Ebola.com: Jon Schultz looking to sell website for $170,000

MISERY merchant or savvy entrepreneur? One man is trying to cash in on Ebola to the tune of $170,000 has compared himself to doctors profiting from the disaster.

The website entrepreneur Jon Schultz wants $170,000 for. Pic: Screengrab Ebola.com.

IN THE midst of a health crisis costing millions of dollars and thousands of lives, one man is hoping to make a profit.

Jon Schultz buys website domains for tragedies and diseases with the intention of selling them when they become global issues.

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He became hooked on the business in 2005 when he bought birdflu.com for $22,000.

Schultz saw how much people searched for the disease when it was spreading in China at the time and immediately considered what traffic would be like in the case of a worldwide epidemic.

Now he owns fukushima.com, HINI.com, terror.com and, yes, Ebola.com.

Schultz bought the domain for $15,000 in 2008 and now expects to sell it for $170,000, a price he told the Washington Post is perfectly fair.

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He told the paper: “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. 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 $170,000 is reasonable.”

Schultz, of Las Vegas firm Blue String Ventures, hasn’t sold the other domains because he believes they haven’t reached their peak popularity, meaning the world has yet to feel the worst of each subject’s wrath.

But he wants to sell Ebola.com as soon as possible because another tragedy could take its place at any moment. According to Schultz, its days as a top news story are undoubtedly numbered.

“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 said.

It’s birdflu.com, he says, that will make him the most money because that outbreak would be far worse than the current Ebola crisis.

“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,” he told the Post.

When asked whether he feels guilty about making money off so many people dying, Schultz said he’s far from the only one.

“You could say the same thing about doctors. 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 Médecins Sans Frontières at the site.”

The Ebola epidemic has killed over 4,000 people, and as the WHO recently warned, it could grow at exponential rates unless the international response undergoes some major changes.

This article originally appeared on Elite Daily and is republished here with permission.