Speedy speculator places money on burjkhalifa.com

David George-Cosh

• Last Updated: January 05. 2010 11:02PM UAE / January 5. 2010 7:02PM GMT

Dubai’s surprise name-change for the world’s tallest building may have opened a million-dirham window of opportunity for savvy internet entrepreneurs.

What had been known from its inception as Burj Dubai was officially unveiled as Burj Khalifa during the inauguration ceremony on Monday night.

Dozens of people immediately flocked to the internet to attempt to buy variations of the building’s dot-com or dot-ae domain name.

Perhaps the most lucrative domain to be snapped up was that of burjkhalifa.com although its ownership remains in question.

On Monday, Abdulla Matar al Mannaei, the managing director of Emirates Auctions, was listed as the purchaser of burjkhalifa.com.

However, in a phone interview yesterday, Mr Mannaei said he does not own the domain, even though his name, mobile number, fax number and company name appeared on a publicly accessible website before it was blocked yesterday.

He could not explain how his information appeared on the website.

Media reports suggested that a Pakistani or Saudi Arabian individual was the owner of the burjkhalifa.com address, but none could be verified.

Stephen Reynolds, a domain-name expert with XEC Internet Consultants in the UK, said that an obvious buyer for such domain names are the building owners.

“To them, I am guessing it would be worth several hundred thousand US dollars,” Mr Reynolds said.

Munir Badr, the owner of AEserver, a Dubai-based domain-name registrar, said he has seen up to 100 people attempt to register variations of the Burj Khalifa web address over the past two days.

While it may be easy to sign up for a name, getting final approval from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) may take quite some time.

“The names are placed on hold and are apparently under review,” Mr Badr said. “The registry put a block and are investigating who registered the name.”

According to public information records, Lee Mascall, a UK-based web designer, owns theburjkhalifa.com, another likely lucrative domain.

Mr Mascall did not return calls for comment.

Earlier yesterday, the webmasters behind burjkhalifabinzayed.com were soliciting bids for the website’s domain address, but it was taken down later in the day.

Mohammed Gheyath, the executive director for technology development affairs at the TRA, made a rare phone call into a live radio station and announced that the regulator reserved burjkhalifa.ae.

Mr Gheyath said the move was made to protect the building’s intellectual property rights and from cybersquatters.

Mr Reynolds said that while some addresses could take advantage of the immediacy of the Burj’s name change with online advertisements over the next week, their overall value is likely to be zero if the rightful owners can make a valid trademark claim with the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

It costs about US$10 (Dh37) to purchase a dot-com internet domain and there is an active reseller market for popular addresses.

The most expensive web address purchased in the UAE was horse.ae in July for Dh6 million to an unidentified horse enthusiast.

The market could see a boost in the next year as the scheme to internationalise web-domain names by the internet regulator begins in earnest. Arabic is one of the scripts to be introduced.

dgeorgecosh@thenational.ae