In an article that was published on ComputerWeek today, it was revealed that a new web publishing platform will soon be launched on the descriptive domain name, Medium.com. It appears that the founders of Twitter have acquired Medium.com from DigiMedia for this new startup.
According to Juan Carlos Perez of ComputerWeek, “Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone, who were also leaders at Blogger, have unveiled a preview of Medium, which they describe as a new Web publishing platform.”
A Whois search reveals that the domain name was part of DigiMedia’s holdings until April of this year, when it changed hands. The domain name went under privacy in April, and it now shows WhoisGuard, a Whois privacy service, as its current registrant.
You may recall that when Twitter first launched, the domain name that was used was Twttr.com. The company paid $7,500 for the better Twitter.com domain name, which is also an interesting story. Perhaps they learned the importance of using the ideal domain name first rather than trying to purchase it after launching a startup.
I reached out to Scott and Jay from DigiMedia for comment about this possible sale, and I will update the article when I hear back from either of them.
Thanks to George Kirikos for the tip.
Hope they got 7 figures for it.
Obvious Corp (parent company behind Medium, run by the Twitter guys) also announced a new take on online conversations this week.
The other web app is called Branch. and they’ve taken the same approach by landing the awesome branch.com domain to run this second venture from.
Kudos to Obvious Corp, Evan and Biz for “getting it” and launching on premium, single word, generic & memorable domains on day one.
I heard back from Jay at DigiMedia, and as I suspected, they weren’t able to offer any details about this domain name.
Hello Elliot,
Many of these pure play .com Foundations being used for Traffic Aggregators will eventually, with time, be adopted as Home base for many of the companies buying them. Just a prediction.
This will eventually break the strangle hold that enslaves many Business holders to endless advertising fees. Its an evolution that will take time but is inevitable. Google.com and others know this eventuality and are diversifying because of it. Old World Marketing is being dragged kicking and screaming into this sea change event, over to New World Marketing. Creative Destruction here we come.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)