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In light of facebook's acquisition of fb.com from the American Farm Bureau Federation for $8.5 Million (http://mashable.com/2011/01/12/facebook-paid-8-5-million-to-acquire-fb-com/),

do you think it's advisable, then, for startups to plan to acquire their two-letter equivalents early on at a relatively lower price? For that matter, how many domain names should a startup buy, and what rule of thumb should startups follow when selecting/buying them?

Off-topic, do you think that $8.5 million was a wise use of FB's investment?

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I suspect that the price was high because the vendors knew that Facebook has the means to pay! – Susan Jones Jan 15 '11 at 12:01

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Two letter domain names are rare, and (relative to domain prices) very expensive. All of them. The length of the domain name is one of the top criteria for the price of a domain.

Two letter domain names in dot com are referred to as LL.com (for Letter Letter), and I doubt you will find any LL.com for under $50,000. You can check Sedo.com listing and the cheapest priced is at $99,000.

For Facebook to buy fb.com is really a drop in the ocean. $8.5 million is a huge number for the domain name industry, but is an ridiculously small fraction of Facebook revenues and market value. So I think it makes sense to do like facebook: first make a billion dollar company, then acquire any domain name you want.

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Facebook will be the next myspace, pissing away good money on rediculous bs that doesnt ad value. Its completely stupid. Everyone already types in Facebook, not FB.com. Its not like the extra 6 letters are worth 8 million. Completely dumb. Cannot wait for GOogle Me to come back and really knock facebook to myspace user territory. – Frank Jan 16 '11 at 12:49
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and to answer your question, NO. almost any domain name can be branded. Short is nice, but not a must have. Look at this site, mashable, etc. The web 2.0 nonsense told everyone they need a short name, that makes no sense, and a rest api, and sharing links all over. Some good advice, but not worth investing into. Still can find good names for $7.00 . Max I ever pay is 5k (and i will be losing sleep when i do) – Frank Jan 16 '11 at 12:51

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