Cruises.co.uk Sold for $1.1million

[atlas]

As the real world's real-estate bubble pops, a virtual one continues to inflate. Cruise.co.uk, a British travel agent, has paid $1.1 million for the domain name cruises.co.uk. An exorbitant sum to let pasty Englishmen know they are able to purchase more than one cruise at a time. The second domain is to be used for a "social network," Cruise.co.uk's PR agency claims.

IMHO, a great sale, and the purchaser is obviously well placed to value the domain.

http://valleywag.com/352426/11-million-paid-for-worlds-stupidest-domain-name

 

[Ellis]

Ha Ha,

Just google the new registrant and google says, did you mean -

Christiane // Needs // Faith

 

[devolution]

I gotta me'self webcruises.co.uk - I'll take just 1% of the price of Cruises.co.uk

 

[Edwin]

Does anyone know a more "formal" source of information about this sale? The blog post was very short on details. With the original press release or similar as a reference, this could perhaps be included in DNJournal's weekly sales report...

 

[ratboy]

I'd have invested it getting a designer on cruise.co.uk, horrid site - just shows what kind of money they are making!

 

[ScottJ]

Sold in 2006 for £95,000 (DN Journal) this looks like another case of ranking the domain no.1 for it's generic term has helped to add massive value to the end sale price.

 

[James]

edwin, check the Independent, page 39, bot left

 

[Edwin]

edwin, check the Independent, page 39, bot left

Do you have an online link, perhaps? I can't get The Independent in Japan...

 

[fred]

On the register too:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/06/record_uk_domain/

 

[Pred]

On www.dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm now

 

[Edwin]

Cool, that's what I wanted to see happen!

 

[julian]

I'[m guessing these sort of sales might pumpup annual domain appreciation

 

[mishmash]

This (The cruises.co.uk sale) was discussed on Working Lunch, BBC2 in the UK Today.

Had a table of top prices for .co.uk domains.

Show will be viewable online later:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/working_lunch/default.stm

NetNames' Jonathan Robinson Interviewed

"Users vote with their feet and choose .co.uk for most purposes"

 

[dougs]

cruises.co.uk

Google ranking equals 2000 visitors per day
365 days x2000
730,000

PPC costs per visitor £1.00 each

So in 9 months money is returned

They bought the google position and a storey...bargain

Doug

 

[James]

Google ranking equals 2000 visitors a day? You think, really?

I don't...

 

[domainseller200]

Google ranking equals 2000 visitors a day? You think, really?

I don't...

I would probably say higher than 2000 per day in my opinion for the keyword cruises

 

[retired_member26]

Google ranking equals 2000 visitors per day
365 days x2000
730,000

PPC costs per visitor £1.00 each

So in 9 months money is returned

They bought the google position and a storey...bargain

Doug

http://www.allbusiness.com/transportation-equipment-manufacturing/ship-boat-building/476482-1.html

THE U.K. & EUROPE
The European market is becoming increasingly more important for cruise lines. This year, the cruise passenger total is forecast to reach 3.2 million. By 2010, some 4.5 million passengers will cruise from Europe, growing to almost 5.9 million in 2015 and over 7.1 million in 2020. This translates an annual growth rate of 5.25%.

I am sure that at least 80 percent checked internet to see the ticket prices for "cruise" or "cruises" so that makes 2 million 560 thousand passengers a year. Dividing them to 360 to get the average per day: 7,111 passenger per day. I also assume that 80% clicks on first url which is cruises.co.uk making the daily traffic 5,688 real suctomer which has bones and flesh!

The minimum cruise price from UK to Med is GBP869 according to Royal Caribbean. So also assume that only 10! percent of those 5688 customers makes deal via cruises.co.uk the daily revenue of the site is 493,000 GBP.

So my stinky reseller friends the domain deal is equal to 1 day of revenue of the Europe's cruise sector.


TurNIC

 

[James]

personally I would estimate the daily traffic resulting from having top position for the keyword "cruises" in Google... at something like 200 visits a day maximum. Of course, I am sure they'll bring in traffic from other keywords too.

 

[paymatters]

I suppose if it ranks high on google .com and other variances it may get more traffic and bookings than just ranking highly on google co uk?

Also part of value maybe because they own the singular and are losing traffic when people mistype and go to the plural? Plural is probably the better url too.

 

[dougs]

and the long tail

site:www.cruises.co.uk

if someone looks in hitwise you will see the stats



Doug