2006 Jun 01 -Artículo dividido en 4 comentarios-

After six months of negotiation, the sides finally reach agreement. Two men, both of them preferring to stay anonymous, exchange two pieces of paper at the end of a meeting in Macau. One of them, a British national, hands over a cheque for US$ 550,000. In return, the other man, a Chinese national, hands him a Post-it note with writing on it. It's a password that allows access and ownership of the Macau.com and macao.com domains.

Wind forward to the present, and Anna Louise Sandberg, partner and CEO of Macau.com, explains to Macau Business the potential of a deal she believes could be a gold mine for its Hong Kong investors. Macau appears to exert an irresistible hold over investors. The liberalisation of the gaming sector in 2002, the individual visa policy for Chinese citizens, and strong investments in real estate and retailing, plus the anticipated convention and trade fair facilities have all combined to boost that allure.
Internet domains in general also seem to be making a comeback from the downturn seen when the original dotcom bubble burst in 2001.

"It occurred to us that there might be more interesting ways to capitalise on the growth in travel to Macau and interest in Macau than by simply investing in fairly illiquid stocks or buying real estate. Our financial investor has been involved in Internet businesses in the past and checked to see who owned the domain. To our surprise, it was not owned by a big corporation but rather by a local Macau resident", says Sandberg, who like her business partner Katie Feeney has a financial markets background.
After the domain purchase in January, it didn't take long for Sandberg to resign from her job as a senior associate at a large American investment bank, to take the position as CEO of Macau.com. She was joined by Feeney, who has been in the advertising and marketing industry for the last six years in Brisbane, Australia, but decided Macau was a much more "attractive" challenge.

Winning Formula

The trio knows that Macau's market is far from being saturated, especially when it comes to products aimed at tourists.
They also believe that whoever is first to market will reap the most rewards. "The infrastructure investments and dedication of some of the largest and most experienced gaming companies in the world to making Macau the travel destination of choice for gambling and entertainment will prove successful", says Sandberg.

"This in combination with the Macau government's efforts to promote the diverse cultural and historical attributes of the region, will mean that we will continue to see growing visitor numbers and growing interest in Macau", adds Feeney. For both, the result couldn't be simpler. "Macau.com will be positioned to take advantage of this by the mere increased interest in the city driving visitors to our website," explains Sandberg.DominiosIDN.com ||

The website will be launched in English but the investors want to translate it into simplified and traditional Chinese as well as Korean and Japanese. A second phase will see Macau.com provide booking and concierge services through the website. In other words, says Louise, prospective visitors to Macau "will be able to not only book their flight and accommodation through us but because of our unique position as a local expert on the region compared to the regional or global competitors, we will also be able to arrange tickets to shows, restaurant bookings, car rental, etc. so that we are essentially a Macau travellers' one-stop-shop to the city." The challenge they both acknowledge, is to provide content that is interesting and thorough enough for people to spend time on their website and return to it again at a later date.

Duke of URLs
The dotcom entrepreneur making a name for himself and Macau

The sale of the Internet domain name Macau.com for $550,000 (4.4 million patacas) was one of the year's more expensive pieces of website business, but far from being the only one. Around 20 domains across the world fetched six figures - one of them raking in more than all the others combined. Sex.com was bought for a record US$12 million in cash and stock by adult-entertainment company Escom. Last year, 5,851 domains generated US$ 29 million, almost double the US$ 15 million achieved by the sale of 3,813 names the previous year.

Domain names are hot business again and according to Jupiter Media, the IT information and image supplier, online advertising revenue will reach US$ 13.6 billion in the US alone this year - a 14 per cent increase on 2005.
No wonder Chuck C. Yee prefers to hang on to domains like visitMacau.com until he gets a juicy offer. How much does he want for it? A modest US$ 800,000 (MOP 6.4 million), he tells Macau Business.

Virtual Cert

Born in Malaysia with Chinese heritage, Yee was first approached by investors inquiring about Macau.com and macao.com in August 2005. There were further inquiries in February 2006, but "we couldn't agree on the selling price", he says when contacted in the United States where he has lived for the past 15 years.

"My asking price is not fixed. This is just a ball park figure that I think fits current market value. One of the factors that determine my asking price is the market value of domain names. Internet website names are viewed as online real estate which is similar to property real estate, their prices may go up or down. As it is, prices have been going up quite significantly for the last couple of years as demonstrated by some reported top selling. For example, fish.com sold for one million. Another factor is the level of popularity of Macau being a tourism destination", he explains.

So exactly what made him think about Macau? It was simple.

"Every year I made at least two trips to the [south China] region to visit my sister in HK and some relatives in Shenzhen and my fianc?e's family in Taiwan. The last time I visited Macau was 2004," he explains. Yee actually registered the name in 2002.DominiosIDN.com ||