Scots firm Easydate buys rights to flirt.com

Easydate has reached an agreement to take over the name for $1.25m

A Scottish company that operates dating websites has bought the rights to use the web domain flirt.com for £800,000.

The Edinburgh firm Easydate plc, has been using the flirt.com brand since August under an agreement with Belamo, the American company that registered it.

Easydate said it had now reached an agreement to take over the name for $1.25m.

It was listed on the London's junior Alternative Investments Market in June.

Since starting to use the flirt.com domain - calling it "the naughtiest singles community by far" - it has taken only three months to reach revenue, last month, of £250,000.

Easydate also operates datetheuk.com, cupid.com, datingforparents.com and benaughty.com, among other "fun dating sites", as well as hosting dating sites for other companies.

Expansion plans

It claims to have 13 million profiles with users in 29 countries, with expansion plans in India, Brazil and across Europe.

It recently agreed to stop using the easydate.com brand, after a challenge from the company that owns Easyjet.

Bill Dobbie, chief executive of Easydate, said: "Flirt.com has performed exceptionally well since we started operating the site in the summer.

"Given this strong performance over a fairly short time period, we felt that acquiring total ownership of the domain was an important step that would contribute towards Easydate's continued growth.

"This acquisition secures ownership of a strong domain and dating site."