Sedo announced today it brokered the domain Dudu.com for a cool $1 million dollars.
The buyer of dudu.com is the Dubai company DUDU Communications.
DUDU is a popular social network which uses unique translation technology to allow its users from around the world to communicate with each other in their native languages.
The network is currently located at www.godudu.com, and the company decided that investing in a shorter, more memorable name would benefit their business’ growth.
“With the purchase of dudu.com, we will be able to match our platform’s brand with the exact domain name we need, and migrate from using godudu.com to this shorter version,” said Alibek Issaev, Chairman of DUDU. “This purchase means we don’t lose important traffic, and at the same time we ensure that visitors from around the globe will remember our brand’s name.”
The former owner of dudu.com, based in China, had not originally listed the dudu.com domain for sale. However, Sedo’s international brokerage team was able to help both the buyer and seller negotiate a mutually satisfactory agreement for the sale of the name.
Once again it goes to show you the importance of knowing who your possible buyer MIGHT be and price you domain based on that buyer.
Yes this is the only person/company that would have paid $1 Million dollars for this domain, but so what.
If you don’t research the POSSIBLE buyers for the domain you will never understand who the best buyer could be and that best buyer could be the one asking to buy your domain.
Its meet.me all over again.
dudu made dude a fortune… You are so right. It is all about knowing who the buyer might be.
All my domains will now have a minimum price tag of $1 million.
Hello Michael,
Your return comments are priceless, especially this one!
“Michael H. Berkens
and waiting for them to show up turning down other buyers until they do show up”
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
It’s a staggering sale but once again shows how much the right domain can mean to a company. Also, they went after the exact .com for their brand. Watch, now the pronouncable LLLL.com market will go crazy!
“Once again it goes to show you the importance of knowing who your possible buyer MIGHT be”
Business 101 – something that the folks like “Overpriced” from other threads are not capable of understanding.
This sale is very good news for everybody
a truly “happy new year” for the seller 🙂
Companies that spend a lot on marketing/advertising are slowly understanding that $500K-$5M for the .com domain that is a perfect match to THEIR branding is cheap. If THIER perfect brand is Dudu, then $1M for Dudu.com is cheap.
The only question buyer in a situation like that needs to ask himself is if he can easily afford $1M, particularly relative to the rest his marketing/advertising budget. If the answer is that he car easily afford $1M, then it is a no-brainer buy.
The totality of the long-term benefit of the perfect .com is so great, it literally does not matter if the purchase price is $1M or $5K.
It seems that companies in China in Asia and getting it much better than western companies.
Congrats to the seller, but isolated sales like this are clearly a fluke.
You can put yourself in the best position possible by owning quality domains, but let’s be honest, this is like winning the lottery.
Brad
DUDU Communications has no trademark?
“DUDU Communications has no trademark?”
Even if it did, it is hard to establish those rights when the .COM creation date predates them.
Brad
Nothing to stop use of domain as ransom strip I’m afraid.
Buyer was stupid.
They should have acquired the domain before starting the business.
That’ll teach them an expensive lesson.
They sure as heck didn’t “get” that part..
“Dudu” – easy enough to remember. It sounds the same (to English speakers) as “Doo Doo” ie feces. LOL
Aggro
Pretty sure we all know what doo doo means but thanks for pointing it out right around lunch time
Just deleted all of our domains from Sedo & will let the buyers come to us. Not paying that outfit another dime in commission.
Проект с далеко идущими перспективами.Dudu.com быстро набирает обороты,думаю,в ближайшем будущем,количество активных пользователей возрастет до нескольких десятков миллионов:)
but, but, but WHY didn’t they just pay $185,000 for .dudu? I thought this was what the gTLD program was for? I’m consufed!?!
LOL
Maybe they will
Hearing stories like this make me really want to pull all my domains that are “For Sale”…. it’s rare that I sell any anyways. 🙂 My reply emails could get a bit more interesting as well. Sounds like a fun way to kick off the new year.
Great headline sale to start to 2012 – lets hope the sales momentum keeps going.
This reminds me of the good old days at greatdomains.com in 98-99
This should prove RS wrong once and for all, even dudu (pigeon shit) domains are worth something to somebody 😉
There is a plus side and a down side a when a “you just hit the domain lotto” sale like this happens with a domain that normally wouldn’t ever command anywhere near this level of price.
On the plus side, it proves anything is possible in the domain business and people do indeed win the million dollar jackpot.
On the down side, it will cause millions to be lost by thousands of domain investors registering crazy domains that will never even make them a dime of ROI.
I wonder if the Chinese GOV is the happiest party of them all?
Brian is off the hook now for his overpriced sale. A new smelly sale is the new overpriced king. The trick is to refuse to sell. A buyer will become desperate to pay outrageous prices.
I’ll retain my two 4 character dot com. We can all dream of taking advantage of a buyer. Keep the overpriced dream alive. Excellent generic domains sit on CAX. End-users are mindless zombies.
The Dudu buyer should have also acquired Dodo.com to compliment their dudu dodo purchase.
I’m sure the Australian company would sell their company and domain name. As Antoine would say, “You are so Dumb”. End-users are like Wizard of Oz characters.
IMO, Sedo is greedy. They make big sales, but then send an email suggesting your are building traffic to 5 domains that probably made $2 total in park revenue and are threatening to close down your account. IMHO, they are greedy fools.
Dudu.com should acquire Noob.com on the NameJet auction. Would fit their beginner knowledge in overpaying for their name like Orangefield, Boating Industry and now Dudu.
“This sale is very good news for everybody”
The sale is only good for the seller. It doesn’t put food on my table or help me to make a domain sale. I’ll still get end-user insults for good domains.
Easy to make assumptions when you’re basically rich. The sale is good for you because now you can ask a 6-figure prices for another mediocre
domain names.
The sale is good for you because now you can ask a 6-figure price for another mediocre
domain name.
The sale page said:
“Sedo’s international brokerage team was able to help both the buyer and seller negotiate a mutually satisfactory agreement for the sale of the name”
I say:
NEVER use single broker for a major transaction EVER. Always use an EXCLUSIVE BUYERS agent. This removes conflict of interest in areas such as … lets see…. commission.
Whole things stinks of violations of typical information boundaries in my opinion.
There’s “knowing” your buyer and knowing your buyer – I wonder which it was in this case?
Basic Economic 101 suggests that supply and demand control price, not some uneducated end-user who lacks knowledge to pay market value.
At least Facebook was smart enough to acquire their nane in 05 at a low price to avoid paying
an outrageous price. 4 character dot com domain are good investments. However, this domain is worth no more than $100K.
IMHO, Sedo’s stupid $10K price limit is a scam to increase their domain appraisal sales. At lease Afternic allows domain pricing up to $30K without an appraisal.
The domain industry is on the verge of reaching a bubble like the mortgage collapse. Don’t invest too heavily in domain names. Be smart and spread out your wealth.
@Overpriced
Perhaps you could consolidate your thoughts into one coherent one instead of multiple incoherent babblings. You’ll get a reputation like RC if you continue – maybe that infamy is what you seek.
@unknowndomainer
There are too many inaccuracies to challenge. I’m not interested in building a reputation in the domain industry. It is the least of my concern. I know all about the weasels who operate in the domain industry. Those with a voice have overinflated egos.
Anyhow, tanks for the tip. Imo, Dudu.com is one stinky domain sale at $1 million. It gives many elite domainers firepower to oversell their domains. They will use poor examples such as tgis sale to overprice their domains.
@ Overpriced
You state “…there are too many inaccuracies to challenge…” and previously “…this domain (dudu.com) is worth no more that $100k…”.
The name sold for $1m – why ignore that fact? It was worth $999,999 to the seller and $1,000,000 to the buyer…the $100k is your opinion only, which is based on you not having a need or real want for the name.
Maybe one day someone will pay you a good chunk of change for a domain and that might get rid of that chip on your shoulder.
which domain is worth more,
iptvsoftware.com or itvsoftware.com ?
> It was worth $999,999 to the seller
If so then the price was fair. But more likely, he knew he had monopoly power over the dudu term, and would do well to say no to every offer no matter how excellent, until the buyer becomes completely exasperated and has clearly reached his limit.
There is something a little surprising here though. How could seller possibly argue that he wouldn’t sell for less than $1 million given that even $750k would allow him to buy several prime generics. And why not rebrand under gugu or some other term rather than shell out a million.
@Nord – it’s a lot easier to pay cash than to rebrand. There are other potential reasons to be willing to pay $1m for that name such as possible tax advantages – the actual net cost to the buyer could be a fraction of what they paid.
Personally I’d rebrand at any cost rather than pay off this guy, but each to his own.
Many folks are simply afraid to be successful, like Overpriced who diguises his fear of success by hiding his identity and then puts himself on a pedistool of “genius” in an attempt to rationalize his fear of success.
At the end of the day clearly Overpriced knows he would have freaked out and sold when $25K was on the table.
Overpriced is a lesson to all of us that some folks in this world view mediocrity as an unachievable dream – resulting in them pointing their finger at everyone else but themselves.
I am the world biggest student ::)) Thanks Overpriced !!
This business in not much different than brick and mortar Real Estate speculation. You can always find a “wholesale dealer” to make a quick flip but the real money is finding that retail buyer who values the property as an end user and is not a reseller. Sedo did a good job putting this easy no brainer deal together. If I need to make quick money I can sell to a dealer/flipper or, I can hunt down a retail buyer myself. That takes time and not everyone has the time or know how, to hunt down the perfect retail, end user, buyer. The spread from what a true retail buyer will pay compared to what a domain flipper will pay is so wide that I wonder why all of us don’t hold out for a buyer like the Dudu buyer.
There is one rule. A domain is only worth “what somebody is willing to pay for it”. The article says, Know Your Buyer!. Thats what this is about. Its a suggestion, and a wise one if you want the big sale. I wont even enter into discussions with my prime names without being able to verify , who, what company etc. As for the lesser names, I dont have a problem selling a two word that doesnt get any traffic or rev for a few thousand here and there. A 10 or 20 thousand percent profit is hard to pas up, but I still verify the buyer. I ignore any and all offers under $2500. I sold j******r dot com for $250. Name got 100 hits in two years , made 17 cents. I didnt know who the buyer was, and they hid their identity. I learned my lesson when I choked on my beer and fell off the bar stool during a J******r commercial 3 months later. Verisign duped me? No. I didnt use due diligence. I believe they spent over 8 million branding in the first year. They were smart, bought the name FIRST. Know. Your. Buyer. KNOW. YOUR. BUYER. I even tell the brokers I will not have a discussion unless I can VERIFY the buyers identity. I have names listed at a few venues, just for exposure. No Godaddy, no sedo, etc brokers. Serious buyers know how to find me.
How horrifying it must have been to have sold a domain at a fair price.
@overpriced
Jealously smells even worse than “doo doo”… Yes, there are
many weasels in the domain ‘industry’, but so what?.. there
are in any field of human endeavor.
A quality that is particularly unique to the area of ‘domaining’,
however, is the delusional mindset that so many owners have,
and their expectation to make a million from their dumbass
names, and equally as important, their limited personal skills.
Be happy ‘though, for the guy who made a million!
It’s just a rare-as-hens-teeth event and DOES NOT represent
some benchmark or new standard, nor does it show what you
or I can go out and achieve tomorrow…
🙂
Cheers,