Gays.com Sold for $500,000 as Online Auction Drives Domain Sales Boom

Buyer Seeks to Use Name to Develop Global Web Portal for Gay Community

November 9, 2006; 12:06 AM

Cambridge, Mass. – Sedo, the leading online marketplace for the buying and selling of domain names, today announced the sale of gays.com through its online domain marketplace for $500,000. The buyers of the domain name were Internet entrepreneurs Julius and David Dreyer of Germany.

“We are extremely proud to have secured such a prestigious domain name in this exciting sector,” said Julius Dreyer. “It has always been one of our personal goals to build a portal for gay people. With the help of our gay colleagues and friends, we believe that we can launch a sophisticated and informative portal that will meet the needs of the gay community in the not too distant future.”

Sales like Gays.com are an indicator of an increasingly strong secondary market for premium domain names, as investors pour millions of dollars into purchasing domain names as a new type of investment asset. To help cater to the needs of professional investors, Sedo recently launched an online auction platform exclusively for premium domain names.

In its first week of operations, 82 domain names changed hands through Sedo Auctions, totaling over $275,000. Highlights included the sale of Tractors.com for $153,500, W2.com for $31,000, Flirty.com for $27,000, and Playback.com for $22,321.

“Online auctions are a natural transition for the domain industry, ensuring that names are exposed to a maximum number of buyers and names are sold at their peak marketplace value,” said Matt Bentley, chief strategy officer of Sedo.

About Sedo
Sedo (www.sedo.com), an acronym for “Search Engine for Domain Offers,” is the leading online marketplace for buying and selling domain names and websites. Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Sedo has assembled the world’s largest database of domain names for sale, with more than five million listings. Buyers and sellers are brought together through a searchable online marketplace, and conduct negotiations anonymously using an offer-counteroffer system. To facilitate successful transactions, Sedo has introduced a range of related services, including domain name escrow/transfer services, domain name appraisals, a domain brokerage service and paid domain name parking. The success of Sedo’s model has attracted a global membership base of more than 400,000 domain professionals, and helped more than 5,000 businesses start their Web presence off on the right foot with a great new domain name. Sedo offers regional versions of its site for the UK (Sedo.co.uk), France (Sedo.fr), Germany (Sedo.de), and Spain (eSedo.com).

For press inquiries, please contact: Mike Kaplan, fama PR, 617-758-4156, [email protected] For more information about Sedo’s Auction Service: Christian Kalled, Director of Domain Brokerage, Sedo.com, LLC, [email protected], 617-758-4267