The has been much talk over the past year about cloud computing. The other day I typed in cloudcomputing.com just to see who owns it. Surprisingly someone at Dell was ahead of the curve as they own the domain. The site is an excellent example of how to use such a domain. Dell incorporates the generic domain with appropriate content.
I was curious who owned similar domain names. Turns out Dell also owns cloudcomputers.com which forwards to the same site. It looks like cloudcomputer.com and cloud.com are not being used. However an email to cloud.com brought the response: considering cash offers of USD$250,000+.
While I like the domain, I’m not convinced it’s worth that much. Please give me your thoughts on it’s value. Feel free to buy it from them if you think it’s worth that much.
They’ve tried to auction it several times. The founder of Meetup.com owns it:
http://domainnamewire.com/2009/03/24/meetupcom-founder-puts-cloudcom-on-the-block/
anderw,
Thanks. Do you know how much he asked in the past?
larry
“I’m not convinced it’s worth that much”
It depends to who.
Bargain hunter -> No
Domain trader -> If you trade with domain owners, No.
High end trader -> Buy from a domain owner, sells to a company. Selling skills needed.
Very possible it is a good buy for this person, although there are other great buys for that person with less risk and possibly greater reward.
Collector -> If this is for collecting purposes, than ROI means nothing (like the guy who owns Spirit.com), and if they have the budget, they will buy.
Business (traffic) -> Existing business in the space, to drive type-in traffic, this domain isn’t that valuable
Business (brand) -> Existing business in the space, to add additional brand to their offering, or possibly rename a brand. Makes perfect sense, as it is a strong industry related term. If the business can support that sort of marketing budget, it should be good impact overall.
Business (Brand protection)
For 250K buying the name that defines your multi billion dollar category just so your competitors won’t get their hands on it? It is a no brainer. Yes, Yes, and Yes!
Visionary -> And the one with a vision, the one we would never know what he thinks about, what he sees. It happened before, when one bought Amazon.com, and another bought Zappos.com, and yet another bought Salesforce.com. These individuals take their overall vision in consideration, and that my friend, none of us can put a value on.
I always shiver when one says “this isn’t worth it”. As you know, I sold domains that no person would register for 10$, for hundreds of thousands of dollars, to the right person, the right time (like that iReport.com story goes). Value needs to be examined in many directions before we define if an asset is worth it, or not worth it.
Sahar
I tried to figure out the reserve in the past, but they wouldn’t tell me. I think it was less of an auction and more of a marketing ploy.
It’s really a nice name to brand, but worth no more than 100k to reseller
Dell’s use of CloudComputing.com is indeed a good one to reference when showing how a large corp can leverage a top end generic domain… thanks for pointing that one out
after that poker.org sale…. nothing is impossible.
$250K is about right for a software brand. Compare to SEO.com @500K; Team.com @250K; Force.com @$350K- the alternative is to pay a high end branding agency like Landor %00K-$1 million to think something up. And the prospects range from Citrix to Cisco to IBM to Microsoft to Dell to Google etc. However the way these brands think Google would rather have gCloud and Apple iCloud- something they could trademark. Plus these are global prospects and I’m not sure what cloud means in different languages or what it would cost them to get all those words and matching ccTLDs.
Worth? End user much more. Owner would be foolish to sell to reseller.
If cloud computing is going to be as big as they say…this domain is gold.
Yep. It’s worth that much, especially if you’re an API developer.
We’re developing cloud-based applications now. We snagged thecloudcity.com and businessintheclouds.com (far less valuable names) about a year ago. Got the .nets, too.
If you’re strictly a domainer, still doing domains like it’s 1999, you’re going to fall behind on these trends.
Go read arstechnica.com, and you’ll be on top of the curve on these matters. Or listen to Graveline’s Into Tomorrow ‘casts on iTunes.
😉
Why are you not showing my comments?
Owen,
sorry but your original post was flagged as Spam and it was directed to the spam folder. I just found it and approved it. Sorry for the delay.
larry
@ Brian Null Yes it is a great use. Thanks for your comment.
Sahar,
Thanks for your detailed input. You made some great points.
larry
Thanks Larry. I think there was another one to about MS Word and comaprison of revenue. I found this on the site Danny suggested.
Microsoft and HP pump $250 million into cloud computing
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/01/microsoft-and-hp-invest-250-million-in-cloud-computing.ars
Perhaps that puts the value in perspective
I also found this:
http://fragerfactor.blogspot.com/2009/10/get-this-start-up-better-name-quick.html
among a big library on the topic here:
http://fragerfactor.blogspot.com/search/label/cloud%20computing
Lastly– in this 2007 article the product referred to as “super computer” is the product that should be named “cloud”
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2007/10/google_apple_an.php
I wonder how much i can sell my domain for:
cloudcomputing.co
.co is the new extension that is recognized and used Globally!
Also the future of cloudcomputing is in “intercloudcomputing”
Cloud computing is Hot at the moment but the next big thing is predicted to be the Intercloud. This is where private and public clouds come together as an interactive network of clouds. own around 20 domains related to cloudcomputing.
Guess it was worth it
http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/12/citrix-buys-cloud-com-for-more-than-200-million-redpoint-is-on-a-roll/
Was that $200-$250 million just for the domain? I thought there was a start-up company behind it they was included in that price? Did this sale just Dramaticaaly increase the value of my domain CloudComputing.co? If so, to what extent?
Cloud.com bought by Citrix for $200+million
Cloud.co bought by Amazon for “undisclosed amount”
CloudComputing.com owned by Dell
CloudComputing.co Which tech giant will buy it and for how much? This domain is mine and is for sale to the right end user.