back to article America.com auction fails to hit cash target

America.com, assumed to be one of the web's most valuble addresses, has disappointed its owner by failing to sell at auction, prompting fears that the property slump has spread to digital real estate. Bidding last week reached only $1.71m, millions short of the seller's expectations. Prior to the auction some in the domain …

COMMENTS

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  1. Joe K

    Obvious...

    Thats because everyone hates America.

    Dot com.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Excuses

    "Others are wondering whether ***ANY RANDOM THING*** is the first sign of the global economic downturn"

    Is the media-invented "recession" America's new bogeyman?

    As for the auction, no-one wants to bet on a loser.

  3. Chris Young
    Coat

    Still for sale?

    Business.com appears to still be for sale ... or for sale again perhaps.

    And to think I was chuffed at getting $900 for a speculatively registered domain name.

    (Note to self: Must Try Harder)

  4. Ian Ferguson
    Stop

    Who and why?

    I can understand sex.com going for a lot, because it's pretty much a brand in itself. America dot com would only sell to someone who wants to establish a brand called 'america dot com' - it doesn't have such an obvious application as sex.com, clothing.com, carhire.com, theatre.com etc.

    And yes of course there's a global downturn, and businesses are tying purse strings - this would almost certainly be a relatively frivolous purchase.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Would be fun...

    if it turns out that it's the Iranian department for tourism (or some such) that won the auction!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Boo hoo

    Someone bought a domain for $7 and now they can't sell it for millions?

    Cry me a river.

  7. John Macintyre

    could be worse

    they blamed potential recession, makes a change from blaming terrorism...

  8. Anonymously Deflowered

    Actually

    A comment I read on The Register a couple of years ago was the first sign of a global economic downturn.

    FACT.

  9. Tim

    America.com seems to not advertise anything in particular

    who would type www.america.com into a web browser? Someone wanting to buy america? Seems that the word "america" doesnt adequately describe what any website would be about.

    now change the word "america" for "sickwrongfilth" and it may be more popular.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Quick!

    I'm off to buy america.co.uk...

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    @Mark Johnson

    Isn't that anything ending in .gov.uk?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    @ Mark Johnson

    I'd prefer uk.co.uk - more fnu!

  13. Jim Noeth

    Which America?

    The problem is that the name doesn't tell you North, South or Central ... dot com.

  14. Paul Talbot

    Fools...

    "Prior to the auction some in the domain business had speculated that America.com would top the $12.5m paid for Sex.com."

    In other news, "some in the domain business" are idiots. Why exactly would a country-specific domain name (even one appealing to jingoistic Americans) sell for more than the ultimate porn domain?

    Nearly $2m for a domain name is pretty good whichever way you slice it though. The name is useless without a business behind it, so if you're not happy with selling an "opportunity" for someone to set up a business for $2m, that's just greedy...

  15. amanfromMars Silver badge

    Dreams are Real and Reality is what we do with them, Awake and Energised?

    "who would type www.america.com into a web browser? " ... By Tim Posted Monday 2nd June 2008 13:36 GMT

    DreamMakers would if they could, Tim. Selling Dreams is Uncle Sam's Forte which is why they Spend so much Money on Chasing their Creations.

  16. Conrad Longmore
    Stop

    Going down

    I happen to know that america.com was listed for a cool $30,000,000 back in 2001, Of course, a domain is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.. it's not actually "worth" anything at all by itself.

  17. Jamie
    Coat

    @John Macintyre & @Mark Johnson

    I am sure George Dubbaya has already got a secret dossier blaming alkeeeedaaa for the recession.

    Also it wouldn't surprise me if the UK governement hasn't already bought that domain ;-)

    Mines the expensive looking one that I got for a couple of quid on ebay

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Boo hoo

    Nope they got the domains name for FREE. Before about 1998 domains were free to register !.

    Yes I cried too, when I realised this.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    America.com

    I would buy it ... if only to make it a site reminding our fellow USians that "America" is, in fact, a WHOLE CONTINENT spanning from Canada to the Patagonia.

    Some geography schools have separated said continent into North, Central and South America, but those subdivisions are as much a "continent" as Eastern/Western Europe are.

    Remember kids, the Olympic rings represent one continent each, there are 5 rings: America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania.

  20. Solomon Grundy

    Great Satan

    GreatSatan.org is available.

    Someone already got GreatSatan.us

  21. Andy Bright

    Seems about right

    I'd pay 17 pence for that too, but no more. By the way, I didn't realise American dollars were still legal tender.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Olympic rings not equal to continents

    When looking at a map or globe... If North and South America are one continent then Europe and Asia are one continent. What about Antarctica? Is Australia a continent or a really big island?

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hardly anyone ever types the url nowadays

    And the rankings in various search engines are not as intimately tied to domain name as you might think.

    I am not surprised it doesn't go for much.

    And on the continents issue I thought we had all agreed to classic Risk board setup, so that's six continents.

    Oh, and the housing market bubble burst, well that normally doesn't lead to recession, except for those mortgaged to the hilt, and to be honest those are the folks who should not have been buying houses, and made the house prices keep rising for so long.

    Money tends to go out of land, and into business and the market where it should have been in the first place.

    And of course I would have to have read the daily mail just before I posted here, because the house price rise and subsequent fall is all to do with the uncontrolled immigration this country has been subjected to. Now they are all off back home, to their idyllic little countries, which are on the whole very picturesque, and the demand for housing in the UK has dropped dramatically. I am sure poland.pl will be going for a mint right about now.

  24. Fred
    Gates Horns

    be cool if...

    some one bought it and redirected all traffic it to aljazeera or one al queda's front businesses!!!! or irans main gov website! or a porn site...

  25. J
    Paris Hilton

    Re: Hardly anyone ever types the url nowadays

    Could be, they just "google" it... The problem is, some people eventually still do type the URL they want (or what they think it is).

    So a lady, friend of mine here in the lab, at home, tried to go to the website of a popular store for sports apparel here in our US city: Dick's Sporting Goods, popularly called Dick's. Let's say that she did not suspect that the real URL was quite long (http://www.dickssportinggoods.com), and tried to guess it, something shorter of course. You get the picture (or not). We laugh about it all the time.

  26. thehousecat

    It's the subdomains

    icio.us isn't very exciting on its own either.

  27. stizzleswick
    Boffin

    @the ACs going on about continents and rings

    Geologically, North and South America are two separate continents.

    If we were to follow the second ACs line of thought that if we make one continent of them, we'd have to add Africa to the Eurasian continent, too.

    For what the rings stand for, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_symbols#Flag

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Continents

    Ok here we go again, a few people need to learn how to look things up.

    There are 5, 6 or 7 seven continents, depending on where you live and how you define them. This is because there is no standard.

    5 (offically) Inhabitated (the Rings)

    6 if you use the "Americas"

    7 If you have North America and South America.

    Contary to what they may think, there is no USA continent

    Back on topic, the reason it didn't sell as it would take people 72 hours to get access to it if there was a problem. Then you would have to supply your DNA, family history and anything else they trawl in the desperate attempt to find you related to a Muslim.

  29. pctechxp

    Not happy with $1.71 million

    Shows you how greedy the owner is, if someone offered me a million (sterling that is, don't want no stinkin' greenbacks) for one of my domains I'd take their hand off.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    @tim

    www.sickwrongfilth.com seems to be still available......

    Paris because I'm sure she'd get an honourable mention on that website

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