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The
Lowdown
March
2015
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Here's
the The Lowdown from
DN Journal,
updated daily to fill you in on the
latest buzz going around the domain name
industry.
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson. |
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Latest
Domain Name Report From the Public Interest
Registry Shows .ORG Growth Continued in 2014
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Public
Interest Registry,
the non-profit operator of
the .org domain, released
their latest bi-annual domain name
report covering the second half
of 2014 today. With the
final numbers from last year now
tabulated, the PIR report, known as
“The
Dashboard,”
showed
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another
year of growth for the popular
extension. Despite competition from
hundreds of new gTLDs .org
was able to add 136,089
registrations in 2014 to close the
year with just over 10.5 million
on the books, a 1.3% increase
over the previous year.
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.Org's
fastest growth came from the Asia-Pacific
market. For the region as a
whole the number of .org
registrations jumped 16% year
over year to 1.37 million.
China and Japan
each account for nearly 3% of
global .org registrations. |
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PIR
CEO Brian Cute said,
"Last year, we saw more
and more organizations across
the globe turn to the .org
domain to communicate their
missions, ideas and
initiatives in support of the
public interest. While
the U.S. has historically had
the highest registration
numbers, we’re seeing an
incredible increase in .org
registrations from international
markets, and as a result,
they now make up nearly half
of all .org websites. Clearly,
no matter where a business,
organization or individual is
located, .org will continue
its legacy to bring people
together around the world and
serve as a reliable online
venue.”
PIR
was also able to report a very
healthy renewal rate for
.org domains with that number
coming in at nearly 75%.
A PIR press release on the
latest data noted, "While
.org continues to be used by
organizations in nearly every
field, information and management
were identified as the top
two industries supported
by the domain, representing
more than 35% of .org
websites. All of the data in
the latest release is
available in infographic form here
(.pdf file). |
Brian
Cute
CEO, Public Interest Registry |
Public
Interest Registry also announced
they are launching OnGood,
a new suite of online services
exclusively to serve the needs of
noncommercial, non-governmental
organizations (NGO) and
non-profit communities across the
globe. With OnGood, NGOs and
nonprofits will have an exclusive community
website with a searchable
directory, and the .ngo and .ong
domain bundle to help improve
visibility, raise funds and connect
with other organizations. OnGood
will be generally available for
registration on May 6, 2015.
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Aiming
to Increase the Appetite for New gTLDs a Free
Sedo Food Truck Served Thousands at SXSW
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We're
used to getting sales reports
from domain industry giant Sedo,
but the data that came in
today was a lot different than
what we usually see with frozen
yogurt and coffee
replacing domains in the Sedo
spreadsheet. The |
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change
stemmed from a very successful
food truck promotion Sedo ran
at the recently concluded SXSW
extravaganza in Austin,
Texas where they doled out
close to 5,000 servings
of frozen yogurt and almost 2,000
cups of Coffee.Club coffee
- all free of charge - over a
five day period. |
The
Sedo frozen yogurt and Coffee.Club
coffee truck at SXSW 2015 in Austin,
Texas.
In
collaboration with their new gTLD
partners (whose extensions were
featured on the truck) Sedo offered
specially named yogurt toppings to
suit the occasion with names like
.company, .direct, .deals, .club,
.sexy and .bar. Sedo said that
allowed them to expose the SXSW
audience to how large the domain
industry presence is in the online
marketing world and provide
useful information from all of their
sponsors.
It
didn't take long for a line to form
at the Sedo food truck!
A Sedo
release on the promotion said,
"We were able to connect with
tons of both tech-savvy and non-techy
savvy professionals while we made
huge strides in educating the SXSW
audience about domains and
what the new gTLDs could mean for
them. With over 65,000
participants attending the
interactive portion of the
conference, a wide range of
companies were represented from
heavy hitters like Yahoo, Adobe,
Bayer, Spotify, Mashable, and others
to small startups and agencies and
all were excited to get a free treat
and learn about new gTLDs. We also
benefitted from a huge engagement
through social media with an influx
of new followers and mainstream and
industry press coverage like this feature
on CNBC or this colorful
post on Domain Name Wire."
Sedo's
Boston based Chief Sales Officer Solomon
Amoako (left)
and General Counsel Jeremiah
Johnston taking a coffee break
at the Sedo truck.
Sedo's
review of their Austin initiative
concluded, "It was eye-opening
how many conversations occurred and
how the dialog opened so many
people’s eyes to what’s
available in domains. The free
frozen yogurt was simply the gateway
to generating the much needed
awareness around the new gTLDs and
we were excited to execute this in
cooperation with our very supportive
partners. This was just a preview to
the start of a year full of similar
promotions around the world, so stay
tuned"
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Forbes
Contributor Says Compatibility Issues Could Be Bigger Threat
to New gTLDs Than Lack of Awareness
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Overall
new gTLD registrations
haven't
been as robust as many
registry operators had hoped a year
after the first wave of new
extensions hit the web. With
hundreds of new gTLDs fighting for a
piece of the relatively small
pie that .com and
other long established extensions
haven't locked up
already, it's tough
out there. Still, many operators
believe
better marketing efforts
that are now getting underway from
major players like Donuts
will raise public awareness of the
new options and significantly boost
sales.
Today,
an article
by Forbes.com contributor Roger
Kay pointed out a roadblock
that could be an even bigger threat
to new gTLDs than low recognition -
a lack of universal
compatibility with some key
components of the web itself. Kay
wrote, "a lot of the new domain
names
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don’t
work with existing devices and
software. Browsers don’t
handle the new suffixes consistently
or as expected, mail systems
sometimes reject them as invalid,
and some enterprise software
generates unpredictable errors,
which may requiring significant
revisions to fix."
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While
I wasn't aware this kind of of
potentially debilitating
situation existed , Kay said ICANN has
known about it all along,
writing, "Ram Mohan,
who sits on the Security
and Stability Advisory
Committee, said
the problem has been known
to ICANN since at least 2003
and remains unaddressed."
Kay continued, "At an
ICANN meeting in Singapore in
February, a working group
charged with sorting out the
problem of “universal
acceptance” admitted
that the prospect of mass
incompatibility is
scary.
Brent London,
Google's representative in
the working group, put
it pretty
straightforwardly: “New
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of
domains and email addresses break
stuff. Just to send
an email from one person to
another, you’d find yourself
in a situation where an
operating system, mail
servers, routers, mail service
providers, security software,
all need to work properly.”
And with the new
suffixes, sometimes they
don’t." |
Kay
added that a fix is still a long way
off noting "During the final
portion of the ICANN presentation, Christian
Dawson of the Internet
Infrastructure Coalition, in
proposing that a Universal
Acceptance Steering Group be
formed, noted that its work should
be envisioned to take 10 years...
That’s a fair stretch to wait for
the responsibles to untangle this
hairball."
Kay
believes ICANN is exacerbated the
problem by letting far too many
TLDs be released at the same
time and advised the governing body
to slow down the pace of new gTLD
introductions while the
compatibility issues are worked
through. It is well worth reading
his full
article to familiarize
yourself with the issues Kay
raised. It is certainly a
sobering piece that could scare off
a lot of potential registrants,
especially in the corporate world
where IT related changes are made at
a glacial pace to begin with.
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Still,
I would imagine compatibility
issues vary considerably from
one new gTLD to another. Those
who have few if any issues may
do well to make that a selling
point in their increased
marketing efforts (perhaps by
publishing favorable results
from extensive testing of
their extensions). As many
have predicted from the start,
the new gTLD program will have
both winners and losers. In
light of this story (and the
greater attention that will be
paid to these issues going
forward as a result), the
winners will likely need more
than just a particularly
attractive string and a
healthy marketing budget -
they will also need to be able
to assure customers
their TLDs won't create
unexpected headaches for those
who use them. Those who can do
that will have a leg up
in a field that is already
flooded with competitors with
many more on the way. |
Reliability
graphic from Bigstock |
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Editor's
Note: After
publication of this article I
was informed that the author
of the Forbes.com piece had
previously disclosed (in
another of his articles for
Forbes in September
2013 - that his
company, Endpoint, had a
consulting relationship with
Verisign, the
administrator of the .com
and .net TLDs). New
gTLDs obviously represent
competition to Verisign's
extensions. Thus far no one
has questioned the points Kay
raised in the article about
there being potential
technical issues with some of
the new gTLDs, but when a
relationship like this exists
readers should know about it. |
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Domaining
Europe Adds New Speakers for Show Opening One
Month from Today in Valencia, Spain
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The
2015 Domaining
Europe conference
gets underway one month from today
at the Sorolla Palace Hotel
in Valencia, Spain. With the
event drawing closer a lot of new
speakers have been added since
we shared the first
draft of the show
agenda with you a few weeks
ago.
The
updated schedule
for the event that runs April
23-25 shows five new speakers
on day two alone. That Friday (April
24) will open with .CLUB's
Chief Marketing Officer, Jeff
Sass, giving the audience a
review of the popular new gTLD's
first year in operation. Verisign's
Duane Bailey will follow with
advice on how to use registration
trends to help find great domains
(Verisign of course, administers the
world's most popular extension - .com).
Another newly added speaker, Amy
Repp, the Director of TLD
Partnerships at Donuts (the
largest operator of new GTD
registries) will take the podium
next to talk about the "freedom
of choice" offered by new
extensions.
The
day will continue with a wide
variety of speakers before
concluding with two more that have
been added since our last update. Michael
Marcovici from Domain
Developers Fund will provide
tips on selling domains by email,
then Giuseppe
Graziano, the former
European
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Jeff
Sass, .CLUB
One of several new speakers
added to
the agenda for Domaining Europe
2015
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Director
of Business Development for Domain
Holdings who just launched his own
firm, Lisbon Media, will
cover growing sales opportunities in
the booming Chinese market.
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Sorolla
Palace Hotel - Valencia,
Spain |
You
can see the full agenda
for all three conference
days here.
Registration for this 7th
annual event is €600
but DNJournal.com readers
can get tickets for half
price (€300) by
entering the promo code
DNJOURNAL50 when
registering (just click on
the link on the registration
form that
says "Click Here to
Enter a Promotion
Code").
Rooms
at the Sorolla Palace are
just €70 a night
- a remarkable deal for a
modern hotel of this
quality. With the
Euro currently down
dramatically against the
dollar ($1.09 as
of this writing) this is
an especially good
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time for
Americans to visit Europe.
Valencia is an exceptionally
appealing destination too - a
beautiful city located
directly on the Mediterranean
Sea that mixes stunning
ultra modern architecture with
fabulous historic
buildings.
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(Posted
March 23, 2015) To
refer others to the
post above only you
can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2015/dailyposts/20150323.htm
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Page
Howe Raises .LA's Profile During Three-Day Trip
to Washington D.C. With Southern California
Business Leaders
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Veteran
domain investor Page
Howe wrapped up a 3-day
trip to Washington, D.C.
last night as part of a new role he
has taken with the
.LA domain registry,
whom Page joined as Chief Engagement
Officer. Page was one of some 200
Los Angeles area business leaders
who made the ACCESS
Washington D.C. trip
(put together by the Los Angeles
Area Chamber of Commerce) to
advocate for Southern California.
Howe
was part of the delegation's Technology and Innovation
team that lobbied for increased investment in targeted growth industries, a permanent ban on internet access taxes and immigration reform that can spur
growth and build a skilled workforce.
Many of those initiatives are also part of the City of L.A.'s 2015 Tech Policy Agenda as outlined by Councilman Bob Blumenfield at
a recent Chamber Innovation and Technology Council meeting.
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Page
Howe
Chief Engagement Officer, .LA
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The
trip gave Howe an opportunity to
showcase the .LA
namespace, one he said
can " help create thousands of
jobs and new websites in and about
Los Angeles, and promote the
development of the needed online web
development skills for the new
economy jobs LA needs to fill in the
next ten years." Howe can
already point to a significant
sampling of popular websites
built in .LA domains.
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Los
Angeles image from
Bigstock |
Howe
noted, ".LA domains names help national and global companies create websites specifically
tailored to the unique LA style, culture trends and demographics. Startup companies and investors can now create, disrupt and engage customers in .LA with new ideas and better curated local
websites. Businesses and personal brands can obtain shorter and easily remembered and available .LA domains for their websites, especially for restaurants, real estate projects and companies only marketing in and around LA."
"A new economy in the .LA namespace keeps more jobs and commerce local in LA, as opposed to all online spending going out of
area. Keeping
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online and mobile spending local creates a
multiplier effect and recoups money currently
gravelling outside of LA as more and more people shop, buy and purchase
online," Howe concluded. |
The
trip included a White House
briefing Tuesday morning and a
full slate of Administration, Agency
and Capitol Hill advocacy meetings
Tuesday and Wednesday before a
closing dinner last night.
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After
Winning in the Domain World Michael Gilmour Goes
to Battle on the Bookshelf!
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Since
entering this business
13 years ago one thing I have
commented over and over on his how remarkably
creative so many people in
the domain industry are. Having
worked in broadcasting and the music
business before discovering domains
I've been around a lot of creative
people in the past but never so many
with such diverse talents
in one place as we have in our
unique community. There are musicians,
artists and writers in
our midst and I guess that's not surprising
because succeeding with domains
involves a sense of harmony (between
keywords and extensions), beauty
(what is pleasing to the eye and
ear) and certainly a mastery of
language as our entire business is
based in words. Equally impressive
are the builders, who create
websites, new businesses and entire
industries from scratch.
Our
embarrassment of creative riches was
underscored again this morning when
a very well-known industry veteran, ParkLogic.com
Founder (and author of Whizzbangs
Blog), Michael
Gilmour, had his first novel - a
science fiction epic titled Battleframe
The Mindwars - released at Amazon.com
(in both paperback
and Kindle
editions, the latter at the
astonishingly low price of $2.99
when I downloaded it today).
Having
just gotten my hands on it I can't
provide a review of the book yet,
but having known Michael for over a
decade and become very familiar with
his intelligence, wit and work
ethic, I know it is going to be a very
good read (for a detailed
overview of Michael's life
check out the in-depth profile of
the Melbourne, Australia native that
was published in our November 2008 Cover
Story).
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Michael
Gilmour
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After
spending two years creating
and polishing Battleframe The
Mindwars Michael told
his blog readers,
"The plot is fast paced, has
lots of action and the novel has a
number of twists and turns that I
hope really keeps the reader’s
attention." True to his
reputation as one of the nicest,
most genuine guys in the industry,
Michael also quickly turned the
spotlight to people who helped turn
his vision into reality, writing,
"I would also like to publicly
acknowledge the tireless work of my
team of beta-readers/editors. They
are Roselyn
(wife), Timothy (my son), Ray
(father) and Laci (best
friend). They made suggestions to
improve the characters, tightened
the plot and made the world of Alpha
Three an exciting place to
visit. More than that….they fixed
a lot of my English!," Gilmour
grinned.
Michael
has always been a major supporter
and proponent of our industry and
the people in it. It would be great
to see everyone in the business
return that favor by picking up a
copy of Battleframe and help
turn it into a best seller. I
have a feeling it is going to get
there with or without us, but it
would be a lot more fun if we all
did what we have done so well in the
past - lead the way to
a previously undiscovered but extremely
rewarding new world!
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Five-Figure
Domain Sale Prompts THE Domain Conference to
Extend Discount Offer Through St. Patrick's Day
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You
may have noticed
in last week's domain
sales report that IrishWhiskey.com
sold for €10,000 to earn a
spot on the all extension Top 20
Sales Chart. The seller of that
domain (to the makers of world
famous Jameson Irish Whiskey)
happened to be Howard Neu,
the Co-Founder of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
conference who, with the retirement
of his long time partner Rick
Schwartz, has now launched a new
show - THE
Domain Conference -
that will debut next September at
the
Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six Hotel
in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The
timing of Howard's domain sale and the
Irish character of the name turns
out to be fortuitous for those
looking for a discounted ticket to
the debut show next fall. With St.
Patrick's Day coming up tomorrow
Howard decided to share the
"luck of the Irish" and
his good fortune with
IrishWhiskey.com with anyone
who
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Leprechaun
image from Bigstock
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would
like to attend the event that will
run September 26-29 in South
Florida. A short term promotion that
lowered the usual registration fee
from $499 to $349
was set to expire last night, but
now Howard, having found a "pot
of gold" in his escrow account,
has extended the offer through St.
Patrick's Day. To claim it and
save yourself $150 in the
process, just go to the conference
website and enter the
promo code MARCH15.
Hotel
rooms at the show venue, starting at
just $109 a night, can also
be booked now, and it is always a
good idea to get those reserved
early as the number available in
their block is limited.
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.Com
Turns 30! With Top Domains Now Worth a Fortune
More Criminals are Trying to Crash the Party
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Happy
30th Anniversary .Com!
The world's most popular domain
extension reached that milestone
today (March 15, 2015) - three
decades after the first .com domain
- Symbolics.com
- was registered on March 15,
1985. The special occasion has
been highlighted by news reports
around the world. CNN.com
published a very good article
on the history of the first domain
including how the current owner,
Aron Meystedt, came to acquire
it from the Symbolics
Corporation in 2009.
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.Com
image from Bigstock
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Symbolics.com
owner Aron Meystedt |
That
same year we posted a Cover
Story profile of
Aron, a veteran domain investor
who also currently serves as
Director of the Intellectual
Property Division at giant
mainstream auction house, Heritage
Auctions. Shortly
after Aron
arrived at HA he
made them the first major
auction house to offer premium
domain names as assets alongside
traditional high end
collectibles like art, coins and
jewelry. The company has
now staged several
successful live domain auctions,
the most recent being just last
month at the Waldorf Astoria
Hotel in New York City.
While
Meystedt has done some
development work on
Symbolics.com to generate a
revenue stream from the steady
flow of traffic, his
responsibilities at HA have
prevented him from devoting a
lot of time to it. Still, he
told CNN he doesn't expect to
sell his unique piece of
internet history. |
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.Com
has come a long way
in the last 30 years. You
could originally register
.com domains free of
charge. Today it is
not uncommon for top
domains in the extension
to sell for hundreds of
thousands or even millions
of dollars. Unfortunately,
those increased values
have caught the attention
of criminals who attempt
to hijack domains or the
valuable traffic that goes
to ones that have been
developed into popular
business websites. The Wall
Street Journal
ran a very informative
piece by Ruth Simon
on that issue this past
week titled Cybercriminals
Are Misappropriating
Businesses’ Web
Addresses.
I
was among those
interviewed for the
article, as were Internet
Commerce Association
Legal Counsel Phil
Corwin, domain
attorneys Stevan
Lieberman, Enrico
Schaefer and David
Weslow, and ICANN's
Gwen Carlson. This is
a piece you need to read
to see some of the latest
tactics being used by
cyber-thieves and what you
can do to protect
yourself. |
ICA
Legal Counsel Phil Corwin
and several other domain
industry figures were
interviewed for a new Wall
Street Journal
story on theft of traffic
to popular domains. |
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(Posted
March 15, 2015) To
refer others to the
post above only you
can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2015/dailyposts/20150315.htm
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4th
Quarter Reports from Verisign and Archeo Show
Continued Growth in Both New Domain
Registrations and Aftermarket Sales
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Verisign
released their latest quarterly Domain
Name Industry Brief covering
the
4th
quarter of 2014
Thursday and again they were able to
report solid
year over year growth in new
domain registrations. Verisign, who
administers both the .com
and
.net TLDs, said the number of
domains registered worldwide across all
extensions rose to 288
million at the end of 4Q-2014, 16.9
million more than one year
earlier representing a a
6.2% jump in total
registrations year over year.
Combined
.com and .net registrations grew at
a slower percentage rate than the
market as a whole, moving up 2.7%,
while ccTLDs outperformed the
market with an 8.7% increase
years over year to a total of 134
million country code
registrations at the end of
2014.
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There
is much more information in the
report, including total registration
rankings of the top ten TLDs
(as wel as the top 10 ccTLDs). There
is also some early data on new
gTLDs but none of those had yet
completed their first year of
operation in the quarter this brief
covers. You can get the entire
Verisign Domain NameIndustry Brief for
4Q-2014 (in .pdf format) at this link.
It is also available in infographic
form (also a .pdf file) here.
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Also
this week a leading
aftermarket domain sales
company,
Archeo Domains,
released their 4Q-2014
results in their latest
quarterly newsletter.
Reflecting the growing
sales we have seen
industry wide, Archeo's 4Q
sales of $1.7 million
represented a 6.2%
increase from the
previous quarter. |
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Those
interested in the market
for Spanish language
domains will find this
edition of the Archeo
newsletter especially interesting
as it features an article
on that topic that details
why the company is especially
bullish on that
sector. |
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(Posted
March 13, 2015) To
refer others to the
post above only you
can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2015/dailyposts/20150313.htm
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Rising
Business Star and 2nd Generation Domain Investor
Heather Hartnett Featured in the Wall Street
Journal After Being Named CEO of Innovative
New VC Firm
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Most
of our readers
are very familiar with Dr.
Chris Hartnett, the
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Domain Hall of
Fame member who was profiled
in one of the most popular
Cover Stories we have ever
published back in June
2008. A lot of
industry veterans have also
met Chris's brilliant and
lovely daughter |
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Heather
who, after being bitten by the
domain investment bug herself,
attended several major
conferences before the
mainstream business and
philanthropic world stole her
away from us! If you've met
Heather and happened to be
reading the Wall
Street Journal
blog Wednesday (March 11) I'm
sure you weren't the least bit
surprised to see her in the
spotlight as the new
CEO of an innovative new
New York City based venture
capital firm called Human
Ventures. |
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Dr.
Chris Hartnett and
daughter Heather Hartnett
at the 2008
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West Conference
in Las Vegas. |
As
author Yuliya Chernova noted
in the WSJ piece, Human
Ventures was just launched by Joe
Marchese, who recently sold his
advertising technology startup to 21st
Century Fox for a reported $200
million. With Human Ventures
Marchese is taking a different approach
to venture capital. The firm, which
considers itself to be a "startup
studio", plans to come up
with their own ideas for
businesses, then seek
entrepreneurs to develop the ideas
and turn them into real world
businesses.
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Heather
Hartnett at the DOMAINfest
Global 2010 Conference in
Los Angeles |
When
he went looking for just the
right bright young mind to
carry out his vision, Joe
settled on Heather who had
already made a big impression
at venture firm City Light
Capital and before that
at the David
Lynch Foundation.
If you know Heather you know
he made the right
choice.
Marchese
will serve as Executive
Chairman of Human Ventures
while spending most of his
time handling a major role he
took on at 21st Century Fox
after selling his previous company
to the media giant. Heather
told the WSJ reporter she would
be assembling a team to help
launch startups with three
projects already under way.
She said the firm will focus
first on mobile, consumer,
financial technology, health
care and some social impact
projects.
As
you would expect, Chris and
his wife Linda couldn't be
prouder of what Heather has
accomplished. Those of us in
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community
share that pride. The one
thing we like even more than
seeing our industry friends
succeed is seeing their kids
climb new heights - because
nothing makes a parent happier
than that! |
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Free
Visual Map of the Domain Universe Charts the
Birth of the 800+ Extensions Created Since the
First Domain was Registered 30 Years Ago
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Sunday
(March 15)
will mark the 30th anniversary
of the first
domain name ever registered
- Symbolics.com. Since that
day back in 1985 more than 284
million domains have been
registered in a variety of
extensions. That first year only nine
TLDs existed - the familiar .com,
.net and .org
extensions, along with .edu, .gov,
.mil and three ccTLDs
- .us, .uk and .il
(representing the United States,
United Kingdom and Israel). With the
explosion of new gTLDs
released over the past year, more
than 800 extensions have
been birthed with hundreds more on
the way.
To
mark this special anniversary and
illustrate just how much things have
changed over the past three decades,
the European Domain Centre has
produced a very cool free
infographic that shows
every domain extension introduced
since 1985 and the year in
which each TLD was released. If you
would like a print copy of the
infographic they will send you an A3
sized poster version at no
charge if you sign up for their free
newsletter.
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Domain
cube
image from Bigstock
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European
Domain Centre Founder and Managing
Partner Christopher Hofman Laursen
estimates his team spent more than 50
hours producing their visual map
of the TLD universe. With hundreds of
additional TLDs in the pipeline, their
next update will undoubtedly require a
major time investment as well. In
commentary about the new infographic Uniregistry
Founder Frank Schilling, whose
company has introduced several new
gTLDs, noted, "You're going to
need a bigger chart for round
2!"
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$5,000,000+
Sale of Invest.com Apparently Completed, Name
Now Out of Escrow - Elsewhere NameJet Auction of
Rare 3-Letter .Com Domain Could Bring Big Bucks
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Last
November
we shared the news
that news that Singulariteam
- an Israeli venture capital company
- had bought Invest.com for over
$5 million (the exact amount
and terms of the sale were not
specified). Since that report came
out the domain's WhoIs record showed
it was being held in escrow at Escrow.com,
a common arrangement when payments
for a domain are made over time.
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Today George
Kirikos, the veteran
domain investor who originally
brought the sale to our attention
last fall, let us know that the
WhoIs record for Invest.com has changed
and it now shows the domain under
WhoIs Privacy at GoDaddy.com. There
is also a "Coming Soon"
landing page on the domain with a
form allowing people to leave an
email address to be notified when
the site goes live. So, it appears
the mega deal is now done.
Unfortunately,
without an exact price we have been
unable to chart the sale which would
rank among the ten biggest
cash sales of a
domain ever reported to us. We
are hopeful that at some point the new
owners will be able to specify the
exact price. While they did say it was
over $5 million it's likely that a non
disclosure agreement prevented them
from giving the exact number at the
time the deal was made.
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Another
major sale may be coming this
week. NameJet.com has
acquired the exclusive
rights to auction
off an ultra-rare 3-letter .com
domain - VVV.com, one of
only 26 repeating
3-letter .com domains in
existence. The company believes
this is the first time one of
them has been offered in a |
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public
auction. The auction started
today and will end Wednesday
afternoon (March 11, 2015) at
3pm US Eastern Time (or shortly
thereafter - If there is a bid
during the last 5 minutes of the
auction, the closing process
will extend for an additional 5
minutes from the time that bid
is accepted to allow for
additional bids. If additional
bids are received within that
next 5 minute time period, the
auction will continue to be
extended in 5 minute increments
until no further bids are
received). |
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Plans
Announced for New Indian Domain Conference -
DomCon - Coming to Mumbai as Part of 1st
DigitalCon Event Next Month
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Editor's
Note: The original press
release announcing this event stated
that Anshul Goyal (of
GuavaSofts.com and Email.biz) would
be producing this conference with Nishank
Yadav. Soon after publication
Mr. Goyal informed us that he will
not be involved in staging the event
so the article has been updated
accordingly.
The
first
major domain investment conferences
held in India - World
Domain Day and DomainX
- were staged just last summer with
both of those events held in Hyderabad
where each attracted a sizeable
audience despite the shows being
held just two weeks apart. Now
two of the key organizers from
DomainX, Nishank Yadav (TheDomainer.net)
and Anshul Goyal (GuavaSofts.com
and Email.biz), have joined forces
to co-found a new conference, DomCon
2015, that they are
launching next month in Mumbai
as part of a two-day event they have
dubbed DigitalCon.
DomCon
on April 26 will be the first
day of DigitalCon with day two, April
27, offering a second conference
within a conference - MobCon
- devoted entirely to the mobile industry
that is now closely intertwined with
domains and website development. The
twinbill will be held at the J.W
Marriott Sahar Hotel in Mumbai
with a very appealing price
structure. If you want a ticket to
DomCon (day 1) it will cost just $15.
If you are only interested in MobCon
(day 2) tickets are $20. If
you want to learn more about both
fields and how they intersect,
a pass covering both days is just $25.
The
key themes on opening day (DomCon)
will be Domains, Websites,
ECommerce & Marketing and
Legal Issues (Legal Issues: Trademarks, Copyrights, UDRPs &
INDRPs). Day 2 (MobCon) will center
on Mobile Commerce & Media,
Apps & Games and Development
& OS Platforms.
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Nishank Yadav
DigitalCon/DomCon Founder
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By
combining domains (DomCon) with
mobile technology (MobCon) Yadav
said the new event will be "the
definitive multi-platform
conference for India's
domainers featuring an agenda that
fosters prolific dialogue among
domainers, graphic designers and
cross platform developers with
topics pertaining to investment in
domains, monetization, design and
website development. DomCon provides
a platform to debate, rethink the world of
domaining, and visualize your
future in this industry."
Yadav
added, "DomCon will open up new
opportunities in the market and
help establish connection with
developers on other platforms
including iPhone, iOS, Android,
BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Design,
UI/UX, Mobile HTML 5 and development
tools, facilitating the stacking
your app store or platform vis-a-vis
the competition."
DigitalCon
and its DomCon and MobCon components
is also offering a wide variety of sponsorship
opportunities (.pdf
file).
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Domaining
Europe Provides First Peak at the Agenda for
Next Month's Conference in Valencia, Spain
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The
2015 Domaining
Europe conference
is coming up April 23-25 in Valencia,
Spain and show founder Dietmar
Stefitz has just posted the
first draft of the agenda
for the event that will be held at
the Sorolla
Palace Hotel.
The first morning (Thursday, April
23) will feature individual talks
from AVALNET President Manuel
Juliá, DNForum.com owner Adam
Dicker and attorney Paul
Keating. Five more sessions will
follow in the afternoon, including
panel discussions on ICANN, SEO,
Parking and new gTLDs.
Braden
Pollock (LegalBrandMarketing.com)
will return to Spain to moderate two
of those sessions.
On
Day 2 (Friday, April 24) featured
speakers will include Antonio
Villamarín on optimizing sales,
Escrow.com's Brandon Abbey
with Blacknight's Michele Neylon
on Stolen Domains, Tommy Butler
(Glasgow.com) and Natasa
Djukanovic (.ME) on
Domain Development and Carlos
Blanco on StartUps and Domains,
as well as several others. The 2015 European
Domaining Awards will be handed
out that night.
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Dietmar
Stefitz
Domaining Europe conference founder
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Day
3 (Saturday, April 25) has been
reserved for the show's traditional group
outing with a Sightseeing Tour
of the beautiful city of Valencia
and a typical Valencian Saturday
Lunch highlighting that day. Stefitz
emphasized that there will be
more updates and additions to
the show agenda between now and
mid-April as more speakers,
keynotes, and panelists are
confirmed. You can register
for the conference here.
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Radix
Adds .Online to Growing Portfolio of New gTLDs -
.CO.COM Happy With Year One Results
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Radix
Registry
is celebrating the addition of .online
to their portfolio of solely owned new
gTLDs that already includes .website,
.host and .space among
others. Radix originally joined
forces with Tucows and NameCheap
to acquire .online in an auction
last fall at an undisclosed price
(though it is believed their
investment fell in the $10-$12
million range). The latter two
companies agreed to sell their
ownership stakes in the new gTLD to
Radix (again at an undisclosed
price), however both Tucows, a
leading wholesale registrar, and
Namecheap, one of the top retail registrars,
will continue to work closely with
Radix as marketing and
distribution partners.
The
launch schedule for .online has not
yet been announced but Radix said
the extension has been among
the most popular
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Online
image from Bigstock
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pre-registered
names across registrars.
Radix CEO Bhavin Turakhia
said, “.online has far
greater potential than
anything we or anyone else has
launched to date." |
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Tucows
CEO Elliot Noss |
Tucows
CEO Elliot Noss noted, “We have started
investing more heavily in our
telecom business with Ting.
NameCheap, likewise, has
increased its singular focus
on delivering an outstanding
retail domain name experience.
Meanwhile, Radix has emerged
as one of the most ambitious
and capable domain name
registries in the world. We
still believe that .online has
huge potential as a
fresh alternative to .com. We
are confident that Radix is
the right company to run it
and both Tucows and Namecheap
are thrilled to play our
rightful part in its success.”
Radix has already
invested over $30 million
to secure licenses to operate
their new extensions and they
expect to acquire several more.
In .online they have acquired
the most commonly used word to
end domain names with over 550,000
.com domain names today ending
with the word “online.” |
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While
a lot of new extensions, like
.online, have yet to launch,
others have now reached the
1st anniversary of their
availability to the general
public. Not all of those are
new gTLDs though - one
of the most notable exceptions
being .co.com.
The registry celebrated
its first anniversary last
week by announcing it had
booked more than 10,000
registrations in its opening
year of business. With over
200 accredited registrars
around the globe. co.com sees
a lot of growth ahead.
CEO
Ken Hansen said, “Momentum
began building in December
when .co.com Registry had more
domain registrations and
revenue than any month since
launch. Most encouraging is
the quality of the websites
going live on .co.com."
Hansen
added that countries with
existing third-level domain
extensions (like .co.uk
and .com.au) have
generated the strongest demand
for .co.com. He noted that 40%
of all .co.com registrations
have come from companies and
organizations located in the UK
where over 7 million .co.uk
domains have been
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.co.com
LLC CEO Ken Hansen |
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registered.
"Many companies are
using their .co.com
domain rather than their
country code top-level domain
to better reach potential
outside of their
borders," Hansen
said. |
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Introductory
Discount Cuts Cost to Attend THE Domain
Conference to $349 Through March 15 - A Great
Deal Based on Our Weekend Visit to the Fort
Lauderdale Venue
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We
are back home in Tampa
after
spending the past four days on the
opposite side of the state with
industry friends in South Florida
- one of the world's key locales for
domain investment activity. As I
mentioned Friday
I went down for multiple reasons
including Thursday night's South
Florida Domain Pros meeting at
the Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six
Hotel in Fort Lauderdale.
In addition to seeing people at the
SFDP Meeting I wanted to spend some
time exploring that hotel because it
will also serve as the venue for the
inaugural edition of THE
Domain Conference
coming up September 27-29, 2015
with pre-show Cabana Networking September
26-27.
This
is the new new show we
told you about being
staged by T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Co-Founder Howard Neu, his
wife Barbara and their son Ray
Dillman Neu. I was thoroughly
impressed by the hotel and its
gorgeous grounds and
surroundings. From the revolving
meeting room at the top of the hotel
the 360 degree vistas include the Atlantic
Ocean to the east and the Intrascoastal
Waterway, Pier Sixty-Six
yacht basin and Fort Lauderdale
skyline to the west.
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The
Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six
Hotel in Fort Lauderdale,
Florida where the inaugural
edition of THE Domain Conference
will be held September 27-29,
2015 (with pre-show Cabana
Networking September 26-27).
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In
addition to a fabulous pool area,
the Pier Sixty-Six hotel has a wide
variety of lawn games available on
their spacious tropical grounds,
including this gigantic chess
board that Diana and I tried our
hand at. We decided it would be even
more fun if we knew how to play
(stacking the pieces was apparently not
the object of the game)!
We
came away amazed they were able to
get this kind of resort while
simultaneously slashing room rates
to as low as $109 a night and
setting the registration fee at just
$499 (a charge that also
includes daily luncheons during the
show). Better yet, you can cut
that cost down to just $349
(plus tax) if you take
advantage of an introductory special
that is good until March 15, 2015.
Just go to THEDomainConference.CLUB,
enter the promo code MARCH15
and click on “Try Code”. .CLUB
has already signed on as the show's
Premier Sponsor, with Coffee.Club,
Escrow.com
and Above.com
also among the first companies to
get behind the new event. The Neus
said the show will put networking
front and center with a Speed
Networking session already
planned as a key part of the
agenda.
Yet
another reason we wanted to make the
trip to South Florida was to see
some friends from other parts of the
country (and as far away as Canada)
who came to check things out too,
including Michael Castello (CCIN.com)
and Claude Dauman (Domains90210.com)
from California, Fred Mercaldo
(CityBrandMedia.com)
from Scottsdale, Arizona and Frank
Michlick (DomainCocoon.com)
from Montreal, to name just a few.
After the SFDP meeting Thursday
Diana and I stayed over to
thoroughly explore the Pier
Sixty-Six Hotel Friday, then on
Saturday we drove north to Palm Beach to
spend the day with Michael Castello
and his mother Victoria at
Victoria's lovely island home where
Claude, Howard Neu & Barbara
also joined the gathering.
(L
to R): Michael Castello, Victoria
Castello, Howard Neu, Barbara
Neu, Claude Dauman,
Diana Jackson and Ron Jackson
at Victoria's home Saturday
afternoon (Feb. 28).
By
the way, that lovely painting you
see on the wall
in the photo above is a great
depiction of Victoria with Michael
and his brother David when the Castello
Brothers were children. Michael
and David commissioned the painting
as a surprise gift to their mother
who told us she cried the first time
she saw it. We had so much
fun visiting that we nearly cried
when it was time to go home! It was
a great day and a great way
to wind up our visit before heading
back to Tampa Sunday. We are already
looking forward to seeing everyone
in South Florida again at THE Domain
Conference in September (if
not sooner)!
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If
you've been out of the loop lately, catch up in the Lowdown
Archive!
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We need your help to keep giving domainers The
Lowdown, so please email [email protected]
with any interesting information you might have. If possible,
include the source of your information so we can check it out (for
example a URL if you read it in a forum or on a site
elsewhere).
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