Author Archives: DomainNameWire

About DomainNameWire

Domain Name Wire is a blog that deals with the domain name sector. The blog covers a range of domain related topics ranging from issues concerning expiring domains, monetization, domain registries and registrars, ICANN, policy, law etc. The blog began in March, 2005, after Mr. Allemann had dropped out of meetings to become involved in domain portfolio company, iREIT. The project began as a hobby to keep him involved in the domaining business, and then became his full-time business.

Fri 13th November 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Expired Domain Name Report (It's a large one) - The Western domain market takes home gold, silver, and bronze medals this week. You’ll see a pair of 2-word English category killers and a short, word-based brandable. Wheelz.com ($7.1k) covers many existing brands – for niches as diverse as wheel chairs, roller skates, tires, and automobiles. Part of that domain’s value is intrinsic; but much of the bidding competition for such brandables is based on preexisting brands, any of which might buy. You might root for the motivational wheel-chair ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Renewal rates for new TLDs so far - Renewal rates seem to be in line with previous TLD launches. Dot London revealed its initial renewal rates today, reporting that 75.4% of the domain names registered during sunrise, landrush and day one of general availability were renewed. That means just shy of 29,000 of the 38,389 registrations were renewed. Renewal rates for domain names registered during sunrise and landrush are generally higher than other registrations. The same can usually be said for domain names registered on the first day ... read more ...
Thu 12th November 2015
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October: A Big Month for NameJet - …And China drove the growth October was probably NameJet’s best month overall. Remember, the market place set a record in July and then superseded it in September with cumulative sales from auctions over $2k reaching first $1.05 then $1.32 million. Last month ranks third behind those, but it’s just 2% shy of second place. Crucially, whereas the other 2 months each derived more than half their reported revenue from a single sale ($555k then $694k), October’s top auction ($142k) leaves bragging ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Interesting information on celebrities and domain names - .Fans registry runs the numbers on celebrity and fan sites. How many top sports starts own FirstnameLastname.com? What about popular actors and actresses? The company behind the .Fans top level domain name has collected some interesting data and shared it on its blog. Some of the more interesting findings: Players of individual sports (e.g. tennis) are more likely to have their own website matching their names than players of team sports (e.g. baseball). Of the top 100 highest paid athletes, 78% ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Here's because "Blab" was trending in .Com final month - Blab and Storage registrations driven by two companies. Verisign has published its top ten trending keywords in .Com last month, and #6 on the list is blab. Blab? Yes, blab. You might want to thank Colorado web design and social media firm Schloss Web Services for that. The company registered dozens of domain names like PhotographyBlabTalk.com, LetsBlabJesus.com, CocktailHourBlab.com and IntroductiontoBlab.com. I wonder if this is related to Blab.im? As for Storage being #3 on the list, you can thank ... read more ...
Wed 11th November 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Fixes "Make Offer" listings in hunt results - Listings will not longer show as auctions in the registration path. Last week someone emailed me asking for assistance buying a domain name. They told me they already tried to buy it after finding it was on auction at GoDaddy. They let me know that it had a $250 starting price, so they placed a bid. Then the auction ended and it was relisted, and they placed another bid. Anyone familiar with how Afternic listings integrate with GoDaddy knows that the domain was never really in an auction. Instead, ... read more ...
 
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NamesCon offers 24-hour discount, THE Domain Conference announces dates - A couple domain name conference discounts, one of which ends soon. If you’re interested in attending a domain name conference in 2016, take note. NamesCon just announced a special 24-hour price of $399 for tickets to January’s show. Even better, $200 from each ticket sold will be donated to a Las Vegas veterans charity. I’ve already booked my transportation and airfare for NamesCon, and look forward to seeing you there. Looking further into the future, THE Domain Conference has announced its ... read more ...
 
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Appellita: a new apparatus for anticipating domain names - Some innovative approaches to finding good domain names. There are a bunch of brand name and domain name generators on the web. Every once in a while, one comes along with a unique twist that makes it worth a look. That’s the case with Appellita, a new service that soft launched in last August. It was created by San Antonio entrepreneur Daisy Egeolu. Appellita, like basically all name generators, has a system that adds prefixes and suffixes to keywords to find domains. But it goes beyond that. Two ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
This man is totally stoked to get his domain name! (End User Report) - Car rental company Enterprise and a guy named Sam among those buying domain names this past week. What does it feel like when you’re able to acquire a domain name matching your common first and last name? This is what San Francisco resident Sam Bishop posted at SamBishop.com after acquiring the domain name: That’s the entire website. And I know the feeling! Sam was just one of many end users buying domain names at Sedo this past week. The company handled 788 domain name transactions for $1.3 ... read more ...
 
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Movius.com UDRP denied, though how is it not RDNH? - This is a pretty blatant “Plan B” UDRP filing. Movius Interactive Corporation of Johns Creek, Georgia, represented by Smith Risley Tempel Santos LLC, has failed in its UDRP attempt against the domain name Movius.com. The domain name is owned by branding firm Dynamo.com, which registered the domain name many years before the complainant started using the mark. From the get go, this seemed like a reverse domain name hijacking case. Consider that panelist Robert A. Badgley said the crux of the complainant’s ... read more ...
Tue 10th November 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign's .IDN priority duration identical to .Porn - Domains will be available during a limited matching period. Verisign has released more information about its IDN transliteration launches. As expected, the launches will include a Priority Access Program that allows existing registrants of second level domain names to buy matching domain names in the new IDN-as-.com extensions. This is similar to what ICM Registry did for .Porn, .Adult and .Sex. Verisign and ICM Registry had originally hoped to continually reserve matching domain names at the second ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How companies are regulating Black Friday domains - Few companies are using .BlackFriday domain names. It’s hard to believe that Black Friday is just a couple weeks away. One of the more interesting new top level domain names is .BlackFriday. It’s interesting because it refers to just a single day of the year. Will people build sites on top level domain names with a such a specific, time-constrained use? Even if it’s a huge e-commerce term? Google has indexed about 50,000 .blackfriday pages. Once you get to about page 9, most of the indexed ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Owner of Areas.com doesn't respond, loses domain name - Cybersquatting complaint successful in absence of response. The owner of Areas.com has lost the domain name in a UDRP after failing to submit a response. The complaint was brought by AREAS, S.A. of Barcelona, Spain. The company operates over 1,000 food and beverage outlets. The domain name owner, Andres Sanchez Garcia, lives in Sabadell, Spain. AREAS, S.A. showed that the domain name was confusingly similar to a mark in which it has rights. It also made out a prima facie case that the domain name ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
When a burble bursts… - What will drive the long-term value of short domain names? I’m ecstatic that Chinese buyers are snapping up short domain names. It’s great for the resale market, it’s great for registries (new and old) that are suddenly selling lots of registrations, and it’s great for the registrars. But I also give pause. After all, there are basically two things that give a domain name value: traffic and resale potential. Some of these short domain names get traffic. But not hundreds of thousands of them ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.News rings adult $1.4 million for Rightside - Rightside reveals numbers behind successful TLD, plus renewal rates. Less than 4 months after its general release, the .News domain name has generated $1.4 million in cash sales for Rightside (NASDAQ: NAME). On yesterday’s investor conference call, Rightside CEO Taryn Naidu reported that there are about 34,000 names registered in .News. The average wholesale price — which includes premiums — is $41. This brings the total to $1.4 million cash. (Revenue is recognized over time.) 1,000 of the ... read more ...
Mon 9th November 2015
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Rightside turns in record income in Q3 - Rightside posts record revenue, positive adjusted EBITDA. Rightside (NASDAQ: NAME), parent company of eNom, Name.com and owner of dozens of top level domain names, released earnings this afternoon. The company generated $54.1 million in Q3, a record for the company. It had a net loss of $(3.4) million for the quarter, but an adjusted EBITDA of $0.9 million. Rightside now expects an adjusted EBITA of $2.0-$3.0 million for the year, up from a break-even forecast. Rightside also received a net $1.7 ... read more ...
 
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Donuts CEO Paul Stahura – DNW Podcast #58 - With close to 200 TLDs, Donuts is trying to bring choice to the domain name market. Paul Stahura is co-founder and CEO of Donuts, the company that runs more top level domain names than any other company…by far. It currently has nearly 200 domain names available. On today’s show, Paul discusses how the company picked the 307 domains it applied for, the $150M+ it raised, pricing strategies for new domains an how he thinks the market for these domain names will unfold. Also: .Sony, GoDaddy earnings, ... read more ...
 
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Web.com changing ticker pitch from WWWW to WEB - 10 years after listing, Web.com gets matching ticker symbol. Web.com is ringing the closing bell on the NASDAQ today to celebrate its 10 year listing anniversary. The company is also making a big change to its stock — its changing its ticker symbol from WWWW to WEB. The symbol change will be effective tomorrow morning. While Web.com isn’t a household name to many in the domain name investing community, you’ve probably used its products and services. The company acquired SnapNames last year ... read more ...
Fri 6th November 2015
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GoDaddy obvious app describes mobile domain name send system - A faster, more secure way to transfer domain names for in-person transactions? Picture this: you’re at NamesCon in January when you strike a deal with a fellow domainer to sell a domain name to them. You both pull out your phones, activate an app, keep the phones near each other, and then click a few buttons to instantly transfer the domain name to them. That’s the basic idea of a patent application (pdf) by GoDaddy that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published yesterday. The application ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Expired Domain Report: Over 200 formula from past week - China dominated expired domain auctions last week, but this week the West reasserted itself. As many as 8 out of the top 20 auctions (40%) can still be laid on China’s doorstep; but previously the figure was 12 / 20 (60%). Since J-C.com ($4.2k) was purchased by someone in St. Louis, Missouri, that means the top Chinese sale – a 6-digit numerical domain – ranks only #7. Normally China wins at least 1 medal: gold, silver, or bronze. Unless this trend persists, I wouldn’t read too much ... read more ...
Thu 5th November 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty addresses cybersquatting, Whois - Countries would need a UDRP-like system for ccTLDs and online access to an accurate Whois. The text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty has been released, and it has a couple requirements related to the countries’ country code domain names. Article 18.28 addresses domain names (pdf). Each country that is a party to the treaty must offer a mechanism for handling cybersquatting claims that is along the lines of the UDRP. They also must offer “online public access to a reliable and accurate ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Another day, another "Google Listing" call - This time from Utah company Local Verifications. Last week I wrote about another company using robocalls to sell people on search engine services such as updating their Google business listing. Yesterday I received another one of these calls on my cell phone from a different company. This time the perpetrator was Utah company Local Verifications. The robocall, which came from a local number 512-999-7240, started with a message suggesting that I’m not the only person getting barraged with calls ... read more ...
 
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GoDaddy sole $1.4 million of domain names from Marchex portfolio final quarter - Company getting early results from domain name portfolio. GoDaddy released its Q3 earnings yesterday, and its 10-Q filing with the SEC gives some insight into how it is doing with the Marchex domain name portfolio. The company paid $28.1 million to acquire the portfolio of about 200,000 domain names in April. It’s also paying an earn-out. GoDaddy acquired three companies this year and discloses in its 10-Q that it recognized a liability of $0.9 million for earn-outs from these acquisitions. It’s ... read more ...
Wed 4th November 2015
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GoDaddy shares burst after hours on earnings, guidance - Wall Street applauds GoDaddy’s Q3 results. Shares in GoDaddy are up sharply after the company reported earnings this afternoon. GoDaddy shares are trading at $30.00 per share in after hours trading, up around 10% from its closing price today. The company reported a 15% jump in revenue year-over-year for the third quarter, while adjusted EBITDA was up 22.5%. The company bumped annual revenue guidance up as well. In other good news, annual revenue per customer was up 6.8% compared to the same quarter ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
At what cost would it make clarity to sell a DNW.com domain name? - I’ve never considered it before, but perhaps I should Three letter domain names continue to go up in value, and I receive daily offers from China for DNW.com. For the most part, this is a non-starter for me. After all, I use the domain name for this site. But at what price would it make sense to reconsider selling it? I don’t actually host the site on DNW.com. I use the domain name in a few ways: 1. A type-in shortcut to send people to DomainNameWire.com. 2. As a URL shortener. 3. Word-of-mouth. ... read more ...