The blogosphere went wild in early October this year when Rahul Jain listed Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook predecessor FaceMash.com on the Flippa marketplace.
Last week was a case of history repeating when the likes of Forbes, Mashable, Yahoo News, IT World and the LA Times all ran with the news that the site had successfully sold to the highest bidder on Flippa.
FaceMash.com had 10 bids to reach a final sale price of $30,201 – despite the widely reported risks of it being subject to Facebook’s recent pursuit of similar websites such as Lamebook, Teachbook and Placebook.
While FaceMash.com sold successfully on Flippa, unfortunately the same auction result could not be said for FaceSmash.com (hopefully our readers can spot the difference!) – it was listed for auction on eBay during the same time but failed to secure a sale …
In discussing his experience in selling FaceMash.com on Flippa, Jain said “This was the first time I had ever used Flippa to sell a domain and I was not disappointed. My objective was to get what was sure to be an attention getting domain on a platform that could best showcase it. In Flippa I found just that. By communicating with the bidders before approving their bid, I was able to ensure that only serious bids were accepted.”
Jain will be donating some of the Flippa auction’s proceeds to the Dakshana Foundation, which assists in paying the educational expenses of impoverished children from India. Part of the proceeds will also go to boosting his investment in building VisitNYC.com into a differentiated “go-to website for tourists visiting New York City … with a focus on Hotels, Tours and Broadway Shows”.
The new domain owner of FaceMash.com was not able to provide any details of their plans for the domain.
Website buyers can find a terrific number of domains and established websites for sale at Flippa.com. Those looking for something with an existing publicity profile possibly something of the likes of FaceMash.com may wish to check out the Audioo auction which was recently covered by TechCrunch, Business Insider and the Los Angeles Business Journal.
Image courtesy of Nchacko on Twitter.
Impressions
With how Facebook have been as of late taking action against anyone who has the word “face” in their domains, I would be very surprised if they didn’t take action against the new owner of this domain.
Would be an awesome headline though. “Facebook sue the owner of the original Facebook domain”.
@Ryan I second that. Love to see those headlines come across my screen. I really think It could be a killer app extension to go along with Facebook. An entire screen sized fashmash of all your friends or everyone in your area -geo. Just little avatars the fill the entire screen with a nice JQ powered mouse over for info. What do you think
I thought his websites are worth much more!
yup.. i believe the price more than $30K. because brand image of Mark Zuckerberg and facebook.
Mark is a great person and i believed that a domain from him is like gold that worth millions.
If FaceMash.com went out for $30K, then my domain name GmailKiller.org should go out for much more dont you think? Just check the news on the new Facebooks email system call ‘Gmail Killer’ over 5 Million monthly searches on Google!
Its on sale now on Flippa.com! enjoy 🙂
I don’t know what’s this fuss about one word. I’d be surprised if they sued and won a case against them. It’s just one word, they don’t own the word ‘face’
Unfortunately:
http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/11/24/5521126-facebook-close-to-securing-face-trademark
May be waste of $30,000 🙁
I agree Rick, and this is exactly why I dont think it sold for more than it did.
[…] Facemash.com Sells For $30,000 on Flippa.com (Facemash.com was the site where Mark creates while drunk and blogging – and can be said as the inception of Facebook) […]
@Duncan: lol.. gmailkiller.org for $15,000? Google’s keyword tool shows the phrase was searched for 28 times this month. You would have to pay me to take that domain.
i wish i can sell like that
Wow, that´s amazing!
I have to sell my website on Flippa.
Nice. Great timing with the movie The Social Network. Good job Jain and Flippa!
Why is this website being sold just right after the Social network movie ? 😉
Coz it would’t have been worth 30k before the movie released…
Thank you and curse you for giving us Flippa. I love it but spend way too much time looking around on it. Keep up the good work.
Such good and high end sales give flippa sellers more confidence to sell.
Thank you flipp!
That is down right crazy…. Facebook is becoming microsoft
the use of the term “gmail” is an absolute trademark infringement of google’s trademark for this term! You will be lucky to sell it for $15.oo. You domainers need to learn about TM law!
I’ve been in this gig for over 13 years & I have a knack for USPTO law, so I’ve done very well.
facebook cannot legally secure ALL domain names with the word “face” in them. they DO NOT and NEVER will have exclusive use rights for the word “face”. Only the TERM “facebook” is TM-able & exclusive for use in the IC code which they’re operating! You can use “face…….” anything you want, as long as you don’t use the site for anything confusingly similar of blatantly show that you are competing with facebook. I’m sure Zuckerberg is not worried about a coup of his brand!!!! He would be doing the responsible thing to make sure his “people” are safe-guarding & watching the snipers. facebook will NEVER have exlusive right to the word “face”.
wow! how so? interesting outlook… facebook isn’t an actual person – there are people making decisions for the company itself. maybe you are saying that mark z. is becoming like bill g.???? LOL
Thats great!!! Facebook become more popular after the movie Social Network and Facemash too. Why he sold it? I never visited facemash ever before that movie. Before reading this post i couldn’t imagine he could sell it.