJournal or NameBio until it is paid in full.
I went to Door.com but they don’t sell doors and it is hard to tell what exactly they do. Eventually I found that they will be offering business services to service providers, such as scheduling and invoicing. So they do not sell doors. So while it is a great, memorable name, it seems like a lot to pay for a domain that does not necessarily describe what they do. I think they plan to use it like “doorway”, as in they are a doorway to providing all of the services small businesses need.
I went to Amazon.com, but they don’t have information about the rainforest. Target.com doesn’t sell anything related to shooting targets. Sprint.com is unrelated to running. Square.com isn’t about geometry.
I think empty vessel names like Door.com can be more valuable than specific terms that can only be used for one thing in many cases.
Yes, I agree, it is a great name for them, but the point is they paid $1.4 million for it, which seems like a lot as they seemingly did not need that domain in particular.
They definitely needed a premium domain name in order to stand out. It appears they realized the value-add and made it apart of their marketing growth strategy.
But if you go to BullS site,it definitely talks about the websites
The domain name talks directly in your face