Answers.travel Domain Name Sold for $3.3 million

[xnomis]

Answers.travel Domain Name Sold for $3.3 million
The Domain Name Answers.travel Was Acquired by Travel411 for a Substantial $3.3 Million in Cash
Tuesday January 13, 2009, 6:00 am EST
Yahoo! Buzz Print NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Domain history has been made with the acquisition of the domain name Answers.travel for an extraordinary $3.3 million in cash. The sale puts Answers.travel in the top 10 most expensive domain names sold in internet history. According to sources within the company, the deal closed in the 3rd quarter of 2008.

This sale sets record history for the highest amount paid on the secondary market for a .travel domain name. Answers.travel claims to have a network of over 20,000 travel help desks, concierge services, tour guides, and travel information desks in every major and smaller travel destination across the world. They seriously get all of your travel questions answered and point you in the right direction. If they don’t have the question on file, they route it to the appropriate specialist in the destination city/country and have the answer emailed directly to the user within 1 to 3 business days. This site is a dream for all travelers. Questions as simple as “Can I travel to Mexico from Canada with a Felony on my record” to “At what times can I see blue dolphins in the island of San Marquez”, anything at all travel related is answered by www.Answers.travel.

The site also offers comparison travel where you can search all of the major travel sites on one screen with a click. Answers.travel is one site to keep in your favorites list!

The .travel registry started in 2004 and has been growing rapidly ever since. They claim that all Travel & Tourism offices of all cities and states in the US and Ministries of Tourism in foreign countries will have their .travel domain names such as Greece.travel and LasVegas.travel registered and operational by 2011. The .travel domain name may become very popular in a short period of time, however it is obvious by this acquisition that single worded concise domain names will always command top tier valuations even if it’s not .com.

For more related topics please visit IPToday.com.

 

[Domain Jedi]

Your Joking Me!

 

[Sonny Banks]

It's true?? :?:
If yes what a deal!!!

 

[stuff]

now guys and girls go register .travel domains. fast fast fast

 

[Theo]

now guys and girls go register .travel domains. fast fast fast

Fortunately for the lemmings amongst us, the .travel TLD has special registration requirements and development policies.

This story sounds like an expensive tabloid PR.

 

[Seraphim]

I own 1 .travel, purchased it as a SEO experiment. It earns a few hundred dollars a year, and does well in the search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN). On the flip side, Google doesn't seem to be able to award the TLD PageRank at the moment. Other than that the engines seem to treat it like a .com. Reg fees are about $90 per year via Moniker.

 

[Stian]

I don't believe it.

 

[stock_post]

If it is true - The guy who bought it is F*** up and need to see a doctor
(Mental Doctor)
No need to waste time first seeing a family practitioner.

 

[theinvestor]

I am sure there must be more to this sale...i mean i have to assume the website does make revenue.

 

[Theo]

No need to waste time first seeing a family practitioner.

I'm sure his insurance premium covers it

 

[owntag]

What a PR ...

 

[denny007]

Money laundering

 

[gingeman]

b.s.
I call shenanigans

 

[dn-101]

The actual price is closer to $5k

 

[GUA]

Rubbish. Load of crap. People think we are idiots. This sale absolutely 100% DID NOT occur.

 

[tetrapak]

Money laundering

Exactly.

 

[hina]

How can we tell whether this sale is real or not?

 

[dn-101]

Since we're on the topic: There were several trades last here in the xx,xxx.
Right after that both the seller & the buyer conspired to misrepresent the deal and report the sales to DNJ as $1.2 mil. DNJ rightfully refused to go along. And one of our lawyers here still has those names in his IOLLA account.

 

[cadillac880]

What doesn't make any sense to me if this is a made up press release (which I believe it is) why bother spending so much money on a press release on a lousy domain name like Answers.travel ??

I typed "answers.travel sold" into google and was amazed at all these press releases which cost money $$$

See: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=answers.travel+sold

Why not buy a half decent domain with half the money spent on the press releases and then do half the press releases with the other half at least the story might be more believable in a tld anything but .travel and news will travel on its own.

Think about it Answers.info or Answers.net at 3.3 million is more believable than .travel though still very far fetched!

Maybe this is to promote the extension .travel itself but why bother until it becomes a lot easier to register a dot travel domain???

Does it make sense to anyone else here that if your going to do a fake PR to use a much more believable domain name in a much better tld than this???

I'm confused at what this is intended to accomplish as any news will be short lived because the sale itself is not believable.......

 

[damage]

Fly.com would've been by far a better investment, if the sale is true for answers.travel. It's very hard to believe that someone paid 3.3 Million US$ for such domain.