Reuters: FB.com May Have Cost Facebook Up To $8.5 Million

As reported late last year, Facebook was able to acquire the FB.com domain name from the American Farm Bureau Federation. The Farm Bureau now uses FB.org for its website, and Facebook uses FB.com for the company’s internal email system.

At the time of the deal, the price for the domain name was not released by Facebook or the Farm Bureau. According to a report on Reuters, “Facebook paid $8.5 million to acquire the Internet address ‘fb.com.‘” Reuters cites the Farm Bureau’s annual meeting as the source of this information.

The article further stated that the Farm Bureau had sold two domain names that netted the $8.5 million, although they were unable to state which names were sold by them. It is quite likely that FB.com was the bulk of the $8,500,000 in domain sales.

Assuming an $8.5 million sale, it would rank in the top 4 all time domain name only sales behind Sex.com ($13m), Fund.com ($10m) , and Porno.com ($9m).

Goes to show that the combination of a great domain name and a buyer in need with significant cash can lead to a monster domain deal.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

23 COMMENTS

    • @ gaetano

      I originally thought Insure.com was a domain sale, but it included the website, so I no longer consider it simply a domain sale. Similarly CarInsurance.com was also a business sale.

  1. yes, it’s true if the domain has a fully functional site rather than only a demo site

    anyhow, I’ve read (but I don’t know if it’s true) that FB.com is the #1 record price for a two letter domain

  2. So, based on length of the domain (think mobile devices), what’s worth more 15 years from now:

    FB.com
    FB.co
    FB.tv

    Well? And don’t give me the line about the .com being the “King”. Today’s youth are already accustomed to several different domain extensions…so what will they prefer? Brevity, baby…

    I’m slowly beginning to see how .Co COULD POSSIBLY supplant .com as “King”, followed closely by .TV. My eyes are always open.

    – TBC

  3. “Congrats to the seller.”

    I don’t agree

    surely, the selling price has been good if seen by itself

    but the value of the FB.com domain, for the $50Bn Facebook, could be hundreds times higher, especially if FB will use it for the FBmail and/or as MAIN SITE domain and/or a Facebook Search Engine

    I think we must add a 0 to the price to have the RiGHT value of FB.com

  4. @ Cheese

    You seem solely focused on .tv and maybe .cc.

    @ gaetano

    Just because a company has billions doesn’t mean a domain name is worth more. Just because I can afford to spend more on a home doesn’t mean I am going to do so. The sale will probably pay a significant portion of the Farm Bureau’s overhead, and it also received significant publicity. As an organization, the .org address is well suited for them.

  5. @ Cheese

    Yes but you’ve mentioned buying .cc names a number of times, including one name where I own the .com.

    We all know how you feel about .tv and it’s annoying to some people to continue to see your posts discussing .tv when my posts are entirely unrelated, such as this one.

    It’s like reading the NY Post in the morning about the snow and knowing that some nimrod is going to bring up the political affiliation of someone who works for the city.

    When I see polarizing commentary, it makes me less likely to comment.

  6. @Elliot,

    Off-topic:

    Is there a Burbank Comm. College or something that used to have Burbank.cc? Ever since I hand-reg’d that domain for a future clothing label, I’ve gotten CRAZY traffic. There are no links for that domain on the web that I can find, but I’m getting like 300+ hits per day just on Burbank.cc – I’m stumped.

    – TBC

  7. “why ICANN has never approved a .mail TLD to have sites like G.mail Y.mail M.mail or H.mail or Hot.mail and now FB.mail ???”

    @ gaetano

    I would not be surprised to see a .mail application for a new gTLD. In fact, I would be surprised if there wasn’t one.

  8. @ Cheese

    That’s great for you. It’s of no interest or consequence to me. Probably the same interest to you as me telling you the song I have on right now or the store where I purchased my couch.

  9. “Just because a company has billions doesn’t mean a domain name is worth more.”

    true, but, a much smaller company has paid $100M to buy just few insurance-related domains

    so, a $30-50M price for FB.com was surely more honest for a company that sells its shares on a $50Bn company value basis

  10. @ gaetano

    Those were businesses/websites that generated significant revenue. The company that bought the names is in that business and will be able to increase revs…. It’s something like Apple buying the company that makes wireless headphones… Both situations help the buyers’ bottom line.

    @ Cheese

    Nothing wrong today at all, but annoying to see your posts often go off topic. In addition to my blog, I have a domain business to run and it’s not getting my full attention if I have to keep answering off topic questions.

  11. May I take a stab at this?

    @ Claudio Santos, FB dot com was a legitimate purchase, because FB dot com was a business before Facebook became famous.

    If someone registers an established trademark domain and profits from ads to its competitors, it may be considered cybersquatting, and could be overturned by UDPR. Plus, it makes people angry – it’s bad business!

    What do I know? Outrageous violations earn profit all the time, but I’m not making $$, so the Registrant might be successful.

  12. But,…….this domain was registered, BY ME, way back in 1996!

    Você está em: Registro.br > Suporte > Ferramentas > Whois

    * Acesso ao Sistema
    * Domínios .br
    * Serviços para provedores
    * Suporte
    * Mapa do site
    * Trabalhe no Registro.br
    * Contato
    * RSS

    Formulário de busca no site. Busca
    Selecione o site

    Acessibilidade do site
    Whois Procure por um nome de domínio
    www.

    Versão com informações de contato

    Clique aqui para nova consulta

    % Copyright (c) Nic.br
    % A utilização dos dados abaixo é permitida somente conforme
    % descrito no Termo de Uso (http://registro.br/termo), sendo
    % proibida a sua distribuição, comercialização ou reprodução,
    % em particular para fins publicitários ou propósitos
    % similares.
    % 2011-01-14 07:39:31 (BRST -02:00)

    domínio: fb.com.br
    entidade: Claudio Henrique F Santos
    documento: 213.284.983-87
    país: BR

    criado: 04/06/1996 #9019 <<<—
    expiração: 04/06/2011
    alterado: 11/01/2011
    status: publicado

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