Several days ago social network Facebook announced the launch of its new project Workplace. It’s an analogue of Facebook in a way but for large companies and organizations. The project offers group chats, video calls, newsfeed of the company and other functions that are meant to help optimize communication for big teams. Time will tell how successful the project will be but there is one man who is very pleased with it already.
This is Edward Alfert, private domain investor. Onlinedomain reports that more than a year ago, in June 2015, he registered a new name in the gTLD .PLACE administered by Donuts called Work.Place. At the moment no one knew about Facebook’s project, it was in closed beta and had a working title “Facebook at work”. However, the domain Work.Place was viewed as potentially promising and was sold as premium. Alfert had to pay a considerable sum of $200 for the registration. He certainly got his money’s worth. In the beginning of autumn representatives of Hogan Lovells law firm contacted him on behalf of an unnamed client and started negotiations about buying the domain.
At the moment information about the imminent launch of a new Facebook project has leaked to the press. Moreover, Alfert, who follows the news of the domain market, discovered that the social network had registered several domains using the word “workplace”. Finally, he found out that Facebook is Hogan Lovells’ client. All of this allowed the investor to assume with almost complete certainty that it was Facebook that was planning to buy his domain. So he set a good price. It is not disclosed, however, Onlinedomain reports that it’s between 50 and 75 thousand dollars. This way, he spent on the domain approximately $200, now Edward Alfert increased his capital at least 250 times.
