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Sedo.com
CEO Tobias Flaitz
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"For
both the industry as a whole and for Sedo, 2012
was a year of change" Flaitz said,
"While parking was a challenge for
everyone in the domain world, the needs of
buyers and sellers have also changed, which has
resulted in both groups asking for better
usability and smarter tools for domain trading."
"At
Sedo, we spent last year talking with our
international customers and attending events so we
could determine what changes were most
important to our clients, and we have
successfully implemented those changes. We also
worked proactively to develop innovative solutions
and channels to make buying, selling and parking
more efficient and more successful for Sedo’s
customers. Our vision is to make buying and
selling domain names as simple as any other
kind of online transaction, and we have been
determined to pursue this vision and make it a
reality," Flaitz said.
"To
bring new buyers to Sedo’s platform and
offer them a simpler, more intuitive search and
purchase experience, we improved many aspects of
our interface and relaunched our German
language homepage. This was a direct
result of buyers making it clear that they want to
be able to research and purchase a name on
their own, at any time."
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"Our
buyers – both investors and individual users
– also told us that they simply want to know
what’s available, when, and for how much, without
wasting time on negotiations," Flaitz
said. "Sellers have heard this message too,
and have increasingly turned to Buy Now
pricing. This was reflected in the number of Buy
Now sales during 2012: accounting for 41% of
all transactions at Sedo, Buy Now was the
most popular sales channel. We expect this trend
to continue at Sedo and across the industry
throughout 2013."
"Hand-in-hand
with this was the need for sellers to have
better, more reliable pricing tools, so
that they could list domains for sale with
prices that encouraged buyers to make an
immediate purchase. This need came to the
forefront in 2012, and with scientific pricing
tools developed by our dedicated pricing expert Thies
Lindenthal, we provided sellers with the
most accurate pricing tools and features ever,"
Flaitz said.
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"The
most exciting and toughest challenge in
2012 was parking. Using alternative
monetization methods was something that
the domain community and our customers
asked for, and so we added great new
parking partners as well as leading
second-tier providers to ensure that
all traffic is monetized and that our
customers get the best parking earnings
possible."
"An
ongoing goal for Sedo was to bring more
buyers and sellers together worldwide,
increasing sales and spreading the word
about the value of premium names.
2012 saw expansion of the SedoMLS
network to include both more international
partners as well as industry leaders like Go
Daddy. This put more of our
customers’ domains in front of more
buyers across the globe," Flaitz
added. |
Internet
business image from Bigstock |
Looking
ahead to the new year, Flaitz agreed with
many other industry leaders had to say in our
current State
of Industry Cover Story about what
would have the biggest impact on the
domain business in 2013. "2013
will be the year of the gTLD, marking a critical
point in our industry’s history,"
Flaitz said. "New gTLDs offer a
great deal of new opportunities for
everyone connected to the domain industry. It is
important that we as an industry show consumers
that the new gTLDs have the potential to change
forever how consumers and companies interact
online."
"Sedo’s
goal in 2013 is to partner with registries and
applicants to support the launch of the
new gTLD program. This will be tied closely to
our goal to grow the SedoMLS network so we can
provide end users with access to premium new
gTLD domains as well," Flaitz said.
"As with our other products, Sedo’s new
gTLD services are designed as an integrated
solution, providing registries and applicants a
seamless experience for the launch and
promotion of their new extensions. We’re
helping find innovative ways to maximize reach
and help grow the value of these new extensions,
starting from our unique approach in developing
customized, premium reserve lists, to our
historically strong track record of launch and
premium auctions, and our award-winning
brokerage."
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Global
business image from Bigstock |
"Flaitz
added,"We also tie marketing
into every aspect of what we do for our
clients: bringing new ideas on marketing
new gTLDs, as well as providing them to
end users through the largest global
domain distribution network will be key to
the industry in 2013."
"While
gTLDs are a main focus in 2013, ccTLDs
will remain successful on the marketplace.
Part of the reason these have been
successful is because the industry has
gone international – companies
everywhere learned that they need to speak
the language of buyers and sellers in |
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order
to succeed. It is important for our
sellers to know that median prices and average
prices of ccTLDs will likely continue to
increase," Flaitz said. |
"Looking
at other areas of the industry, we are sure that
our strong partnerships with Google and
new second tier providers will ensure
that earnings will remain stable as we
move into the New Year. Our parallel bidding
system, which was implemented several weeks
ago, delivers the best results for our parking
clients, and we are continuing to work on
additional improvements in the parking sector to
deliver innovative and outstanding traffic
monetization options in 2013."
"Finally,
Sedo is refocusing on our core strengths:
providing superior, innovative domain solutions
for our partners, buyers, parkers, and sellers,
all in one location. With some new management
and strong leadership, we will continue to focus
on new strategies and ideas to help all of our
clients to succeed this year," Flaitz
concluded.
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Flaitz
was introduced in his new role as Sedo CEO
at last
year's Domainfest Global
conference in Santa Monica, California.
He will be back in the Golden State
(where, by the way, he earned one of his
two MBA degrees at the University
of California in Berkeley) next week for
this year's conference - now known as Webfest
Global. If you'll be at the
show, meeting the personable Sedo CEO
should definitely be on your to do
list. |
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