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 4th December 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Where did China go? - Where did China go? We’ve grown accustomed to seeing China claim around 40% of the top 20 sales; and Chinese-style domains usually rank very high in these charts – #2 last week, #1 the week before, etc. stretching far back into 2014. This time, however, none of the top 16 results are Chinese – none. Why? Human error is 1 explanation. My sampling at NameJet is never 100% complete. But that limitation affects all my weekly reports, and I would expect spotty data collection to cause ... read more ...
Thu 3rd December 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
China to make Real Name Verification on .Com Domain Names - The government of China is clamping down on registrants of .com domain names. Regulations that have prevented Chinese residents from using many new top level domain names will soon affect .com and .net domain name registrations, too. The rules will apply to .com and .net domain name registrations starting March 1, 2016, according to documents obtained by Domain Name Wire. At that time, domain name registrars in China will have to obtain Real Name Verification and Domain Name Verification for each ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Latest .Com Winners and Losers - Uniregistry and China continue to show good transfer results. ICANN has published Verisign’s registrar data for .com from August. As I do every month, I crunched the numbers to see which registrars performed best. Keep in mind that these reports are published after a three-month delay. So this post is about August’s results. Let’s start by reviewing which registrars added the most new .com domain name registrations: 1. GoDaddy* 891,979 2. eNom** 213,291 3. HiChina 146,490 4. PublicDomainRegistry ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Smart and timely selling from .XYZ - Company continues to jump on demand from Chinese investors. The market for short and numeric domain names is hot right now, and smart top level domain name registries are marketing to this opportunity. Consider .XYZ, which posted a page showing availability of its short domain names — and even providing downloadable lists of available domain names in each category: Short, generic domain names that have priced themselves aggressively (especially in China) seem to be reaping the benefits of the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How to deposit in domain names by an IRA or 401(k) - Investing in domain names through a retirement account might allow you to defer taxes. A nest egg full of domain names?Earlier this week I introduced UpMoney, my new site about investing, spending and saving. In one of the posts I interviewed Kirk Chisholm, Principal of wealth management firm Innovative Advisory Group, about investing retirement funds in alternative assets. I was a bit surprised when he mentioned domain names as a potential investment. I asked him for more information about this ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Club sells $1.6 million in reward domains in one month - In one month, Chinese buyers more than double .Club’s premium sales to date. Boom! .Club sold over $1.6 million in premium domain names last month alone, more than it had sold in entirety since its launch. The registry has China to thank. The company sold a seven-figure package to a Chinese domain name investor, including 1.club, 6.club and 9.club. .Club sold 246 domain names in package deals during the month, including some keyword names as well as N, NN, NNN, L and LL names. It also held successful ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment is securing domain names… - Do domain name registrations signal something new? On this week’s end user domain name report, I noted that AmblinProduction.com sold for $998. The domain name currently shows Mark Monitor as the registrant, so it was likely purchased for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment. Yesterday, the company also registered these domain names: amblindigital.com amblinfest.com amblinfestival.com amblingames.com amblininteractive.com amblinmovies.com amblinsocial.com amblintelevision.com amblintv.com amblinvr.com This ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Mobile phone association Digicel fails to take down "sucks" site - Cybersquatting complaint against gripe site fails. The non-commercial gripe site at DigicelSucks.com.Mobile phone company Digicel, which is based in Jamaica, has failed to take down the gripe site DigicelSucks.com through a cybersquatting complaint. The site consists of commentary abut the mobile carrier along with aggregated tweets of people bashing Digicel. Digicel was quick to file a UDRP cybersquatting complaint against the domain name. DigicelSucks.com was registered on October 12 of this year, ... read more ...
Wed 2nd December 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Appraisal fraud still creation a rounds - After all these years, it’s still going strong. It’s one of the oldest scams in the books, and apparently it’s still working. The domain appraisal scam goes like this: someone says they’re interested in buying your domain name, and they think it’s worth a lot of money. But before they can go through with the purchase, you need you to get an appraisal from a specific service. Once they get a validation of the value, they promise to buy the domain name. Once you pay for the appraisal, however, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Frank Schilling invests another $1 million in Rightside - Domain name investor buys more shares, and has made a small profit. A company connected to domain name investor Frank Schilling has purchased another 150,000 shares of Rightside (NASDAQ: NAME) stock, increasing his interest in the company to 6.1% of shares outstanding. An SEC filing reveals that Schilling has paid a total of $8,387,181, including brokerage commissions, to acquire his stake. That means he has paid an average of $7.24 per share. Shares are trading for about $8.00 right now, so Schilling ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales expostulate 35,000 Radix domain name registrations - New TLD company reports holiday sales drove increase volume. Deep discounts and added exposure helped new top level domain name registry Radix get 35,000 registrations over four days. The company deeply discounted prices on its domain names, with many registrars offering its domain names for as little as 99 cents, from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. Many registrars offered .Tech and .Online for about $5.00, with $1.00 pricing for .website, .space and .site. The company also benefited from added exposure ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What domain names Cox Media, Steinway and other finish users bought final week - From DoorMint.com to SouthernKitchen.com, here are some end user domain name purchases from the past week. Sedo had yet another strong week of sales led by short domain names. It handled 832 transactions for $1.4 million in sales. Sales to end users included some new TLDs, such as Robots.life and Production.club. Here’s a look at end user domain name sales from the past week on Sedo: (You can view previous lists like this here. If you’d like to learn how to sell your domain names like these on ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign CEO discusses 2018 .com agreement renovation and cost increases - Bidzos says it’s early to speculate about contract renewal, but cites two factors that might allow it to raise .com prices in the future. Will Verisign be able to increase .com prices when it renews its contract for the domain name in 2018? Verisign’s 2006 contract gave it the right to increase .com prices 7% in 4 out of the 6 years of its contract. It agreed to a similar deal with ICANN in 2012, only to have the U.S. Department of Justice step in and say that the new six-year contract shouldn’t ... read more ...
Tue 1st December 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dear Freelancer.com, don't disaster adult Escrow.com - Escrow.com has a bright future ahead of it, as long as new ownership makes the right moves. Dear Freelancer.com, Congratulations on your acquisition of Escrow.com. It is a great company that just about everyone in the domain name industry uses, and uses often. When you bought Escrow.com for $7.5 million, I knew you didn’t have a goal of merely milking the cash cow. As your CEO Matt Barrie told me on the Domain Name Wire Podcast, you want more. You want to grow the company. That makes sense. But ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
It's #GivingTuesday, though this classification wasn't really charitable - Charity technology provider makes ridiculous arguments in a UDRP. It’s fitting that WIPO just published a UDRP decision for networkofgiving.com (and .org) on #GivingTuesday. The complaint was filed by Edatanetworks Inc., a company that provides customer loyalty technology and counts charities as its clients. It claims to have used the “Network of Giving” marks since about 2007…two years after the current registrant of the corresponding domain names registered them. The current registrant ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
7 things Domainers should do before a finish of a year - A December checklist for domain name investors. It’s December 1, which means the end of the year is rapidly approaching. With that in mind, here’s a checklist of things for domain name investors to complete before the end of the year. 1. Run a preliminary income statement. Knowing where you stand so far this year will help you optimize for taxes…and estimate your bill. 2. Renew, renew, renew. Depending on the tax regime where you live and your accounting method (e.g. cash accounting), now ... read more ...
Mon 30th November 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.XYZ's Negari and Ambrose now possess 5% of Rightside - CXOs at .XYZ have invested $8.6 million in Rightside. First it was Frank Schilling. Now two other domain name industry insiders are disclosing ownership in publicly traded domain name company Rightside. .XYZ founder and CEO Daniel Negari and COO Mike Ambrose disclosed a combined 5.2% ownership in Rightside today in an SEC filing. The disclosure is mandated because they now own more than 5% of the company. Negari paid about $4.5 million for his 2.7% stake in the company, representing 511,885 shares. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
So far, my "For Sale" usually landers have drawn a wrong form of inquiries - People submit offers for domain names when they don’t mean to. A couple months ago I switched some of my domain names on Domain Name Sales from PPC landers to “for sale” landing pages. I was curious if this would increase the number of inquiries on my domain names. The short answer is yes, but most of these inquiries have been from confused people. If you park your domain names, you already know that a lot of confused people contact you about them. They fill out forms asking for support, refunds, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Introducing UpMoney - A new site about spending, saving and investing. I’m excited today to announce the launch of UpMoney℠, a new site about…money. Simply put, UpMoney is a site for people who have money. This isn’t a snobby 1% thing; It’s a site for the 25% of people who have savings and are confronting the challenges of growing their wealth. Whether you have a small nest egg or millions, UpMoney is a resource for investing, saving and spending. Want to get more enjoyment from your spending? Learn how to invest ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Whoa, this association totally doesn't know UDRP - Company says .Com domains must be used commercially, and offers to pay money in return for getting a domain name through UDRP. BURRI public elements AG of Glattbrugg, Switzerland has filed one of the most misguided UDRPs I’ve ever seen. The company filed a UDRP against Markus Burri, also of Switzerland, to try to get the domain name Burri.com. The complainant argued: The Respondent has no legitimate interests in respect of the disputed domain name, because he is not using it for commercial purposes. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
3 reasons we shouldn't flog yourself for offered a brief domain name too soon - Here’s why you shouldn’t have sellers remorse. With the rapid rise in values for three and four character domain names, I’ve read some commentary from people kicking themselves for selling domain names too soon. Call it seller’s remorse, and it’s a feeling I think we’ve all had. But comparing the price you sold a domain name for and how much you could get for it today is irrelevant. It’s hindsight. Here are three reasons you shouldn’t beat yourself up too much: 1. Even if you held ... read more ...
Fri 27th November 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Black Friday Expired Domain Name Report - In the week prior to Thanksgiving, 44 expired domain auctions surpassed $1000 at NameJet and SnapNames. 15 of those fell within the $2000-3000 range. Another 14 spread $3000-$8000. The top auction, as you can see, finished at $16.2k. Possibly, I missed a few. NIWA.com could mean the National Institute of Water Atmospheric Research (for New Zealand). It could even be the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance. But my hunch is that it will end up abbreviating GetNIWA.com, a “smartphone-controlled” ... read more ...
Wed 25th November 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What domain names eBay, Mastercard and 22 others bought this week - Big brands among domain name buyers at Sedo this past week. Sedo had another strong week for domain name sales with a whopping 1,080 transactions for at total of $1.5 million. Many of these sales were, once again, short letter and numeric domain names sold to people in China. But this column focuses on end users. You’ll read about the domain name eBay paid just $780 for, why a credit union forked out $25,000 for a long domain name, and 22 other end user domain name purchases. Here’s a look at ... read more ...
Tue 24th November 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign gets obvious for evaluating typeability of domain names - Patent describes ways to score domain names based on how easy it is to type them on different keyboards. Verisign’s patent describes a way to figure out how challenging it is to type a domain name on different keyboard types.The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted patent number 9,195,316 to Verisign for “Evaluating typeability of domain names.” The patent describes a way of taking different inputs, namely the layout/type of keyboard, and then figuring out how easy it is to type a particular ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New Forests Asset Management is a Reverse Domain Name Hijacker - Company filed dead-on-arrival UDRP after failing to purchase domain name it wanted. After failing to buy NewForests.com, the asset management firm went the unethical route.New Forests Asset Management Pty Limited of North Sydney, Australia has been found to have engaged in Reverse Domain Name Hijacking over the domain name NewForests.com. The asset management firm uses the Australian country code domain name NewForests.com.au. The company filed a UDRP against NewForests.com despite not having been ... read more ...