China.com sold for $11.7 million – HongKong.com also sold

The South China Morning Post (scmp.com) reported today that the domain name China.com was purchased in August 2013 for HK$90.8 million. That is about $11.7 million USD. The buyer is China Radio International, a state-owned media conglomerate.

China.com website was relaunched as a multilingual online platform. in an effort to boost the China’s media presence abroad. As of Monday, it features content in eleven different languages.

The domain name HongKong.com was also purchased by China Radio International.

China.com purchase is one of the highest domain name sales ever recorded. In 2010 Insurance.com was sold for US$35.6 million. Vacationrentals.com and PrivateJet.com were also for more than US$30 million. Sex.com was sold for US$13 million at Sedo.com. Other “country” domain name sales include Russia.com that was sold for US$1.5 million in 2009 and Korea.com for US$5 million in 2000.