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.

Thu 11th February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Not Quite What You're Thinking: Tesila.com (Expired Domain Report) - Here are expired domain names that sold within the past week. Here’s something you’re going to see more and more as brands contend with the vagaries of foreign pronunciation and transliteration: Tesila.com ($14.0k). As you must have guessed, that price was based on an electric car company. But it’s not a typo. In Romania, there is a town called Teșila – evidently too small to appear in the list of cities with 2000+ residents. Small size notwithstanding, you can book a luxury ski hotel ... read more ...
Wed 10th February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Music domain name applicant fails in village bid - A second applicant fails to get community status for .music top level domain name. DotMusic Limited, an applicant for the .music top level domain name, has failed to pass its Community Priority Evaluation. Had it passed, the group would have automatically been awarded .music. Now an auction will be held to determine who gets to operate the domain name. The applicant scored 10 out of 16 points (pdf) on its application. 14 are necessary to get community status. It scored 0 out of 4 on “community ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign files opening brief in interest opposite .XYZ - David v. Goliath battle continues in appeals court. Verisign has filed its opening brief (pdf) with the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit, in its dispute with new top level domain name company XYZ. In October 2015, a federal district judge dismissed Verisign’s lawsuit against the operator of the .xyz domain name. Verisign subsequently appealed. Verisign argues that the district judge misapplied the standards for summary judgment and misinterpreted statements of fact. At the heart of Verisign’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
FundMe.com and GoFundMe.com in heading spat - Two similarly-named companies are on a collision course. Not to be confused with GoFundMe.The owner of FundMe.com has filed a lawsuit against personal fundraising site GoFundMe.com over the similarity of their names and trademarks, and a bit of nuance around types of crowfunding. FundMe.com has a trademark related to business funding. GoFundMe is a site for personal or charitable crowdfnding. Earlier this year, legal counsel for GoFundMe sent a cease desist letter to FundMe.com regarding FundMe.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Big companies recently purebred these domain names - Here are some interesting domain name registrations undertaken by large companies in recent days. Companies made a bunch of hand registrations and domain acquisitions the past couple days. Although none of them rise to the level of writing a dedicated article about them, I think it’s worth combining them into a single article… I don’t know what to make of the registration of MakeAmericaGreatAgainApp.com. It currently uses Mark Monitor’s whois privacy service, but Donald Trump‘s campaign ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Mobile phone use continues to lift Tucows - Domain names are the base, but mobile phone service contributes the most gross margin. Tucows, one of the largest domain name registrars, released fourth quarter and full year financial results yesterday. Fourth quarter revenue hit $45 million, with annual revenue of $173 million, up 17% from the prior year. While the company’s domain name business remains the biggest component of its revenue, all of the growth is coming from its Ting mobile phone service. And, for the first time, gross margin ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
China dominates new .com registration trends - Chinese names are a big hit in .com. Verisign has released its monthly trending keywords report, and words tied to China dominated last month. The list considers which keywords made the biggest jump in registrations from one month to the next. Here are the top ten for last month: 1. Jin 2. Fang 3. Yun 4. Bao 5. Rong 6. Smith 7. Lock 8. Che 9. Feng 10. Yin My grasp of Chinese is limited, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that people registered a lot of personal names. As for “Smith” ... read more ...
Tue 9th February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
January domain name sales in-depth - Joseph Peterson takes an in-depth look at January’s domain name sales on NameJet. January 2016 was a busy month for NameJet. Not only did the auction platform deliver its customary mix of expired domains and seller-managed inventory; it also handled the NamesCon auctions in conjunction with Right Of The Dot and (in many cases) a live auctioneer at the Las Vegas conference. In presenting these January sales data, I’ve decided to exclude all domains associated with NamesCon, whether they were ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts signs robbery understanding with MPAA - Agreement says Donuts will investigate piracy claims as a last resort. New top level domain name company Donuts has inked a deal with Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in which Donuts will investigate cases of large-scale piracy on the domain names it operates. The deal isn’t a rapid takedown sort of agreement. It only says that the MPAA will be a “Trusted Notifier” of movie piracy sites. If the MPAA gets no resolution from working with a domain name registrar and hosting company ... read more ...
Mon 8th February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What domain names to buy this week - Here are some good domain names you can order this week. Back in the day, I did posts about what upcoming expired domain names to backorder. I haven’t done these in a while, but my recent post about selling domains on NameJet sent about 400 clicks to NameJet in 24 hours. That, along with some requests, made me think there’s some value to this. For example, did you know that LegalTender.com was recently on a Sedo auction? I doubt it. Only three people bid in the auction. With that in mind, I’m ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN taps Göran Marby as new CEO - ICANN names new Chief Executive Officer to replace outgoing head Fadi Chehadé. ICANN announced this morning that it has hired Göran Marby as its new CEO. Marby is currently the Director-General of the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority. Prior to that, he co-founded security software company AppGate Network Security, where he served as CEO between 2002 and 2009. He is a Swedish citizen and currently lives in Stockholm. He will relocate to ICANN’s headquarters in Los Angeles. There will be a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Changing Your Website's Domain Name – DNW Podcast #70 - Here’s how one company switched its domain name. Changing your website’s domain name is scary. How will everyone find your website? What will happen to your Google search rankings? On today’s episode, we talk to someone who has successfully made this change, Jeff Gapinksi. Jeff’s company Huemor switched from a .com domain to Huemor.rocks. Even if you aren’t considering moving to a new TLD, what Jeff has to say still applies to any company moving from one domain name to another. Learn why ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN house resuscitates .Hospital tip turn domain name - Objection decision will be heard by new panel. ICANN’s board has approved a resolution that breathes new life into Donuts’ application to run the .hospital top level domain name. Back in 2013, an International Chamber of Commerce panel agreed with the Independent Objectors’ limited public interest objection to the .hospital top level domain name. It was a flawed decision that was inconsistent with similar objection decisions. Two members of the panel came up with their own rules for determining ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN cans Panama discussion over Zika fears - Mosquitos force relocation of June meeting. Late Friday, ICANN announced that it is moving this summer’s meeting scheduled for Panama City due to fears over the Zika virus. The non-profit posted a notice on its meetings page: ICANN56, scheduled to be held in Panama in June 2016, will be moved to another location due to the severity of the Zika Virus outbreak in the Latin America region. A search is currently underway to identify an alternate location where the Zika Virus is not a concern. We look ... read more ...
Sun 7th February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Taco Bell divulgence Quesalupa during Super Bowl & Quesalupa.com in tentative delete. - Matching domain name is about to drop. It looks like Taco Bell’s Super Bowl 50 ad this evening will unveil the Quesalupa. As the name implies, it’s a chalupa filled with cheesy goodness (and probably a bit of heartburn). I assumed Taco Bell would snap up the Quesalupa.com domain name ahead of running its 2016 Super Bowl commercial. Although Taco Bell doesn’t own the domain name, someone is about to snap it up. Quesalupa.com is currently in pending delete status. Someone at Yum! Brands might ... read more ...
Sat 6th February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Exclusive: GoDaddy's 2016 Super Bowl Ad! - Take a look at this year’s GoDaddy Super Bowl ad before the big game airs. In a worldwide exclusive for Domain Name Wire, we have obtained an advance copy of this year’s GoDaddy Super Bowl ad. GoDaddy has been advertising during the Super Bowl since 2005, and I can’t imagine what a Super Bowl would be like without the company’s controversial commercials. Many years GoDaddy had to switch its ad plans to please the censors, infuriating GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons. Last year’s ad didn’t ... read more ...
Fri 5th February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CentralNic co-founder retires from Board, Instra CEO joins - One of the founders of CentralNic is stepping down for his board duties. Domain name registrar and new top level domain name registry CentralNic announced two changes to its board today. Executive Director Robert Pooke has retired from the Board of Directors. Pooke was one of the founders of CentralNic and has been involved in the domain name industry since 1998. Desleigh Jean Jameson, Chief Executive of Instra Group, will join the Board as a Director. CentralNic acquired Instra for $24 million in ... read more ...
Thu 4th February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Kurt Pritz joins Allegravita - Former ICANN executive teams up with China consultancy. Kurt Pritz has joined Allegravita, a consulting firm led by Simon Cousins that helps companies in the Chinese market. Pritz held a number of positions at ICANN from 2003-2013, including overseeing the new top level domain name program. After leaving ICANN, he was executive director of the Domain Name Association. He left that role last year. Domain Name Association is a client of Allegravita, which is where Allegravita and Pritz became acquainted ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio get "Domain Name Bump" after Iowa - Interest in domain names related to Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio increase after vote in Iowa. Trump domain names are so last year. Following Ted Cruz’s win in the Iowa caucuses and Marco Rubio’s strong finish, both became popular names in newly-registered .com and .net domain names. The graph below (from Verisign DomainView) shows registrations including the candidates’ last names starting three days before the Iowa vote through this morning. New .com and .net registrations including “Trump” ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CHIPs, Numbers, and other lapsed domain name sales - Joseph Peterson analyzes the past week of expired domain name sales. Once again, China tops these charts – but not in the customary way. Rather than numerical domains, 4-letter “CHIPs”, or even Chinese Pinyin, we’re looking at an English domain about China: ChinaTech.com. The auction outcome itself ($4.7k) isn’t at all unusual, since domains that can serve as upgrades for multiple existing websites often fetch high prices. And that’s the case, based on brands like these: China-Tech.com ChinaTech.com.tw ChinaTechNews.com AllChinaTech.com ChinaTech.com.vn ChinaTechSourcing.co.uk etc. Yes, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company sues Vox Media, final TheVerge.com domain name - Indiana company that started as a meetup group says popular media site infringes its trademarks. An Indiana company has sued (pdf) Vox Media, publisher of the popular websites The Verge and Re/Code, claiming that the company is infringing its trademark for the term “Verge”. Indy Founders, LLC started a meetup group for entrepreneurs in 2011 and filed a trademark application that same year. It wasn’t a big group; the specimen submitted with its trademark application was a screenshot of its Facebook ... read more ...
Wed 3rd February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Gay domain name applicant denied again - ICANN Board Governance Committee denies one .gay applicant’s request for reconsideration. dotgay LLC has lost again in its attempt to get community status for its .Gay top level domain name application. The company lost its first bid for community status, and then got a second crack at the Community Priority Evaluation process because of a procedural technicality. It lost that bid as well. It then filed a request for reconsideration. ICANN’s Board Governance Committee just denied the request. Unfortunately ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Who bought what? End user domain name purchases - End user buyers include Fluor, which has a $6 billion market cap. Sedo handled 588 domain name transactions last week for a total of $1 million. A number of these domain names were purchased by end users, including the pricey acquisition of Choose.co.uk. Among other notable buyers, Engineering company Fluor bought a four letter domain name for one of its partnerships. Here’s a look at these end user domain name sales from the past week: (You can view previous lists like this here. If you’d ... read more ...
Tue 2nd February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Com Winners & Losers: Chinese registrars, Uniregistry continue surge - Chinese surge continues in latest .com reports ICANN has published Verisign’s registrar data for .com from October, and it shows the continued surge of registrations in China. Last month I wrote about how two Chinese domain name registrars, HiChina and eName, surged into the top 5 registrars worldwide for .com registrations. Both registrars remain in the top 5 in the latest report. Also, Uniregistry led the “net transfers in” board for the second month in a row. Its net new .com adds are relatively ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Huge C-Suite Shakeup during Sedo - Company will have new CMO, CSO and CFO. Sedo announced a slew of changes to its executive offices this morning. Solomon Amoako is stepping down from his role as North American Chief Sales Officer for personal reasons. Dima Beitzke will assume management of both the North American and International sales teams as Chief Sales Officer (CSO) Global. Christian Voss, who joined Sedo as Director Marketing PR in 2013, has been promoted to Chief Marketing Officer. Finally, Barbara Stolz will take over as ... read more ...