Today in The Lowdown: Radix, the operator of 10 top level domain registries, has issued their latest report on their Premium Domain Sales covering the first half of 2023. The company reported total premium revenue came in at $4.6 million, a 22% jump from the same time frame last year. 

Also inside: A nice pair of six-figure one-word .com domain sales lead our latest bi-weekly all-extension Top 20 Sales Chart. One of those hit $300,000 and the other came in at $150,000. We also saw one of the year's 10 biggest non .com gTLD sales (a $50,000 .org) and watched the ccTLDs pile up seven entries on the Big Board. One of those country code sales ranks among the year's 15 biggest in that category.

How Dynadot's Todd Han Turned a One Man Show Into One of the World's Fastest Growing Domain Registrars

Todd Han's domain industry journey began over 20 years ago when his mother asked him to build a website for her. She was able to keep the project "in house" because Todd was already a computer whiz who had  graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in computer science and had recently added a Master's degree in CS from Stanford. When Han started looking at the domain registrars from that era he couldn't find any that he liked, so he decided he would just set up one of his own - after all, how hard could it be? 

"The internet was just taking off and I thought I could build a better registrar," Han recalls. "I was young and naive and had no idea what running a business entailed." Todd would spend the next three years as the only employee of his new company. Over the past five years with dozens now on staff and over 100,000 customers around the world, Dynadot has tripled in size, rocketing to 4.5 million domains under management. Here is how he did it. Full Story Here  

Todd Han
Dynadot President & CEO

Michael Castello Closes $1.5 Million Sale of Room.com to Cap 26-Year Saga from Hand Registration to 7-Figure Sale 

Regular readers may remember a 2019 DN Journal Cover Story in which domain industry pioneer Michael Castello gave us the inside story of how he got a $1.5 million contract to sell a domain he co-owned with friend and nationally syndicated  radio icon Walt "Baby" Love. The deal for Room.com, a name wisely purchased to upgrade from GetRoom.com, allowed the buyer to pay for the domain under a five-year installment plan. That company just sent in a check for $250,000 to close the deal.

We connected with Michael to get an update on his history with the domain from first registration to its eventual seven-figure sale, a history that stretches back 26 years. "Back in the mid 1990's, during one of our recording sessions, Walt asked if I could get him involved in domain names," Michael recalled. I asked him how much he wanted to spend, and he said, "How about $3,000?" Our arrangement was that I would find and register the names, and we would split their sales or website businesses 50/50. He handed me his credit card, and I registered 30 generic domain names, including Room.com."   Full Story Here

Michael Castello

London Domain Name Summit Organizers Detail What They Liked About the August Show and Announce Plans to Go Bigger Next Year

A lot goes into getting a new domain conference off the ground - especially when you are staging it in one of the world's most expensive cities - but the London Domain Name Summit planted a seed with their debut event last year and went into their second show in August 2023 hoping to take it to another level. A couple of weeks after the latest show ended at the London Hilton Metropole Hotel, we circled back around to LDNS Founder Helmuts Meskonis to get his thoughts on how, given time to reflect, he thought his second time at bat went. 

For further insight, we also connected with it.com Founder Andrey Insarov whose financial backing as Title Sponsor was critical in helping the new show get off the ground (it.com also sponsored the inaugural event in 2022). Insarov, whose company is also sponsoring the new Domain Days Dubai conference coming up November 1 & 2, sees these new events as key elements in expanding the industry's reach around the world.         Full Story Here

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