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.

Tue 29th April 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy eliminates email support in preference of phone, chat - Company says customer satisfaction is higher with phone and chat support. GoDaddy has stopped offering support by email for U.S. customers, instead pushing them to phone and chat support options. Nick Fuller, Communications Manager at GoDaddy.com, told Domain Name Wire that the company made the switch after reviewing customer behavior and satisfaction scores: We’ve seen a shift in the way our customers engage and while talking to a ‘real person’ on the phone ... read more ...
Mon 28th April 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain parking is down, though not dead - Survey shows domain parking is still a key to the domain business, even if much smaller than before. Rook Media’s acquisition of DomainSponsor proves that the domain name parking market is still alive and kicking. Just not like it was many years ago. Despite pessimism and declining earnings, domain parking still makes up a big part of the domain investing market. 39% of survey takers reported an RPM (revenue per thousand) below $10, with 56% reporting below $20. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Whoa: Chinese IDNs rocket in initial day - Two Chinese IDN domain names have 50,000 registrations after first partial day of general availibility. [Note: TLD Registry provided registration numbers this morning that later turned out to include registry reserved domain names. The initial numbers were about twice the updated ones in this story.] The Chinese IDN new TLD .在线, which means “online” in Chinese, had 54,011 33,012 domain names under management as of this afternoon, according to TLD Registry. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
10 some-more new TLDs strike a marketplace this week. 1 will be a large flop. - Nine more new top level domain names enter general availability this week, including one that is going to have a miserable launch. The week is already off with a bang thanks to the two most successful first day new TLD launches so far. TLD Registry released Dot Chinese Online (.在线) and Dot Chinese Website (.中文网) this morning. Tomorrow .build launches with a suggested retail price of $99. On Wednesday five of Donuts’ domain names go into regularly-priced ... read more ...
Fri 25th April 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
This week’s Expired Domain Report - [Editor’s note: this is Domain Name Wire’s first weekly expired domain name report, written by Joseph Peterson. Your feedback is welcome in the comments.] Last week, as always, expired domain auction sites were bustling with bids — some of them real. Here are a couple of interesting pending-delete results from NameJet: $510    Paris-Ile-De-France.com $90     NameSlaw.com (or NamesLaw.com?) Île-de-France is the wealthiest of 27 French districts, dominated ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign withdraws IDN focus and explains dump in .com/.net growth - Verisign cites a number of headwinds in its existing TLD business while it withdraws one of its IDN applications. Verisign held its quarterly investor conference call yesterday after releasing it first quarter earnings. The company processed 8.6 million new registrations across .com/.net, compared to 8.8 million in the same quarter a year ago. The renewal rate also dipped. Here’s what Verisign discussed on the call. Why the growth rate is shrinking Verisign blamed ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Frank Schilling beats $200 billion medical hulk Novartis in UDRP - 9 year delay in filing UDRP hurts pharma company’s claim of disruption to its business. Frank Schilling has successfully defended the domain name ClearCare.com in a UDRP filed by Novartis AG. Novartis, which has a $200 billion market cap, offers a line of contact lens cleaning solutions under the name Clear Care. Schilling (through attorney John Berryhill) noted that his business involves registering expired domain names and parking them with ad links unrelated ... read more ...
Thu 24th April 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Club and dual Chinese new tip turn domains have about $500k in reward sales - A few top level domain names have sold an impression amount of premium domains prior to general availability. Here are three new top level domain names to keep an eye on: .Club, .在线 and .中文网. .Club Domains is an “all-in” registry, meaning it has only one new TLD to offer. The company raised $7 million and spent a decent amount in a contention set auction for the domain. Still, it has millions of dollars to spend on marketing. For example, it has paid ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo’s finish user domain name sales - Sedo sold a number of domain names to end users last week. Sedo sold 513 domain names last week for a total of $1 million. Here are some domain names purchased by end users. (You can view previous end user sales lists here.) BBCStore.co.uk 810 GBP – Broadcaster BBC Golf.academy $2,000 – New Media Golf Corporation Soundtrack.fm $1,000 – the publisher of Soundtrack.net NativeOil.com $2,995 – Medicine Stone Petroleum Svcs, LLC ENSGroup.com $2,000 – IT company ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain registrars wish some-more business? Focus on confidence and price. - Survey shows that security and price remain top customer considerations. Domain name registrars looking to grow their business need to focus on two key things: security and price. That’s according to this year’s Domain Name Wire survey. Really the past eight annual versions of the survey, too. 34% of respondents said security was their primary consideration when selecting a domain name registrar. 29% said price was most important. Here’s a weighted ranking of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The usually thing Blake Irving points during elephants is a camera - GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving is doing a Reddit AMA. GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving is doing an Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Reddit right now. It’s a pretty gutsy move given the typical Reddit user and their stance toward GoDaddy. I suppose that’s the point. Comments have been basically what you’d expect: the company’s initial support of SOPA, the founder shooting elephants and racy commercials. Most of these are easy to defend since Blake wasn’t around when these happened. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.City row set resolved during a high price - Many new TLD contention auctions were held this week. There were a number of new top level domain name contention set auctions this week, although details on winners are scant thus far. .Garden, .property, and .yoga were set for auction on Tuesday. I haven’t been able to figure out the winners yet, although I’m sure publicly traded Minds + Machines (a participant in all three) will issue a press release as soon as everything is settled. I’ve learned that Donuts ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign reports negligence .Com/.Net registrations in Q1 - New registrations and renewal rate dip. Verisign reported first quarter earnings today after the bell. The company reported revenue of $249 million, a 5% increase from the first quarter of 2013. The company added 1.28 million net new names during the first quarter to .com and .net, ending the quarter with 128.5 million active domain names in the zone. Some other metrics weren’t as rosy. Verisign processed 8.6 million new domain name registrations for .com and .net ... read more ...
Wed 23rd April 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
15 finish user domain name sales adult to $42,500 - Trade360.com leads list of end user domain name sales. GoDaddy and Afternic sold nearly $2 million worth of domain names last week. Here’s a list of 15 that were sold to end users. You can view previous end user sales lists here. Trade360.com $42,500 – A New York firm called Trade360. JSA.com $25,000 – Jackson Square Aviation in San Francisco. I think it got a good deal. BuyDomains was the seller. TouchLamps.com $4,999 – The online lamp seller that was using ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2014 Domain Name Wire Survey: By a Numbers - 251 people from 36 countries participated in this year’s survey. Over the next week or two I’ll post a series of stories with the results from this year’s Domain Name Wire survey. I’d like to start by thanking each and every person who took the survey. 251 people from 36 countries responded this year. That’s fewer than in previous years because this year’s survey didn’t have any voting for companies. However, I think the quality of response was higher. The ... read more ...
Tue 22nd April 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
My-Art.com owners gets MyArt.com in second try UDRP - Domain transfer (that didn’t actually happen) resets the clock for registration date. My Art, a French company that operates the website My-Art.com, has convinced a Czech Arbitration Court UDRP panelist to order the transfer of the domain name MyArt.com. This is the second time My Art has filed a UDRP against the domain name. My Art lost a case it filed in 2011 because the registrant of the domain name had registered it in 1996, well before the company had a trademark ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Three domain name blogs rebrand - Two blogs combine in merger and another changes its name. Three domain name industry blogs have rebranded over the past week. Two are accounted for in a merger between Shane Cultra’s blog Domain Shane and Aaron Wilkin’s Accidental Domainer. The new blog is officially called Domain Shane + Accidental Domainer, but you can access the site at the shorter domain DomainShane.com. The merged blog has an updated pinterest-style design as well. Raymond Hackney has rebranded ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Network Solutions patents domain purchasing system - Patent for domain purchasing system granted ten years after application was filed. Network Solutions, now part of Web.com, has received a patent for its Certified Offer service…ten years after applying for it. Network Solutions applied for the patent titled “Certified Offer Service for Domain Names” back in 2004. It was rejected multiple times, but the company successfully amended and appealed. The service lets customers make an offer on a domain name that is ... read more ...
Mon 21st April 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dot London and Dot NYC holding dual opposite approaches - Dot NYC much more restricted than Dot London. Two .city domain names are getting ready to enter their first phase of rollout: .London and .NYC. This will be a big moment in the new top level domain name program. Many people, including myself, think .city domain names have the biggest chance for success. Despite being much smaller than London and New York City, .berlin has already captured close to 50,000 registrations (although many of those were given away for free). Dot ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Pricing a latest new TLDs: NameCheap is Cheap - NameCheap’s pricing for new TLDs is low. Two months ago I ran a price comparison of new top level domain name options at various top registrars. The prices were for the three tiers of domains offered by registry Donuts. Many more domains have come out since then, often offered by registries other than Donuts. Today I ran another comparison based on four non-Donuts domains. In many ways the results were very similar to the Donuts comparison. NameCheap lives up ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rook Media acquires DomainSponsor - Oversee.net has sold DomainSponsor and its domain name portfolio to Rook Media. One of the largest domain name parking companies has been acquired. Rook Media has acquired domain name parking company DomainSponsor from Oversee.net, the companies confirmed today. DomainSponsor is one of the oldest domain parking companies, serving customers since 2002. Rook, on the other hand, just launched in 2011. Rook was founded by former employees of NameDrive, a parking company ... read more ...
Fri 18th April 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Afilias’ new tip turn domain names have really delayed initial day - Color me surprised. Afilias launched its first six new top level domain names yesterday, and I’d rate it as the worst first day performance of any portfolio applicant. I’m basing this on changes to the zone files. Here are the six domains Afilias’ launched in general availability yesterday with how many domains they added to the zone and the current total: .red 289 to 341 .blue 205 to 270 .移动 142 to 231 (Chinese simplified for Mobile Phone) .pink 156 to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Bitcoin association among finish user buyers during Sedo final week - A bitcoin company bought a domain at Sedo last week. Sedo had a solid sales week last week with $1.3 million worth of sales. Here are ten that were purchased by end users. You can view previous end user sales lists here. Coinify.com $10,000 – BitCoin Nordi, a bitcoin seller. ForzaFootball.com $1,900 – FootballAddicts AB, creator of Forza Football app with soccer scores and highlights. SketchDeck.com $800 – the owner of Sketch-Deck.com, a presentation design ... read more ...
Thu 17th April 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Marketing and .Holiday any collect adult 2,000+ domains on initial day - First day .Marketing numbers seem rather low. Donuts launched .marketing and .holiday into general availability yesterday (post the Early Access phase), with both picking up over 2,000 registrations in the first partial day. .Marketing picked up 2,564 domains to hit 2,970 and .holiday added 2,125 to reach 2,341. These numbers are from the zone files, and the actual registrations are probably slightly more than this. I was expecting more from .marketing. Lots of existing ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Panelist digs adult pivotal fact in Massy.com UDRP - Intent-to-use trademark does in complainant. Neal Massy Holdings, a business conglomerate operating in the Carribean, has lost a UDRP it filed against the domain name Massy.com. Massy.com is owned by domain investor Gregory Ricks. Ricks defended himself without counsel in the UDRP. He made a good defense, pointing out that the domain name is a dictionary word that he registered 14 years ago. He overlooked one key thing, though. Panelist Paul M. DeCicco found this ... read more ...