I've always used real estate to explain my web business. Americans are (still, somehow) obsessed with real estate, so it goes over well.

Domain Names are land.

Websites/Apps that site on top of a domain name are houses.

A great house on a good piece of land in the nice part of town is what I try to own.

Sometimes I just buy the land and build my own house.

Sometimes I buy a really crappy house in a nice part of town and fix it up.