Sedo Turns Five! From Start-Up to Worldwide Market Leader

Cambridge, MA — What began five years ago as a student project can today only be described as an internet start-up success story. And since its beginning in 2001, Sedo has been working with a product that, without the internet, would not even be possible: domain names. Today, Sedo is not only celebrating its five-year milestone, but an industry leading position with more than five million domains listed for sale in its database as well.

This success story began as a student project among three friends, Tim Schumacher, Ulrich Priesner, and Marius Würzner. The trio distributed computer games through the website offensiv.de. After the business was phased out, the three students had to ask themselves what to do with the domain name. “Keep it or let its registration lapse?” Of course, then the question became, “Why not just sell it?” This laid the foundation for Sedo which stands for “search engine for domain offers.”

Starting out with only 5 employees and working in a tiny office in downtown Cologne, Germany, Sedo has grown to an international company with close to a 100 employees. The headquarters have remained in Cologne, but Sedo has expanded internationally with a thriving office in Boston - steps away from renowned tech hot spot MIT - which serves North and South America. A total of 350,000 clients from 240 countries buy, park, and sell their domains with Sedo. In fact, you can find 154 different domain extensions (also know as Top-Level Domains), such as .com, .de, and .co.uk, for sale on Sedo’s marketplace, where domain owners sell over 3 million dollars worth of domains each month.

“Almost all domains which are appropriate for business have already been registered, although the demand continues to grow. As a result, we are convinced that the secondary domain name market will continue to experience positive growth in the coming years, especially for new Top-Level Domains, as proven by the recent success of the .eu”, says Tim Schumacher, CEO of Sedo.

About Sedo

Sedo, an acronym for “Search Engine for Domain Offers,” is the leading online marketplace for buying and selling domain names and websites. With an office in Cambridge, Mass., Sedo has assembled the world’s largest database of domain names for sale, with more than two million listings. Buyers and sellers are brought together through a searchable online marketplace, and conduct negotiations anonymously using an offer-counteroffer system. To facilitate successful transactions, Sedo has introduced a range of related services, including domain name escrow/transfer services, domain name appraisals, a domain brokerage service and paid domain name parking. The success of Sedo’s model has attracted a global membership base of more than 350,000 domain professionals, and helped more than 5,000 businesses start their Web presence off on the right foot with a great new domain name. Sedo offers regional versions of its site for the UK (Sedo.co.uk), France (Sedo.fr), Germany (Sedo.de), and Spain (eSedo.com). For additional information, please visit www.sedo.com.

Press Contact:
Mike Kaplan
fama PR
617-758-4268
press@sedo.com