Zuckerberg launched Facebook forerunner FaceMash
seven years ago this month, a tale popularized in the blockbuster film
“The Social Network.” But he allowed his lease of the rights to the
Internet domain name FaceMash.com to lapse in 2007, and Jain snatched
them up at auction late last year ahead of the movie’s release.
Now, he’s selling them on domain auction site Flippa.com. Bidding was at
Jain, a
investment banker by day, says he’s bought, developed and sold domain
names as a part-time business since 1999. He estimates that he holds
between 300 and 400.
“This is the first high-profile domain name that
I’ve been involved in,” says Jain, quick to identify himself as an
Internet entrepreneur, not a so-called cybersquatter. Provisions of the
federal Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act pertain to
trademarked names, which FaceMash is not.
In 2003, Zuckerberg posted photos of
women side by side on FaceMash and asked users to vote on which one was
more attractive. The site drew 450 users and 22,000 page views its
first night, The Harvard Crimson reported in 2003, but the university
soon pulled the Web site, accusing Zuckerberg of breaching security,
violating copyrights and violating individual privacy.
Facebook as we know it today was born the following February, first at TheFacebook.com a domain name that Facebook still holds.
With that kind of history, Jain says, the availability of FaceMash.com, was too good to pass up.
“I don’t flip domain names for a living,” says Jain, 33. Originally from
to attend college in 1997. “Some people have that business model; I
don’t. This domain name presents a unique opportunity with the movie
being out and part of Internet history.”
Jain says he’s currently leasing the domain for
a month to social network SlateYou.com which is hosting its Imageler
social network there while also promoting a rebranded SlateYou, now in
Beta. “Their goal was to get more traffic to their Web site,” Jain
says, a goal achieved with the popularization of the term FaceMash.
Jain says the eventual FaceMash.com buyer would not
be bound to any partnership agreements with SlateYou or Imageler and
would hold the domain lease outright.
Jain won’t reveal what he paid for FaceMash.com, saying only that it was less than
a figure that would end the auction immediately if met. Additionally,
Jain says he’s received offers outside the auction in excess of the
current bid price. Experts say most online auction activity occurs in a
listing’s final minutes.
Jain says he plans to donate a portion of the auction’s proceeds to the
An
distributed “The Social Network,” holds the rights to FaceMash.net, but
declined comment when asked if it was also interested in acquiring
FaceMash.com. Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.
Regardless, Jain knows there are some who wouldn’t approve of what he’s doing.
“Some people just see this as the wrong way,” Jain
says. “What we do is no different than what a trader does, picking up a
stock at a low price and selling it later at the price it should sell
at.
“I’m a big follower of the Warren Buffet investing school of thought. I just see this as an extension of that model.”
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