Beeb reveals it bought bbc.com for $375,000

The BBC has finally revealed how much it paid for its dot-com domain name: the princely sum of $375,000.

The BBC, which purchased bbc.com from Boston Business Computing in 1999, had previously refused to disclose the amount, saying only that it was a "considerable sum".

Following a Freedom of Information request, Auntie disclosed the $375,000 figure.

A BBC spokesman said the purchase price reflected the novelty of the web at the time and the length of time Boston Business Computing had previously held the domain name - 10 years - as well as the costs to the company of undergoing a marketing overhaul.

He said: "At the time the BBC purchased bbc.com, the internet landscape in the UK and abroad was still developing. The BBC had a duty to both its brand and its users to provide an easy route to its online content."

To date, the bbc.com URL has been used to redirect web users to the BBC's main portal at bbc.co.uk.

The spokesman said: "The BBC has not exploited bbc.com to date in part because of an agreement made with Boston Business Computing to allow for a period of transition, in part because the immediate need was to drive traffic to a single destination, and in part because technology was too rudimentary to make a distinction between UK traffic and overseas traffic to enable us to exploit this."

He added the Beeb is hoping in future to use the $375,000 URL as its international online face.

He said: "We are currently looking at the possibilities bbc.com offers us, including its potential as an international facing site. Over the long-term, we feel that this justifies the cost of recovery."

The BBC is the 23rd most visited website in the world, according to web traffic monitoring firm Alexa.