So the owner of Cats.com Algis Skara told the Huffington Post India the name is back on the market.
Skara cleaned up some misconceptions about whether or not The Flower Co. had purchased the domain name. He explained they never bought it, they were working with them as a partner. The Flower Co. has a cannabis product called Human Catnip
Skara told HuffPost India in an email that the value of the domain is “around $1 million”.
The article mentions the highest offer Skara turned down was the $350,000 offered at auction on Flippa back in January.
Tip of the cap to Lox
This name sold around the peak of the parking market market ~2006 via a complicated tender/bidding process. My recollection is that it got high 6 figure-$1million back then which would have been the wholesale value. The process was very opaque.
This is the type of name that is no longer in favour because of the plural and given the decline of parking. Sounds like they are trying to get their money back which is highly unlikely. Little enduser demand for plural names like that and revenue would be a very small fraction of what it was. It is a sober reminder that a big chuck of the market hasn’t done well despite the headline sales for singular one word .com’s.
Sorry Snoop, that’s alarming insanity and delusion from thin air.
I have come to expect it from Snoopy.
You either don’t like cats and so your personal bias is clouding your thinking, or you haven’t got a clue about how the Internet works.
Which part do you disagree with? The name is for sale, it got 350k at auction but the owner thinks it is worth $1million and isn’t able to sell it. Couldn’t be much clearer that the name is not worth $1million. What do you think it is worth?
btw: I do own a cat so I guess I “haven’t got a clue about how the Internet works”.
I knew you had a cat. Is it sat on your desk next to your monitor, Dr. Claw style?
Brad does have a point about your thinking being clouded by personal bias. Try and be more open minded and consider others’ POVs.
>Try and be more open minded and consider others’ POVs.
On the flip side, I’ve always appreciated Snoopy challenging my views and the views of others …. For going on 20 years now … So it works both ways. I don’t have to agree with him to appreciate the points he makes.
Or saying it a little differently “I never learned anything by being right” ….
I still vividly recall the age break in the beginning, below it people get heavily involved with the internet. Older that it and people totally rejected the internet and their business died. Things are much more mature now, including prices. The young folks will move into the nTLDs and build out the ones that make the most sense, most will wither the few regs and there is nothing wrong with that just think of .COOP. Its also worth remembering what Versign did with .WEB and that .WEB its still not available … The difference is, in 2000 everything moved fast, now everything is moving slow with a certain maturity to it. The internet is not as “disruptive” as it once was. I think we wish that level of disruption would return as it was very profitable.
I disagree with everything you’ve said. First of all, you said the name already sold once for possibly $1 million, but then you go on about how this type of name is no longer in fashion because of the plural and parking. What? Unless you’re a company with a CAT abbreviation for a name, then this name (and lots of others like it) only makes sense as a plural and, well, screw parking. If your only business model for a niche killing name like this is to pay a million for it and then park it, then you’re not very bright.
Just because someone hasn’t paid a million for it yet doesn’t mean it isn’t worth that, or more. And I truly believe it’s worth more. Lots of big ticket items sit on the market for a long time. It’s only when a seller gets desperate to move a property that it gets discounted, otherwise it can sit for years unsold until the market heats up and a buyer comes along.
All things cat related get millions of searches each month. Cats are one of the most popular things on the internet. There are dozens of cats out there each with millions of followers on Facebook and Instagram. 30% of households in the US have 2.2 cats. The number of cats there exceeds dogs. They’re kind of popular, and unlike some trends that come and go, they always will be. So there’s a veritable gold mine to be tapped if someone develops and promotes this domain right.
Excellent points Brad. Your rationale gets my vote — in the right (end user) hands, Cats(.)com is worth at least 1 mil. It will be in the right hands some day.
Every time this name has sold it has been to a domainer, the fall of parking makes this name worth far less. This name won’t sell if the seller really wants close to a million. Watch as no sale in that range ever gets reported.
Why do you keep harping on about parking? I don’t understand your obsession with parking and this domain. Is that your only revenue stream on the domains that you own?
Cats.com is still a valuable domain name to the right end-user IMO. Pets are like children to Millennials and Gen Z’s.
Other plural domains are still valuable too.
Stop drinking the domainer kool-aid that plural domains are not valuable anymore.
Some domains ending in “ing” are still valuable as well.
.
“Stop drinking the domainer kool-aid that plural domains are not valuable anymore.
Some domains ending in “ing” are still valuable as well.”
IKR. Where on earth does anyone get a strange delusion like that. This domain is so killer – and for so much more than the obvious too.
Cats.com is worth mid 7 figures to the right end-user IMO.
Well back to my point in the voice.com comments. Useless comparable’s abound????
If voice.com is $30M
That makes cats.com what $350M?
Oh no wait 6 figures…hhhmmm
Now unless you thought you could get an end user phone company or similar industry to bite, what would most domains want in hind sight? voice or cats ? Be honest.
You have to remember that voice.com was massively overpriced. I’d say they are worth a similar amount of money wholesale, around 300k. Cats.com is basically a gamble on keyword style names coming back in vogue.
Shoes.com, VacationRentals.com, Hotels.com are 3 of the highest “reported” domain sales all-time.
But I also believe cat.com would fetch much more than cats. Isn’t cat.com owned by caterpillar…sorry, haven’t checked..
Shoes.com and VacationRecentals.com are not pure domain name sales. The sales included other assets.
Worth 1 million.
Buy it then.
The 350k Flippa result was about where the market value is. They won’t get more after that, mistake for them to knock it back.
Whats yakov.org worth lol 😉
Paid $9k for my own .org many years ago.
Speaking as an end user first here – the real market – and as a domainer second:
Cats.com is worth waaaaaaaaay more than $1 million. Honestly, where does anyone get these completely crazy ideas about it being a plural?
The figurative, metaphorical, non-literal, non-obvious uses alone make it worth way more than $1 million. And the literal obvious references to actual pet animals alone also make it worth way more than $1 million.
Where on earth does anyone get such bizarre ideas.
I kid you not: I know someone very well off who loves cats to death. There is even a whole culture of people who have cat related businesses, like “cat cafes.” She is basically retired and even works at one just because she wants to. She even created an irrevocable trust for animals (insane, I know).
But I don’t even care about that part of the market personally. Personally I like the figurative non-literal/metaphorical potential branding and uses for this domain.
And…I like it much better than the singular.
i.e., a trust for animal related causes.
lets just say this, If Rick Schwartz owned cats.com he could get $1,000,000 as a down payment and a pct of the company. in my opinion.
IKR
yes… Rick, MB and Michael Mann, all terrific negotiators, would get 7 figures…
Cats rule the Internet…you’d think one would buy the name to keep their dominance
Who would they get 7 figures from? In my view there is very few endusers for this name, and they are likely most people with low budgets, not endusers with the resources to justify a $1million domain purchase.
Of all the people who have owned it over the years they were all domainers except the first owner who got it for free/reg fee. Today the obvious buyer is still domainers, popular search term but very low commercial relevance.
The obvious end user is clearly the company that owns dogs.com… Petsmart. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they end up buying it as they certainly have the resources to do so.
Their ownership probably dates back to the 90s or maybe the pets.com bankruptcy. Just because they own it doesn’t mean they would pay 6/7 figures for something similar.
@snoopy – It also doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t pay 6/7 figures for it. Instead of being open-minded you tend to lean towards the negative or outright ignore any positive. Food for thought.
They would know how well dogs.com has helped or not by considering the data they have access to.
>considering the data they have access to.
I looked at their anuall reports based on the comments in this thread. It reminded me of the following:
Dogs = High Maintenance
Cats = Low Maintenance
Much of what they do focuses on Dogs, far less on Cats.
Charles, 30% of US households own 2.2 cats each, and cats outnumber dogs by an estimated 2-4 million there. While cats may be more independent than dogs, they still require feeding, scratching posts, climbing trees, toys, litter boxes, collars, grooming, medication, etc. etc. and as someone who owns 5 cats, I can corroborate this. Sales on dog stuff might be higher, but cats aren’t insignificant.
For a chain with 1500+ stores and over $5 billion in annual revenues, $1 mil is a drop in the bucket.
Yes, but what do they get from placing a million into that domain versus perhaps building another store?
Since their ownership of Dogs.com is being used to argue for owning Cats.com, it was worth pointing out the two domains likely do not have equal value to them.
Just because they have the money does not mean Cats.com is the optimal place to expend it. If they expend $100,000 per year purely on PPC for Cats on Google will they get more value then the organic traffic Cats.com provides? (rhetorical – their call not ours) If someone else controls Cats.com will it have any effect on Petsmart’s business, and if so what is that cost? I doubt its much, given their convenience of locations and offerings. Chewy seems to be running a high debt right now, and Petsmart has the “war chest” to go after them if need be, with an extra million in that war chest if they don’t purchase Cats.com for a million.
They get 100s of thousands of type ins in a year without doing anything more than pointing it. I think the domains are pretty much on par for value. As I’ve pointed out, cat ownership is only slightly less per capita than dog ownership, but cats outnumber dogs. The reason why cats are popular is because they take up less space and require less maintenance. We’re talking east and west coast apartment/condo dwellers who ultimately make more and have more to spend than dog owners. It’s not so much about locations and convenience… the people we are talking about buy a lot of stuff online.
That being said, I get what you’re saying. Maybe spending that million of advertising will garner them more in year one than buying this domain, but then they’ll need to repeat that again and again, and this will just keep ticking along over the years with no additional investment. It’s a tough call. I personally think it would be worth the investment over the long run.
Something I was taught long ago, long before the internet. The top 3 players in a market are not as easy to sell to as the players down at the say 6 and 7th position who right then WANT to be in the top 3. Those lower players will generally take more risk and have some money to do so.
Types in on these names are near worthless, it is mostly people looking for cute cat videos not people wanting to buy products for their cat.
All pet supply companies would know this.
Throwing everything else out the window, you do know there’s a lot of money in cute cat videos? Cute cat videos have several billions of views on YouTube.
Worth more than 1 million for sure. In the hand of correct development, cats.com will be stunning good and healthy business.
One of the the most valuable domains. Easily worth $1 mil. And the plural is better than the singular by far when talking about animals and not excavation equipment.
Completely agree Brad.
Sorry Snoopy but you’re wrong again on this one.
I actually only just found out the person did this non-revocable trust the other day, btw, and I still can’t get over how insane that is.
As an investor I won’t tie up too much on it, $20-30k max, despite the apparent offer of $350k in January, since that offer may never materialise again. Much more versatile words have sold for less, and I’d put my money on those. Nothing much excites me about this one, I’d like to know how it could be used because maybe I’m mistaken? If I’m on youtube and feeling cute I watch some cats, otherwise I’m not going out of my way to indulge in these delights, leave that to the furries … so that use case is out. A pet shop and gift store for only cats? If crypto is hot again and cat coin is the next sweet thing (trade me some cats)?
“A pet shop and gift store for only cats?”
//////////////////
Hit the nail with this, nobody with a huge budget is going to want to be pigeon holed like that. This is why the big players would go with with chewy.com or pets.com or wag.com instead.
As Rick would say, “You’re not thinking big enough!”
>I’d like to know how it could be used because maybe I’m mistaken?
I to am always left wanting by these discussions, it reminds me of the “Blind Men and the Elephant”.
One person says “No”, another person says “Yes”. Perhaps the first person says no based on a buy, hold, sell view, and the other says yes based on their ability to develop the name in question. The yes and no mean different things in those context.
I wish people were asked to provide detail of why they think the way they do. Or maybe we should asked the question differently? Maybe this way:
For each case, tell us if you think the domain is worth a million:
1) Short term flip
2) Long term flip
3) Inheritance for my kids, with nice tax treatment
4) Easy development of full site
5) Easy monetization; lead gen, sell traffic, etc
6) Note now, but in the near future
Yes.
It is worth a million to the right end user.
I think the domain alone is worth well over $1MM. But if the owner developed it into a viable business, he could add even more value to it.