Page 237 - Electronic Commerce

Chapter 4

Web Site Naming Issues
Companies that have a well-established brand name or reputation in a particular line of
business usually want the URLs for their Web sites to reflect that name or reputation.
Obtaining identifiable names to use on the Web can be an important part of establishing a
Web presence that is consistent with the company’s existing image in the physical world.
212
Two airlines that started their online businesses with troublesome domain names
have both purchased more suitable domain names. Southwest Airlines’ domain name was
www.iflyswa.com until it purchased www.southwest.com. Delta Air Lines’ original domain
name was www.delta-air.com. After several years of complaints from confused customers
who could never remember to include the hyphen, the company purchased the domain
name www.delta.com.
Companies often buy more than one domain name. Some companies buy additional
domain names to ensure that potential site visitors who misspell the URL will still be
redirected (through the misspelled URL) to the intended site. For example, Yahoo! owns
the name Yahow.com. Other companies own many URLs because they have many
different names or forms of names associated with them. For example, General Motors’
main URL is GM.com, but the company also owns GeneralMotors.com, Chevrolet.com,
Chevy.com, GMC.com, and many others.

Buying, Selling, and Leasing Domain Names
In 1998, a poster art and framing company named Artuframe opened for business on the
Web. With quality products and an appealing site design, the company was doing well, but
it was concerned about its domain name, which was www.artuframe.com. After searching
for a more appropriate domain name, the company’s president found the Web site of
Advanced Rotocraft Technology, an aerospace firm, at the URL www.art.com. After
finding out that Advanced Rotocraft Technology’s site was drawing 150,000 visitors each
month who were looking for something art related, Artuframe offered to buy the URL. The
aerospace firm agreed to sell the URL to Artuframe for $450,000. Artuframe immediately
relaunched as Art.com and experienced a 30 percent increase in site traffic the day after
implementing the name change.
The newly named site did not rely on the name change alone, however. It entered a
joint marketing agreement with Yahoo! that placed ads for Art.com on art-related search
results pages. Art.com also created an affiliate program with businesses that sell art-
related products and not-for-profit art organizations. Although Art.com was ultimately
unsuccessful in building a profitable business on the Web and liquidated in mid-2001, the
domain name was snapped up immediately by already profitable Allwall.com for an
undisclosed amount. The new Allwall.com site, relaunched with the Art.com domain
name, experienced a 100 percent increase in site visitors within the first month.
The market for domain names continues to be active, with names that include general
topic terms (especially those that are sensational) often bringing high prices. Although
eCompanies’ 1999 purchase of Business.com for $7.5 million was the record holder for
many years, more recent sales have exceeded that number. For example, Insure.com sold
in 2009 for $16 million. Many domain name sales details are kept private, but some of the
highest prices paid that have been reported in the media appear in Figure 4-14.

Copyright 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.