KEY POINTS:
It may be the most ever paid for a single letter of an internet address.
A British travel company has paid £560,000 ($1.4 million) for the domain name cruises.co.uk, a price that is effectively US$1 million ($1.3 million) just for the letter "s" since it already owns the address cruise.co.uk.
The sum shatters the previous record for a .co.uk domain of US$300,000, paid in October last year.
Seamus Conlon, whose company bought the address from a German travel company, said it was a necessary move to retain dominance in the rapidly growing market for ocean cruising.
"Cruises is consistently ranked first on Google, with cruise just behind," he said.
"We wanted the top positions so that when internet users are searching for deals ... we are the first port of call."
The current most expensive domain is sex.com, which was bought for US$12 million in 2005.
- REUTERS
