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There
is a very interesting article in the Financial
Times today that anyone interested in domains and Internet
advertising should read. The article, Dotcoms
Start to be Lords of Their Domains, by James
Altucher, details the very rosy prospects for
popular websites and quality domains with so much ad money
abandoning traditional media for online outlets. Altucher
noted "Last year, internet retail sales were up 24%
year-over-year and we had our first $100 billion-plus
year in e-commerce with overall online retail sales at $102
billion for 2006. Next year, online advertising is
expected to rise from $18 billion to $24 billion
and still be just a single-digit percentage of overall
advertising, implying there is heavy growth ahead."
Posted Jan. 30, 2007
Major
media outlets as well as national governments are
going to have to come to grips with the fact that their
power is waning with the rise of countless Internet
media outlets. At least that's the word from the World
Economic Forum that ended in Davos, Switzerland
Friday. News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch
said ,"Big media's influence is waning amid an explosion
of news sites, blogs and podcasts. It's so pluralistic, we all
have less power, much less." In an article
about this historic shift, the Hollywood Reporter's George
Szalai noted a panel consensus that "media
conglomerates and governments cannot stop, much less reverse,
the reduced power they endure, brought about by the Internet
and digital media. Instead, they have to learn to embrace
change as an opportunity."
Posted Jan. 29, 2007
Those
who follow the Spanish language domain market will
be interested in a compilation of the highest reported Spanish
domain sales (in all extensions) according to the folks at Demene.com.
We can't vouch for the accuracy of the prices noted as we
haven't seen any documentation for most of the names listed.
However, it is still an interesting peak at what is happening
in the Spanish market through the eyes of a site that follows
domain activity in that language.
Posted Jan. 26, 2007
Tomorrow
(Jan. 26) is the deadline for those who want to
submit domains for Moniker's.com live auction coming up
at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
West conference in Las Vegas March 7.
Moniker has generated more than $11 million in auction
sales over the past 12 months. For more information or to
submit your domains for consideration, you can contact [email protected]
or go to www.moniker.com/liveauction.
Posted Jan. 25, 2007
eNom,
Inc. announced today it is working with Microsoft
to enable the new domain registration services feature in Windows
Live Custom Domains, a feature that became available today
at Domains.Live.com.
eNom Founder/CEO and Demand Media President Paul
Stahura said, “Microsoft understands the importance of
providing its customers an opportunity to create permanent,
unique, personalized addresses on the Web while using its
Windows Live services, and we are helping make this possible.
Our strategy is to offer world-class infrastructure, tools and
domain knowledge to companies like Microsoft to put the power
in the hands of the customer.” Windows Live Custom
Domains allows consumers to easily create custom Windows Live
accounts on their personal domain which then works with
Windows Live and MSN services, including Mail, Messenger and
Spaces. For those who do not currently have a domain and
wish to create one, eNom then enables them to register popular
extensions like .com, .net, .org, .info and .biz. “From the
soccer mom to the local non-profit – more and more, we are
seeing end users’ desire to stake their own claim online,”
Stahura noted.
Posted Jan. 25, 2007
NameMedia's
domain marketplaces, BuyDomains.com
and Afternic.com,
announced a new strategic marketing partnership with
Australia's Fabulous.com
today. Fabulous will use the popular aftermarket sales
platforms at BuyDomains and Afternic as a premier distribution
channel for the more than 500,000 domains available for
sale in the Fabulous portfolio. The addition of those names
will push the selection of domains available through
BuyDomains and Afternic (and their global reseller network)
past the 2 million mark. Peter Lamson, the
Senior Vice President and General Manager of NameMedia’s
domain name marketplace, said "The breadth and quality of
the Fabulous.com domain name portfolio provides great benefit
to our global small to mid-sized business customer base. This
expanded domain inventory ensures BuyDomains Domain
Consultants’ ability to find the perfect online identity for
any online need." Dan Warner, the COO of
Fabulous.com & Dark Blue Sea Limited, said "BuyDomains
and Afternic are unequivocally today’s leader in domain name
agency sales. In particular, their personal involvement with
customers add real value to the transactions and provide
superior sale services. We are pleased to have them as a new
channel for our domain stock."
Posted Jan. 24, 2007
The
power of a great domain was again underscored in a
press release we just received from Castello Cities
Internet Network, Inc. It details the success Re/Max
real estate agent Gary Ashton has had thanks to an
exclusive advertising contract he signed with Castello's Nashville.com
three years ago. In the first year of his contract to be the
exclusive real estate agent on Nashville.com, Ashton said
inquiries from the site were directly responsible for 35
property sales. In 2005, sales more than doubled to
72 properties and in 2006 Ashton's total jumped to 111
properties sold. "I can already see that my 2007
property sales will dwarf 2006," Ashton said. "After
signing on with Nashville.com I was shocked to learn that some
of the largest real estate companies in Tennessee had
passed on using the site. I'll never understand why anyone in
this business would let something like this slip through their
fingers, but I'm certainly glad they did." Incidentally,
the founders of the Castello Network were featured in our December
2006 cover story.
Posted Jan. 23, 2007
ICANN
has hired a journalist who has frequently been
critical of the U.S. based organization that oversees Internet
domain names. According to ZDNet.co.uk,
Britain's Kieren McCarthy, who has written for such
publications as The Guardian, The Register and Techworld,
has been named General Manager in charge of public
participation at ICANN where he is to "ensure active
participation in ICANN processes by Internet stakeholders,
including end users." We think both the creation of the
position and the purpose of the job represent a step in the
right direction for ICANN, whom we have also frequently
criticized over the past year for ignoring the wishes of
domain registrants and their own constituencies. We also think
that McCarthy, who has earned public trust through his
credible reporting efforts, is a good choice for this
position. We hope that he will be given the latitude needed to
help solve the serious differences that have developed between
the organization and the Internet community it is supposed to
serve.
Posted Jan. 22, 2007
Group
NBT (a leading UK domain name management
company and managed web hosting provider) has acquired Ascio
Technologies, a well-known provider of domain name
services based in Copenhagen, Denmark for £18.3
million in cash, shares and options. Group NBT said the
acquisition makes them the leading pan-European provider of
domain name management services. Ascio's offices in Denmark,
Germany, Switzerland and Norway will complement Group NBT's
existing presence in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and the
US. Geoff Wicks, Chief Executive of Group NBT, said
"This acquisition gives us access to a significant part
of the European market much faster than we could have achieved
by organic growth alone and also provides good opportunities
to increase our sales." Ascio, a privately held Danish
company that includes SpeedNames Business and SpeedNames
Online, had revenue of £10.3 million in the
financial year ending Dec. 31, 2005 (2006 has not been
reported yet), up 24% over revenue for the previous
year.
Posted Jan. 20, 2007
Last
summer we told you about a deal John Gotts
made that could have let him acquire Wiki.com
for $3 million. As we noted in a column
at the end of July, a door was left open for Gotts to walk
away form the deal because the contract required him to pay
only $10,000 a month for 6 months before a
multi-million dollar balloon payment for the balance would be
due. The deal gave Gotts time to try to build a new wiki
platform on the domain, but it looks time has run out and the
final payment will never be made. Wiki.com sent an email to
users today announcing it was shutting down. The note
said "Dear Wiki.com User: As some of you may have heard
from the grapevine, Wiki.com is shutting down by January 25th,
2007. But have no worries: your content is safe and you will
be able to continue as before without a hitch. MindTouch
and John Gotts, the owner of Wiki.com, have reached an
agreement to transfer all wiki sites and accounts to MindTouch.
We have already begun the backup and provisioning processes to
effect a seamless migration to our hosting facilities, which
will occur over the next few days. The agreement does not
include keeping the domain name; MindTouch is only taking over
the wiki sites and their accounts." Today Wiki.com is
simply redirecting to another wiki site, Wikia.com that
TechCruch.com
says is affiliated with Wikipedia founder Jimmy
Wales.
Posted Jan. 19, 2007
$2
million dollar worth of domains were sold in Moniker.com's
live auction at the INTERNEXT conference in Las
Vegas yesterday. 88 domains were sold in this auction of
adult domain names (a small number of mainstream names
were also offered) with SheMale.com attracting the
highest winning bid - $520,000. Two other names
cracked the six-figure mark; BDSM.com ($295,000)
and InterracialSex.com
($150,000). A $5
million bid was placed on Porn.com but it did not
meet the seller's reserve price. An online silent auction is
also being held in conjunction with the event and that will
continue through January 24.
Posted Jan. 18, 2007
There
is a major job opening at Sedo.com.
The popular domain aftermarket sales and PPC company is
looking for a Director of Business Development.
According to the job
description "You will play a key role in a diverse range of sales functions and be responsible for developing relationships with our existing key partners and clients as well as play an integral role in developing new ones. In this role, you will report to the CEO and will work closely with the different departments in our organization to set, shape and execute the partnership and sales strategies of our companies. If you’re looking for a challenge, this is it!"
Follow the job description link above for more details,
including the qualifications needed to be considered for this
position.
Posted Jan. 17, 2007
In
their latest newsletter, Sedo.com had
announced they would hold a premium .mobi auction
starting Valentine's Day, Feb. 14 that would include 58
names including music.mobi, photos.mobi and theaters.mobi.
However, it looks like the announcement was premature and the
auction will not be held next month after all. A post
yesterday in the .mobi
registry's blog said "a rumor appeared on some
domain industry news sites last week about an upcoming online
auction of dotMobi Premium Names in February. Unfortunately,
that is not true and no online auction is planned
for February. Any auction (or allocation via other
methods) of any dotMobi Premium Names will always be announced
officially by dotMobi and will be viewable at http://dotmobi.mobi."
Posted Jan. 16, 2007
An
interesting article
in the New York Times Sunday said the major
American TV networks are facing a dilemma on how to deal with Google's
popular video site, YouTube.com.
NBC Universal says it is having to send 1,000
requests a month to YouTube to have them take down copyrighted
material that has been posted without permission by YouTube
users. Often, as soon as the material is taken down someone
else uploads it to the site again. The networks may wind up
pursuing lawsuits against YouTube but they have to weigh the
fact that they also benefit from the promotion their shows
receive on YouTube. Most of the giant media companies are
trying to negotiate licensing deals with YouTube to insure
they get paid when their material shows up online, but there
is also talk that the networks may start their own competing
video site, while turning their legal departments loose on
YouTube. You'll remember Napster once rode high before
copyright infringing uploads brought them crashing back to
earth.
Posted Jan. 15, 2007
If
you are an Afternic.com
customer or are thinking about becoming one so you
can list your domains for sale on the popular aftermarket
exchange, the company is offering a little extra incentive.
Afternic will provide a free domain name appraisal (appraisals
normally cost $19.95 there) to those who purchase an Exchange
membership or renew a current Exchange membership by January
31. To get the free appraisal on any domain, once you
purchase or renew your membership, send an email to website
@ afternic.com or call 407-880-3211.
Posted Jan. 14, 2007
Oversee.net,
the parent company of DomainSponsor.com, has acquired
popular travel site LowFares.com.
Oversee CEO and co-founder Lawrence Ng said
“LowFares.com is a great strategic fit for us as we broaden
the scope of our lead generation business. Our advanced lead
generation technology will boost the value of this consumer
site. Coupled with our technical skill and marketing
expertise, we expect to enhance the site’s offering to both
consumers and advertisers.” LowFares.com allows consumers to
make side-by-side comparisons of prices from various travel
sites. In addition buying active web-based businesses like
this, Oversee and DomainSponsor have been actively buying
domain name portfolios over the past year.
Posted Jan. 12, 2007
The
online advertising market will more than quadruple
over the next five years to reach $82 billion worldwide
according to a new research
report from Susquehanna analyst Marianne
Wolk. "Advances in targeting are driving increases in
ad spending, as strong return on investments are made more
evident by rising deployment of Web analytics," Wolk
said. She added that online advertising could grow at a rate
of 21% annually for the next five years. Beneficiaries
of the boom will include Google (thanks to its
dominance in the search advertising market and its acquisition
of video site YouTube), and the other two search
giants, Yahoo and Microsoft.
Posted Jan. 11, 2007
If
you have developed a .mobi site you might have a
chance to be an award winner. The dotMobi
registry sent out a note to their registrars yesterday saying
"The Webby Awards are known as the Oscars of the
Internet and nominations for the 2007 Awards are in full swing.
For the first time, this year's awards will include the Webby Mobile Awards with three new awards, sponsored by dotMobi, to recognize the growth and quality of content being developed for mobile devices. Sites built on .mobi's open standards can be submitted for consideration in
"Listings & Updates," "News &
Entertainment" and "Mobile Marketplace"
categories and can be submitted until January 26, 2007, at
www.webbyawards.com/entries/.
Posted Jan. 9, 2007
Moniker.com
today announced a list of premium adult domain
names that will be offered during a live auction on
Wednesday, January 17 at the Internext Expo
in Las Vegas. Internext, the world’s largest
business-to-business online and digital media adult expo, will
be held at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino January
15-17. Names that will be available during this auction
include AdultBooks.com, Hotties.com, Sex.net, Mature.net and
Cams.mobi. The live auction (and a supplemental silent
auction) will only be open to Internext attendees. Those
interested in purchasing a domain name must be present at the
live auction or have a representative present in order to be a
bidder/buyer at the event. Official rules and procedures for
the auction can be found on this
page at Moniker.com.
Posted Jan. 8, 2007
After
apparently being left for dead last year, the
prospect of a new .xxx extension for adult domains has
been revived. Associated Press writer Anick
Jesdanun has an article
out today detailing a new proposal from ICANN that might let
creation of an online "red light district" go
forward. ICANN had rejected an existing .xxx proposal from
registry operator ICM Registry Inc. of Jupiter,
Florida last
May. ICANN has opened the new proposal to public
comment but did not indicate when it would make
a final ruling on creation of a .xxx extension.
Posted Jan. 6, 2007
It
looks like America's country code, .US, is starting
to make some inroads among major corporations. Three more new
examples came to our attention today at USForum.us.
The Discover credit card company started using Discover.us
after recently being spun off as a separate company by Morgan
Stanley. Nestle's Pure Life water, a major bottled
water brand in America now has the URL Nestle-PureLife.us
on the label of every bottle. One of the world's largest
makers of projectors and LCD monitors, BenQ, is now
using BenQ.us
for their USA site. The URL is reportedly now plastered on
taxis everywhere you go in Las Vegas (coincidentally, I
also have a 19" BenQ LCD monitor on my desktop). It will
take adoption by a lot more companies like these to achieve
widespread recognition for the American ccTLD, but names like
Discover, Nestles and BenQ are very nice bricks in the .US
foundation.
Posted Jan. 5, 2007
Most
of the PPC revenue received by domain owners flows
from Google. Yahoo! is the other big player in
the space, but in the past year Google has been further
widening the gap between the two search giants. One of the
best articles we have seen about the reasons why Google has
been able to dominate in this area has been published at Skrenta.com.
They think the game is over and Google has won - and
will only get stronger in the future. Check it out - we think
you will find it to be an exceptionally interesting read.
Posted Jan. 4, 2007
The
President and CEO of the .org registry (PIR), Edward
G. Viltz, has abruptly resigned. Viltz had been the top
executive at the Public Interest Registry since
February 2003. PIR announced the resignation (which was
effective Dec. 31) today and said Eva Frölich, chair
of the PIR board of directors, will serve as acting CEO until
a replacement is named. No reason was given for Viltz's
desparture, however he said "my four year personal
objectives for PIR have been attained.” During his tenure at
PIR, the number of .org domain names nearly doubled,
breaking the 5 million mark in September 2006.
Posted Jan. 3, 2007
We've
always loved good entrepreneurial stories (which is
one reason we write so many of them). The founder of WebHosting.com,
Jesse Rasch, has posted a good one on his blog
that details how he built his multi-million dollar company and
the role that acquiring his great generic domain name had in
the company's success. Rasch, who bought the domain for just $30,000
in early 1998, said "the day we launched our new
retail web hosting brand at WebHosting.com, our sales quadrupled
and would continue to grow in the weeks to come as the
domain's generic descriptive nature was highly relevant for
search engine optimization. Within 15 months of changing our
name to WebHosting.com, we had registered over 150,000 domain
names for tens of thousands of hosting customers in over 140
countries around the world and were on track to surpass $10
million in annual sales." Despite results like that,
a remarkable number of major corporations have no idea
how much their business would benefit from owning the keyword
.com that defines the industry they are in.
Posted
Jan. 2, 2007
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