Student, 17, sells Greenland for $150

LONDON, ENGLAND — Greenland has been sold for just $150 (£81) thanks to Daniel Law, a student from London, England. Daniel has created his own website, OwnTheMap.com, where he is auctioning different countries of the world on a weekly basis to be bought by any would-be country owner.

Country owners can benefit in many ways. The main idea is to place an advertisement in the space occupied by the country which then redirects to the owner’s website if the country is clicked. Country owners also own the ‘deeds’ and can therefore sell on their country at a later date to anyone else who may be interested.

This week the countries available are Tanzania and Peru. Daniel, 17, has already sold are countries such as Australia, Germany, Sudan, Spain, Papua New Guinea, Mexico and Sweden. The site has seen increased popularity as the weeks have gone by with more and more people signing up to the mailing list, many of whom wait patiently for popular countries such as the UK, USA, Russia and Canada to go on sale.

As the website becomes more popular the ‘country owners’ have already benefited from increased traffic to their website. Lawrence Biren, owner of a number of countries including Sweden, commented that "OwnTheMap.com has already had a positive effect my website traffic."

Another ‘owner’, Mitch Satchwell, ‘owner’ of Iceland, claimed that "I didn’t invest just for the advertising. This website has great potential to make it big and I want to be part of it when it does."

OwnTheMap.com has already attracted the attention of the media and local businesses in his hometown, Hornchurch, where he is becoming something of a recognised face. After featuring in the local newspaper, the popularity of the website surged, giving OwnTheMap.com another boost for both owner and advertiser.

Daniel is a student in London, UK where he is currently studying for his A-Levels. He claims that his main purpose of creating OwnTheMap.com, aside from making an entertaining website, is to begin to save for his life in university ahead of him. "I’ve got a long way to go and this could be what I need to help me along", he said.

More countries are to go on sale next week and prices are expected to rise as the website becomes evermore popular.

For more information, contact Daniel Law at Daniel@ownthemap.com or +44 (0) 1708 508054.