Sex.com is the most expensive domain in the world

By Jeffrey Van Camp February 22, 2011

The sale of Sex.com this past November set the Guinness World Record for “most expensive Internet address domain name.” The domain was sold by Escom to Clover Holdings on Nov. 17 for $13 million, reports TechCrunch. Question is: are you surprised?

sex-dot-com-homepage — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The sale was brokered by a domain marketplace operator Sedo, which has brokered about $400 million for domain names like Pizza.com and Russia.com. It’s obvious that sex is a big buzz word, but you might be surprised to know that, several months after the purchase, the site is still pretty much a single parked page with links to search terms plastered all over it. Does the new owner expect to make his $13 million back without developing an actual Website? Maybe, but the last owner of the domain went out of business.

Is a single domain worth $13 million? If so, is sex.com really the most expensive domain ever sold? There have been many backroom domain and site sales in the last 15 years. We have to wonder what the most expensive privately sold domain is.

Jeffrey Van Camp

Former Digital Trends Contributor

As DT's Deputy Editor, Jeff helps oversee editorial operations at Digital Trends. Previously, he ran the site's…

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