According to AllthingsD.com the domain name Touch.com was recently purchased for $100,000 by an App developer called Enflick
The App formerly known as PingChat has now been renamed Touch.
I looks like the domain name was purchased somewhere around June according to DomainTools.com and was formerly owned by a Douglas Beardshaw of Toronto.
There has been a lot of sessions held at conferences and chatter of what the effect Apps will have on domain names.
I have argued on thedomains.com that Apps are just another end user for good domains.
Here is an example.
Of course the domain was a steal at $100K. With computers, laptops, tablets and Smartphones, all devices are moving to a Touch” world and I think the domain name IMHO was worth $250K on a blowout deal and could have easily fetched $500K or more in the right hands.
Congrats.
I agree. ..big time discount there.
Agree about apps being good for domains too
Steal.
it’s a steal, but only if you have 100k cash floating around
yes a good deal
i have enquired many times over the years about domain as always loved it. the price I always got back was 100k, whilst fair, never had that sort of dough
congrats to buyer, really is a gorgeous name
another to strike off wishlist
I had the chance to buy it for 100k and passed. good deal.
.APP will probably have a lot of interest from app developers and owners if it is available for general use .
One can look at the number of WordPress templates for apps to see the two worlds colliding. Especially for apps which are a utility-tool. We have a about a 10% conversion from our site to a app sale.
While some of the “geniuses” on other threads think APPs will obsolete .com’s, the key is getting the APP on the phone – that means marketing – which means a great .com is needed to promote it – that mean $100K for Touch.com was a great deal.
$100k was a steal, I feel this name in todays market with so many devices being branded with TOUCH features, $350k could have been possible. I registered many generic names back in the late 90’s, and know how tedious it is year after year to get offers, sometimes they fall thru etc… can take a decade to sell a solid domain no matter what the keywords are. Seller was very fair in his price, and funny this is he held out until the technology evolved for his name, then sort of just gave up. I know what it is like to be in that position with a generic name, long haul.
$100K is 2 luxury cars, or 1/4 of a average house in Toronto. Looks like seller was spent.
Definitely a steal. I can’t believe the previous owner let it go that low. A $200k minimum would’ve been my asking price. Think about the possibilties. Either way, congrats to the buyer and seller.
@Ron – $100k only covers 1/3 of a REAL luxury car 🙂
Was it brokered?
Good deal…easy money to gain for the purchaser.Hard luck Amr
Nice sale, a steal for sure.
I only just got one of these cool “new” smartphones last week. For the non-apple people I can highly recommend the Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro, I think its by far the most awesome lil gadget I ever owned. It has opened my eyes a lot actually – while I think domains have a great outlook I see now that apps are essential for all serious online business. It doesnt need to be much, even just some kind of forwarder to a mobile optimised site will do for a start. I personally will be learning how to make these apps as a priority now.
(imo) There will come a point, I dont think we are there yet but soon, that a website will lose more potential traffic for not having an app than not having the .com
@ MHB would have held out for more, I think.
They may want to think twice about getting the .me extension on this name.
Don: lol, maybe just go for the italian ccTLD instead 🙂
Regarding the price: Everyone keeps saying it was a steal, I am not so sure about that. Perhaps the buyer would have gone higher, perhaps not. But we already have someone in this thread saying he was offered it for 100k and he passed (which I would have done as well). Maybe because I dont have 100k to spend on domains atm, but even if I had 500k to spend on domains, I would not buy this one for 100k.
I looked into buying touch dot me last week. Based on what I read the domain is not allowed to be used for an adult related site and can be bought directly from the .me registry for $20,000 with a development plan and some restrictions.
@BFitz –
Aren’t dating sites and adult sites considered as being the same
@ Mr. Wick
I don’t know…
Pete, just curious what you would do with the $500,000 in domains if $100,000 for Touch.com is not good enough?
This ranks up there with IRA.com and that other name from the same buyer that I don’t remember off the top of my head (something to do with hosting).
That was one of the best deals of the year!
I would have paid $100k for Touch.com myself all day…
Congrats to the buyer!
Tony: I would spend it on other category killers related to the niches I focus on when making money on the internet. Touch.com is a super name, don’t get me wrong, but honestly I can think of lots of other names i could develop better (and I only pay lots of money for names I plan to develop, not flip).
For me, the name is TOO generic to utilize effectively. I am NOT saying that the name isn’t worth 100k (it obviously is), but I don’t know that it would be good in my hands.
How would you develop touch.com from scratch? Considering the time and money you would spend, would you not choose another 100k name of your choice?
Pete,
I think I agree with you.
Touch.com is an investment domain – NOT a development domain – no different than Countryside.com I picked up at NJ amazingly for only $16K in August I think – far too much R&D to bring it to life.
There are too many other deals out there to put my $100K.
The real value in Touch.com to me is putting DomainHoldings or some other high end broker on it to get a wireless company, phone manufacturer or a Spa Envy type massage / facial franchise to buold their business around it.
David
I would say from the story the domain was not brokered.
If it was my domain, I wouldn’t let anyone “touch” it for less than 500k. Just a shame that the seller didn’t have the “smarts” to get it brokered with Sedo.
Fantastic Buy – Well Done – Cheers
@ Pete, between:
Touch.com
TouchScreen.com
Tablets.com
which one would you buy to develop?
Or, maybe none?
If I had to choose one to develop, I would go for tablets.com, but that is only because I am interested in e-commerce names and that is the closest of the three. For another developer, the choice would probably be different. If only to flip, touch.com.
People should be focusing on finding their niche, not trying to find the most generic name in the world, because let’s face it, not many of us are going to buy a name like touch.com and flip it for six figs profit.
@Pete –
At the end of the day – I see very little difference in Minus.com which I sold for $115K a few months back to Min.us and the 100K sale of Touch.com – both are almost overly generic and could mean just about anything. Sure Minus.com is a cool name – but who else would come to the table with 6-figures. The buyer of Touch.com must already have a business model well in place to shell out 6-figures
Touch.com not a development name? Too generic to utilize? An investment name?
Touch means nothing on it’s own, that’s true. Add a product and you add context.
Touch + context = instantly meaningful and instantly memorable = Everything you want of a brand.
Touch.com is the natural extension to choose.
It’s a brilliant buy.
Everyone who visits the site at touch.com will not forget what’s there. All branding as Touch will ultimately lead back to their site – whether through the App, through an App Marketplace, or through advertising.
Bottom line: It’s the best $100K this company will ever spend for this product.
It’s absolutely steal. and If I had 100k I wouldn’t pass such a deal. It’s a technology that just getting started with all the smartphones, tablets around not to mention other stuff that use the technology and can be linked to it (security systems for example). I don’t think of a better domain to be defined as a category killer in a huge tech that would last forever and will effect everyone of us in someway.
IMO, Touch.com would make much sense being sold for $5 Million than Cloud.com for $1 Million.
I wouldn’t be surprise if the buyer had to rename/rebrand his app again and move to another domain because he received an offer he can’t refuse in the future.
Congrats to the buyer.
unknown: I am agreeing with you. However, I’ll bet $5 that 99% of the commenters here would not have the resources or skills to develop touch.com into the site it deserves (like the current one). You might be forgetting that they actually have the awesome APP called touch.
Of course it’s a no-brainer for THAT particular company, I don’t think anybody is debating that fact.
Sameh: You honestly can’t think of a better name for phones, tablets and security? How about security.com, tablets.com etc? Touch.com is in no way a category killer in the security sector.
To be honest, I am quite happy that domainers have this fetish for uber-generic names, the majority of which get a parking page or a so called “minisite”.
My latest acquisitions have been the same keyword in different europeans ccTLDS, because I am actually building e-commerce shops in these countries, under this very vertical. Honestly, I would much rather keep buying these ccTLD’s than have touch.com.
Anybody with money can buy a generic name and hope that an established company will be interested, but why not be your own end-user? Remove the guessing and waiting part and actually do something with that name you have been eyeing for the last 6 months. My two cents anyway
Mike, can you expand on your thought below.
Under what type of scenarios – ie uses or what type of end user buyers – could this domain have been sold for substantialy more than the $ 100k reported
It would be great if you could share some of your thinking on this topic
Mike said:
Of course the domain was a steal at $100K. With computers, laptops, tablets and Smartphones, all devices are moving to a Touch” world and I think the domain name IMHO was worth $250K on a blowout deal and could have easily fetched $500K or more in the right hands.
Pete –
“My latest acquisitions have been the same keyword in different europeans ccTLDS”
In the past I have sold a large handful of .com domains like BraClub.com and BatteryClub.com in the $25K-$35K range to Europeans as well as Esko.com for $75K to another European. And just 2 weeks back Orangefield.com for $75K to a European group in Amstrerdam – and a pending one for $50K to a German group who has no use for the .de.
All said my experience with real sales says .EU and all the Country codes are going away real fast.
Paul
Well this seems to be an easy one as other commentators have said they contacted the owner of the domain and was quoted $100K.
The buyer paid the asking price.
If the asking price was higher, which I think FMV would have dictated then they buyer may have paid the asking price or something in between.
If you only ask for $100K that is the most your going to get
@ Pete said: “If I had to choose one to develop, I would go for tablets.com, but that is only because I am interested in e-commerce names and that is the closest of the three.”
That is my choice as well!
Aron Meystedt declined an offer of $1 million on Tablets.com.
http://domainshane.com/aron-meystedt-puts-tablets-com-up-for-sale
TouchScreen.com is listed on MediaOptions for $2,950,000.
@Pete please read my comment again. I said “I don’t think of a better domain to be defined as a category killer in a huge tech” I meant the touchscreen tech itself.
I’m not sure how you came up with your conclusion.
Seller must be having second thoughts now. Great purchase for the buyer.
I own –
TouchToPay.com
one of many domains I have for the up and coming Mobile Wallet Wars.
Cheers
@Pete
“I’ll bet $5 that 99% of the commenters here would not have the resources or skills to develop touch.com into the site it deserves”
Same could be said of anysiteinmyportfolio.co
I have to think the new Kiefer Sutherland “Touch” series will add another several hundred typeins a day – further making the $100K investment a true steal