The internet industry recently saw its second highest payment for a web address, after porn.com was sold by Moniker to MXN Ltd for $9.5 million.The rights to the domain name were secured in an auction, which represented a huge rise on the $47,000 paid for the address back in 1997, but it was denied record-breaking status because similarly racy domain sex.com was previously bought by Boston-based firm Escom for around $12 million, the largest ever cash-only domain sale in the internet's history.
Moniker has sold a number of common noun domains in recent years, including Cameras.com and Scores.com for $1.5 million and $1.2 million respectively. Scores.com was sold by the company at the recent Casino Affiliates Convention, where Poker.com was also up for grabs. Poker.com is reported to have attracted a lot of interest and is expected to earn Moniker over $20 million in after-auction negotiations.
By comparison, another high profile domain address, business.com, sold for $7.5 million eight years ago.
Moniker chief executive Monte Cahn said: "The sale of Porn.com further reinforces the growing trend of businesses that place a high strategic value on generic domains related to their industry.
"Porn.com will prove to be a valuable asset for MXN Ltd because of its significant number of daily visitors, established type-in traffic [and the fact it's] the top domain in the adult industry."
