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The domain was previously owned by Innovation HQ (innovationhq.com) who own tens of thousands of domains, some of the best in the world (they sold robot.com not

The domain was previously owned by Innovation HQ (innovationhq.com) who own tens of thousands of domains, some of the best in the world (they sold robot.com not long ago, owns/runs whatismyip.com). Innovation were asking ~$5 million for it earlier this year. Given the huge money flowing into AI router projects, I expect Ramp paid very close to asking, or perhaps a little more. So, $5 million +/- $1 million is my guess. I assume Ramp will announce the price in a few weeks to generate some more press for the project.

dvaplima 1mo ago
I wonder if more companies use web domains as "investments" aswell
- sparkling 1mo ago
  Domains investors (or squatters, as one may call them) have been around since the beginning of domains.
  - reticulates 1mo ago
    I think you mean landlords, not squatters. Squatters are the people who occupy owned property without permission, landlords are the people who hold property, do nothing, and collect profit.
    - embedding-shape 1mo ago
      In the context of domains, a domain squatter would be more like someone who holds and keeps a domain without any intention of actually using it or taking it knowing someone else might have use of that exact name, they just want to sell it later for more money. In real-life I agree with your definition though, I guess it not 100% comparable, bad name that got stuck.
      - tough 1mo ago
        Digital piracy has little to do with real life piracy and yet the naming stuck too somehow
  - hanuffs 1mo ago
    Domain trolls. Similar to patent trolls that buy patents only to resell or license them.
- reticulates 1mo ago
  There are domain name investment companies, yes. HugeDomains owns over 5 million domains! As for product companies, like Ramp, buying domains as an investment is generally a terrible idea. Domains are not liquid, the (hypothetical) $5 million that Ramp paid is not a price Ramp could achieve when selling the domain tomorrow. The previous owners owned Router.com for over 20 years before Ramp came along, willing to pay a lot of money for it. Sometimes a company will buy a domain, use it, shut down whatever it was, then end up with the domain on their balance sheet for years, even decades, before someone tracks them down and offers to buy it. In those cases, the company can make money off the domain, but for every time that happens, there’s thousands more domains on balance sheets that nobody wants to pay a good amount for. More broadly, domain name investors make their money by buying lots of domains and holding them over the long term, making their money from the very small number that sell. Part of why good domains are so expensive is that 1 sale needs to cover the cost of hundreds of even thousands of other domains that don’t sell.
sparkling 1mo ago
>InnovationHQ.com Their site is a totally blank HTML page, it seems?
- reticulates 1mo ago
  Yes, that’s how you know they’re rich rich. They’re so rich they don’t care about having a website. The reputable brokers know who they are, the serious buyers will get a message to them.
  - andai 1mo ago
    <html> <head></head> <body></body> </html> That's funny I thought it would be an empty response, but they explicitly hand-coded it like that. Also -- offtopic but I think it's funny -- for conformance, you need a doctype and a (non-empty) title. So the above isn't valid, but this is: <!doctype html> <title>bleh</title>
  - aitchnyu 1mo ago
    berkshirehathaway.com says hi.

dvaplima 1mo ago

I wonder if more companies use web domains as "investments" aswell

sparkling 1mo ago
Domains investors (or squatters, as one may call them) have been around since the beginning of domains.
- reticulates 1mo ago
  I think you mean landlords, not squatters. Squatters are the people who occupy owned property without permission, landlords are the people who hold property, do nothing, and collect profit.
  - embedding-shape 1mo ago
    In the context of domains, a domain squatter would be more like someone who holds and keeps a domain without any intention of actually using it or taking it knowing someone else might have use of that exact name, they just want to sell it later for more money. In real-life I agree with your definition though, I guess it not 100% comparable, bad name that got stuck.
    - tough 1mo ago
      Digital piracy has little to do with real life piracy and yet the naming stuck too somehow
- hanuffs 1mo ago
  Domain trolls. Similar to patent trolls that buy patents only to resell or license them.
reticulates 1mo ago
There are domain name investment companies, yes. HugeDomains owns over 5 million domains! As for product companies, like Ramp, buying domains as an investment is generally a terrible idea. Domains are not liquid, the (hypothetical) $5 million that Ramp paid is not a price Ramp could achieve when selling the domain tomorrow. The previous owners owned Router.com for over 20 years before Ramp came along, willing to pay a lot of money for it. Sometimes a company will buy a domain, use it, shut down whatever it was, then end up with the domain on their balance sheet for years, even decades, before someone tracks them down and offers to buy it. In those cases, the company can make money off the domain, but for every time that happens, there’s thousands more domains on balance sheets that nobody wants to pay a good amount for. More broadly, domain name investors make their money by buying lots of domains and holding them over the long term, making their money from the very small number that sell. Part of why good domains are so expensive is that 1 sale needs to cover the cost of hundreds of even thousands of other domains that don’t sell.

sparkling 1mo ago

>InnovationHQ.com Their site is a totally blank HTML page, it seems?

reticulates 1mo ago
Yes, that’s how you know they’re rich rich. They’re so rich they don’t care about having a website. The reputable brokers know who they are, the serious buyers will get a message to them.
- andai 1mo ago
  <html> <head></head> <body></body> </html> That's funny I thought it would be an empty response, but they explicitly hand-coded it like that. Also -- offtopic but I think it's funny -- for conformance, you need a doctype and a (non-empty) title. So the above isn't valid, but this is: <!doctype html> <title>bleh</title>
- aitchnyu 1mo ago
  berkshirehathaway.com says hi.