What’s in a domain name?
As much as $150,000 if the owner of Ebola.com has his way.
Las Vegas-based entreprenuer Jon Schultz paid $13,500 for the rights to Ebola.com back in 2008.
Now he hopes to make a killing off the disease’s domain and figures his asking price is more than reasonable.
“According to our site meter, we’re already doing 5,000 page views per day just by people typing in Ebola.com to see what’s there,” Schultz told the Washington Post. “We’re getting inquiries every day about the sale of it. I have a lot of experience in this sort of domain business, and my sense is that $150,000 is reasonable.”
Schultz is speaking from experience: He and partner Chris Hood own Blue String Ventures, an “Internet Real Estate company that buys and sells generic domain names for profit.
Besides Ebola.com, the duo hopes to sell Fukushima.com, BirdFlu.com, and PotassiumIodide.com, Time.com reports.
Who might have interest in Ebola.com?
CNBC.com points out that big pharmaceutical companies commonly hold domain names for major diseases.
Johnson & Johnson owns the Cancer.com and Obesity.com domains, while Diabetes.com is held by an affiliate of GlaxoSmithKline, and Arthritis.com by Pfizer.
Schultz admits it was love at first sight when he first thought about buying Ebola.com.
“Having seen the movie ‘Outbreak,’ I was entranced by the subject and couldn’t resist buying the domain,” he explained to CNBC.