Web Design

By Sophie Borland
Last Updated: 7:01pm GMT 08/11/2007

The twin desires of businesses to be seen to be both technology savvy and environmentally friendly came together as a UK internet domain name sold for a record £150,000.

The site “recycle.co.uk” was bought by ASAP Ventures, a venture capital company and is the highest ever sale for a .co.uk name. It breaks the previous record paid by J Sainsbury for the site taste.co.uk which was bought for £110,000 in 1997.

As its name suggests, the new website will be used to provide UK residents with information on recycling.

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The selling of “recycle.co.uk” was handled by the internet auction company Sedo. In the same sale, mobile.co.uk raised £120,000.

Nora Nanayakkara, UK operations director, Sedo, commented: “We are seeing a growing interest in the purchase of co.uk Internet domain names in the secondary market. Over six million co.uk Internet domain names are already registered and there is a shortage of available quality names.

“However, organisations are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits in owning a generic Internet domain name which is easy for the customer to find and remember. As well as strengthening a company’s online brand and supporting marketing campaigns, a generic Internet domain name generates a natural flow of traffic to a company’s website”

Over the past year, the total volume of co.uk Internet domain name sales in the secondary market has climbed by almost a third to more than £1.5 million.

Domain names for the American “.com” sights have sold for much higher prices and despite the popularity of green issues on the web, the environment still can’t compete with sex.

The overall record for a domain name was broken last year for the site sex.com, which sold for $12 million, the equivalent of £5.7million. Diamond.com was sold for $7.5million (£3.6 million).