A cybersquatter/entrepreneur is hoping to
make money out of the tragedy of the
Ebola outbreak by selling a domain using
the virus' name for $150,000
Jon Schultz, bought Ebola.com for $13,500
in 2008 and now believes he can sell it for
$150,000.He also owns birdflu.com and
H1N1.com, terror.com,
PotassiumIodide.com ,fukushima.com,as
well a domain for the deadly mosquito-
borne disease Chikungunya and another
for the Ebola-like Marburg virus,He says
he has been waiting for the perfect
moment to sell it .He told CNBC via
email..
'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,..
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.'
In an interview with the Washington Post,
Mr Schultz said he felt the money he is
demanding is more than reasonable for
Ebola.com.'
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,' 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.'
On why he choose to make money from a
human tragedy ,he said
'But you could say the same thing about
doctors,'. 'They can become very well-off
treating very sick patients.Besides we
have sacrificed a couple of thousands in
parking page income to put up links
about Ebola on the site. And people can
also donate to Doctors Without Borders at
the site.'