Google just paid $25 million to buy the entire '.app' web domain

Google decided to apply for new top-level domains (TLDs) way back in 2012, four years after ICANN, the organization that controls the world's domain names, decided to expand the overall number of generic TLDs.

Google applied for dozens at the time, including .docs, .android, .free, .fyi, .foo, and, of course, .app.

ICANN has been gradually auctioning off the different domains since June 2014 in what can be a competitive and expensive process (Dot Tech LLC spent $6.7 million on the ".tech" domain last year, reportedly beating out Google, which also bid).

Amazon bought ".buy" for nearly $5 million and ".spot" for $2.2 million last fall.

Comparatively, Google's $25 million investment in ".app" looks pretty steep; it's the most any company has paid in one of ICANN's auctions so far.

Google currently lets people register for ".how," ".soy," and ".minna" domains on its own ICANN-accredited domain registry. It also plans to be the registry for the top-level domains ".dad," ".here," ".eat," and ".new," among others, and, presumably, ".app" soon. You can't actually purchase domains like "cooking.how" via Google's registry (you get directed to partner sites), but the company also has its own domain registration service, which is still in beta.

http://www.businessinsider.com/google-just-paid-25-million-to-buy-the-entire-app-web-domain-2015-2

That's not that big of a price tag considering how many apps are going to register that domain. Let's say they sell it for $12.99 a year like a normal .com

That means they have to sell roughly 515,000 domains to break even on that purchase. Or 51,000 a year for the next ten years.

If you think their aren't at least that many app devs who will be buying domains you'd be crazy! They'll easily make a good profit on that.

Heck, I know I will be buying from Google's registry just because I hope there is a sliver more SEO value in that - and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Seriously, i love how you break down on the profit part... But remember, Google is a Multi billion company, and 10 Years is an investment for them.. They might turn it around for seo for up to a year, and every internet marketer will purchase it.

Syzpe said:

That's not that big of a price tag considering how many apps are going to register that domain. Let's say they sell it for $12.99 a year like a normal .com

That means they have to sell roughly 515,000 domains to break even on that purchase. Or 51,000 a year for the next ten years.

If you think their aren't at least that many app devs who will be buying domains you'd be crazy! They'll easily make a good profit on that.

Heck, I know I will be buying from Google's registry just because I hope there is a sliver more SEO value in that - and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Click to expand...

They are probably going to sell domain registrations for $25 or $30.

When I first read this I thought they would be using this with their cloud services (Google App Engine and appspot). But if they decide to open to the public and give it a litle boost on seo (after all, they can) they will make a lot of money.

It's too amazing news to be true

if domains other than .com,.net,.org and .info start ranking globally, then there will be no SEO.