Man Purchases Google Argentina's Domain Name for $2.90

Google Argentina’s domain name was reportedly purchased by a web designer after the site went down in the country for two hours last week. Although the reason the domain name was available for purchase is still disputed, some believe the Silicon Valley Masters of the Universe simply forgot to review their domain name registration.

BBC News reports that a web designer in Argentina named Nicolar Kurona successfully purchased the Argentinian Google.com.ar domain name through a normal, legal process after noticing that the site was unavailable in the country for two hours last Wednesday.

Kurona reportedly noticed that the site was unavailable while working at his desk on the outskirts of Buenos Aires on Wednesday night. “I entered www.google.com.ar into my browser and it didn’t work,” he said. “I thought something strange was happening.”

Kurona logged onto the Network Information Center Argentina (NIC), which is the organization responsible for operating the country’s .ar country code domains. Kurona searched for Google and found that the domain was available for purchase.

“I never imagined that it was going to allow me to buy it,” he told the BBC. Kurona says that he “followed the steps and then I received an email with the purchase invoice.” Kurona shared the NIC invoice with the BBC which showed that he acquired the Google Argentina domain name for 270 pesos or $2.90.

“I want to make it clear that I never had any bad intentions, I just tried to buy it and the NIC allowed me to,” Kurona said. “When the purchase process was completed and my data appeared, I knew that something was going to happen… I was really anxious,” he said.

One theory behind why Kurona was able to purchase the domain was that the company failed to renew the domain name. However, Google says its license for the domain hadn’t expired and was not due to expire until July 2021.

Open Data Córdoba group, which tracks expired and registered Argentine domains, backs this up. It’s is currently unclear why Google’s domain name was released.