ChatGPT.com sold to domain investor for $85,000

A few months ago, a foreign media outlet reported that OpenAI had legally acquired the domain name ChatGPT.com. the domain name used by ChatGPT when it appeared in late 2022 was chat.openai.com.

Despite ending up in legal limbo, ChatGPT.com was hand-registered at the end of 2022 for $9.63 and then resold for a whopping $85,000.

The amazing story of a domain name matching one of the dominant brands of 2023, ChatGPT, began when an observant individual, Mike Santiago, watched a YouTube video about emerging technologies.

One of the buzzwords in the video was "ChatGPT" and Mike's domain investor instincts kicked in. Assuming it was already taken, he was surprised to find it available. The ChatGPT.com domain name was born on November 30, 2022 after a quick registration.

Mike Santiago, founder of OnlineBusiness.com, noticed traffic to the domain skyrocket the following week to 6,000 visitors per day. Within three days, a broker made an offer and eight days later it sold for $85,000.

However, the mystery buyer wasn't OpenAI, as the domain was acquired for that amount by domain investor Rick Latona, who runs a PPC business based in Puerto Rico, and had been profiting from the domain's traffic in 2023 before being hit with a UDRP filed by OpenAI.

Latona subsequently settled outside of the UDRP process for an undisclosed amount and OpenAI used ChatGPT.com as the official gateway for its AI-powered software.

Source: domaingang