30+ Most Expensive Domain Names Ever Sold In the World

Pritam Nagrale

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Most Expensive Domain Names

What’s in a name, as the old question goes? There’s everything in a name if we look at our own or those of stores and brands. And, of course, websites too. A website gets its name from the domain. The easier or simpler the domain name, the higher the chances of people remembering it.

Just in case you’re unaware, there’s a huge business in buying and selling top domain names. Known as domain flipping, investors buy excellent-sounding domains and sell them online for a huge profit.

And who buys these expensive domain names: Obviously, businesses need them desperately since it signifies their brand.

Do you know the highest price ever paid for a domain name? You just check the first name in the list of the most expensive domain names in the world below.

Most Expensive Domain Names

30+ Most Expensive Domain Names Ever Sold In the World

To help you understand better, I’m listing more than 30 different and most expensive domain names in the world. These were either sold directly by domain owners or bought during online auctions.

1. Business.com

  • Bought for $345 million in 2007 by RH Donnelly.
  • Print and online Yellow Pages publisher in the US. However, the business went bankrupt in 2009.
  • The main competitors for the domain name were Dow Jones and New York Times.

2. LasVegas.com

  • Bought in 2005 for $90 million
  • Core Business: Travel & Tourism
  • Sold to: VEGAS.com LLC, a travel and tourism company. The previous owner, Stephens Media, accepted a down payment of $12 million for the website, and the balance is payable till the year 2040.

 3. VacationRentals.com

  • Sold For (USD): $35 Million to $40 Million
  • Core Business: Core business was booking hotels and flight tickets
  • Sold To: Brain Sharples, founder of HomeAway, bought this website. Expedia was the prime competitor.
  • Year: 2007

4. Voice.com

  • Sold For (USD): $30 Million
  • Core Business: Social networking platform
  • Sold To: Block.one, a company dealing in blockchain solutions
  • Year: 2019

 5. PrivateJet.com

  • Sold For (USD): $30 Million to $32 Million
  • Core Business: A lifestyle website catering to high-end customers
  • Sold To: The buyer is unknown.
  • Year: 2012

 6. 360.com

  • Sold for $17 million
  • Core Business: Internet services
  • Owner: Zhou Hongyi of Qihoo China
  • Core Business: Now, it is an online marketing company that helps businesses to generate sales and leads
  • Sold To: The name of the buyer is Quin Street, and Insure.com changed its corporate name to Life Quotes.
  • Year: 2015

7. Insure.com

  • Sold for: $16 million
  • Core Business: Insurance & Investments
  • Sold To: QuinnStreet, a marketing company in 2024 by an unknown seller.

8.   Sex.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $13 Million
  • Core Business: Off Course, by the very name, you could suggest this is a pornographic website. So core business is sex.
  • Sold To: Gary Kremen, founder of Sex.com, sold this company to Clover Holdings. Early he sold this domain for $11.5 Million to Escom in 2006

9. Tesla.com

  • Sold For: $11 Million
  • Core Business: An American electric vehicle and clean energy company based in Palo Alto, California
  • Sold To: Elon Musk
  • Year: 2018

 10. Hotels.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $11 Million
  • Core Business: This website caters to booking hotels and flight tickets. Now, this domain name is worth billions.
  • Sold To: David Roth, CEO of Hotels.com, bought this domain name for $11 Million.
  • Year: 2001

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 11. Fund.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $ 9.9 Million to $10 Million
  • Core Business:Fund.com was basically a tax advisor website that dealt with issues like Finance and capital.
  • Sold To: Fund.com was sold to a Nevada-based company called Eastern Services Group. The sale was quite controversial, and today this website doesn’t exist.
  • Year: 2011

 12. Porn.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $9.5 Million to $10 Million
  • Core Business: As the name suggests, a porn website.
  • Sold To: The original owner of Porn.com sold the website to MXN limited for $9.5 Million.
  • Year: 2007

13. Shoes.com

  • Sold for: $9 million
  • Core Business: Footwear in America
  • Sold To: shoebuy.com, an American online footwear giant by an anonymous seller on Godaddy.com

14. Porno.com

  • Sold For $8.8 million
  • Core Business: Free & Subscription Adult Videos
  • Sold To: The deal was concluded between two anonymous owners online. One of the bidders was reportedly represented by MindGeek in 2024.

 15. FB.com

  • Auctioned For (USD):$ 8.5 Million
  • Core Business: Fb.com was administered by American Farm Bureau Federation.
  • Sold To: You might be surprised to know that FB.com was acquired by Facebook in a meeting held in Atlanta.
  • Year: 2010

16. We.com

  • Sold for $8 million
  • Core Business: Not known
  • Sold To: Details of this deal remain unknown. The domain name sold for $8 million.

 17. Business.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $7.5 Million
  • Core Business: Business.com was just a high-profile generic domain name.
  • Sold To: Business.com was acquired by Jake Winebaum and Sky Daton to create a B2B site.
  • Year: 1999

18. Diamond.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $7.5 Million
  • Core Business: Luxury goods, high-quality diamonds.
  • Owner: Diamond.com was owned by Odimo Inc.
  • Sold To: An European Jewelry company bought Diamond.com for $7.5 Million. The name diamond.com suits their business.
  • Year: 2006

 19. Beer.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $7 Million
  • Owner: Beer.com was owned by Andrew Miller and Michael Zappy, who acquired it for $80,000.
  • Sold To: Beer.com was bought by an Interbrew beer-making company.
  • Year: 1999

20. Z.com

  • Sold For: $6.8 million
  • Core Business: Stocks, Mutual Funds & Investments
  • Sold To: SMO-z.com Trade of UK by unknown domain flipper.

 21. Israel.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $5.8 Million to $6 Million
  • Core Business: A website related to tourism.
  • Sold To: Buyers are unknown.
  • Year: 2008

 22. Casino.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $6 Million
  • Core Business: Casino.com was an online gaming site
  • Sold To: Mansion Limited of Gibraltar bought Casino.com.
  • Year: 2007

23.  Slots.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $5.5 Million
  • Core Business: A popular gaming site.
  • Owner: Moniker was the owner of Slots.com, registered in 1995.
  • Sold To: Moniker sold the website to Bodog at Snapnames domain auction.
  • Year: 2010

 24. Asseenontv.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $5.1 Million
  • Core Business: This was an informational website.
  • Sold To: In order to promote their brand LA Group, Inc acquired Asseenontv.com
  • Year: 2000

 25. Toys.com

  • Auctioned For (USD):$5.1 Million
  • Sold To:Toys.com was acquired by ToysRUs, which is an American company.
  • Year: 2009

 26. Korea.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $5 Million
  • Korea.com was the domain name based on a country registered in 1995.
  • Sold To: It was sold to Korea.com communications for $5 million.
  • Year: 2004

 27. SEO.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $5 Million
  • SEO is a perfect exact domain name for an SEO business. SEO companies would like to buy this generic domain name.
  • Sold To: Michael Mann, the owner of Washington VC, bought SEO.com.
  • Year: 2007

 28. Cloths.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $4.9 Million
  • Clothing.com was a domain name suited for the clothing and apparel industry.
  • Sold To: Zappos acquired Cloths.com. Later in 2009, Amazon acquired Zappos itself.
  • Year: 2008

29.  iCloud.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $4.5 Million
  • Core Business: It was about cloud computing.
  • Sold To: Apple bought Icloud.com from a Swedish company called Xcerion.
  • Year: 2011

 30. GiftCard.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $4 Million
  • Core Business: Selling gift cards and other accessories
  • Sold To: Gift Card Lab bought GiftCard.com, and now it is a $100 Million Company with a 100% growth rate every year
  • Year: 2012

31. FreePorn.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $4 Million
  • Core Business: A pornographic website and now it does not offer any free porn.
  • Sold To: The owners are unknown, but it is one of the most expensive adult domain name ever sold.
  • Year: 2008

 32. YP.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $3.85 Million
  • Sold To: AT &T bought it from Live Deal.
  • Year: 2008

 33. Shop.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $3.5 Million
  • Earlier, it was known as CatalogCity
  • Sold To: Lee Lorenzen acquired it.
  • Year: 2003

 34. AltaVista.com

  • Auctioned For (USD): $3.25 Million
  • Core Business: Search Engine
  • AltaVista was a search engine even before Google came. It dominated the Search Engine world.
  • Sold To: Compaq bought it for $3.25 million.
  • Year: 1998

In Conclusion

The above list would also help you understand why domain names are important for every online business. But that’s not all. While the above 30 are the world’s most expensive domain names, there’re others that are the most valuable.

Meaning the prices of these domain names could run into hundreds of billions of Dollars and would most likely never be sold. Some of these domain names include Google.com, YouTube.com, Facebook.com, and others.

You, too, can enter the domain-flipping business if you have some money to invest. Read this excellent guide on how to start a domain-flipping business. Maybe you’ll strike it very rich someday, and the next list of most expensive domain names includes your name.

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