New York Times buys exact match domains for trending topics

[Raymond Luo]

I saw that New York Times bought alternativefacts.com, a term that's massively trending right now. The domain currently redirects to a recent article talking about the same, which in turn houses many interlinks to related category pages like CIA and Obama.

Do you think they're using this just to boost their SEO or will they spawn something much bigger off of this. How would you best leverage this opportunity if you were in NYT's shoes?

What other examples have you encountered?

Domain Name: ALTERNATIVEFACTS.COM
Registrar: GODADDY.COM, LLC
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 146
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Name Server: NS47.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Name Server: NS48.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientRenewProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 22-jan-2017
Creation Date: 22-jan-2017
Expiration Date: 22-jan-2018

 

[Michel]

Did actually NYT buy it or is it just redirecting to them?

 

[Raymond Luo]

Did actually NYT buy it or is it just redirecting to them?

It's privately registered so we won't know the actuality. I think it's pretty safe to assume that it was probably an expensive domain purchase.