How much would you spend on a domain that you really, really want? That’s a question that must have crossed Toys ‘R Us’ mind when it shelled out $5.1 million for the domain toys.com last week.
The well known toy retailer along with National A-1 (owner of domains such as free.com, boys.com, and girls.com), amongst others, went head to head in a bidding war, with Toys ‘R Us spending like it was had a fist of Monopoly money. Inevitably, the auction was covered on Twitter.
It’s difficult to say whether the $5.1 million was value for money. Only the biggest players can justify that expense. Arguably they don’t have the issue of brand recognition to get over though – pretty much everyone has heard of Toys ‘R Us. The problem is more apparent for start up companies who have to find domains that suit their line of business. I know of a couple of tech start-up companies that have chosen their company name purely from url availability, and they certainly didn’t have Toys ‘R Us’ budget to secure their identity.
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