Ebola Virus Outbreak 2014: Ebola.com is For Sale

Want to buy Ebola.com? How about H1N1.com? You'll have to talk to Jon Schultz, a businessman from Las Vegas. He has owned disease-related domains for years, according to the Washington Post.

Schultz buys up domains and waits for the opportunity - rather, the disaster - to strike, like the Ebola virus.

Schultz and his company, Blue String Ventures, wants $150,000 for Ebola.com, a price, he told the Washington Post, that is more than reasonable.

"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," Schultz told the Post. "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."

"Our domain, birdflu.com, is worth way more than Ebola.com. We're definitely holding onto that one for the event. That one's airborne and Ebola would never go airborne in the United States like bird flu can."

Schultz speaks idly of a disease that has already killed more than 4,000 people. Is it OK for him to profit from the suffering of others, in the name of, what some on Twitter have called "parasitic capitalism?"

"But you could say the same thing about doctors," Schultz told the Post. "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."

Schultz wants to sell and sell now. According to the Washington Post, Schultz is concerned that Ebola will get under control and the domain will lose its value. "Ebola is either something that could become more of a problem, or it's something that could ameliorate and not be a big news story for that much longer," he told the Post.

Tags
Ebola outbreak 2014, Ebola, Domain, Web, Websites, Internet, Bird flu
Real Time Analytics