Sedo
Encyclopedia
Sedo is a domain name
and website
marketplace and domain parking
provider based in Cambridge
, Massachusetts
and Cologne
, Germany
. The company, which is a subsidiary of German-based United Internet
, has more than 16 million domain names listed on its website for buying and selling.
AG's investment in the business through purchasing a 41% share, Sedo GmbH became an officialy entity in Cologne, Germany. During the first few months, the company was operated solely by Schumacher and Essmann while Priesner and Würzner finished their studies. Helga Schackenberg became the first employee of the company, followed soon thereafter by Würzner. At the end of the year, Essmann left the company for nearly two years to complete his medical residency. In the meantime, Sedo moved into a bigger office in Cologne in 2002, and Matt Bentley joined the company to serve in Essmann's absence to oversee Sedo's development.
Sedo began planning in 2003 to open a subsidiary office in the United States. During this planning phase, Essmann returned to the company with a desire to lead overseas. Bentley and Essmann headed to America, with Jeremiah Johnston joining the team shortly afterwards as General Counsel. In 2005, the Sedo office was opened in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA), under Sedo.com, LLC.
In 2006, CEO Tim Schumacher temporarily joined the Cambridge office to assist with expansion into the US market, and the company introduced domain name auction
s. In 2007, Sedo took a minority investment in DomainsBot; DomainsBot’s technology later contributed to the update of Sedo’s domain search tool. The company acquired GreatDomains.com, a competing online domain name marketplace, from VeriSign
on June 19, 2007.
Expansion continued in 2008 as Sedo opened up shop in the United Kingdom, an operation headed by Hugo Dalrymple-Smith and Nora Nanayakkara. On February 24, 2009, Sedo purchased RevenueDirect, and formed a strategic partnership with its parent company, Dotster of Vancouver
, Washington, to take advantage of the latter's services of helping businesses establish online profiles. In March 2009, Sedo provided seed funding for the new start up Bloson.com, a social charity website. Laater in September 2009, Sedo acquired a competing domain monetization (parking) site, ParkingPanel, for an undisclosed amount. On February 17, 2010, Sedo helped broker the purchase for the most expensive .org
domain name ever—poker.org—for US$1 million. PokerCompany.com purchased the domain name. Later that year, Sedo was awarded a Guinness World Records
record for the sale of sex.com, the most expensive public domain sale at $13,000,000.
) of Sedo.
platform for sales completed both privately and through its marketplace.
>
s for free.
(A+ Rating)
TRUSTe EU Safe Harbor & Web Privacy Seals
Domain name
A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System ....
and website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
marketplace and domain parking
Domain parking
Domain parking is the registration of an Internet domain name without using it for services such as e-mail or a website i.e without placing any content on the domain. This may be done to reserve the domain name for future development, to protect against the possibility of cybersquatting, or to...
provider based in Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
and Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. The company, which is a subsidiary of German-based United Internet
United Internet
United Internet AG is a German Internet services company. With 2.91 million DSL customer contracts, it is a leading ISP in Germany. It is headquartered in Montabaur, Rhineland-Palatinate...
, has more than 16 million domain names listed on its website for buying and selling.
Sedo
Sedo was founded in 2000 by three German college students - Tim Schumacher (now CEO of Sedo Holding AG), Marius Würzner (now COO of Sedo GmbH's German office), and Ulrich Priesner (currently CTO of Sedo) - and modeled after the core concept of Schumacher's Master's Thesis, "Price Formation in the Trade of Internet Domain Names". In February 2001, with 1&1 Internet1&1 Internet
1&1 Internet, founded in 1988, is a web hosting company owned by United Internet, a German Internet company. Its CEO is Oliver Mauss. The company is one of the world's largest web hosting companies.-Domain name services:...
AG's investment in the business through purchasing a 41% share, Sedo GmbH became an officialy entity in Cologne, Germany. During the first few months, the company was operated solely by Schumacher and Essmann while Priesner and Würzner finished their studies. Helga Schackenberg became the first employee of the company, followed soon thereafter by Würzner. At the end of the year, Essmann left the company for nearly two years to complete his medical residency. In the meantime, Sedo moved into a bigger office in Cologne in 2002, and Matt Bentley joined the company to serve in Essmann's absence to oversee Sedo's development.
Sedo began planning in 2003 to open a subsidiary office in the United States. During this planning phase, Essmann returned to the company with a desire to lead overseas. Bentley and Essmann headed to America, with Jeremiah Johnston joining the team shortly afterwards as General Counsel. In 2005, the Sedo office was opened in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA), under Sedo.com, LLC.
In 2006, CEO Tim Schumacher temporarily joined the Cambridge office to assist with expansion into the US market, and the company introduced domain name auction
Domain name auction
The domain name auction facilitates the buying and selling of currently registered domain names, enabling individuals to purchase a previously registered domain that suits their needs from an owner wishing to sell...
s. In 2007, Sedo took a minority investment in DomainsBot; DomainsBot’s technology later contributed to the update of Sedo’s domain search tool. The company acquired GreatDomains.com, a competing online domain name marketplace, from VeriSign
VeriSign
Verisign, Inc. is an American company based in Dulles, Virginia that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the .com, .net, and .name generic top-level domains and the .cc and .tv country-code...
on June 19, 2007.
Expansion continued in 2008 as Sedo opened up shop in the United Kingdom, an operation headed by Hugo Dalrymple-Smith and Nora Nanayakkara. On February 24, 2009, Sedo purchased RevenueDirect, and formed a strategic partnership with its parent company, Dotster of Vancouver
Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. Incorporated in 1857, it is the fourth largest city in the state with a 2010 census population of 161,791 as of April 1, 2010...
, Washington, to take advantage of the latter's services of helping businesses establish online profiles. In March 2009, Sedo provided seed funding for the new start up Bloson.com, a social charity website. Laater in September 2009, Sedo acquired a competing domain monetization (parking) site, ParkingPanel, for an undisclosed amount. On February 17, 2010, Sedo helped broker the purchase for the most expensive .org
.org
The domain name org is a generic top-level domain of the Domain Name System used in the Internet. The name is derived from organization....
domain name ever—poker.org—for US$1 million. PokerCompany.com purchased the domain name. Later that year, Sedo was awarded a Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
record for the sale of sex.com, the most expensive public domain sale at $13,000,000.
Sedo Holding AG
In 2009, Sedo's sister company within the Adlink Group, AdLINK Media, was sold to the Hi-media Group. This sale led to the reorganization and renaming of the group to Sedo Holding AG in 2010. That same year, Sedo welcomed its sister company, Affilinet, to its Cologne office. Tim Schumacher was named CEO of Sedo Holding AG while retaining his leadership role within Sedo, and Liesbeth Mack-de Boer was named Chief Sales Officer (CSOCSO
The initialism CSO may mean:*Any of a number of government statistics organizations:**Central Statistical Office **Czech Statistical Office * other offices:...
) of Sedo.
Products & Services
Sedo offers domain name-related products and services. Core services include an online domain name marketplace, a domain parking program, and domain brokerage for both buyers and sellers. Additional products and services Sedo offers are domain appraisals, featured listings for its marketplace, and a domain name transfer and escrowEscrow
An escrow is:* an arrangement made under contractual provisions between transacting parties, whereby an independent trusted third party receives and disburses money and/or documents for the transacting parties, with the timing of such disbursement by the third party dependent on the fulfillment of...
platform for sales completed both privately and through its marketplace.
Sedo's Domain Marketplace
Domain owners can list their domains for sale on Sedo's Domain Marketplace through a Sedo account. Domain listings can be set up as open to negotiations, Buy Now, or - if certain conditions have been met - as an auction. All domains listed on Sedo are also syndicated across Sedo's domain distribution platform, SedoMLS. Sellers can also opt to activate a SedoMLS Premium service for domains that qualify. Interested buyers can search or browse Sedo's database of domain names and make offers or bids on, or purchase instantly, domains they want.>
Sedo's Parking Program
A domain owner can forward their domain's visitors to Sedo's parking name serverName server
In computing, a name server is a program or computer server that implements a name-service protocol. It maps a human-recognizable identifier to a system-internal, often numeric, identification or addressing component....
s for free.
Sedo's Brokerage Services
Sedo offers domain brokerage services in the forms of seller representation or domain acquisition assistance. A seller can hire one of Sedo's domain brokers for free, so long as their application has been accepted and they sign an exclusivity agreement; if a deal is brokered, the seller pays a 15% commission based on the gross sale price. A buyer can hire one of Sedo's domain brokers for 69 USD/EUR/GBP], plus the cost of the domain and an additional 15% commission based on the gross purchase price.Domain Appraisals
An automated price suggestion tool is built into each Sedo account. Sedo offers two manual appraisal options: a "premium" appraisal package for 49 USD/EUR/GBP] and a "standard" package for 29 USD/EUR/GBP]. Appraisals from Sedo are delivered by email as PDF documents.Featured Listings
Sellers listing domains on Sedo's website can order featured placement of their domains in search results or within categories. A featured listing costs 39-64 USD/EUR/GBP], and a category showcase costs 9-19 USD/EUR/GBP].Domain Transfer & Escrow
Sedo facilitates the transfer of all domains sold or purchased through it's Domain Marketplace; escrow of the payment for the domain is also included. This service is offered free-of-charge for those sales. If a seller or buyer chooses to negotiate privately (outside of Sedo's Domain marketplace), they may request Sedo's Transfer & Escrow Service for a 3% fee based on the gross sale or purchase price, payable by either party.Sales History
Sedo reports the following domain sales as the 20 highest sales they have helped broker since their inception in 2001:| Rank | Domain Name | Sale Price (in USD) | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sex.com | 13,000,000 (Guinness World Records Guinness World Records Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world... record) |
2010 |
| 2 | Vodka.com | 3,000,000 | 2006 |
| 3 | Shopping.de | 2,858,945 (est. currency exchange) | 2008 |
| 4 | Gambling.com | 2,500,000 | 2011 |
| 5 | Pizza.com | 2,600,000 | 7/7/2008 |
| 6 | Fly.com | 1,800,000 | 6/25/2009 |
| 7 | Russia.com | 1,500,000 | 2009 |
| 8 | Games.co.uk | 1,300,000 | 11/21/2007 |
| 9 | Kredit.de | 1,169,175 | 12/4/2008 |
| 10 | Chinese.com | 1,120,000 | 7/23/2007 |
| 11 | Sexe.com | 1,150,000 | 10/29/2007 |
| 12 | Call.com | 1,100,000 | 2/9/2009 |
| 13 | Invest.com | 1,015,000 | 9/29/2008 |
| 14 | Poker.org | 1,000,000 (highest .org sale on record) | 2010 |
| 15 | Server.com | 770,000 | 7/31/2009 |
| 16 | Ringtones.com | 750,000 | 2010 |
| 17 | Website.com | 750,000 | 2005 |
| 18 | Files.com | 725,000 | 2009 |
| 19 | Telecom.com | 700,000 | 2007 |
| 20 | Christian.com | 600,000 | 9/09/2009 |
Accreditations
Better Business BureauBetter Business Bureau
The Better Business Bureau , founded in 1912, is a corporation consisting of several private business franchises of local BBB organizations based in the United States and Canada, which work through their parent corporation, the Council of Better Business Bureaus .The Better Business Bureau, through...
(A+ Rating)
TRUSTe EU Safe Harbor & Web Privacy Seals
Business Memberships
- United InternetUnited InternetUnited Internet AG is a German Internet services company. With 2.91 million DSL customer contracts, it is a leading ISP in Germany. It is headquartered in Montabaur, Rhineland-Palatinate...
corporate family - International Trademark Association (INTA)
- Internet Commerce Association (Platinum and Board Member)
- Nominet UK
- Eastern MA, ME, RI & VT Better Business Bureau (Board of Directors)