Got rich with a click: three businessmen quick to jump on city domain names
BY Rich Schapiro
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, March 14th 2010, 4:00 AM
Keivom/News, Fevelo for NewsLeland Hardy owns Newyork.com, Kevin Cahill owns Statenisland.com. Related NewsInternet addresses set for change, after ICANN votes in favor of foreign character domain names Internet Corp. OKs Web addresses in Hebrew, Hindi, Arabic and other lingosMusic to our ears! Four men charged in $29M concert, sporting event ticket scamHot, hot, hot! Sex.com to hit auction blockAgency reconsiders an 'online red light district' for porn with '.xxx' domain nameThey're sitting on some of the most valuable property in the city - bought for a pittance and now worth millions even though it's not much to look at.
Leland Hardy, Kevin Cahill, Larry Fischer: These guys are the kings of New York, at least in cyberspace.
They're not moguls, at least not in the traditional sense. They don't own mansions and skyscrapers; they control domain names.
Cahill, a firefighter, bought Statenisland.com for $30,000 seven years ago. It's now worth some $200,000.
Harlem-based entrepreneur Hardy snapped up Newyork.com for a few bucks in 1994 and could probably sell it for more than $6 million.
Fischer, a Brooklynite, spent five figures when he bought Queens.com and hopes to flip it for a fat profit.
His site is bare bones like Manhattan.com, which is owned by an investor in Dubai, and Brooklyn.com, controlled by an anonymous entity.
Experts say that's fine. As with physical real estate, virtual property derives value not from fancy fixtures but from those three golden words: location, location, location.
"These sites get a lot of traffic, and with traffic, comes revenue," said Jerry Nolte, CEO of Domainers magazine. "You don't need a fully developed site."
The most valuable of the bunch by far is Newyork.com. Along with Bronx.com, which is used by a community newspaper, it's also the most developed - allowing visitors to make hotel and restaurant reservations or buy theater tickets.
Every time someone books through the site, Hardy gets paid.
How much has he made? He's not saying.
"The site does well," he said.
Hardy was a student at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in the mid-1980s when he started experimenting with a precursor to the Internet.
He went on to become a professional boxer and a Wall Street banker. Eventually, his focus returned to what's now called the Web.
It was 1994, a time when most domain names weren't registered. On a whim, he checked if Newyork.com was available. It was.
"I was the original registrant," Hardy, 48, said. "It was just a couple of dollars."
He and his partners have been approached by dozens of people offering "substantial sums that would make others quake in their boots," he said.
But they're not selling - at least not yet. "It makes a lot more sense to build the business up," said Hardy, who owns thousands of other domain names.
Cahill, 46, isn't as adamant about keeping Statenisland.com, which he bought in 2003 for a sum that perplexed friends.
"They said, '$30,000 for a Web site?'" Cahill recalled. "'What are you nuts? How are you going to make that back?'"
Cahill - who also owned Fdny.com but had to relinquish it to the city - decided to become a real estate agent. He said he's made $100,000 through the site from real estate transactions.
Now he's hoping to entice local businesses to advertise and islanders to post events. He's only gotten a few takers: a book author and a local band.
Queens.com is even more basic, devoid of any graphics with just a slew of links for retail stores, lawyers, even a company that rents out drag queens.
Fischer, 47, an Internet consultant, bought it a few years ago at auction for a price in "the mid-five figures."
For now, he and partner Ari Goldberger, 49, make money every time someone clicks on one of the links, but he plans to develop it further.
"It's an extremely strong name," said Fischer, who owns scores of domain names. "It's worth much more built out."
rschapiro@nydailynews.com
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local..._jump_on_city_domain_names.html#ixzz0iCYE9qy1
BY Rich Schapiro
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, March 14th 2010, 4:00 AM
Keivom/News, Fevelo for NewsLeland Hardy owns Newyork.com, Kevin Cahill owns Statenisland.com. Related NewsInternet addresses set for change, after ICANN votes in favor of foreign character domain names Internet Corp. OKs Web addresses in Hebrew, Hindi, Arabic and other lingosMusic to our ears! Four men charged in $29M concert, sporting event ticket scamHot, hot, hot! Sex.com to hit auction blockAgency reconsiders an 'online red light district' for porn with '.xxx' domain nameThey're sitting on some of the most valuable property in the city - bought for a pittance and now worth millions even though it's not much to look at.
Leland Hardy, Kevin Cahill, Larry Fischer: These guys are the kings of New York, at least in cyberspace.
They're not moguls, at least not in the traditional sense. They don't own mansions and skyscrapers; they control domain names.
Cahill, a firefighter, bought Statenisland.com for $30,000 seven years ago. It's now worth some $200,000.
Harlem-based entrepreneur Hardy snapped up Newyork.com for a few bucks in 1994 and could probably sell it for more than $6 million.
Fischer, a Brooklynite, spent five figures when he bought Queens.com and hopes to flip it for a fat profit.
His site is bare bones like Manhattan.com, which is owned by an investor in Dubai, and Brooklyn.com, controlled by an anonymous entity.
Experts say that's fine. As with physical real estate, virtual property derives value not from fancy fixtures but from those three golden words: location, location, location.
"These sites get a lot of traffic, and with traffic, comes revenue," said Jerry Nolte, CEO of Domainers magazine. "You don't need a fully developed site."
The most valuable of the bunch by far is Newyork.com. Along with Bronx.com, which is used by a community newspaper, it's also the most developed - allowing visitors to make hotel and restaurant reservations or buy theater tickets.
Every time someone books through the site, Hardy gets paid.
How much has he made? He's not saying.
"The site does well," he said.
Hardy was a student at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in the mid-1980s when he started experimenting with a precursor to the Internet.
He went on to become a professional boxer and a Wall Street banker. Eventually, his focus returned to what's now called the Web.
It was 1994, a time when most domain names weren't registered. On a whim, he checked if Newyork.com was available. It was.
"I was the original registrant," Hardy, 48, said. "It was just a couple of dollars."
He and his partners have been approached by dozens of people offering "substantial sums that would make others quake in their boots," he said.
But they're not selling - at least not yet. "It makes a lot more sense to build the business up," said Hardy, who owns thousands of other domain names.
Cahill, 46, isn't as adamant about keeping Statenisland.com, which he bought in 2003 for a sum that perplexed friends.
"They said, '$30,000 for a Web site?'" Cahill recalled. "'What are you nuts? How are you going to make that back?'"
Cahill - who also owned Fdny.com but had to relinquish it to the city - decided to become a real estate agent. He said he's made $100,000 through the site from real estate transactions.
Now he's hoping to entice local businesses to advertise and islanders to post events. He's only gotten a few takers: a book author and a local band.
Queens.com is even more basic, devoid of any graphics with just a slew of links for retail stores, lawyers, even a company that rents out drag queens.
Fischer, 47, an Internet consultant, bought it a few years ago at auction for a price in "the mid-five figures."
For now, he and partner Ari Goldberger, 49, make money every time someone clicks on one of the links, but he plans to develop it further.
"It's an extremely strong name," said Fischer, who owns scores of domain names. "It's worth much more built out."
rschapiro@nydailynews.com
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local..._jump_on_city_domain_names.html#ixzz0iCYE9qy1
