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 6th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Verisign reports income expansion and 8.2 million new domain registrations in Q4 - Verisign continues to grow and take in fat margins. .Com and .net domain name registry Verisign reported earnings after the bell today. Revenue for Q4 2013 was up 7% compared to the same quarter a year before, and overall 2013 revenue was up 10% compared to 2012. The operating margin in Q4 was down compared to Q4 2012, but it was up for the year. It was still quite fat at 53% in Q4. From a domains perspective, Verisign processed 8.2 million new domain name registrations ... read more ...
Wed 5th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Teamwork.com customer explains because $675,000 was a intelligent investment - Company’s CEO says valuable .com domain gives it more credibility and help it grow sales. TeamworkPM recently bought the Teamwork.com domain name for $675,000 and is rebranding its business around the domain name. I previously caught up with Alex Lerman, who sold the domain name. This week I also had the chance to speak with Peter Coppinger, co-founder and CEO of TeamworkPM, to understand why his company spent $675,000 on the domain name. Coppinger said it took ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
30 finish user domain name sales - A water company, soundproofer, and African conglomerate all bought domain names last week. Here are 30 end user domain names sales that occurred on Afternic or GoDaddy last week. You can see previous end user sales reports here. SavannahGroup.com $1,000 – Savannah Group, a conglomerate doing business in Africa, which also owns SavannahGroup.co. WrightChoice.com $1,660 – Wright Choice Painting in Modesto, CA. They use WrightChoicePaintingCA.com for their web ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
10 takeaways from new tip turn domain name morning durations so far - Here are ten things to think about after 15 top level domain names have completed their sunrise periods. 14 of Donuts’ domain names as well as شبكة. have gone through sunrise so far. Only one of the fifteen domains received more than 200 sunrise registrations. Add to that Donuts’ Domain Protect Marks List, and you can argue the number is a bit higher, but still less than 1,000 or 1,500 per domain. Here are my key takeaways: 1. Intellectual property owners ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Paris Hilton wins box to take down sex video site - Arbitration panel sides with celebrity in domain name dispute. Socialite Paris Hilton has won a cybersquatting case she filed against the owner of a site that offered her sex tapes. Hilton filed the case with World Intellectual Property Organization against the owner of parishiltonpornvideos.com last year. The decision was just handed down in her favor. Unless the owner of the site files a lawsuit, that means the domain name will be transferred to Hilton within ten ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New TLDs are here though domain hunt isn’t prepared yet. Here are 4 examples. - Domain name registrars aren’t ready to suggest new TLDs to customers. As of 11 am EST today, the first set of Latin script new top level domain names came to market. None of this “Early Access Program” stuff. Just show up, find the domain you want, and register it for regular prices just like other domains. Unfortunately for Donuts, which owns the seven top level domain names now available, none of the registrars are ready for the big shift in domain name search. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Watch Kevin Newman talk Bill Sweetman about new TLDs on CTV - Bill Sweetman discussed new top level domain names on CTV. I don’t know much about Canada, other than it’s a cold place where everyone plays hockey. Even though I don’t know much about it, I know CTV is a pretty big channel. That’s because Wikipedia tells me it is Canada’s largest privately owned network. I also hear Kevin Newman is a pretty well known news anchor up there. So props to Name Ninja Bill Sweetman for being interviewed in a segment about new ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Guru rockets to over 10,000 domain names - .Guru tops 10,000 domain name registrations and Donuts now has around 25,000 registered second level domain names. People placed a lot of pre-orders for new top level domain names… On the first day of general availability, the .guru namespace grew to over 12,000 domain names, based on zone files published this evening. At over 10,000 strings second level domains, they pretty much cover the spectrum. And yes, some trademarks were registered by people other than ... read more ...
Tue 4th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
LeadsCon owner and former DomainSponsor worker launches Grow.co - Jay Weintraub starts his next company: Grow.co. Jay Weintraub, who founded and later sold the popular LeadsCon conference for the lead generation industry, has started a new company called Grow.co. Weintraub was an early employee at Oversee.net/DomainSponsor prior to founding LeadsCon. Grow.co aims to be a community for “customer acquisition marketers.” Weintraub describes this as a “nascent community,” but he has a habit of jumping on trends that explode ... read more ...
 
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Sedo co-founders deposit in App marketplace Apptopia - Tim Schumacher and Ulrich Essmann invest in Apptopia. Tim Schumacher and Ulrich Essmann, two of Sedo’s founders, are no strangers to building a marketplace. The pair hope to put this background to good use by investing in Apptopia, which they describe as a “Sedo for Apps.” They led a bridge financing round that also includes Kima Ventures, Eric Kagan, Telegraph Hill Capital and Rothenberg Ventures. Much like Sedo does for domain owners, Apptopia allows app publishers ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
With film in a works, studio goes after Entourage Movie domain names - EntourageMovie.com and EntourageFilm.com hit with UDRP. Filming has begun for the big screen adaptation of the HBO hit show Entourage, which follows movie star Vincent Chase and his entourage. Someone behind the film–most likely the movie studio– HBO has filed a cybersquatting complaint with the National Arbitration Forum against the domain names EntourageMovie.com and EntourageFilm.com. Both domain names are registered to a Florida man, Cody Thompson, although ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Does a UDRP do some-more mistreat than good? - In this post, Nat Cohen makes the argument that damage caused by the UDRP outweighs its benefits. Why are we weakening ownership rights throughout the entire Internet space and subjecting millions of dollars of domains to attempted seizures each year so that mostly low value cybersquatted domains can be removed from circulation? The UDRP is gaining popularity as a means for companies to seize valuable domains without paying for them. So many companies are now using ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Calzone creates monitoring new TLD launches easier - Did you know that there are about 60 top level domain names in sunrise right now? Yes, 60. This many domain name launches at once is difficult to track. Add to it early access programs, landrush, general availability, trademark claims periods, etc., and it is quite confusing even for domain name experts. Enter Calzone, a free TLD calendar that has formally launched after being in beta for a few months. Created by Thomas Barrett, president of domain name registrar ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts and Famous Four remove .rugby domain name match - Donuts and Famous Four lose .rugby match. Look closely at this picture and you might see Paul Stahura wincing in pain.The International Rugby Board (IRB) has effectively killed off its two competitors for the .rugby top level domain name by winning a community objection. The IRB filed the objection against competitors Donuts and Famous Four media. IRB’s objection made similar arguments as those in .basketball, .ski, and .sport/sports. The objectors lost the case ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts’ subsequent 7 sunrises: usually 2 tip 100 domain names - Based on zone files, only two of Donuts’ second batch of TLDs to go through sunrise topped 100 registrations. Last week I wrote about Donuts’ first seven sunrises, each of which typically resulted in about 100-200 registrations. The next batch of seven domain names has concluded sunrise, and the numbers are markedly lower: only two reached 100 domain names, according to the latest zone files. Now, as with last time, there are a lot of caveats with this data, and ... read more ...
Mon 3rd February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain registration agreements are removing longer interjection to new TLDs - There are a bunch of added terms specific to each new domain name. With the creation of dozens of new registries offering top level domain names, each of them having different rules (some of them even having different rules for each of their TLDs), domain name registration agreements are getting longer. These registration agreements have always had special terms thrown in for specific TLDs. For example, GoDaddy’s Domain Name Registration Agreement (itself part of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How to adjust your DomainNameSales.com comment for low labelled domain names - Here’s a way to segment your DNS account to handle low-priced sales by yourself. This weekend Frank Schilling’s domain name brokerage service, DomainNameSales.com, sent a notice to its customers that it is setting a minimum charge of $175 per sale when it brokers the sale. DomainNameSales (DNS) is a unique platform in that you can select any broker to handle your sales, but many have opted in to having DNS handle this. It charges just 12.5%. But with the new ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top 5 Domain Name Wire stories from January - Domain security, new TLDs, and two sessions from NamesCon were popular news topics last month. The first month of 2014 flew by, and there was plenty going on in the domain name business. Here’s a review of the top five stories on Domain Name Wire last month. 1. Network Solutions auto enrolls customers into $1,850 “WebLock” service – Network Solutions sent an email to some customers telling them they were going to be charged $1,850 for a new service. It later ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Auctions sole over 35,000 domain names including Spokes.com for $40,000 - GoDaddy Auctions helped sell over 35,000 domain names last month. GoDaddy Auction’s monthly market report is out, and it is reporting 35,209 sales for January. This preliminary number is typically adjusted upward later in the month. Here are the top ten sales from last month, some of which have already been reported in the company’s weekly sales lists: spokes.com $40,000 radiant.org $23,000 rottencredit.com $22,000 oair.com $20,100 myanmar.org $20,000 – purchased ... read more ...
Sun 2nd February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Super Bowl ads once opposite put domain biz in a spotlight - GoDaddy’s Super Bowl commercials are very different this year. It’s Super Bowl Sunday, and that means the domain name industry will be getting some broad attention this evening. GoDaddy has been advertising in the Super Bowl since 2005, and will once again run two Super Bowl ads tonight. In the first half, GoDaddy will run its “Surprise” commercial in which a real person will apparently quit their job in front of the entire Super Bowl audience. According to ... read more ...
 
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How GoDaddy found Gwen, a lady who quit her pursuit in a Super Bowl Commercial - How GoDaddy found is puppet master. GoDaddy’s first half Super Bowl Commercial tonight featured Gwen Dean, who announced in the commercial that she was quitting her job to follow her dreams of running a puppeteer business. That’s a heck of a way to start a business, especially when 100 million people see your web address, PuppetsByGwen.com. I’m sure lots of people would appreciate the same exposure. So just how did Gwen end up being the “lucky quitter?” It ... read more ...
Fri 31st January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TLDH raises $33.6 million for new tip turn domain name auctions - New TLD applicant building war chest to resolve contention sets. Top Level Domain Holdings, a publicly trade portfolio applicant for new TLDs, has conditionally raised £21 million (approximately US $33.6 million) to help it resolve new TLD contention sets. After the investment, the company will have over $48 million in cash available. This does not include an up to $15 million investment that will be used for resolving the contention set of one domain name it has ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Why cybersquatting won’t be a large understanding in new TLDs - Cybersquatting is motivated by profit, and it will be difficult to make money cybersquatting on new TLDs. Much of the talk and consternation over introducing new top level domain names has focused on protections for intellectual property owners. Trademark holders have been worried about having to protect their brands in hundreds of new domain name extensions. When it comes to cybersquatting, I think it’s clear that it won’t be nearly as big of a deal as it has ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Digging in on Donuts’ Sunrise: Amazon tops a list, gaming, and tip registrars - Here’s a look at the top registrants and registrars, plus details on possible gaming and EAP day one registrations. Last night I published initial data about Donuts’ sunrise period on its first seven domain names. This was based on names in the zone files that were published last night. As I mentioned in my previous post, the number of names in the zone file should be considered the lower bound of names that were actually registered in sunrise. I’ve already ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NC State University loses domain name brawl for Wolfpack.com - Arbitration panel rules that NC State shouldn’t get Wolfpack.com domain name. North Carolina State University, whose athletic teams are called the Wolfpack, has lost a domain name arbitration case for the domain Wolfpack.com. The university filed the case against a company that registered the domain name in 1997. The university argued that the domain name was registered for the purpose of selling it, and used an unsolicited 2007 letter from the domain owner offering ... read more ...