The previous record was $US 300,000; however, today it´s been known that a travel company, owner of the domain cruise.co.uk, has purchased to a German company cruises.co.uk by $US 1.1 million.
The non experts will say: a domain cannot be that expensive! and many others, not very savvy neither will say:
what a stupidity to pay 1.1 million for an additional letter!

But the conclusion the buyer company reached after a throughtful analysis, the search for “cruises” are more usual than “cruise” in Google, so many sales where missed because of that.
Purchasing this domain, they can now get more customers, and by the way, get a ROI in the medium and long term, where generic domains like these, when there is more and more information on the web, will have a higher values.

There are also Northamerican banks which accept first level domains as bank warranties, something like the houses or terrains are used commonly in Spain.

How far are Spanish banks and enterprises from that behaviour!
We must be more patient … no other option.