Alibaba acquires QwenChat.com domain name for $30,000

Recently, the domain name investment circle was detonated by a piece of news: Alibaba acquired the domain name QwenChat.com for $30,000 (about RMB 218,000). Behind this transaction, the domain name registrant only held the domain name at a cost of $10, and achieved a 3,000-fold return in just two months, once again confirming the myth of domain name investment "small wins big" wealth creation.

From $10 to $30,000: The "wealth creation movement" of digital assets

The transaction details of the domain name QwenChat.com are intriguing. Its main body "Qwen" is highly consistent with Alibaba's latest AI model "Tongyi Qianwen" (Qwen), and "Chat" directly refers to the chat interaction function. At a time when AI technology has become a must-fight for technology giants, Alibaba decisively took action to win this domain name that accurately matches the brand strategy, which not only avoids the diversion of brand traffic, but also seizes the opportunity for future AI product layout.

The original owner, with his keen sense of industry trends, registered the domain name at a low cost long before the outbreak of AI, and finally completed a textbook-level investment operation through the classic path of "domain name registration-holding appreciation-terminal repurchase".

Tech giants' domain name game: from Chat.com to QwenChat.com

Ali's acquisition is not an isolated case. In 2022, HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah purchased Chat.com at a sky-high price of US$15.5 million. The domain name was eventually acquired by OpenAI in the form of a combination of "shares + cash". It is rumored that the total transaction amount may exceed US$35 million. The jump of Chat.com directly points to ChatGPT, becoming a landmark event in the brand upgrade of AI dialogue technology. Such transactions highlight that the competition for strategic domain names by leading companies has been upgraded from simple brand protection to a key move in ecological layout.

This can't help but remind people of cases such as JD.com's acquisition of JD.com for US$3 million and Xiaomi's acquisition of mi.com for US$3.6 million. Domain names, as digital trademarks of enterprises, are becoming valuable commodities in the Internet era.