DAN.COM

DAN.COM established itself as a developer of an online domain marketplace with a mission to make domain name trading accessible, transparent, and simple for a global client base. Founded in 2013 as Undeveloped.com by Reza Sardeha in Amsterdam, the company rebranded to DAN.COM in early 2019. Sardeha's entrepreneurial journey began at age 14, and his experience building and scaling companies, including a web development agency, informed his approach to tackling the inefficiencies of the domain industry. He identified the secondary domain market as fragmented, slow, and opaque, similar to how he later viewed the real estate industry before founding his next venture.

The company's business model centered on providing a secure and automated platform for both buyers and sellers of aftermarket domain names. Revenue was generated through a commission fee on transactions. A key feature was the "Lease to Own" (LTO) model, which allowed buyers to acquire premium domains through installment payments over a period of up to 60 months, making high-value assets more affordable for startups and businesses. This model included a markup on the total price for longer payment terms, a portion of which compensated DAN.COM for managing the long-term transaction. The platform also facilitated direct buy-it-now sales and negotiations. To enhance security and efficiency, DAN.COM partnered with IBM to utilize blockchain technology, automating the complex process of domain ownership transfer and reducing the need for intermediaries.

In July 2022, GoDaddy acquired DAN.COM for a reported $71.4 million. The acquisition was intended to integrate DAN.COM's platform features, particularly its popular sales landers and the LTO model, into GoDaddy's Afternic marketplace to create a more robust end-to-end service for domain investors. Following the acquisition, DAN.COM's founder, Reza Sardeha, served as a strategic advisor at GoDaddy before moving on to found Anyone.com, a real estate technology platform. In September 2024, GoDaddy announced that the DAN.COM platform would be merged into Afternic, effectively retiring the standalone brand to create a single, unified marketplace.

Keywords: domain marketplace, secondary domain market, domain trading, lease to own domains, domain financing, domain sales platform, Reza Sardeha, GoDaddy acquisition, Afternic, domain investing, premium domains, buy domains, sell domains, domain brokerage, domain transfer, blockchain domain transfer, Undeveloped.com, domain escrow, digital assets trading, online marketplace