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Welcome to the The
Lowdown from
DN Journal - your source for notable news
and information from all corners of the global
domain name
industry!
The Lowdown
is compiled by DN Journal
Editor & Publisher Ron Jackson. |
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ROTD
Has Year's Biggest Live Domain Auction Ready to Go
June 6 at NamesCon Global |
The
domain investing industry's biggest event, NamesCon
Global, returns to Austin, Texas
June 5-8, 2024 and, once again, the RightOfTheDot
(ROTD) live
auction of premium digital assets will
be a major highlight of show week. ROTD has assembled an
exceptional catalog
of Web2 domain names and Web3 digital assets for the event that
will get underway at 3PM (U.S. CDT) on Thursday,
June 6 at the downtown Omni Hotel. ROTD President, Director and domain
industry pioneer Monte Cahn will again team
up with world champion auctioneer Wayne
Wheat to run the fast-paced sale. Premium
domains scheduled to
go on the block include Dog.com, Fish.com,
Messages.com, Desktop.com, DataStorage.com,
Horses.com, Consulting.ai, Army.ai, Blue.org and
Christmas.net, among dozens of others. Many Web 3
names including Wallet.x, Beer.x, A.nft,
Bet.gaming and 8.polygon, supplied
by industry |
Above:
Scenes from the June 2023 RightOfTheDot
live domain auction at NamesCon Global in
Austin, Texas.
Monte Cahn is at bottom left, Wayne Wheat
at bottom right.
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leaders Unstoppable
Domains and Freename,
will also be offered as traditional and
blockchain-based digital ecosystems continue to
converge.
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Pre-bidding
is already open, allowing prospective
participants to register and explore the
full catalog of digital assets at bid.rotd.com.
While the live auction will present a unique
opportunity for business owners, end users
and investors to secure prime digital real
estate, prospecting will remain open during
a timed extended online auction that
will continue until June 18, 2024.
Monte
Cahn noted, "Our upcoming auction
at NamesCon 2024 represents not just a sale,
but a |
landmark
event for the digital asset industry,
showcasing the immense value and potential
of Web2 and Web3 domains. With over $585
million in sales to date, RightOfTheDot
continues to lead and innovate within the
digital asset space. Our legacy of
record-setting domain name and digital asset
sales underscores its pivotal role in
elevating industry standards and the
perceived value of digital properties
worldwide." |
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(Posted
April 29, 2024) To refer others to the post
above only (and not the full Lowdown
column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2024/dailyposts/0429.htm
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Goodbye
SquadHelp, Hello Atom! Popular Naming &
Branding Platform Goes Nuclear With Move to
Atom.com |
After
staking a claim as the world's largest company naming
and branding platform, Squadhelp
completed an explosive rebranding of themselves
this morning when they re-emerged from the
makeover blast with a new name - Atom -
and a new super-premium web address at Atom.com! Since
launching in 2011, Atom (formerly Squadhelp) has helped
over 50,000 clients, including Nestle, Pepsi, Dell,
Alibaba, Hilton, Phillips, and Kellogg's in
polishing their brands. Atom
also offers a full startup ecosystem for ambitious
new businesses, providing the brand building blocks
they need to thrive, starting with the perfect
domain. |
is
now
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Darpan
Munjal
Atom (Squadhelp) Founder & CEO |
CEO and founder Darpan Munjal launched the business as a bootstrapped passion project while
focusing primarily on other ventures. His vision was
the proposition that finding a business name shouldn’t be
hard. This simple idea led to the creation of a platform for crowdsourcing business names. That platform,
Squadhelp, was powered by a group of creatives which soon grew into a huge naming community.
Since then, Atom has been recognized as an Inc. 5000 startup for three consecutive years and one
of the Most Innovative Companies by Inc. Magazine while being consistently highly rated by clients
and creatives alike.
In March 2023, Atom secured $10 million
in strategic investment from Hilco Digital
Assets. This allowed the company to move into a new stage of ongoing growth, including expansion of the
team, accelerated development of new game-changing offerings, and significant increases in
overall marketing investments. |
As naming experts, the team at Atom knew it was also
time for their own rebrand. “We deeply believe in the importance of a world-class brand and the concrete impact it has on
business results," Darpan said, adding " Squadhelp was a great brand for what we used to focus on exclusively –
crowdsourcing business names with the help of a vast creative community. But, Atom helps us take
everything to the next level. Atom is an inspiring, memorable, and innovative name that people can
get excited about. As a naming startup, with this tier A+ name and domain, we are
betting on ourselves and aspiring to become a B2B household
brand."
Hilco Digital Assets Managing Director
Andrew Miller highlighted the strategic importance of the
rebrand to Atom. “We invested in Squadhelp because of its many strategic and technology advantages as a naming
platform, but from the outset, we were aligned on acquiring a next-level, hear-it-once
remember-it-forever brand, one that conveyed the power and importance of having a world-class
domain name for both the company and its customers,”
Andrew said, adding “I have been involved in many
of the most prominent domain name brands for over 26 years, and
Atom.com is a game-changing brand name for this
platform."
Under
the Atom umbrella, the company plans to add further
tools and services across domain sales, naming, testing and customer insights, trademark
and IP protection, creative services, and more
- all while maintaining their current domain name
marketplaces and crowdsourced naming
contests. Atom will continue to draw on the
expertise of its internal team and global creative community backed by innovative
AI technology built to support the Atom experts. |
Andrew
Miller
Managing Director
Hilco Digital Assets |
Darpan
Munjal summed the rebrand up with this - “Just like atoms are the building blocks of the universe, Atom.com will provide the building blocks
of success for every great startup. It will be an ecosystem for early-stage startups
that offers founders everything they need to build and launch a new brand or grow an existing
one.”
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(Posted
April 17, 2024) To refer others to the post
above only (and not the full Lowdown
column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2024/dailyposts/0417.htm
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Price
Paid for Chat.com Last Year Confirmed to Be $15.5
Million Making It One of Top 2 All-Time Publicly
Reported Domain Sales |
Last
year at this time Hilco
Digital Assets Managing Director Andrew
Miller and fellow pioneering domain
broker Larry
Fischer were busy helping Hubspot
Co-Founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah put
together a multi-million acquisition of the
super-premium domain name Chat.com. Andrew
and Larry represented the seller but Andrew also
served as a facilitator in bringing both sides
together - a role he frequently plays due to the
extraordinary high level contact list he has
developed over the past two decades. Having
a hand in historic sales is nothing new for any
one of these three. In 2022 Dharmesh acquired
Connect.com for $10 million in
the year's highest publicly reported sale (and one
of the five highest ever). Andrew and Larry,
working individually, together or with
other partners have closed hundreds of millions of
dollars worth of sales in their illustrious
careers. |
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The
exact price paid in eight-figure domain sales rarely gets released to the public and up until a
few days ago, it seemed unlikely we wouldever
learn what Chat.com sold for in the spring of
2023. However, as Andrew noted on his LinkedIn
feed, Dharmesh, during an interview on
the Lenny
Rachitsky podcast, revealed he had
paid "$15 million+" for Chat.com.
Ever since, people have been speculating about
what that + represented (we were among them
as having the exact price would allow us to
chart the sale and give the public another great
example of just how valuable top tier domains can
be).
This
week I've been in daily contact with Andrew
because we are working on a profile about
him that will be our next cover story (due
out by the end of the month). It gave me an
opportunity to talk with him about the
Chat.com sale and see if there was any way
he could confirm the exact price for me. He
always strictly adheres to any
non-disclosure agreement that is in place
but with Dharmesh opening the door, Andrew
was able to share that the price of the
domain was $15.5 million for
the name plus escrow and related costs. |
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Andrew
Miller
and Larry Fischer speaking at NamesCon
Global 2023 in Austin,Texas about some
of the biockbuster
deals they have done together including Chat.com
and Home.com. |
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With
that information we will be adding
Chat.com to the 2023
Top 100 Chart in our Domain
Sales Archive Wednesday
evening (April 17) when our next bi-weekly
domain sales report will be
out. In addition to being the #1
sale of that year, it will also be added to
our all-time
Top 20 list where it will stand at #2 behind only the $30 million sale of
Voice.com. Congratulations to everyone
involved in this landmark sale! |
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(Posted
April 16, 2024) To refer others to the post
above only (and not the full Lowdown
column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2024/dailyposts/0416.htm
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Radix
Records 28% Premium Domain Revenue Jump YOY Led By .Tech, .Online and .Store
TLDs |
Radix
has released their latest semi-annual report on
the registry operator's premium domain sales
results across the 10 TLDs they administer.
Their H2-2023
Recap (.pdf file) details how Radix
generated $4.8 million in Premium Retail
Revenue, including $3.1 million that came
from premium domain renewals. That represents a 28%
year over year gain for this segment of their
business. .Tech
was Radix's top performer, generating $1.36
million in revenue with $984,380 of
that coming from renewals and $377,622 from
new premium registrations. Rounding out their top
five TLDs, in order, were .online, .store,
.space and .site. The top chart below
breaks out the renewal revenue produced by
each of their leading TLDs. The second chart shows
the new premium registration revenue from
each of those extensions. |
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NEW PREMIUM
REGISTRATIONS:
There is a
wealth of additional information in the free,
full
report here (.pdf file).
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(Posted
April 4, 2024) To refer others to the post
above only (and not the full Lowdown
column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2024/dailyposts/0404.htm
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Photos
and Highlights from the Joyous Celebration of
Howard Neu's Life Held March 23rd in South Florida |
When
I wrote about the
passing of domain industry pioneer and
personal friend Howard Neu on March 1, I
noted that a celebration of his life would be held
on March 23. My wife, Diana were at that
event (held this past Saturday) and I wanted to
share the uplifting experience with Howard's countless
domain industry friends around the world. Howard
did not want a traditional funeral - no people
dressed in black, sitting quietly and sadly
mourning his passing. He wanted us to celebrate
the time we had with him - and what great
times those were! Ever the showman, Howard set
the stage for light hearted socializing by
picking a theme built around his beloved Miami Dolphins
football team - and he knew exactly who
could deliver what he had mind. |
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That
was Howard's beloved son-in-law and fellow football
fanatic, Ira Goldberg, who is married to
Howard's daughter, Wendy. The gregarious
retired police captain also already knew how to
stage big events. In the past that has almost always
involved giving extravaganzas organized to provide
under privileged local kids with everything from bicycles
to basketballs to help them enjoy happy and healthy
active lives. If
Howard wanted a football-themed celebration of life,
Ira was darn sure going to make it happen
and do it on a scale designed to match the immense
size of Howard's heart and the extraordinary
accomplishments he achieved in a stunningly diverse
career. Howard has been successful as an accountant,
an attorney, a judge, city councilman and mayor, a campaign
strategist, an actor, singer and speaker, a
conference promoter and domain investor and...well, there's
more but you get the idea! (for details see our
2009 Cover
Story profile of Howard).
Above: At
bottom left, Howard's daughter, Wendy Goldberg,
speaks with a guest at the meticulously decorated
clubhouse where the Celebration of Life for
Howard Neu was held Saturday, March 23, 2024
(one day after what would have been an 83rd birthday
for Howard), Below:
Howard's son-in-law, Ira Goldberg, wearing a
Dolphins jersey that Howard gifted him, produced and
hosted the amazing event that drew over 150 people
from all over the U.S. and as far away as Australia.
The mirror behind Ira reflects part of the huge
crowd he welcomed to the celebration honoring
Howard.
Above: The
event looked like a Who's Who (Domain
Industry edition) come to life. Left to right
(including the two familiar faces you see behind the
five people in front) are Eddie Sixto,
Michael Castello (who flew in from California), David
Castello, Domain King Rick Schwartz,
attorney Ari Golberger, legendary domain
investor Michael Berkens and the magnificent Bari
Meyerson. Below:
Eddie with the domain pioneer who came the furthest
to honor his great friend Howard, the pride of
Melbourne, Australia, Michael Gilmour. (Thanks
to Eddie for he photos above and below).
Above
(left to right): Canada's Ilze Kaulins-Plaskacz
with my wife Diana and I. With Ilze, Michael
Castello and Michael Gilmour in the house, we were
almost embarrassed to admit we only had to drive
over from Tampa - but it just goes to show you how
widely loved Howard was and how far any of us would
have been happy to go to honor him and support his
wife Barbara and son Ray (both domain
industry leaders in their own right).
Above: As
I mentioned at the start, host Ira Goldberg's motto
is go big or go home. His attention to detail
included food service built completely around
stadium fare - hot dogs, sandwiches, pizza, pasta
salad and astonishing array of desserts. Below:
While our readers all think of Howard in domain
terms, we made up only about 20% of the crowd. The
other 80% were people who have known Howard far
longer than the 20-25 years the most senior domain
industry people have. Left to right, Ari
Goldberger, Bari Meyerson, Michael Berkens and
Howard's long time T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference
partner (2004-2014), Rick Schwartz, are among
those who've known Howard since the early days of
the show that was the first conference of its kind
in this business. Rick had been with him since he
called on Howard to do some legal work for him in
1999.
Above:
Speaking of Ari, he (at right) and fellow
attorney John Berryhill (left) - along with Howard
Neu - comprised the famous Three Amigos.
They were the first widely-known attorneys to
specialize in domain related cases and their
successes have been instrumental in protecting the
rights of domain industry registrants, investors and
developers from around the world. John and Ari are
still getting it done today and we all benefit from precedent
setting work they have done.
Above
(left to right): .CLUB Founder Colin
Campbell and wife Kim with Barbara Neu
and Diana Jackson. Like the Jacksons and Neus,
the Campbells love dogs (one of Colin's
current enterprises is Paw.com).
Diana, who is an artist, brought Colin and Kim a
color pencil drawing of their fur baby Ginger.
In addition to honoring Howard, the other reason so
many domain people came together was to offer love
and support for Barbara and Ray in this most
difficult time. Below:
Ray (at right) speaking with friends at the
Celebration of Life for for Howard. Barbara and Ray
were primary care givers for Howard during his
battle with pancreatic cancer. It was an incredibly
difficult challenge as the fight neared its end but
they rose to meet it, allowing Howard to pass
peacefully at home.
Above:
Barbara and Ray assembled a mind boggling array of Howard's
memorabilia, including honors and awards he was
given through the course of his multiple careers,
so guests could enjoy seeing them too. Below:
They also took the time to print out our March
1 story about Howard's passing and some
of the highlights of his life to assemble this
poster board for attendees to see.
Above:
After a couple of hours of socializing, Ira opened
the floor for people to personally speak about
Howard with his sister Veda, above, leading
the way. Their father was a renowned cantor and both
Howard and Veda inherited his gift for singing. I
didn't know that about Veda until she sang several
lovely verses in memory of Howard. By the way, the
beautiful wreath at Veda's right was sent by domain
industry pioneer Ammar Kubba, who regrettably
was unable to attend in person.
Above: The
audience listening to Veda and the many uplifting
stores about Howard that followed from speakers
he influenced by the way he lived his life. I spoke
about our relationship and how humble Howard was
about all of his accomplishments. Throughout the 20
years we've been close friends I was continually
astounded to learn new things about him and what he
had done before we met. Below:
Most of us assumed that Rick Schwartz would
have known Howard longer than anyone else in our
business, having met him in 1999. However, it turn
out that Jeff Sass (below), who came into our
business relatively late as the Chief Marketing
Office for .CLUB (a role he now has with the .ART
registry), has known Howard since 1994! Jeff
not only knew Howard, he lived in the same
neighborhood - and not only that - they also
served on the Homeowner's Association Board together
(a job that Jeff would no longer wish on his worst
enemy but one that Howard, who served as President,
adroitly mastered like everything else he
did)!
Above: I
saved the best for last. Ira (#72 in your
program) brought family members together at the
front of the room to publicly thank Barbara
for how she loved and supported Howard throughout
their 35 years or marriage and care for him through
the difficult final days of his life. Below:
When Ira did that, the entire audience rose to
their feet to applaud Barbara.
Below: I
realized the photo above captured only a portion
of the standing ovation, so I switched to a
wide angle lens and, with the crowd stretching from
wall to wall - I still couldn't get them all
in! It was a well deserved honor and appreciation
for a very special woman.
Above: If
there is one thing domain investors are known for
when they get together, it is hanging around
until they are tossed out of the place! Just
before that moment arrived for us, we got a little
more conversation and a couple of more photos in.
Left to right are Rick Waters, Mark
Ghoriafi, David Castello, Ron Jackson and
Michael Castello. Below:
In my favorite photo of the day, Barbara wanted to
get as many of the domain people who were still in
the room together as she could for a "family
portrait" of our crowd - and what a great
memory this will always be.
Left to
right: Seated are Bari Myerson, Michael Berkens,
Rick Schwartz, Diana Jackson and Barbaba Neu.
Standing are Eddie Sixto, Ray Dillman, John
Berryhill, Dr. Chris Hartnett, Ari Goldberger,
Justyna Ghoriafi, Mark Ghoriafi, Ilze
Kaulins-Plaskacz, Michael Mann, Larry Fischer,
Michael Castello, Ron Jackson and Michael
Gilmour. One
last note. Howard Neu is still with us and always
will be. Certainly in memories, but he also had
a positive influence on who we are by
treating us and others in a way that many of us try
to emulate as best we can. As his time on this side
of the veil was closing, Howard handled it with
incredible dignity and grace. I'll thank him for
that too when I see him again on other side!
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(Posted
March 26. 2024) To refer others to the post
above only (and not the full Lowdown
column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2024/dailyposts/0326.htm
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Masterful
2024 Global Domain Report from InterNetX &
Sedo Makes a Mountain of Key Data Easy to
Digest |
The
annual Global Domain Reports produced by InterNetX
and Sedo
have been providing one of the industry's best
yearly roundups of market activity for almost two
decades now. Each surpasses a standard set by the
one before and the just released 2024
Global Domain Report is no exception.
The new edition is a treasure trove of
expert commentary, insightful charts and
invaluable data that all comes completely free
of charge. I
was especially impressed with the ultra-modern
graphically centered format of the new 80-page
report that makes it the most easily digestible
document of this size that I've seen to date. In
it you will find: |
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Analysis of the domain industry's state in 2023
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In-depth look at other domain-related intricacies
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Overview of the emergence and popularity of specific
TLDs, SLDs and keywords
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Deep dive into the connections between domains,
tech industry and AI.
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Comprehensive review of the aftermarket
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Outline of what’s taking center stage in the industry
One of the key architects
of the report, Semra Koerner (a 20-year Sedo
veteran who currently serves as the company's
Manager of Global PR & Communication), reflected
on how far the report and the industry itself has
progressed over the years. In a post on LinkedIn,
Semra noted, "From the humble 4-page PDF of the first so-called Domain
Market Barometer in March 2006
to today's extensive report, it's incredible to see
how the domain landscape has evolved and is changing
ever again. With over 1,000 domain extensions
available now compared to just 70 back then, the
growth is phenomenal!"
Amen
to that and kudos to everyone on the Sedo and
InterNetX teams who contributed their talents to
producing this masterwork.
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(Posted
March 19, 2024) To refer others to the post
above only (and not the full Lowdown
column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2024/dailyposts/0319.htm
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Sedo's
Mark Ghoriafi Bags $500,000 for Bagels.com in
Year's Biggest Publicly Reported Sale to Date |
Sedo
Premium Domain Broker Mark Ghoriafi has closed
a $500,000 sale of Bagels.com that
ranks as the highest publicly reported domain sale
of the year to date (we will be adding it to our YTD
Top Sales Chart when our next
bi-weekly sales report is released Wednesday
evening, March 20). This sale will supplant
current chart topper Peace.com (also sold through
Sedo in January for $400,000). Mark
(AKA "Mr. Premium") has been representing the domain on behalf of the seller, under Sedo.com Exclusive
Brokerage. He told us it took six weeks from the
start of negotiations to their successful
conclusion. |
Image
from Bigstock
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Mark
Ghoriafi
Sedo Premium Domain Broker |
Three weeks after discussions with the
buyer began, Mark to traveled to meet
with them at their base of operations
for face-to-face talks aimed at ironing out
some wrinkles and making the deal happen. He was
also given a tour of their manufacturing facilities
so he could also see other food and snacks
the company currently produces (and sample
some of the tasty treats right off the production
line). It was a perfect way to become better
acquainted with their team and members of their family.
Mark told us,
"That wonderful experience strengthened the business relationship, creating
a new level of personal connection, and solidified this all-round happy
success," adding "Passion, patience, and persistence sums up this delicious domain deal!"
When Mark
joined Sedo last fall we published an in-depth
profile of the industry veteran
who had already well established himself with
a series of successes in his own brokerage
business. At that time Mark told us, "I
will be working with a team of likeminded
passionate people who I respect and
admire and am also thrilled that MrPremium
clients have chosen to join in my
exciting journey, with their domain
inventory coming to Sedo brokerage." |
It
has only been six months now but that
"marriage" is certainly starting
to look more and more like a match made
in heaven. |
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(Posted
March 18. 2024) To refer others to the post
above only (and not the full Lowdown
column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2024/dailyposts/0318.htm
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