February 23, 2005

100,000 Domains Sold for $164 Million

Marchex Inc. bought 100,000 domain names for $164 million in cash. The deal was driven by the rise of keyword advertising revenue models. People accidently mis-type URLs and visit these random sites. The click-throughs from internet keyword ads let companies like Marchex make money. The company estimates the 100,000 domain names had more than 17 million unique visitors a month.

My question is what happens if the ad revenue dries up or goes south just like in the year 2000? People sure seem to have a short-term memory.