About 2 1/2 years ago we wrote about Offers.com which at that time had just launched by a domainer in the coupon/Deals space, after buying the domain for $180,000.
Fast forward and today the company behind Offers.com have acquired the domain name CouponCodes.com which launched just today.
I spoke to the Steve Schaffer CEO of Vertive, Inc, late yesterday afternoon.
The purchase price for the domain was described as “huge amount of money”
“I can’t say, and won’t say how much we spent, but it was expensive but, but we think its a category killer domain in a category which makes a lot of money online” said Steve Schaffer, the Founder & CEO of Vertive, Inc., the creator and developer of Offers.com.
Since we last chatted with Steve Offers.com now serves over 1 Million visitors a month but couponcodes.com is going after a different audience
“We are looking for a great user experience”
“We verify all the coupons to make sure they are up to do and correct and valid.”
“All the coupon on our site work.”
“Coupons are cool again, these are not your mom’s coupon’s you’re not saving $.25 your saving $200.”
“Searches for the words coupon codes are up 3x from three years ago”
Merchants are realizing that they are an important part of the online shopping experience and I don’t see them going away even when the economy improves”
CouponCodes .com only gets a commission when a sale happens and that people will share them with friends “is just part of the price of doing business”
“If you find a good deal you share it with your friends” Steve told me
No doubt that this vertical is exploding as the economy is imploding and will do well for the short and maybe the long term.
As we did a couple of years ago we wish Steve & his company the best of luck.
Awesome Purchase!
There are many ways to incorporate couponcodes.com into what you guys are already doing.
I had couponcodes.com in Escrow for $1,500 back in 2003. I worked on the deal for 3 months convincing the person to sell. Once I got seller to agree, the person who I thought was putting up the money backed out and got scared to put up the money. I wish I had the $1500 but at the time I was busy working on a startup called BuyForCharity.com / MyRebate.com which was not making enough to take any money out of the business.
I always tell my frind AKA potential business partner how that name would have set us up.
I still own couponcodes.co.uk
Steve, I am in Houston and would love to discuss your plans for the business and the position Director of Marketing/Business Development. Pl
If they acquired it for less than $10 million, it was a steal. Great name.
The DNW.com article mentioned the involvement of WIPO panelist Doug Isenberg:
http://domainnamewire.com/2011/09/20/vertive-buys-couponcodes-com-domain-name/
I wonder how many other WIPO panelists have been involved in large domain name transactions?
Sorry…I meant the singular couponcode.com in my story.
Doug was never really serious about selling the name to an individual. We discussed it many times in the early days. Once he ruled against a parked name after having couponcodes.com parked, he went very stealth with whois privacy.
He put out a packet a few months ago soliciting offers and it was obvious he had big numbers in mind with the level of work he put into the packets that were sent out.
There’s a tm for couponcode and couponcode.com . . .hope that doesn’t hurt them later.
Maybe it’ll keep Isenberg employed if they go to WIPO to fight 🙂
Offers.com has acquired Halvprice24.com too.
it’s ok if this wipo panelist sells a domain name for a huge profit. because we know he never intended to sell when he registered it. he’s different from all the unnamed “cybersquatters” he wrote about on cnet and put in a negative light. can’t you see? it’s a no brainer. he’s different.
the people who whine about “cybersquatters” are going to look pretty silly over the course of time. as more and more industries push more and more people to use the web. these people have either a very weak or no opinion about parking. they don;t really care about privacy. and they don’t care about security. if they can make a few bucks by putting some ads on a web page, they’ll gladly do it. and if they can sell a domain name for a few thousand bucks, they will surely do it.
everyone parks their domain names or uses adsense.
everyone. even the most self-rightous, longtime “netizens”.
what a joke.
no GoDaddy coupon codes on CouponCodes.com
I want that domain!!