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.

Wed 20th January 2016
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China has been a blessing. Will it be curse? - China’s hunger for domain names has lifted all boats. What happens as the tide recedes? There’s no doubt that China has had a profound impact on the domain name industry over the past 6-12 months. Chinese buyers have enriched people with short domain names and also boosted revenue at domain name marketplaces and registries. How big of an impact? Take a look at these two slides: The first image shows how much business Escrow.com receives from China. The second shows that over half of Domain Name ... read more ...
 
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24 finish user domain name purchases - Here are some end users that purchased domain names over the past couple of weeks. I didn’t have time to do the end user domain sales list last week since I was in Las Vegas for NamesCon, so you get a double issue this week! Sedo handled just over 1,300 domain name transactions during this period for a total of $2.4 million. Among the end users buying domain names were Beachbody and Chicago Board Options Exchange. Here’s a look at these end user domain name sales from the past week: (You can ... read more ...
 
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SnapNames goes to China - A report from the CNNIC Partner Conference in Guangzhou. Tom Jennings and Barb Sher (SnapNames) pose with Daniel Zhang from XinnetDomain name marketplaces are making a lot of money from Chinese buyers these days (more on that later), and it makes sense for these companies to visit with their buyers. After NamesCon, Tom Jennings and Barb Sher of SnapNames traveled to China to visit with customers. Director of Business Development for SnapNames Tom Jennings filed this report: The business development ... read more ...
Tue 19th January 2016
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The DNW NamesCon recap - Here are my takeaways from last week’s event in Las Vegas. What a way to kick off the year in the domain name business. Last week’s NamesCon conference in Las Vegas attracted over 1,000 people. Enthusiasm, driven in part by a strong finish to 2015 thanks to China, was high. That’s a lot of people. The record attendance was a good thing, but it also created a couple of challenges. Freelancer.com CEO Matt Barrie reveals Escrow.com stats.In general, there were no issues finding a seat at sessions ... read more ...
 
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I'm offered domains on NameJet - For the first time in over 5 years, I’m trying my hand at selling domain names on NameJet. I’ll report back about how it goes. Here are some of the domains I am selling: Cathleen.com – I might have set the reserve too low, but I’ll let the market decide. AfricanAmericans.com – Registered in 1997, this was one of iREIT’s notable domains in one of its acquisitions. VietnamWar.com – another 1997 registration with lots of potential. I also have two good product names — PennyLoafers.com ... read more ...
 
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This week's new TLDs: Don't splash and drive - If you don’t like the wine and automotive domain names launching this week, you can leave .feedback. It’s a fairly active week for new to level domain names with six seven domains entering general availability, including a handful that don’t mix. Jay Westerdal’s Top Level Spectrum launched the .feedback domain name on Monday. Each domain comes with a free online feedback platform. MSRP is $39.95 per year. Rightside launches .Family on Wednesday, and you can buy the domains for about $25. After ... read more ...
 
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NamesCon auction was a entrance out celebration for new TLDs - Over 30 domains under nTLDs sold last week, and some for high prices. The live portion of last week’s Right of the Dot domain name auction at NamesCon delivered about $1.5 million of sales. New top level domain names accounted for just over 20% of this dollar figure. I think this was a huge moment for new top level domain names on the aftermarket. I know a lot of people will point out that some of the domains sold were among the very best for each top level domain. This is true. But to watch domains ... read more ...
 
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ICANN Plans to Track gTLD Marketplace Health - How are top level domain names doing? We might soon have a way to track them. ICANN has formed a working group to create metrics designed to assess the overall health of the marketplace for gTLDs. Preliminary documents indicate that the scope may include all gTLDs rather than just the ones commonly referred to as “new gTLDs.” Could this be the first step toward a tool that allows ICANN to forecast future revenue? Or for ICANN to use in deciding when to open the next round of gTLD applications? ICANN ... read more ...
Mon 18th January 2016
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Google Self-Driving Car: The X? - Google’s .car domain name registrations are more interesting than Apple’s. Everyone got in a tizzy a couple weeks ago about Apple registering .car domain names. This was stupid because Apple registers its brands in just about every new domain name that comes out. Google does the same — it registered Adsense.car, Alphabet.car and Google.car, among others. But it also registered a few generic/descriptive domains in .car, .cars and .auto. It registered SelfDriving.car, Self-Driving.car, Driverless.car, ... read more ...
 
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Tax-advantaged Domain Investing – DNW Podcast #67 - How to boost returns by deferring taxes. Taxes take a big chunk out of domain name investment returns. What if there was a way to defer taxes, and reinvest that money in more domains? It’s possible, and today’s guest Kirk Chisholm of Innovative Advisory Group explains how. Chisholm previously answered questions on a QA with Domain Name Wire. Also: NamesCon recap, Banana.com, Frank Schilling gives away domains, .Boston, GoDaddy investor app and .Club sales. Subscribe via iTunes to listen to the ... read more ...
 
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Expired Domain Report – NamesCon edition - Here’s what you might have missed in the expired domain market. Last week, much of the domain industry’s attention converged at NamesCon, including a live auction arranged by NameJet + RightOfTheDot. (Quite a successful auction, I might add.) Yet for all that buzz, in the background business went on as usual. After all, domainers don’t stop paying attention to valuable expired domains simply because registrars have a few new features to unveil! Here’s what sold at NameJet during that ... read more ...
Fri 15th January 2016
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Ziff Davis buys Offers.com - Publisher gets popular website–and killer domain name–with Offers.com acquisition. Offers.com CEO Steve Schaffer says a great domain name doesn’t ensure a successful business, but it definitely helps.Publishing company Ziff Davis, a division of publicly traded J2 Global (NASDAQ: JCOM) has purchased Austin company Offers.com. Offers.com is a coupon code and product deals site that attracts five million monthly unique visitors. I caught up with Offers.com founder and CEO Steve Schaffer this ... read more ...
 
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Why we shouldn't go bananas over Banana.com domain name "sale" - There’s a good reason to be skeptical of a $2 million banana.com domain sale. Last month there was a bit of a stir in the domain name industry about the Chinese buying one word English domain names for huge sums. A domain name auction in China resulted in 5 domain name “sales” of $2 million or more USD: Banana.com, House.com, Yao.com, GG.com and HG.com. While GG.com and HG.com might seem plausible, $2 million for banana.com seemed like a ridiculously high price. Some were skeptical. As it ... read more ...
 
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Vodex Communications nailed for retreat domain name hijacking - Serial entrepreneur defends 17-year-old domain name. California company filed a UDRP against a domain name registered many years before it existed.Serial entrepreneur Taro Gold has successfully defended his domain name Vodex.com in a UDRP. The panel found complainant Vodex Communications to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking by bringing the suit. Business telecom company Vodex Communications uses the longer VodexCommunications.com domain name, which it registered in 2012. The company registered ... read more ...
Thu 14th January 2016
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.Club sole $2.35 million in reward domain names final quarter - December not as big as November, but .Club has a great Q4. The Chinese domain name registration boom gave .Club a huge lift in Q4, with the registry selling $2.35 million of premium domain names. The company sold another $614,000 of premium domains in December, on top of the ridiculous $1.6 million it sold in November. Sales were boosted by the release of previously reserved domain names through the registrar channel, each with one-time registration premiums. How does this compare to the rest of ... read more ...
 
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Inside NameJet's record month - The journey to a record December at NameJet. Did you catch that? Maybe not. To really appreciate just how marvelous NameJet’s (podcast) performance was during December – indeed, throughout the whole of 2015 – let’s rewind and play things back in slow motion. Since mid 2011, NameJet has reported domain sales that clear over $2000. Early on, the auction platform announced as few as 49 domains per month; and during its first year the market place never surpassed 92. Less than 1/4 of months ... read more ...
 
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Impressive domain name stats from Escrow.com - Escrow.com provides data on transactions, including the impact of China. Freelancer.com CEO Matt Barrie (podcast) presented data from Escrow.com at NamesCon yesterday. There are some fascinating stats, especially when it comes to the impact of China. Escrow handled $430 million of payments in 2015: The average sales price of domain names transacted through Escrow.com has appreciated 7.3% per year: 4 letter domains have appreciated 9.3% per year over past ten years: And perhaps the most telling ... read more ...
Wed 13th January 2016
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GoDaddy launches Domain Investor App - App makes on-the-go bidding easier, even if you use two-factor authentication. GoDaddy has launched a new domain name investor app for the iPhone and Android, making it easier to watch and bid on domain names at GoDaddy Auctions. Mike McLaughlin, GM for Domains at the company, announced the app release during his keynote address at NamesCon today in Las Vegas. The app’s functionality is fairly simple. But it’s certainly much faster than logging into GoDaddy’s mobile site to bid, especially ... read more ...
 
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Lice, Chinese difference trending in .com - Lots of lice in .com last month. Verisign has published its monthly trending keywords report, showing the keywords making the biggest jump in domain name registrations compared to the prior month. Clinic came in at #1 on the list and Lice is #4. This is thanks to a whopping 1,600 domains registered by a lice removal clinic. It registered names such as LiceClinicsArlington.com and LiceClinicsIllinois.com. Other keywords on the list are likely related to the Chinese domain name registration surge. ... read more ...
Tue 12th January 2016
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How large is China? Big. - 57% of Domain Name Sales’ revenue coming from China. This morning at NamesCon, Domain Name Sales VP of Sales Jeffrey Gabriel showed a slide with sales data from the past year: Wow. 2% of leads generating 57% of the dollar volume of sales. That’s amazing. Gabriel compared this to leads from other countries. The U.S. accounts for about one-third of leads and one-third of sales and dollar volume. Leads from the UK convert higher, while those from India convert more poorly. ... read more ...
 
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Uniregistry digs into sum of new Market - Uniregistry team explains how the new Market system will work. This morning at NamesCon in Las Vegas, Uniregistry unveiled more details about its new marketplace that will be integrated with the Uniregistry registrar. John Smrekar, VP of Product of Uniregistry, explained that there are some issues with the existing Domain Name Sales (DNS) platform that will eventually be fully replaced by the Market. It was essentially built to manage Frank Schilling’s portfolio and was then adjusted to work for ... read more ...
 
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Lighting association Interlight is a retreat domain name hijacker - Poorly formed case was dead on arrival. Indiana company International Lighting Corporation has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking over the domain name Interlight.com. The company uses the domain Interlight.biz, and wanted to upgrade to the .com. However, its case was extremely poorly formed and it was dead on arrival: The owner of Interlight.com has owned it since 1997, well before the complainant received registered rights in the name. It claimed use of the mark dating to 1993 but ... read more ...
 
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This is what it looks like when Frank Schilling throws a celebration in Vegas -

Frank Schilling and Uniregistry hosted a celebration during Hakkasan in Las Vegas final night for NamesCon 2016 attendees. Sandeep Ramchandani of Radix and Statton Hammock of Rightside were guest DJs.

There’s another large celebration for discussion goers tonight, as a gift Water Night takes place during a venue Tropicana Hotel.

Via: domainnamewire.com

 
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Boston Globe sells .Boston domain name to Minds + Machines - Boston Globe sells .boston rights to new TLD company. Minds + Machines has acquired the .Boston top level domain name from Boston Globe Media, the company announced today. The acquisition price was not disclosed. The Boston Globe retains a 1% interest in the domain name, and it appears it will assist with promoting the domain name or using it. As a city domain name, Minds + Machines will also work with the city. Among its media properties, Boston Globe Media owns the Boston.com domai name. Minds ... read more ...
Mon 11th January 2016
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Frank Schilling unveils marketplace during keynote - Marketplace to replace Domain Name Sales solution. Frank Schilling unveiled the new Uniregistry marketplace during his keynote at Namescon today. Uniregistry users will be able to to manage sales of their domain names from within their Uniregistry account, rather than a third-party system. It’s designed to be a better experience than the company’s Domain Name Sales platform. The service will be available in early access starting Monday, January 18, with full access available February 1. Also ... read more ...