Author Archives: The Domains

About The Domains

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 5K domain names . Michael is also a Director of RightoftheDot.com which is a consultant in the new gTLD space and a broker of super premium domains. Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest this year.

Mon 10th March 2014
Written by The Domains in EN
Tencent Pays $15 Million For 15% Stake In JD.com - According to Wall Street Journal, the Chinese Giant, Tencent, has agreed to pay $215 million for a 15% stake in JD.com. JD.Com’s planning on a  $1.5 billion IPO. JD.com, formerly known as 360buy.com, is a distant second in the Chinese e-commerce market to Alibaba’s shopping sites, Taobao.com and Tmall.com. It was recently revealed that 360buy.com paid $5 Million dollars for the domain name JD.com. The company announced the change from 360buy.com to JD.com last March.       Google+Michael ... read more ...
 
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Larry Smith: CambridgeMovers.com Is Not Very Much in Relation to EyemakeUpRemovers.com - The start of another week and already I have a nice set of spam emails. Sure I get many of these every day and 99.99% I send into trash without regard but this one caught my eye based off the domain listed (which isn’t a bad domain) just a bad message “”Hello Worldwide Media Inc. My Name is Larry and I am representing the potential sale of CambridgeMovers.com We realized you may be interested because you currently own eyemakeupremovers.com which seems to be very much in relation to CambridgeMovers.com. We ... read more ...
 
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M.Dot Rebranded as Go Daddy Go Mobile - App Advice reported that M.dot has been rebranded to Go Daddy Go Mobile. M.dot has just been updated to version 2.0. At the same time, it has been rebranded as GoDaddy GoMobile. Released in October 2012, M.dot was acquired by GoDaddy in February 2013. And now, over a year later, the app has been renamed to officially carry the GoDaddy brand. Not to be confused with GoDaddy Mobile, GoDaddy’s official iOS app, GoDaddy GoMobile offers quick and easy creation and management of mobile-optimized websites. ... read more ...
 
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Classified Ventures Seeking $3 Billion for Cars.com - Now that the sale of Apartments.com is completed at $585 million, Classified Ventures is looking for $3 billion for Cars.com. William Launder,Dana Mattioli and Mike Spector wrote an article tonight for the Wall Street Journal. A group of newspaper publishers has put the cars.com online marketplace up for sale for as much as $3 billion, hoping to cash in on booming values for e-commerce sites, people familiar with the plans said. Moelis Co., which is advising the Classified Ventures publishers consortium ... read more ...
Sun 9th March 2014
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Hackers Claim to Publish Evidence of Fraud during BitCoin Exchange Mt.Gox - Andy Greenberg just did a piece on Forbes with regards to hackers claiming to have hacked the Mt.Gox servers. The recent bankruptcy of the Bitcoin exchange has many up in arms and some are deciding to get answers on their own. Some of the data released and posted on Reddit has already been taken down. Greenberg reached out to disgraced Mt.Gox C.E.O. Mark Karpeles but has yet to get a reply back. From the article: The Bitcoin community has been angrily pressing for details on what the Bitcoin exchange ... read more ...
 
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25 Years of a World Wide Web - TIMELINE: March 12, 1989: British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee circulates his “informational management proposal” at the European organisation CERN, laying the foundation for the World Wide Web. He releases the code to the public on Christmas Day 1990. 1993: Mosaic, the browser credited with popularising the Web with an intuitive interface, is developed by a team led by Marc Andreessen at the University of Illinois. Mosaic is the basis for the commercial browser Netscape in 1994. 1994: ... read more ...
 
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Are Crypto-Currencies Here To Stay ? Google’s Director of Ideas Says Yes - Gregory Ferenstein wrote a post on Tech Crunch  about the director of ideas from Google and his belief that crypto currencies are going to be a mainstay as we move forward. Google Director of Ideas and former technology advisor to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Jared Cohen, says that digital “crypto-currencies” like Bitcoin are here to stay. “I think it’s very obvious to all of us that crypto-currencies are inevitable,” he told the audience at SXSW, in conversation with Chairman ... read more ...
Sat 8th March 2014
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20 Year Old Graceland.com Lost In UDRP - Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.  (EPE) was awarded the 20 year old domain name graceland.com  by three member UDRP panel. Its an interesting set of facts. The domain was not parked but contained bible verses with Google Adsense which put up ads related to the former home of Elvis Presley which is now a huge tourist attraction. The parties didn’t even agree if it was the domain owner who offered to sell the domain to the trademark holder for $200,000 or if the trademark holder offered the domain ... read more ...
 
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ICANN Publishes Its Financials For The Six Months Ending Dec 2013 - The ICANN change in net assets is $3.3M, or 13.6%, higher than budget during the first six months of FY14 mainly as a result of (i) delays in planned operations ($2.8M, see Operating Expenses below), (ii) timing differences of ccTLD contributions ($1.3M), (iii) Reserve Fund and New gTLD investment income of ($3.7M) and ($1.4M), respectively, offset by (iv) delayed evaluation processing in the New gTLD program resulting in lower revenues recognized for the period (-$8.0M). The Funds under Management ... read more ...
 
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‘Domains by Proxy’ Hands Over Personal Details of “Pirate” Site Owner - Torrent Freak reported that Domains By Proxy, the privacy service from Go Daddy, turned over the personal details of one of their customers. The majority of the 83 comments are taking a lot of shots at Go Daddy, as some think its bogus that Go Daddy uses the word potentially and does not have definitive proof by copyright holder. As one commenter pointed out, registrants need to understand that a privacy service is not going to accept potential legal risk for a registrant. You need to know what you ... read more ...
Fri 7th March 2014
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Yesterday Vine bans Porn, Today VinePorn.com sells for $9,900 on Sedo - Last January someone registered the domain VinePorn.com, yesterday Vine banned porn on their service, today VinePorn.com sold for $9,900 on Sedo. Vine posted: A change to Vine content rules We introduced Vine to make it easier for people to find, watch, create and share videos right from their mobile phones. As we’ve watched the community and your creativity grow and evolve, we’ve found that there’s a very small percentage of videos that are not a good fit for our community. So we’re making ... read more ...
 
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FT.com Covers Frank Schilling - One of the most prestigious publications in the world, the Financial Times out of London just published a huge cover story on Frank Schilling “Tucked inside a nondescript building on Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman, a stone’s throw from the island’s largest and glitziest hotels, Frank Schilling’s home feels a bit like the Batcave. ” “A lift leads to a large intercom-protected gate, which reveals a pair of oversized double doors that open into a huge marble-covered entrance passage.”” “We ... read more ...
 
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14K of Enom’s 23K new gTLD Registrations Are From NameCheap - Yesterday we reported on the top 20 domain name registrars in terms of new gTLD domain name registrations. The domain name registrar in second place on the list was Enom with 23,167 new gTLD domain name registrations. Today the CEO fo NameCheap.com Richard Kirkendall told TheDomains.com that of the 23K domain name registrations of Enom.com, NameCheap.com accounts for over 14,000 of them. Namecheap.com is a reller of Enom so its totals are included in Enom’s official totals. Based on 14,000 registration ... read more ...
 
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.BUZZ signs RRA with GoDaddy & Frank Schilling New Uniregistrar Is One of .Buzz Registrars - (Photo: Rich Merdinger of GoDaddy, Pinky Brand of  FocusNUA advisor to .BUZZ and Bill Doshier, Founder and CEO of .BUZZ) .BUZZ signed its RRA with GoDaddy in New York City at  the Momentum 3rd Digital Marketing gTLD Strategy Congress and announced over 40 other  registrars that will be taking .BUZZ registrations. One of the registrars on the list grabbed my eye, Frank Schilling  Uniregistrar Corp  which is the new domain name registrar that is suppose to be rolling out any day. Frank Schilling ... read more ...
 
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“Largest Domain Name Sales Database Ever Built” Launches WIth Over 315K Domains & $1,135,277,224 In Sales - According to a press release we received today the biggest domain name sales database ever built just just rolled out. The database is at DNPric.es. “”Currently the database has 315,461 domain name sale records totaling $1,135,277,224.00. Not only you can lookup historic sales, the site also offers amazing stats section where you can fish for tons of interesting information. Let’s have a quick look on it from different angles. 1. TLDs While .COM is still the king with more ... read more ...
 
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iMeeting.com Purchased For Less Than 2 Years Ago For $15K Sells For $47,750 - The domain name imeeting.com just sold for $47,750 on Sedo. The domain was owned by Rodger Lew in China and is currently under Sedo Escrow. The domain name was owned by a company Meeting Maker, of Waltham, MA let the domain go into pending delete status around April 2012 at Network Solutions and sold on NameJet.com for 15,166 in July 2012. So basically in less than 2 years the domain investor tripled his money. Congrats to Mr. Lew, nicely done.   Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
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Will a Real Satoshi Nakamoto Please Stand Up - It has been quite a day in the world of Bitcoin as there have been more stories than I can count on Satoshi Nakomoto. The day started early this morning when one of our readers, Tony Lam sent me a piece by Coindesk. Their headline was, “Bitcoin Inventor Satoshi Nakamoto ‘Found’ in California” Nermin Hajdarbegovic covered the story and discussed that Newsweek had tracked down the creator of Bitcoin. From the article: Newsweek scoop Newsweek magazine is reviving its print edition this week ... read more ...
Thu 6th March 2014
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Godaddy Has 40% Of The New gTLD Market; 1and1 For Its $50M Got 12K Registrations - A new site (or at least new to me) is showing the most detailed stats I have seen for new gTLD’s. According to ntldstats.com, there are a total of 215,638 new gTLD domain registrations as of 16:30 (time zone not defined) on March 6th. According to the site, Godaddy registered almost 87,000 of the 215,000 new gTLD’s giving it a 40% market share. 1and1.com which spent a reported $50 million dollars on a  advertising campaign to promote the new gTLD’s is in 4th place with some 12,388 registrations ... read more ...
 
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Forbes: 5 Mistakes People Make When Setting Up Their Website - John Rampton wrote a piece for Forbes on the mistakes people make when starting their website. Rampton discusses five key points that a lot of web developers and entrepreneurs make. 1. No Business Plan and Marketing Strategy Unlike “Field of Dreams,” if you build, he will not come. And, by he, we mean visitors to your website. Unfortunately, this is a common misconception people have when setting up their websites. They believe that they can purchase a domain name and will instantly see traffic. ... read more ...
 
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NameJet.com Reports Over $340K In Sales In January - Namejet just released sales information in January 2014 reporting over $340,000 in sales. Only sales of $2K or more are included   <![CDATA[]]> Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
Wed 5th March 2014
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Overstock Exceeds $1million in Bitcoin Sales and Projects adult to $20 million by a finish of a year. - Overstock has topped over $1million in Bitcoin sales in two months. Coinbase.com sat down with Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock. The initial projections for sales processed with bitcoin on Overstock.com this year was set at $3-5m, but this figure has since increased dramatically, according to Byrne. The CEO now predicts that Overstock will see a total of $10-15m in bitcoin sales this year, and suggested that this number could reach as high as $20m if bitcoin sales maintain their current growth rate. New ... read more ...
 
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NASDAQ Private Market Launches To Allow People To Buy Shares Of Pre-IPO Companies - The NASDAQ Private Market, LLC announced today the launch of its new capital marketplace for private companies. The NASDAQ Private Market site is at NPM.com NASDAQ Private Market was formed in March of 2013 as a joint venture between The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. and SharesPost, Inc. “Built as a company-first platform on industry-leading technology, NASDAQ Private Market will provide qualifying private companies the tools and resources to efficiently raise capital, control secondary transactions, ... read more ...
 
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Radix Looking To Hire Registrar Partner Manager-US, Canada and Latin America - Our friends at Radix are looking to hire a Registrar Partner Manager. As a Registrar Partner Manager, you will be responsible for our partners in the US, Canada and Latin America. Your job is to a) ensure a wide distribution network in the local market and b) evolve those channel relationships into strategic partnerships. The job involves frequent travel and road-trips across your region to ensure that you build a good working relationship and rapport with our partners. Your responsibilities will ... read more ...
 
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UDRP Filed Against Vertical Axis On SNF.com By The SNF-Group.com - Thedomain name SNF.com has become the latest generic domain to be hit with a UDRP. The domain name is owned by Vertical Axis, which has owned the domain since 2005 according to DomainTools.com The domain name is parked with a very generic page which also indicates the domain is available for sale or for lease. The UDRP was filed by S.P.C.M. SA, which according to BusinessWeek.com, the private holding company was founded in France in 1978, “which through its subsidiary, manufactures and markets ... read more ...
 
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US Gives NeuStar New Contract To Run .US Domain Extention For Up To 5 Years - The Department of Commerce has re-awarded the contract to operate the .US domain extensions for three years with two additional one-year extension options to Neustar Inc. (NYSE:NSR). The .US Top Level Domain (TLD), is the official country code domain of the United States (ccTLD) “Neustar has successfully administered this critical domain since 2001, when the Department of Commerce first selected the company to build and manage the new domain.” “The .US domain represents Main Street America, ... read more ...