This man cooked pizza for 14 years! 21 crores sold and became rich, people said – used a lot of brains.

Last update:January 15, 2025, 13:02 IST

Chris Clark bought the Pizza.com domain in 1994 for just $20 a year and sold it in 2008 for $2.6 million. Elon Musk also had to pay a lot of money for Tesla.

Domain Name Deals Thinking ahead can sometimes be a profitable deal. This happened when the Internet had just arrived. The main character of the story is an American man, named Chris Clark. In 2008 itself, Chris sold a domain name to Pizza.com for $2.6 million (about Rs. 21.5 crores today). Interestingly, Chris registered this domain in 1994 at a cost of only $20 per year. Meaning, they maintain their rights to that domain by spending $20 per year. When he got the right bid, he sold it and walked away with the goods.

When Chris registered Pizza.com, he thought the domain would help his consulting business land a contract with a pizza company. However, his dream didn’t come true, but he kept the domain and used it to sell ads.

Elon Musk paid $11 million for Tesla.
The story of the Tesla.com domain name is also quite interesting. This domain was registered by Stu Grossman in 1992. Tesla Motors was not even established then. Tesla Motors was founded in 2003. For a long time, the Tesla Motors domain was operated at TeslaMotors.com. However, as Elon Musk’s company Tesla’s business grew, and it shifted from just cars to energy products, it found it necessary to acquire Tesla.com. In 2016, Elon Musk finally bought the domain for $11 million.

How to earn from domain name.
A domain name is the address of a website on the Internet, such as www.google.com or www.amazon.in. To register it, a domain registrar website (such as GoDaddy) is used. For this you have to pay an annual fee. If the domain name is unique and in demand, it can be sold at a higher price. Domain name business is profitable because it is a digital asset, which is in constant demand. This investment is a perfect example of low cost and high return.

Chris Clark sold his consulting company in 2000, but continued to pay $20 a year for the domain. It was a result of his foresight as in 2006 the domain called Vodka.com was sold for $3 million. The news inspired him and he put Pizza.com up for online auction. After a week-long auction, an anonymous bidder bought it for $2.6 million.

There were great deals on domain names.

• CarInsurance.com – $49.7 million (2010): This deal was done by QuinStreet, an online marketing company. This domain was already a successful site used to find car insurance policies.
• Insurance.com – $35.6 million (2010): Also bought by QuinStreet, which was a popular platform for comparing different insurance rates.
• VacationRentals.com – $35 million (2007): HomeAway bought it to fend off competitors like Expedia.
• Voice.com – $30 million (2019): This domain was bought by Block.one with the intention of competing as a social media platform.
• 360.com – $17 million (2015): This domain was bought by Zhou Hongyi, CEO of Qihoo 360, which is very popular in the Chinese market.
• Chat.com – $15.5 million (2023): This is a recent sale, reflecting the growing demand for online chatting services.
• NFTs.com – $15 Million (2022): After the booming NFT market the value of this domain skyrocketed and it was bought at a huge price.