Econintersect: Forexpros, a Global Economic Intersection content sharing 
partner, is no more. Ten days ago the popular site changed its name to Investing.com. The site has grown to become one of the highest traffic sites in the world for investing news and data. The name change reflects that the site has grown to cover all areas of investing in addition to the Forex market.
Forexpros had to pay a steep price to make the change. The domain name Investing.com belonged to somebody else. According to Tech Crunch, the cost of acquiring the domain name came to $2.45 million, the second highest amount paid for a domain name in 2012. The highest priced purchase of the year came in October when CardLab purchased GiftCard.com for $4 million.
Tech Crunch reports that the all-time records for reported domain name acquisition costs go to the domains insure.com ($16 million) and sex.com ($13 million). It cannot be said that these are the largest amounts ever paid, though. Many high cost domain name purchase prices are not disclosed.
Here is a summary from Tech Crunch:
With the purchase, Forexpros will today launch a global financial portal under the Investing.com URL, where it plans to offer a free resource for novice and semi-professional traders and investors to find realtime quotes and charts, breaking news, financial tools, technical analysis and calendars.
According to Forexpros founder and CEO Dror Efrat, the site will service all asset classes, including stocks, bonds, commodities, futures and Forex. As to why the company decided to shell out $2.45 million for the purchase? Efrat and the company’s 70 employees want to turn Investing.com into a one-stop shop for financial traders and investors around the globe by providing streaming, realtime data and financial analytics. The user-friendly, memorable domain name is a small (and somewhat expensive) step in that direction.
The founder says that Investing.com will be looking to differentiate itself from the biggest entities in the space (like Bloomberg and Reuters) by offering its content for free, including that which would generally fall under the “premium membership” umbrella on other sites and by appealing to novice and semi-professional traders and investors, rather than pros and large firms. The site will also be accessible in 18 languages, which the founder hopes will help it reach a larger, international audience.
Investing.com has over 70 employees in offices located throughout the world, with its largest branches in Cyprus, Madrid and Tel Aviv. According to Efrat, Forexpros.com, which was founded in 2007, was averaging 3.6 million unique users per month before the company decided to go big and re-brand under Investing.com.
“We are thrilled to launch investing.com today and believe that with our streaming real-time data, powerful analysis tools and great interface we can become a preeminent financial portal for novice and semi-professional investors and traders,” Efrat tells TechCrunch.
Here is a statement provided by Investing.com:
Founded in 2007, Investing.com is a definitive source for tools and information relating to the financial markets such as real-time quotes and streaming charts, up-to-date financial news, technical analysis, brokers directory & listings, an economic calendar, and tools & calculators. The site provides in-depth information on Currencies, Indices & Stocks, Futures and Options, Commodities, and Rates & Bonds. With a growing readership worldwide, Investing.com is a leading global financial portal that is constantly committed to launching innovative features and sections to ensure an optimal one-stop source for its readers.
Sources:
- Top Domains: Forexpros Buys Investing.com For $2.45M, Launches One-Stop Financial Portal For Everyday Investors (Rip Empson, Tech Crunch, 11 December 2012)
- About Us (Investing.com web site)
