Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, was interviewed by Tech Crunch and was asked the question if he had it all to do over again what “What would you do now different?”
To which Mr. Zuckerberg answered:
“””A: I’d get the right domain name.”
“”The moral is that we could get the domain. We ended up “tens of thousands” for the domain. I think we used Register.com which was also a mistake.”
I’m Not sure what he meant by by any of this.
Is Zuckerberg saying he paid too much for the domain Facebook.com by paying tens of thousands for it?
And what exactly did register.com do or not do, that he considers their involvement a mistake?
Any insight or info from anyone in the domain community about this?
Facebook original name was TheFacebook.com
http://web.archive.org/web/20050806011211/http://facebook.com/
The original website for facebook was thefacebook.com. If you go to register.com and try to register a name that is taken, it gives you the option to use a broker to buy the name (powered by Afternic). I guess he used register.com to act as a broker and help him buy the name facebook.com, and as a result paid “tens of thousands.”
“Facebook.com cost Zuckerberg and his backers $200,000 in 2005. ”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/01/facebook_domain_dispute/
It looks like even Mark does not understand domains and their value.
Great read, and i also agree with the domain name comment.
Appears that all he’s saying is he would have gotten the right domain to start with, rather than paying more for it later.
They paid $200,000 for the domain name. It ws not done through a broker. They reached out to the owner as soon as they received the first funding. I know because I was trying to buy the name before and while negotiations were going on.
Steven
Even at $200K he is saying thats his biggest “what I would do over again” moment?
The company is valued at over one billion isn’t it?
$200K for the domain, and that’s a big problem?
I don’t get it
This was a poorly transcribed interview. We’ll have some clarification once the actual video is posted.
Why dot com?
He could have got dot info…ha ha ha
He comes from the Kevin Rose (Digg.com) school of Internet entrepreneurs Michael. He does not believe in paying a lot for a domain. Neither do a lot of start ups. I was at a meeting one time where a CEO said in the meeting “Fuck Domainers” They had a made up name like squidoo,google,kijiji. Ego plays into a lot of it too IMO. Guys want the company name unique so they can take all the credit if its successful.
This hate for domainers is absurd. Say theoretically there would be no domainers. Those all good domains STILL would be taken by someone anyway, there would be some blog or another rubbish built on it and still they would ask big money for the domain if someone would want to buy it, likely even more than (most) domainers. At least with domainers the domain is available to buy for usually reasonable money. Without them the domain might not be available to buy.
“valued at over one billion”
the last I’ve read, facebook is valued ***$15 billion*** (but I doubt someone will pay that price to buy it)
.
“the right domain name.”
sure… but, not enough without a successful service
.
Very funny..
What percent is 200k$ from 15 billion dollars. I’m not sure I can do the math..
Give me a break! Pathetic!
p.s. if any one is interested in this domain name please contact me. Lots of potential!
Facebook was not a 10 billion dollar company when the name was acquired. It was a fledgling company that faced an uncertain future. As Zuckerberg bought the name as soon as he got funding, it probably represented the most significant early expense for the company. From Zuckerberg’s perspective, the expense associated with the domain name probably required him to cede more equity in his company than he wanted to. If he had owned the domain name from the outset, it is possible he would have a much larger stake in the company than he does today.
he might be worried that it was an element that was left to chance (getting thye domain), one aspect that if he had his time again he would make sure he was certain of, rather than build up a name that he didn’t own the best domain for
just because the cards panned out right doesnt mean it wasnt a mistake to secure it from the start
Let’s talk truthfully here. If the domain “FACEBOOK.COM” appeared at any domain conference live auction, after three months of promotion (and who would be the end users to bring in for this one?), none of us would have paid over $5k for Facebook.com.
$200,000? Somebody must have been tipped off.
Had I owned the name and it was a supposed fledgling company and a gamble as has been intimated I would have sold it for a 1% share in the company. Would that have been more of a fair price? Even at .5% I would shake hands.
I have seen the same thing to. There appears to be not only a dislike in general for domainers, but a visceral dislike. I am neighbors with a CEO from a large public company. I remember the first time I mentioned I got into domains as a hobby. That was the last time he spoke to me and blackballed me from the local club. I had been good friends with this guy for 15 years.
In one of my last conversations with him he made the remark that the reason there is so much disregard for domainers is that “there are too many a-holes with a credit card who envision themselves as entrepreneurs”.
His last words to me were “here is a little secret for you….the history of business is strewn with those who thought they had everyone by the short ones only to find out one day that the rules and technology changed, and they were left holding their hand on their ass”. And all I did was tell him matter of factly I liked collecting a few domains.
Anyone have Mark’s actual, exact quote?
Thanks.
Seems like he his saying his regret is not going with Facebook.com from the start instead of building a company on TheFacebook.com then having to pay much more for the name then he could have got it for before it was a up and coming company. Don’t think it has anything to do with domainers or the price of the name.
This happens all the time people build a business around a name that’s okay then once it takes off they scramble to buy the name they should have got then, but have to pay much more. Let that be a lesson if you plan on starting a company with a so-so name or a name that you really don’t want.
“100 Domains Club says:
“valued at over one billion”
the last I’ve read, facebook is valued ***$15 billion*** (but I doubt someone will pay that price to buy it)”
Lol. I came here in 2018 just to lol.