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Today in The Lowdown: The 2025 Domain Days Dubai conference concluded with a yacht tour of the city's scenic waterfront Thursday night. We have a full conference review coming soon but in the meantime we have some news about a new name for the show, the dates it will be held in 2026 (and a few snapshots from this year's event).

Also inside: Another powerful performance from the domain aftermarket produced five 6-figure sales, including two that passed the $700,000 mark. We saw the highest sales ever reported in the .ai and .tv TLDs, giving the ccTLDs two of the top three sales. They took 7 places overall but the .coms still claimed the majority of the leader board with 11 charted sales.

 


The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf
The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf
The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf
The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf
The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf
Quality Trumps Quantity: Lessons Learned from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West 2014   - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/may-june.htm#sthash.TGjujBZO.dpuf
Quality Trumps Quantity: Lessons Learned from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West 2014   - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/may-june.htm#sthash.TGjujBZO.dpuf

How a $3,000 Domain Sale Kept Larry Fischer in The Game and Led to a Legendary Career Filled With Multi-Million Dollar Deals

Mild-mannered domain industry pioneer Larry Fischer has played a key role in many of the biggest domain sales of all time, including Chat.com at $15.5 million and Home.com at an undisclosed price but also likely in the 8-figure range (both of those in tandem with Larry's friend and fellow super broker Andrew Miller). There have been countless others with Larry's primary partner, Ari Goldberger, as well solo sales from his base at GetYourDomain.com. As of this writing, Larry also has 2025's second highest publicly reported domain sale of the year to date in Commerce.com at $2.2 million. So what is it about this easy going, unassuming guy - a real world Clark Kent - that turns him into Superman when it's time to close big sales? Full Story Here 



The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf
The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf
The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf
The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf
The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf
Quality Trumps Quantity: Lessons Learned from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West 2014   - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/may-june.htm#sthash.TGjujBZO.dpuf
Quality Trumps Quantity: Lessons Learned from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West 2014   - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/may-june.htm#sthash.TGjujBZO.dpuf

OpusDNS Has Landed - How a Team Built By Two Industry Pioneers Plans to Disrupt the Domain Reselling Business

Welcome to the 10th edition of our annual State of the Industry Cover Story. Every January since 2005 we have assembled a distinguished panel of experts drawn from every corner of the industry-  including domain investors, developers, top  corporate leaders and attorneys - to give us their thoughts on the key trends of the past year and what they saw coming our way in the new year ahead. 

This year we have put together our biggest panel ever, 17 of the industry' best and brightest, and split them into two groups of eight each - one comprised of investors & developers and one of corporate leaders. We will the extra spot with an attorney who has a foot firmly planted on each side of the line. 

- See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/january.htm#sthash.YJo3bmZs.dpuf

Welcome to the 10th edition of our annual State of the Industry Cover Story. Every January since 2005 we have assembled a distinguished panel of experts drawn from every corner of the industry-  including domain investors, developers, top  corporate leaders and attorneys - to give us their thoughts on the key trends of the past year and what they saw coming our way in the new year ahead. 

This year we have put together our biggest panel ever, 17 of the industry' best and brightest, and split them into two groups of eight each - one comprised of investors & developers and one of corporate leaders. We will the extra spot with an attorney who has a foot firmly planted on each side of the line. 

- See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/january.htm#sthash.YJo3bmZs.dpuf

At the June 2024 NamesCon Global conference I saw a huge banner promoting a new company, OpusDNS, that didn't launch until 16 months later (October 1, 2025).  Soon after seeing the banner I bumped into Robbie Birkner, one of the industry's ultimate pros who has been in the business for 25 years. When I asked the Hexonet Co-Founder what he was working on now he pointed up to the OpusDNS banner. I said, "That's  you?!" He confirmed it was indeed and that he was teaming up with another revered industry pioneer, Hakan Ali, who co-founded InterNetX in 1998 to -  in Hakan's own words - "reimagine domain management from the ground up." That's a tall order but with those two involved, my first thought was "if they can't do it, nobody can." 

Full Story Here



The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf
The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf
The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf
The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf
The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf
Quality Trumps Quantity: Lessons Learned from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West 2014   - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/may-june.htm#sthash.TGjujBZO.dpuf
Quality Trumps Quantity: Lessons Learned from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West 2014   - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/may-june.htm#sthash.TGjujBZO.dpuf

How a Different Approach to Buying & Selling Domains Turned Grit Brokerage Into One of the Industry's Top Performers

Welcome to the 10th edition of our annual State of the Industry Cover Story. Every January since 2005 we have assembled a distinguished panel of experts drawn from every corner of the industry-  including domain investors, developers, top  corporate leaders and attorneys - to give us their thoughts on the key trends of the past year and what they saw coming our way in the new year ahead. 

This year we have put together our biggest panel ever, 17 of the industry' best and brightest, and split them into two groups of eight each - one comprised of investors & developers and one of corporate leaders. We will the extra spot with an attorney who has a foot firmly planted on each side of the line. 

- See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/january.htm#sthash.YJo3bmZs.dpuf

Welcome to the 10th edition of our annual State of the Industry Cover Story. Every January since 2005 we have assembled a distinguished panel of experts drawn from every corner of the industry-  including domain investors, developers, top  corporate leaders and attorneys - to give us their thoughts on the key trends of the past year and what they saw coming our way in the new year ahead. 

This year we have put together our biggest panel ever, 17 of the industry' best and brightest, and split them into two groups of eight each - one comprised of investors & developers and one of corporate leaders. We will the extra spot with an attorney who has a foot firmly planted on each side of the line. 

- See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/january.htm#sthash.YJo3bmZs.dpuf

By now you have probably heard about the record-breaking sale of Wisdom.ai that we reported October 13th. Ammar Kubba, who sold the domain for $750,000 in the highest publicly reported sale of a .ai domain to date, gave us the fascinating back story that let up to the landmark sale. On the other side of the table, the buyer's representative, Grit Brokerage, lived up to their name by hammering away for two years to make the acquisition for their client finally happen. As you might expect, Grit has a great back story of their own - one based on doing things a little differently from others in the highly talented and fiercely completive domain brokerage field.   Full Story Here


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