Originally created in February 2004, Facebook membership was initially limited to a select few universities and high schools. Thirteen years later, over two billion people use Facebook every month and the company has made founder Mark Zuckerberg into the world’s fifth richest person with a net worth of over $63 billion. The company itself currently boasts a market cap of around $460 billion.
In 2005, Facebook allegedly paid $200,000 to acquire the domain name Facebook.com, but did you know that the company owns around three thousand other domain names? Thanks to DomainIQ’s portfolio research tools, we are able to take a look at some of the great domain names currently in Facebook’s portfolio.
FB.com
Facebook paid more than forty-two times more for FB.com than it did for Facebook.com. In 2010, Facebook made the decision to acquire the FB.com domain name from Farm Bureau in an $8.5 million deal that saw Farm Bureau switch to FB.org. The two-letter .COM domain has been used by Facebook employees to host the company’s email system, whilst the domain itself redirects to Facebook’s main website. Although there’s no actual content on FB.com itself, the domain is still popular, with a global Alexa ranking of just over 8,000.
i.org
In 2015, Jamie Zoch (@Yofie) of DotWeekly shared the news that Facebook had acquired the single-letter domain name i.org. Facebook acquired the name directly from the PIR, the registry that operates the .ORG domain extension. The domain was part of PIR’s Project94, which manages the allocation of one and two character .ORG domain names.
As of writing, the domain name forwards to the page for Facebook’s Internet initiative that aims to bring affordable access to Internet services in less developed countries.
Messenger.com
Mike Berkens of TheDomains discovered that Facebook acquired Messenger.com in October 2014 from an unknown seller. Facebook had been testing instant messaging capabilities on their platform since 2008, but after acquiring group messaging service Beluga in 2011, the company made standalone Messenger apps available for iOS and Android in 2011.
The company waited three years before acquiring Messenger.com, but when it did, Facebook moved its dedicated Messenger website to the Messenger.com domain. The sale of Messenger.com may have been brokered by Larry Fischer (@changejobs), since the name is listed on his website amongst the domains he has brokered.
Parse.com
Parse was a company originally founded in 2011 as a backend tool for mobile developers. It was a popular service that reached 20,000 users by 2012 and growing at 40% monthly. In 2013, Facebook acquired the company for $85 million and continued to offer its services. However, January 2017, the service had been shut down completely.
Now, this one-word domain name forwards to ParsePlatform.org, which looks to hold an open source version of the Parse toolkit.
Internet.org
Two years before acquiring i.org, Facebook purchased the domain name Internet.org. According to TheDomains, domain investor and broker Andrew Rosener (@MediaOptions) sold Internet.org after it was listed in a MediaOptions newsletter for $75,000. The name was acquired by another domain investor who almost immediately sold the domain to Facebook.
Since then, Internet.org has been the base for Facebook’s Internet initiative, released in August 2013.
In 2005, Facebook allegedly paid $200,000 to acquire the domain name Facebook.com, but did you know that the company owns around three thousand other domain names? Thanks to DomainIQ’s portfolio research tools, we are able to take a look at some of the great domain names currently in Facebook’s portfolio.
FB.com
Facebook paid more than forty-two times more for FB.com than it did for Facebook.com. In 2010, Facebook made the decision to acquire the FB.com domain name from Farm Bureau in an $8.5 million deal that saw Farm Bureau switch to FB.org. The two-letter .COM domain has been used by Facebook employees to host the company’s email system, whilst the domain itself redirects to Facebook’s main website. Although there’s no actual content on FB.com itself, the domain is still popular, with a global Alexa ranking of just over 8,000.
In 2015, Jamie Zoch (@Yofie) of DotWeekly shared the news that Facebook had acquired the single-letter domain name i.org. Facebook acquired the name directly from the PIR, the registry that operates the .ORG domain extension. The domain was part of PIR’s Project94, which manages the allocation of one and two character .ORG domain names.
As of writing, the domain name forwards to the page for Facebook’s Internet initiative that aims to bring affordable access to Internet services in less developed countries.
Messenger.com
Mike Berkens of TheDomains discovered that Facebook acquired Messenger.com in October 2014 from an unknown seller. Facebook had been testing instant messaging capabilities on their platform since 2008, but after acquiring group messaging service Beluga in 2011, the company made standalone Messenger apps available for iOS and Android in 2011.
The company waited three years before acquiring Messenger.com, but when it did, Facebook moved its dedicated Messenger website to the Messenger.com domain. The sale of Messenger.com may have been brokered by Larry Fischer (@changejobs), since the name is listed on his website amongst the domains he has brokered.
Parse.com
Parse was a company originally founded in 2011 as a backend tool for mobile developers. It was a popular service that reached 20,000 users by 2012 and growing at 40% monthly. In 2013, Facebook acquired the company for $85 million and continued to offer its services. However, January 2017, the service had been shut down completely.
Now, this one-word domain name forwards to ParsePlatform.org, which looks to hold an open source version of the Parse toolkit.
Internet.org
Two years before acquiring i.org, Facebook purchased the domain name Internet.org. According to TheDomains, domain investor and broker Andrew Rosener (@MediaOptions) sold Internet.org after it was listed in a MediaOptions newsletter for $75,000. The name was acquired by another domain investor who almost immediately sold the domain to Facebook.
Since then, Internet.org has been the base for Facebook’s Internet initiative, released in August 2013.