Dropbox.com Domain Name [Updated] — Dropbox Buys

Dropbox.com now forwards to GetDropbox.com.

TechCrunch noticed that popular web backup tool Dropbox has purchased the domain name Dropbox.com, which forwards to its web site GetDropbox.com. Hopefully this will be a lesson to web startups to not be stingy with their initial domain purchase, as it costs them lots more money in the long run. Dropbox’s parent firm had sued to get the domain name, but recently dismissed the case. That likely means the two parties settled.

Although I don’t agree on his comment regarding meaningless names, Jason Kincaid’s explanation of the problem is something domainers have been preaching for a long time:

It’s hard to gauge just how notable a good domain name is to a startup’s success — following all, we’ve seen plenty of firms with meaningless names do very well for themselves. But there’s a difference between a name that’s gibberish and one that’s very easy to confuse with something else, which is a test that Dropbox failed with its GetDropbox domain. As the service has grown, so too has the amount of traffic heading to Dropbox.com, which has just featured a placeholder page full of ads. As stated by Compete, Dropbox.com had nearly 60,000 unique visitors last month. It’s impossible to know how many of them eventually made it to the correct domain, but there’s no doubt Dropbox has been losing out on plenty of traffic and clients. This is a big win for the startup.