|
For
the 4th consecutive year Directi/Skenzo
has
been named one of Asia's Top 500 Fastest Growing Tech
Companies by Deloitte
& Touche. Deloitte
said Directi/Skenzo achieved a phenomenal average
revenue growth rate of 141.97% annually over the past
three years to
|
|

Directi
co-founders Divyank Turakhia
and Bhavin Turakhia (right) |
retain its place on
Asia's elite Fast 500 list.
Directi/Skenzo is a leading, multi-national, internet
products and media company that builds innovative,
mass-market, products and services used by millions of
users worldwide. The company was founded by the Turakhia
brothers (Bhavin and Divyank) in 1998 and
has grown since then to encompass a $300 million+
group of businesses. Domain owners will be especially
familiar with their Skenzo
parking service and their LogicBoxes
registrar solutions platform.
Divyank
Turakhia, co-founder of Directi and CEO of Skenzo
(who was featured in our September
2008 Cover Story), said “It is an absolute
honor and I feel very proud to receive this award for
being recognized as a top growth company for the fourth
time in a row. We have been on
|
|
this
List every year since 2005. This award clearly
represents our strength and our commitment to becoming a
global leader in every business that we operate. We have
higher budgets than ever before for continued
growth in 2009. We will be focusing on both organic
and inorganic growth this year.”
Bhavin
Turakhia, co-founder and CEO of Directi added, “We
have done it again. And what’s more, we are just
warming up. We have always been an idea enterprise
and hence, even while other companies are fighting for
stability, we continue to recruit the most talented
people and invest heavily into research, development and
creating processes that will allow us to continue
recording exponential growth. It goes without
saying, we couldn't do this without the support of our
dedicated team of talented individuals.”
|
|
(Posted
Jan.
6, 2009) To refer others
to the
post above only you can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2009/dailyposts/01-06-09.htm
|
|
With
the growing interest in domain development we
have often talked about the importance of producing unique
content to attract visitors to your new site. The
value of
|
|
content has not been lost
on advertisers either - they too are devoting increasing
resources to creating their own content as a way
to connect with customers. While
traditional ad platforms are expected to shrink by
double digits in 2009, the amount of money marketers
will spend on creating content will see strong growth
despite the recession. Gavin O'Malley wrote
about this in an article
an Online Media Daily last week, noting
"56% of marketing and publishing
decision-makers plan to increase their content
marketing spending next year, Junta42 (an online
marketing resource and vendor-matching |
 |
|
tool) found after surveying
its community of corporate marketers and
publishing/agency professionals. What's more, a full 31%
expressed their intention to increase spending on
content significantly." Joe
Pulizzi, the founder of Junta42 and co-author of the
book Get
Content. Get Customers, told O'Malley,
"These findings are an acceleration of what we've
been seeing for the past few years." The marketers
said that social media will be at the top of
their investment list this year. O'Malley wrote, "In
terms of most important products/tactics, social media
resonated with 68% of subscribers, followed by
e-newsletters/email (60%), blogs (56%),
case studies (55%), online video (51%),
white papers (46%) and microsites (43%). These
are people who make their living by attracting an
audience. Their example is a good one to follow if you
are about to start promoting a newly developed site and
hope to attract visitors and keep them coming back. |
|
(Posted
Jan.
5, 2009) To refer others
to the
post above only you can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2009/dailyposts/01-05-09.htm
|
|
In
the face of all of the dire predictions for 2009
we're going to kick off 2009 with some good
news. The success of many domain and website owners
is based on online ad spending. By all accounts,
ad budgets in general will be slashed in 2009, with one
exception. You guessed it - online. BusinessWeek
Magazine's Jeffrey Rayport explained what is
going on in a new article this week titled Why
Online Ads Are Weathering the Recession.
|
|
 |
Rayport
wrote, "Barclays Capital lowered its
projections for U.S. ad spending to a negative 10%
next year...Every one of the traditional media
platforms is getting hit, with newspapers taking the
brunt of the pressure, with a drop of 17%,
followed by TV (minus 15.5%), magazines (minus
15%), and radio (minus 13%). The only
bright spot this time is online advertising,
which, despite a series of downward revisions, is still expected
to grow between 6% and 10% next year over
2008 levels."
Any sector
that can grow at that rate in the face of the biggest
financial storm in decades has something going for it.
Certainly, one could easily get depressed with the
steady stream of bad news we see each |
|
day, but you can rest
assured that the future belongs to the sector you
operate in - the Internet. |
|
Rayport
closed his must
read piece by predicting that this recession
will forever change the way Madison Avenue does
business. Rayport wrote, "Why would advertisers
budget on faith when they could invest in measurable
returns? Why would brands lavish dollars on mass media
when they could target only those consumers who
matter most? Why would marketers continue to
allocate less than 10% of their budgets to
interactive (in measured media), when consumers are
spending more than 35% of their time with
interactive platforms even today? It's not that online
advertising will supplant traditional media. It won't.
But a new and different ad equilibrium will emerge from
the coming economic recovery—and it will
represent a radical shift from anything we've known
before." Keep
in mind that those comments come from someone employed
by a traditional media outlet, but obviously not someone
who has his head buried in the sand.
(Posted
Jan.
2, 2009) To refer others
to the
post above only you can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2009/dailyposts/01-02-09.htm
|
|
Today
our hope and prayer that each of you will
have your best year ever in 2009. When I came
across the quote below it immediately made me think of
our friends and colleagues in the
|
|

|
domain business. In two
sentences the genius who wrote it captures the spirit
and good fortune that we have been blessed with:
"I feel that you are
justified in looking into the future with true
assurance, because you have a mode of living in which we
find the joy of life and the joy of work harmoniously
combined. Added to this is the spirit of ambition which
pervades your very being, and seems to make the day's
work like a happy child at play."
- Albert Einstein |
|
(Posted
Jan.
1, 2009) To refer others
to the
post above only you can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2009/dailyposts/01-01-09.htm
|
|
The
Internet has now passed newspapers
and trails only TV as the most popular source for news
according to a new report from the respected Pew
Research Center for the People & the Press.
In 2008, 40% of Pew's survey respondents said they
got most of their national
|
and
international news from the Internet, versus
35% for newspapers. That is a huge 16-point
jump for the Internet which had only a 24%
share in Pew's survey just one year ago. With
non-stop horror stories about he decline of the
newspaper industry everyone knew that the Internet
was steadily gaining ground on the papers, but this
is the first time the web has
|
|
|
completely
overtaken newspapers in the minds of news
consumers. The web now has its sights set on
dislodging TV from the top spot and that change
already appears to be well under way.
The
Pew report said "For young people the
internet now rivals television as a main source of
national and international news. Nearly six in ten
Americans younger than 30 (59%) say
they get most of their national and international
news online; an identical percentage cites
television. In September 2007, twice as many young
people said they relied mostly on television for
news than mentioned the internet (68% vs. 34%)."
By overcoming that 34-point deficit in just one
year, the Internet is obviously gaining momentum at
a spectacular pace. It will surely pass TV in
the under 30 demographic by this time next year on
its way to becoming the #1 news source among all media
platforms.
(Posted
Dec.
31, 2008) To refer others
to the
post above only you can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/12-31-08.htm
|
|
|
Pingdom.com
just published an interesting article
analyzing the upsurge in WIPO disputes over the
past five years. They found that the number of WIPO cases
has doubled since 2003. That reversed a trend from
2000-2003 that saw disputes dropping each year.
|
|
While
Pingdom posits that the introduction of Google
Adsense might be the key factor in the increasing
number of domain disputes I think a bigger factor has
been the steady rise in domain values that
began in late 2003. When mainstream media started
reporting on the domain boom, awareness of the high
value of good domains became far more widespread. That
prompted legal experts in our annual State of the
Industry reports to predict that WIPO cases would shoot
up as covetous parties looked for ways to get
their hands on those valuable assets without paying
market value for them.
|
|
In
our January
2006 report, attorney Ari Goldberger
noted, ""We
witnessed a big increase in domain name disputes in
2005 as the increased value of domains justified
the associated legal costs. There were also more
attempted reverse domain name hijackings and
domain thefts. Domain owners need to make
protection of their domains a primary part of their
business strategy, being careful to avoid
collisions with parties that own trademarks
identical or confusingly similar to their domains.
That means being careful to avoid PPC links for
products sold by such trademark owners or their
competitors. In 2006, as ecommerce continues to grow
internationally, there will be more and more
disputes of all kinds involving domain names -
the real estate and storefronts of the
Internet." Pingdom's
new report shows how prescient Goldberger was when
he made those comments almost three years ago. Since
complainants have won 85% of WIPO cases even
those with flmsy claims are emboldened to make a run
at domains they would like to take from current
owners.
|
|
We
have several other bits of news for you
today. The aftermarket for Australia's
.au ccTLD domains just got a big boost
with the announcement
that a major Aussie registrar, NetRegistry,
has signed an agreement with a new
Australian domain sales site, Netfleet,
to help develop and promote their
aftermarket platform. Netregistry CEO Larry
Bloch thinks the Australian
aftermarket has a lot of growth potential
but added, “Currently our efforts
are |

|
|
focused on
education as much as anything – most
people do not even realize that (.au)
domain names are now tradeable assets so
it’s a question of creating the
industry as well as satisfying the
demand." |
Organizers
of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Silicon Valley 2009 conference coming
up in April are reminding those thinking about
attending that tomorrow night (Dec. 31) at
midnight is the deadline to get a free
7-DVD set as an early registration bonus.
The DVD's feature Steve Forbes, Terry Jones, Tom Gardner, Barbara
Corcoran, Jim McCann, John Reese
plus Andrew Miller and Mike "Zappy
Zapolin" speaking at previous
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. shows.
|
|

|
NameMedia
has also put out word about another free
BuyDomains
webinar coming up Thursday,
January 29. This one will cover "How
to Leverage Google Analytics to Support
Your Small Business Goals". The
agenda is scheduled to touch on these
topics: |
-
Why
the Right Domain Name is Critical for
Your Small Business Website
-
How
to Read Reports, Compare to Regular
Stats and use the Data
-
Overview
of Organic and Paid Search
-
Q&A
Session
(Posted
Dec.
30, 2008) To refer others
to the
post above only you can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/12-30-08.htm
|
|
|
|
The
collapse of newspapers
triggered by the migration of readers to the Internet has
started a chain reaction that is causing related dominoes
to fall one by one. According to a story in the
|
New
York Times, "The
Comics Are Feeling the Pain of Print",
the venerable comic strip, a newspaper staple for
over a century, is the latest traditional
institution facing extinction. Like
the papers, major comic syndicators are hoping to
save themselves by moving to the web themselves. The
author of the Times article, Leslie Berlin
wrote, "In November, United Feature
Syndicate, which distributes 50 comics,
including “Peanuts,”
|
|
|
“Dilbert”
and “Get Fuzzy,” made its full archives
and portfolio available free on its Comics.com
Web site. The company also added social networking
features for tagging and rating comics. Visitors can
have comics sent to them via e-mail or RSS feed."
Berlin
added, "In the past, Comics.com displayed the
current day’s strips and a 30-day archive free.
Anyone wishing to see older comics or receive comics
via e-mail had to pay a subscription fee of less
than $20 a year. However, The syndicate decided that
the subscription model “was limiting the audience
for comics, and It appears to have been right."
After the charge was dropped, November traffic to
the site increased 48%, to 571,000
unique visitors in the U.S. alone.
|

|
Comics.com is
currently more of a marketing tool than a
major source of revenue. Lisa Wilson, senior
vice president of syndication for United
Media, told the Times the site
does bring in money from advertisers,
including cellphone companies and Netflix,
but its primary function is to build a fan
base and provide links to sites where fans
can buy books, calendars and other items
featuring characters from the comics. Wilson
said the site is “a platform for what
comes next.” |
Yet
more evidence that the future of almost all forms of
media is on the Internet. That migration is one of
the key factors underpinning the value of
memorable domain names like Comics.com, a name
that is playing a key role in the shift of comic
strips to the web.
(Posted
Dec.
29, 2008) To refer others
to the
post above only you can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/12-29-08.htm
|
|
|
The dates and location for the 2009 GeoDomain Expo
have been announced. After being held in Chicago
this past July, the show moves to San Diego in 2009
and also gets a change of
|
|
season
with spring time dates April 24-25. Mark
Burgess and his team at SanDiego.com
will be hosts for this fifth annual edition of the
geodomain industry's premier event. The
24th and 25th (a Friday and Saturday) are the public
show dates. As in the past, there will be
|
|
private sessions
for Associated Cities members only the day
before the show officially opens (those sessions
will be held on Thursday, April 23). The
conference is staged by Associated Cities and
they have posted more information about the 2009
event on their
website.
|
|
While
you are at the Associated Cities site, be sure to
check out a new
article published this week in which
several well-known geodomainers; David Castello,
Jessica Bookstaff and Sean Pilfold share
their bullish expectations for the
geodomain business in 2009.
|
|
Incidentally,
for those who attend both the GeoDomain
Expo and T.R.A.F.F.I.C., the
April 2009 dates will be a convenient fit.
The next T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference will be
held in Silicon
Valley April 27-30.
With the
GeoDomain Expo closing on Saturday night
(April 25), you can travel up the
California coast on Sunday (April 26) and
be at the Santa Clara Marriott in
plenty of time for the opening of
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. on Monday (April 27). For
show goers from the East Coast that will
be much easier than making two trans-contintental
trips in April. |

Marriott
Hotel - Santa Clara, California
Site of T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Silicon Valley 2009 |
This
will be T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s second appearance in the
Silicon Valley. A very successful show was held at
the same hotel in 2006.
(Posted
Dec.
26, 2008) To refer others
to the
post above only you can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/12-26-08.htm
|
|
|
|
|
Merry
Christmas to each and every one of you! |
|
Somehow,
not only for Christmas but all the long year
through,
The joy that you give to others is the joy that comes
back to you.
And the more you spend in blessing the poor and lonely
and sad,
The more of your heart's possessing returns to you
glad.
John
Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)
|

|
|
Christmas
began in the heart of God. It is complete only when it
reaches the heart of man. |
|
In
a story that has transcended the domain business
and made headlines
at every mainstream business news outlet, Verizon
Communications Inc.
said it has been awarded
$33.2 million
in what it called the largest cybersquatting case
ever. A federal court in
|
California
ruled that OnlineNic.com,
a large, long-established domain registrar based in San
Francisco
"unlawfully registered at least
663 domain names that were either identical to
or confusingly similar to
Verizon
trademarks." The company was awarded $50,
000
per name for OnlineNIC's "bad-faith
registrations" that were intended to steer
traffic away from
Verizon's
sites (federal law provides for a penalty of up to $100,000
per name).
|

|
|

|
OnlineNic
lost by default because they did
not even bother to show up in court to
defend the case, a very surprising situation
given that a judgment of this size could
bankrupt the registrar. A couple of
thoughts immediately crossed my mind when
this news broke. #1 - what could
OnlineNic have possibly been thinking!
Verizon has been vigorously going after
those infringing their trademarks for a
long time now and their 2007 lawsuit
against iREIT
was major news in the domain industry that
OnlineNic had to know about. Why would
they hold a massive lot of clearly infringing
names when doing so put a huge target
on their back and their entire
business at risk?
The second
thing that came to mind is how does
Verizon continue to win judgments against
cybersquatters when Verizon is one of the
most active cybersquatters on the Internet
themselves!? As anyone who uses
Verizon as an internet service provider
knows (they happen to be my ISP too) any
time you mis-type a name in your browser,
the typo (if there is not an existing
website with the |
|
misspelled
name) leads to Verizon's own in-house
landing page with PPC links monetizing
those typos - including countless
trademarked terms. For example, I just
typed HulettPackerd.com into my
browser and was sent to a Verizon page
loaded with PPC links to Hewlett
Packard products (see screenshot
below). |

How
is this different from what OnlineNic just
lost $33 million for doing? Infringement is
infringement. Make no mistake, I think
OnlineNic was dead wrong (not to mention plain
stupid) for what they did - but I think
Verizon is dead wrong in what they are doing in
monetizing other company's typos too. Do you think
they are turning the money earned from pages like
this over to Hewlett Packard? Neither do I. The
rules should apply equally to everyone. When
Verizon does it they call it a
"service". When someone else does it
they call it "cybersquatting". I think
it is the latter, but in any case what is good for
the goose is good for the gander.
(Posted
Dec.
24, 2008) To refer others
to the
post above only you can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/12-24-08-2.htm
|
|
|
Name
Media has decided to pull to their planned IPO
citing market conditions, according to their regulatory
filings. The Massachusetts-based domain
conglomerate (parent company of
|
BuyDomains, the AfternicDLS and several
parking services), originally filed for a $172.5
million IPO in November 2007. In a news report
today, Reuters
is reporting that the number of companies that have
withdrawn a planned IPO this year now rises to 103.
Reuters said, "The
market turbulence has led to the slowest year in
IPOs since 2003, with more than three times as many
deals withdrawn as those that have gone ahead. 26
tech companies have canceled their IPO plans this
year. Those deals would have yielded an estimated $2.5
billion in proceeds, according to Thomson
Reuters data."
|

|
|
(Posted
Dec.
24, 2008) To refer others
to the
post above only you can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/12-24-08.htm
|
|
|
PC
World magazine presented an interesting piece of domain
history
in a new article published this week about The Internet's 100 Oldest Dot-Com Domains.
Writer J.R. Raphael
|
noted
that the first dot-com domain
registered was Symbolics.com on March 15,
1985 (a good trivia question to ask around the
bar at the next domain convention). Raphael added,
"The site belonged to a computer
manufacturer
|
|
|
known for its Open
Genera Lisp and Macsyma computer algebra systems.
Symbolics declared bankruptcy in the early
90s but is still under operation with new owners.
That means Symbolics.com is the Internet's oldest
still-functioning dot-com domain - and, I must say,
it still looks
like it was designed in 1985."
Only nine more domain
names were registered in the 12 months following the
registration of Symbolics.com. The ten oldest
domains include four 3-letter domains (a category
that remains popular to this day). Those historic
ten names are:
|
|
|
|
1. Symbolics.com: March 15,
1985
2. BBN.com: April 24, 1985
3. Think.com: May 24, 1985
4. MCC.com: July 11, 1985
5. DEC.com: September 30, 1985
6. Northrop.com: November 7, 1985
7. Xerox.com: January 9, 1986
8. SRI.com: January 17, 1986
9. HP.com: March 3, 1986
10. Bellcore.com: March 5, 1986 |
|
|
When
you consider that any name could have been
registered in those early days, it is a bit
surprising what was NOT registered - but back then
no one had an inkling how valuable domain names
would become a little over a decade later. You
can review
PC World's entire 100 Oldest Domains list here.
(Posted
Dec.
23, 2008) To refer others
to the
post above only you can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/12-23-08.htm
|
|
|
Veteran
domainer Mike "Zappy" Zapolin,
one of the co-founders of the Internet
Real Estate Group (IREG)
that we profiled in a 2005 DN
Journal Cover Story, met with Israel's
President,
|
Shimon
Peres, last week when Zappy was a featured
speaker at the Globes Israel Business Summit
in Tel Aviv. Israel's Globes
business magazine also ran a profile
of Zapolin just before his appearance at
the conference.
In
that magazine interview Zappy said, “Although the
current economic situation is dismal, the Internet
is a ray of light where it is possible to do
business on a larger scale than ever
before. Today, 21% of content consumed is
online, but just 7% of the money channeled to
the advertising industry reaches the Internet. This
gap will narrow.”
At
IREG Zappy and his partners scored big with the sale
of Beer.com for $7 million, CreditCards.com
for $2.75 million and Shop.com at $3.5
million.
|

IREG's
Mike "Zappy" Zapolin and
Israeli
President Shimon Peres last week in Tel Aviv
|
|
These
days the company concentrates on developing
their prime generic domains, like Chocolate.com,
rather than selling them. IREG also owns gems like Insurance.com,
Patent.com and Jeans.com.
When
Globes asked Zapolin how the current
recession would affect online advertising he noted,
"It’s true that the growth rate in the online
advertising industry is slowing, but it’s still
growing, and it will only continue to grow in
the coming years. Advertisers are now abandoning
traditional advertising channels and rushing to
the Internet, where it’s possible to measure
the marketing and to create a high ROI
(return on investment).” In another interesting
tidbit from the interview Zapolin revealed that he
is planning to publish a book soon that will
include tools for finding good domains and tips for
creating reputation, reliability, and traffic.
|
|
(Posted
Dec.
22, 2008) To refer others
to the
post above only you can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/12-22-08.htm
|
|
|
The
U.S. Government has joined the chorus
saying "Not so fast!" to ICANN's
plan to start rolling out an unlimited number of new
global domain extensions next year. In a report
just released this afternoon, Reuters reporter
Kim Dixon said the U.S. Department of
|
Commerce,
the branch that oversees ICANN, sent a letter to the
domain name system's oversight body yesterday
(Dec. 18) stating "It is unclear that the
threshold question of whether the potential consumer
benefits outweigh the potential costs has been
adequately addressed." Commerce
went on to say that ICANN needs to prove it can
handle a potentially huge influx of applications and
how it will police issues related to intellectual
property rights. The government agency also said
that any introduction of new names must not
jeopardize the stability and structure of the domain
name system. You
can read the full text of the DOC letter here.
|
|
|
With
the Commerce letter coming in the wake of objections
lodged by a trade association representing
thousands of nationally known brands and trademark
holders, an anti new TLD tide is obviously
on the rise. In any case it appears that the
rollout of new extensions will have to be
delayed while ICANN deals with all of the
objections that are now coming to the fore. Thanks
to David Castello for the tip on this
breaking news.
(Posted
Dec.
19, 2008) To refer others
to the
post above only you can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/12-19-08.htm
|
|
If you missed yesterday's GoDaddy Radio Show
featuring GoDaddy Founder and CEO Bob Parsons
chatting with Domain
Name Wire's Andrew Allemann the program is available
for
|
|
replay
on the GoDaddy
Radio home page. Parsons invited Allemann
to come on the program to talk about articles Andrew
posted at DNW that were critical of GoDaddy. Those articles
prompted Parsons to order a couple of major changes at
the company including a rollback in starting bid
prices for high traffic domains at GoDaddy's
aftermarket auction site, TDNAM.com and a
decision to shut down a domain warehousing subsidiary
called Standard Tactics.
|
|
I
thought Allemann and Parsons both came off
very well in what turned out to be a cordial
information-rich discussion. Most corporate
CEOs automatically become defensive in the
face of |
criticism
and seek to demonize their critics. Parsons'
response was the exact opposite. He welcomed
Allemann's critiques and said hearing
unbiased outside opinions like that are
invaluable in helping the company fix things
that aren't being done right. Allemann
came to the discussion very well prepared
and brought up a number of other questions
about GoDaddy policies that elicited answers
from Parsons that produced a lot of insight
into the company's reasoning. Knowing Andrew
and being a fan of his work, I knew he would
be up
to the occasion and he certainly was. Though
GoDaddy has been called out on more that one
issue this year their customers obviously
feel they are doing a lot of things right.
They are the world's biggest registrar and
now command 46% of the new
registration |

Andrew
Allemann
DomainNameWire.com |
|
market.
Though the private company doesn't release
exact figures Parsons said their sales
topped $250 million this year and
were in the neighborhood of $500 million. |
When
you reach those kinds of dizzying heights it is easy to
become arrogant and think that you know it all. To
his credit Parsons, who was featured in a 2004 DN
Journal Cover
Story, still comes across as a regular
guy who, despite amazing entrepreneurial success,
has managed to keep both feet on the ground and his ears
open to new ideas. Kudos to both men on a good
show.
|
|

Sedo's
Martin Osusky |
While
we are handing out compliments, Sedo
deserves one as well. The aftermarket giant announced
Wednesday that
it has received an A+ rating from the
Better Business Bureau (BBB).
The A+ grade is the highest the BBB
awards and it represents the
organization’s belief that Sedo is
operating in a trustworthy manner and will
make a good faith effort to resolve any
customer concerns.
Sedo's
Director of Customer Relations Martin
Osusky said, "This A+ rating
reflects the knowledge, patience and
commitment of Sedo’s Customer Support
Team. I’m proud to see Sedo being
recognized and rewarded for the level of
dedication we provide to our customers every
day.” You can see
Sedo’s Better Business Bureau profile here. |
|
(Posted
Dec.
18, 2008) To refer others
to the
post above only you can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/12-18-08.htm |
|
|
|
Even
though 2008 was a bad year for the economy
it was a boom year for the world's biggest domain
registrar - GoDaddy.com. The company's sales shot
up a stunning 42% this
|
year
and GoDaddy founder Bob
Parsons made sure his employees knew
they were appreciated by treating them to a $2
million holiday
party last Saturday night in Phoenix.
The gala event was staged at Chase Field
(home of the Arizona Diamondbacks major
league baseball team) and featured live performances
from Joan Jett, .38 Special and
comedian Sinbad.
In
addition to a fabulous feast, there were prize
drawings that doled out free motorcycles and cash
awards as high as $5,000. Parsons told the
crowd the largesse was possible, even in a severe
recession, because the company was part of a new
economic order being driven by the Internet.
"We're helping put millions of people on the
Internet so they can be part of the new
order. The new economy is going to allow America to
rise from the ashes of this recession," Parsons
said.
|

Bob
Parsons
GoDaddy Founder & CEO
|
|
There
was more news from GoDaddy this week.
Reacting to a story written by Andrew
Allemann at DomainNameWire.com,
the company made a major policy change in
pricing domains listed on their TDNAM.com
aftermarket auction site. Domains with
traffic and existing revenue were being
assigned a significantly higher opening
bid than other domains on the site,
prompting Allemann to observe that the
practice essentially amounted to the
auction house bidding against its own
customers. Upon reflection, and to his
credit, Parsons agreed and ended the
pricing disparity.
Parsons
didn't stop there. He also invited
Allemann to be a guest on his GoDaddy
Radio Show this afternoon at 4pm
(US Eastern time). Andrew has been
critical of GoDaddy on several other
issues this year so the discussion should
be a very open and interesting one. |

Andrew
Allemann
DomainNameWire.com |
|
(Posted
Dec.
17, 2008) To refer others
to the
post above only you can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/12-17-08.htm
|
|
|
|
Major
trademark holders and national advertisers
are calling on ICANN to stop,
or at least slow down, its plan to roll out an unlimited
number of new global TLDs in 2009. Last night
|
|
Broadcast
& Cable magazine reported that the
Association of National Advertisers (ANA), in a
letter
to ICANN CEO Dr. Paul Twomey, called the
proposal premature and counterproductive. ANA
represents 9,000 brands that spend $100
billion annually on advertsing and
marketing.
ANA
Executive VP Daniel Jaffe said,
"Presently, ANA’s members expend substantial
sums of money monitoring domain name abuse, defensively
registering domains (sometimes in the hundreds or
even thousands) and prosecuting squatters and
other violators.
|
|
These
new costs are likely to escalate substantially"
if ICANN moves forward with its plans. Jaffe added
that ANA does not think ICANN has shown a demand
that justifies the "massive burdens" the
plan would impose and should reevaluate the plan.
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