Hostage negotiation (aka buying a domain)

iteratingfun.com

3 pointshkyeti5 comments

I don't get it. The author makes it sound like he did a great job.

How buying a domain for 20k$ is a great thing? Is "megirl" already anchored in the heads of thousands of users, enough to justify this purchase?

IMO, this 20k$ could have been used to do much more important things. New features? Marketing? Or even pay the shareholders!

We have about 400,000 users and plan for many more this year (launching new products).

So view it as an investment as part of effort to build a consumer brand, ala Barbie for the mobile generation.

but i hear you, its a lot of money...most we've ever spent on anything

Why is it that people loathe domain name holders, but don't feel the same sense of outrage over land holders?

You can more easily move your place to live, but harder to change your name. And you don't often see prime real estate sitting around unused for years.

Furthermore, there are usually eminent domain laws which can be used to by local governments to pressure landowners into using that prime real estate.

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