Sooo… how much can a website cost exactly?
News broke on the 28 September 2018 that the African National Congress (ANC) website had been suspended due to apparent non-payment. There has been speculation that the site had been terminated due to the account being in arrears of over R32.5 million ($2 2 mill).
But we’re not sure how a South African website had racked up such a high bill, also… this is not the first time the government has had problems with their websites and costs.
In 2013 the Free State provincial government in South Africa put out a tender for a new website which totaled around R140 million rand.
At the current exchange rate, that would be almost $10 million… for a website! At the time they claimed they actually only spent R40 million at the end but still, these numbers seem very excessive considering you can create an incredible Wordpress site for under R10 000.00 (just under $1 000) which is apparently what they had paid for.
The reality when we talk about the “cost” of a website deals with many different elements, like the development of the actual interface, the continuous upkeep of the site and the domain name.
“Google’s website is backed by at least 20 large “data centers” and they probably own at least 5 million computers – which together power their “website”. That would probably be the most expensive in the world.”
But what are the most expensive domains in the world? And where do South Africa’s government websites fit in if we were looking at domains (as we’re not sure a South African website needs the power of Google’s infrastructure and we know historically they have used WordPress templates).
We found the top 16, which should give you a better idea:
Related Story
1) VacationRentals.com
This deal took place in 2007 and was sold for $35 million. This is the highest ever deal.
2) PrivateJet.com
This transaction took place in 2012 at $30.18 million
3) Internet.com
This is deal was made at $18 million in 2009.
4) 360.com
Sold in 2015 at $17 million.
5) Insure.com
Sold for $16 million in 2009.
6) Hotels.com
This domain was sold for $11 million in 2001.
7) Fund.com
Purchased in the year 2oo8 at a price of $9.9 million. Currently, this domain is not live.
8) Fb.com
Bought by Facebook for $8.5 million in November 2010 from American Farm Bureau Federation. At present this domain is redirected to www.facebook.com.
9) Business.com
Sold for $7.5 million in December 1999.
10) Diamond.com
Sold in 2006 for $7.5 million.
11) iCloud.com
Apple has been hunting around the world for all i-domains and acquired this one in $6 million in March 2011 after acquiring iphone.com in 2008.
12) Israel.com
This domain was acquired in $5.88 million in May of 2008 but even Google lacks information about it.
13) Casino.com
It was sold in $5.5 million to Mansion Limited in 2003 which gave a great ROI to the new owner.
14) Slots.com
Bodog, a Russian online gaming site became the owner and created a new game in this domain. The deal was made in $5.5 million in 2010.
15) Toys.com
It was sold to American market leader ToyRUs in $5.1 million in 2009.
16) Clothes.com
Zappos procured this domain in 2008 at the cost of $4.9 million. It is now used to redirect people to online clothing shopping website at zappos.com.
So we’re not exactly sure what the ANC paid R32.5 million ($2 2 mill) for or how they found themselves owing so much but a price tag like that could easily place the party’s website in the top 20 most expensive websites in the world!
by 