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04/29/2024 08:13:55 am

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Ebola For Sale - The Website, That Is

Ebola

(Photo : Reuters) Just because the World Health Organization called ebola the "most severe acute health emergency in modern times," that doesn't mean money can't be made from it.

An opportunistic domain squatter is looking to capitalize on the Ebola epidemic by selling the rights to the website Ebola.com for what he says is a "reasonable" $150,000.

Just when you thought Internet domain squatting was so 15-years ago, Jon Schulz, president of Blue String Ventures is bringing it back into the news - and with chutzpah, reports The Washington Post.

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In 2008, Schulz bought the domain www.ebola.com for $13,500.

"According to our site meter, we're already doing 5,000 page views per day just by people typing in Ebola.com to see what's there," said Schultz. "We're getting inquiries every day about the sale of it. I have a lot of experience in this sort of domain business, and my sense is that $150,000 is reasonable."

But lest you think Schulz has an affinity for the ebola virus, he does not. He also owns the Internet domains birdflu.com and H1N1.com, as well as websites for the lesser known diseases Chikungunya and Marburg.

While squatting on a domain named after a disease in order to make money off it may appear to be unseemly, it's a rather common practice for large companies, particularly pharmaceutical and health care companies. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), for example, owns the rights to the domains Cancer.com and Obesity.com. An affiliate of GlaxoSmithKline owns Diabetes.com and Pfizer has the right to Arthritis.com.

Those pharmaceutical companies are likely Schulz's potential targets as he looks to cash in on the fact that the most recent, and most dangerous, outbreak of the disease has been front-page news for weeks.  

"Ebola.com would be a great domain for a pharmaceutical company working on a vaccine or cure, a company selling pandemic or disaster-preparedness supplies, or a medical company wishing to provide information and advertise services," Schultz told CNBC. "There could be many other applications as well. With so many people concerned about the disease, any advertisement referring people to Ebola.com should get an excellent response."

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