BullionByPost founder sets new UK record for domain name deal
BIRMINGHAM-based online bullion dealer BullionByPost has broken the UK record for the purchase of a new domain name by paying a record £600,000 to buy Gold.co.uk, smashing the previous most expensive UK domain name – Cruise.co.uk – by £40,000.
Founded by BullionByPost entrepreneur Rob Halliday-Stein, Gold.co.uk is set to offer investors a range of physical gold and silver bars and coins, but it is also targeting larger investors by offering both insured delivery and secure storage facilities to store gold and silver with Brink’s.
Since the website was launched last month, six 12.5kg ‘Italian Job’-style gold bars each worth £300,000 have already been sold, and other sales have been buoyant, in part thanks to the uncertainly caused by falls in the Chinese stock market.
Halliday-Stein said: “Whilst this is a significant amount to pay I strongly believe the domain will prove to be great value over the long term.
“The internet is now by far the UK’s most important high street and this prime piece of virtual real estate and strong memorable brand is already showing signs of being a great investment.”
Gold.co.uk was originally registered by one ‘Jack Gold’ before August 1996. Halliday-Stein tried to buy the domain when he launched BullionByPost in 2008 but couldn’t afford the then £50,000 asking price. The domain changed hands several times before Halliday-Stein eventually bought it from a domain broker.
BullionByPost was set up by Halliday-Stein with just £10,000 and is now the UK’s number one online bullion dealer with sales of over £100m a year.
Whilst Gold.co.uk is believed to be the most expensive UK domain of all-time, it is still a relatively small amount compared to America’s dotcom industry. In 2010 Insurance.com was sold for $35.6m.
