Nissan Sells Former 370Z Website Domain for $7 Million

Nissan has owned the Z.com domain ever since Verisign began auctioning dot com domains, which it controls, with only one letter in them. Nissan acquired the Z.com domain and used it to promote the then-new 370Z online. The website is now gone and the domain name, we learned, has been sold to a Japanese firm and one of the largest domain name registrars in the country.

GMO Internet, which owns Japan's largest registrar, paid a reported 800 million Yen for the Z.com domain. That's about $6.8 million U.S. dollars. Nissan sold the domain for undisclosed reasons, though the probability that it was not the marketing bonanza they'd hoped for is a likely cause.

Amazingly, only three single-letter domain names are on the open market. GMO Internet announced in a release that they will be utilizing the Z.com name to "accelerate" their "global market expansion." How the "Z" name can help a brand whose name does not have a Z in it to market itself is yours to ponder.

Fans of the 370Z are relatively quiet on this news. So far, it has not really proliferated through the forums I've checked. It's doubtful that it would be important to them, though some may have wished that the domain could have been purchased by a fan site or information portal for the Z car rather than someone "outside of the family."

Other speculation is that the Z car may itself be undergoing a transformation and the "Z" may no longer be relevant. It's speculated that the IDx may replace the 370Z in the near future. If so, could the "Z" name be dropped or back-burnered in relevance? A fair question. What do you think?