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.
With
2016 CIRA Board Election Underway Industry
Veteran Frank Michlick Deserves Your
Support
The
Canadian
Internet Registration Authority(CIRA)
is the body that administers
Canada's popular .CA ccTLD.
Every year CIRA holds an election
to fill open seats on its Board
of Directors. This year three
seats are reserved
for
candidates that were selected by the Nominating
Committee but there is also one
open seat that will be filled by a
vote of CIRA members.
Frank
Michlick
Frank
Michlick, one of
the most experienced and well qualified
people in the domain
investment and related fields,
is among those running for
that seat. Frank, through
his current enterprises DomainCocoon.com
and DomainNameNews.com
(with Adam Strong),
consulting SedoMLS and
his previous associations
with some of the leading
companies in the space,
including Tucows, has
championed the Canadian
Internet since 2000. He
is just the kind of presence
our community needs to make
sure its interests are
represented on the CIRA
board. If you own
a .CA domain you can help make
that happen but, if you are
not already a CIRA member, you
will need to act today
to become one and thus be
eligible to cast a vote in the
election.
Any
.CA domain owner can easily join
CIRA by simply
filling out and submitting a form
available here
and here is why time is of
the essence. The Election
process is currently in the
"Show
of
Support"
stage. To be on the final
Board ballot, a candidate for
the open seat has to have 20
CIRA members indicate their
support for him or her. Today
(August 31) is the deadline to
be included on the Voting List
(CIRA members receive an email with a
link to show their support,
along with an ID code and pin
number).
Of
course many of our readers are already
CIRA members and we would also encourage
you to Show Your Support for Frank as
noted attorney Zak Muscovitch did
yesterday. Frank has a campaign
page here
and Zak's article includes Frank's
complete Candidate Statement that
details both his background and why he
wants to serve on the CIRA Board. The
Show of Support stage will continue
until Monday, Sept. 5. Then the
final voting for those
who have qualified for the ballot will
take place from 3 p.m. ET on
September 22 until 3 p.m. ET on
September 29, 2016.
Mini
Baby Boom in the Domain Business! Andrew
Rosener & Jay Westerdal Celebrate the
Arrival of New Sons
This
has been a week
of very special occasions
with three of the most widely
known men in our industry
celebrating days they will never
forget. For one, Ammar Kubba,
it was his
wedding day last Saturday
(August 20) that I told you about
earlier in the week. For the other
two it was the birth of new sons!
One
day after Ammar's wedding - on
Sunday, August 21, MediaOptions.com
Founder Andrew Rosener and
his lovely wife Anna welcomed
their new son - Lou Atlas Rosener
- to the world!
Veteran
domain broker Andrew Rosener, Founder
of MediaOptions.com, with his
new son Lou Atlas Rosener, just
moments after wife Anna
delivered the healthy baby
boy.
Just
two days after the Rosener family
celebrated their new arrival, on
Tuesday, August 23, Jay Westerdal -
the founder of multiple industry
companies including Name
Intelligence Inc., DomainTools.com,
the Domain Roundtable
conference and most recently new
gTLD registry operator Top
Level Spectrum - and his
wife Icy experienced the same
joy when their new son, Thor
Harcourt Erik Westerdal, made
his grand entrance.
Jay
Westerdal and wife Icy welcome
their new son,
Thor Harcourt Erik Westerdal, on
Tuesday, August 23.
When
Andrew Rosener got the good news
about Jay's new son he quickly took
notice of something the two baby
boys hadin common. With Thor
and Atlas a part of their names
Andrew quipped, "The world just
got two Greek Gods!" Jay
said Atlas was actually one of the
names he and Icy also considered but
Thor has a history in his family as
the name of a great
great great grandfather.
Jay
added, "I have
always valued unique names. Just
like domains, they help
set a person apart from
everyone else. For
inspiration we looked at the
family tree and thankfully
we had lot of great
grandfathers in our family
with cool names! The most
popular baby boy name in
2015 was Noah with
19,511 people. However only
118 babies were named last
year were Thor. I personally
had two middle names
and we decide Thor would
also have two middle names.
His other middle names are
other great grandfathers as
well. A unique name
stands out, my wife
"Icy" agrees. She
was named after
her great grandmother
and her whole life people
can talk about her and know
who they are talking about
without a last name. It is
hard to be in the domain
business and not have a
strong appreciation for
unique names!," Jay
concluded.
Our
congratulations to Andrew and
Anna and Jay and Icy,
on the arrival of their new family
members - and to Ammar on his
marriage to the beautiful Josephine
Madriz. We all love the domain
business but it is still
trumped by bigger things in life,
something we were happy to be
reminded of on three separate
occasions in the space of just 72 hours
this week!
Big
Week for the Turakhia Brothers: Divyank Sells
Media.net for $900 Million, Bhavin Wins TWO Entrepreneur of the Year Awards
I
was flying home
from Ammar
Kubba'swedding in Los
Angeles Monday when I got the
news that Divyank
Turakhia had sold the company he
founded and started from scratch, Media.net,
to a Chinese investment group for an
eye popping $900 million!
This after Divyank and his brother
and long time partner Bhavin
had sold Directi to Endurance
International Group in 2014 for
approximately $160 million.
Bhavin also had an instrumental role
in the sale of Media.net, running
the lengthy and complex legal
negotiations in China.
Divyank
& Bhavin Turakhia at
the February 2008 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West
conference in Las
Vegas
Many
of us had the pleasure of
getting know Divyank and
Bhavin when they began
attending and sponsoring
U.S. domain conferences in
mid 2000's to promote
another of their companies -
domain monetization service Skenzo.com.
Divyank was especially
active on the conference
scene where he was often a
featured speaker who shared
his invaluable insight into
our business. In September
2008 I wrote a Cover
Story profile of Divyank
that proved to be one of the
most popular we have ever
published.
I
snapped this photo of (left to
right) Rob Grant,
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder Rick
Schwartz and Diyank
Turakhia when we were
running around Disney World
in Orlando one night when the
park was made available
exclusively to attendees of
the 2008 T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
East conference that was
held there.
While
Divyank switched his focus to
the Internet advertising world
with Media.net, Bhavin has
continued to have a big impact
on our industry with his
latest company, Radix
Registry, a key
player in the new gTLD
space. Bhavin's success has
caught the eye of the
mainstream business world as
well, in fact we just learned
today that he won two
2016 Entrepreneur
MagazineIndiaEntrepreneur
of the Year Awards at
ceremonies conducted last
night in New Delhi.
Bhavin
Turakhia picking up one of
the two Entrepreneur
Magazine
Entrepreneur of the Year
Awards he won last night
(photo Bhavin shared on
Facebook).
Bhavin,
who won the Innovation in
Tech and Serial
Entrepreneur of the Year
awards said, "The credit
belongs to the awesome team
Directi
- the absolute best of
the people that I have the
privilege to work with daily, my
brother Divyank...without
whom none of this would have
been fun!...and most
importantly, our Dad,
who has always taught us -
"You can achieve
anything you set your mind to."
Divyank
and Bhavin have certainly
proved that over and over
again. For me, the most
gratifying thing about seeing
their continued success is
that it absolutely could not
have happened to two nicer
guys.
Photos
& Highlights from the Ammar Kubba -
Josephine Madriz Wedding This Weekend in Santa
Monica!
When
a major player
in the domain industry, Ammar
Kubba (afterTHOUGHT,
DomainToolsandThought
Convergence) decided to
get married at the age of 44
his many friends in this
business were excited about
seeing it happen (after all, we've
been waiting a long time for this)!
Ammar finally found the one
in the lovely Josephine Madriz so
dozens of domain people traveled to Santa
Monica, California from across
the U.S. and even overseas to
join Ammar's family and closest
friends at the big wedding on the
beach in front of the historic Casa
Del Mar Hotel.
Above:
Just a small section of the many domain
industry people at Ammar Kubba's
wedding Saturday in Santa
Monica, California. At front
center are Merlin Kauffman
and his girfriend Diana Georgie
and in the 2nd row starting at right
and moving to the left) are my wife,
Diana Jackson, Braden Pollock and
his wife Lisa Bloom, Karen
Silver and husband Elliot Silver,
Morgan Linton and his wife Daina
Linton.
Below:
A wide view of Ammar Kubba and
Josephine Madriz with their
officiant as the wedding ceremony
begins Saturday evening (August 20,
2016).
Above:
Ammar and Josephine exchanging
vows.
Below:
Officially pronounced man and
wife,
Ammar kisses his bride, Josephine
Madriz Kubba.
Above:
The happy couple leaves the beach as
Mr. & Mrs. Ammar Kubba
Below:
At the fabulous reception and
party that followed in the Casa
Del Mar ballroom, Ammar and
Josephine listen to family
members and friends tell favorite
stories about the newlyweds -
stories than often brought a tear
(OK, a lot of tears, to Ammar's
eyes).
Ammar's
brother Omar (above), his mother
and his father were among
those who told touching and often
emotional stories about how Ammar
positively influenced their lives.
Below:
A delicious three-course dinner followed,
then it was time to party! In
one of many highlights of the
evening Josephine and Ammar
went flying high above the crowd in
this chair dance.
There
were three tables full of Ammar's domain
industry friends - faces almost
all of you will recognize. Our
tablemates were (above left to
right) Diana Jackson, Ron
Jackson, Frank Schilling,
Michael Berkens and Judi
Berkens and (below left to
right) Tessa Holcomb, Gregg
McNair and Vern Jurovich.
Along with our friends at the
adjoining tables it was like being
at a domain family reunion!
Above:
Before the party ended around 1AM
Sunday morning Josephine and
Ammar
underscored what it was all about by
sealing it with a kiss.
Below:
The day after! With some
friends and family still in town the
morning after their big day, Josephine
and Ammar welcomed them to a
Sunday brunch at the Casa Del
Mar - a perfect way for the
perfect match to conclude a magical
weekend in Santa Monica!
The
Domain Industry's Biggest Conference -
NamesCon - Has Been Sold to World Hosting Days
Some
big news
broke this morning when World
Hosting Days (WHD), a
giant in the global hosting
conference business, announced
they have acquired the world's
biggest domain conference, NamesCon,
for an undisclosed price. The news
came in a low key video featuring
WHD General Manager Soeren von
Varchmin that was posted on You
Tube (you can play that video
below).
As of
this writing there has been no comment
on the sale from NamesCon Co-Founders Richard
Lau and Jothan Frakes who
launched the show in 2014. It has been
held every January since then, with
increasing attendance each year, at
the Tropicana Hotel in Las
Vegas where it will return for a
fourth run January 22-25, 2017
(this time under WHD ownership).
A
scene from the first business session
at the first NamesCon conference in
January 2014
World
Hosting Days draws thousands of
attendees to its biggest event - WHD
Global (next scheduled for Rust,
Germany March 27-31, 2017) and
also stages popular regional events
around the world including China,
Singapore, India, Moscow
and the USA, a market they just
entered two years ago with an event in
Pennsylvania.
WHD
GM Soeren von
Varchmin walks on stage to begin
the first WHD.USA conference
at the Seven Springs Mountain
Resort in western Pennsylvania
May 19, 2015.
The
second WHD.USA event was held in Phoenix,
Arizona in May 2016 and the
American show will return in September
2017 when it is scheduled to run
in Las Vegas - the same base as their
newly acquired NamesCon conference.
Domains, websites and hosting all go
hand in hand, making the marriage
of WHD and NamesCon a natural fit,
so the deal is
not surprising from a
business standpoint. However, Richard
Lau, who was profiled in our December
2015 Cover
Story, told us he started
NamesCon primarily to raise money
for theWater
School and the show has
been very successful on that
front, raising hundreds of thousands
of dollars for the life saving
charitable organization. At this early
stage there has been no word on
whether WHD will continue the NamesCon/Water
School connection.
THE
Domain Conference is Drawing Near - Here's the
Latest on What Will be Happening at the Big
Event in Fort Lauderdale
The
2016 edition
of THE
Domain Conference (TDC)
is coming up fast now, The
big show at the Hyatt Regency
Pier 66 Hotel in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida, that
debuted last
year at the same waterfront
venue, is barely 3 weeks away. It
will start with two days of Cabana
Networking at a private pool
reserved for attendees Saturday
& Sunday, September 10 &
11, 2016.
TDC
Co-Founder Barbara Neu (who
was just profiled in our latest Cover
Story that will tell you
a lot about the "matchmaker
made in heaven" that you
never knew) will likely be one of
the first people you will see at the
cabanas. Barbara told us, "The
Cabana Networking is a success
because there is no schedule.
You are free to come and go any time
you want. We create a gathering
point for attendees to meet up
with old acquaintances and make new
ones - and if there is anyone that
you want to meet, just ask me
and I will personally make sure you
get introduced!"
THE
Domain Conference Co-Founders
(left to right): Howard Neu, Barbara Neu and Ray
Dillman Neu.
As
I told you last
month, a new
event, Startup
Saturday, will be
going on inside simultaneously
on September 10. TDC is
bringing in expert speakers Morgan
Linton (FashionMetric.com)
and Brett Napoli (AmbitionInsight.com)
to lead that day for potential
startup and small business
owners who seek advice that
will help them succeed. Most
of the attendees will come from
the
South Florida business
community but TDC guests can
sit in on any or all sessions
as the conference
ticket also covers Startup
Saturday.
The
conference's Official Welcome Party
will cap off the busy opening weekend
Sunday night (September 11) in the revolving
room atop the Hyatt Pier 66
(Howard, Barbara & Ray are
standing inside that room in the photo
above and you get a nice view of the spectacular
surrounding area in the shot below).
Barbara said, "An added
attraction this year will be the Internet
Commerce Association
celebrating their 10th Anniversary
with a Cocktail Party at our
Conference. Igloo.com
will also host the traditional Gregg
McNair Suite Party where everyone
is welcome, giving them an
opportunity to relax and network that
has always been a highlight of our
conferences."
The
view from the top of the Hyatt
Regency Pier 66 Hotel in Fort
Lauderdale where
THE Domain Conference will hold
its Welcome Party to kick off
the 2016 show
Sunday night (Sept. 11).
Two
full business days will follow Monday
& Tuesday (September 12 &
13). Barbara noted, "We serve lunch
both of those days so everyone can
break bread together and not have to
leave. It gives everyone a chance to
socialize and sit together and visit
with the exhibitors. Also, Bill
McClure from Coffee.Club
will generously provide his delicious
coffee during the day for everyone to
enjoy and keep them awake after
staying up late hours!"
Barbara
added, "We have two great Keynote
Speakers - CEO Tobias Flaitz
from Sedo.com
and VP Lori Anne Wardi from Neustar.
We also have a number of speakers who
have never spoken to domain audiences
before including Stacey King
from Amazon, Gerald Levine
(who wrote the “bible” of UDRP
cases), Jebidiah Burnett
(Senior Domain Consultant at Rightside,
David Warmuz (President at Trellian.com),
Jennifer Gore from ICANN
and Dante DeAngelis covering
Digital Assets. The annual Domain
Industry Awards will also be
handed out Tuesday. You can check out
the full
schedule here)."
Tobias
Flaitz (Sedo CEO) and Lori Anne
Wardi (Neustar VP Registry
Services)
will be Keynote Speakers for
the 2016 edition of THE Domain
Conference
THE
Domain Conference will close with its
traditional Farewell Breakfast Wednesday
morning, September 14 (back in the
popular rooftop room!), the perfect
way to wrap up what promises to be
another productive and memorable
week.
A
scene from the Farewell Breakfast
at last year's inaugural edition of THE
Domain Conference. Seen enjoying
the buffet are Sedo's Negar
Hajikhani (2nd from left), Negar's
sister (far left) Diana Jackson
and Zane Emilija (far right).
Registration
for THE Domain Conference is still
open. You can also book
your hotel room at the
Hyatt Regency Pier 66 at a show rate
of $109 a night for pool view
rooms or $129 for tower view
rooms (those rates include free
internet and no resort fee). We
look forward to seeing many of you
there!
Escrow.com
Expands With Acquisition of Escrow Angel -
Company Also Wins a Stevie International
Business Award
Escrow.com
just got bigger. The company, that
has handled over $3 billion
worth of transactions (a big chunk
of that coming from domain sales),
announced today that they have
acquired Australian online
escrow service Escrow
Angel and that company's
automotive brand, Protecti.
Escrow.com
is itself already owned by an
Australian company, Sydney
based Freelancer.com
who acquired Escrow.com from its ordinal
U.S. owner last year.
Escrow
Angel was founded by Simon
Lenton in 2012 and they
also operated under the
Protecti brand after licensing
their
platform to South Africa’s
biggest non-bank card issuer, Paycorp,
in 2014. Lenton
said, “It has been a wild
ride getting Escrow Angel to
where it is today and we are
pleased to be acquired by
Escrow.com, the world leader
in secure online payments.”
Escrow.com
CEO Matt Barrie (left) and General
Manager Jackson Elsegood at
the 2016 NamesCon
conference in
Las Vegas in January.
Freelancer
CEO Matt Barrie said,
“We are excited about the
acquisition of Escrow Angel, and
in the future we plan to offer
Australian users a wider suite
of escrow services under the
Escrow.com brand.”
Escrow.com
General Manager Jackson
Elsegood added, "Escrow.com's
16 years of transaction
history and recent growth is
testament to the professionalism
of our team. Escrow Angel and
Protecti enjoy a strong
reputation for escrow services
in Australia and we are looking
forward to further expanding
Escrow’s services after the
acquisition.”
Escrow.com's future plans include offering
escrow services in Australia in Australian
Dollars, subject to the licensing
and regulatory approval process
that is currently underway.
Escrow.com
had some more good news to
share today. The company was
named the winner of a Bronze
Stevie® Award in
the Small Company of the
Yearfor Financial
Services category. This
came in the 13th Annual
International Business Awards
competition. The awards will
be given to their recipients
at a gala ceremony in Rome,
Italy on October 21, 2016.
All
individuals and organizations
worldwide – public and
private, for-profit and
non-profit, large and small -
are eligible to submit
nominations for the Stevies.
Award winners were determined
by the average scores of more
than 200 executives worldwide
who participated in the
judging process from May
through early August. The 2016
Awards received entries from more
than 60 nations and
territories.
Jackson
Elsegood said, "It is
with great pleasure that we
receive this award. Ever since
we were acquired by
Freelancer.com our main goal
has been to take the company
to the next level, and it is
an honor to be recognized for
it internationally."
Michael Gallagher, the
President and Founder of the
Stevie Awards noted, “This
year’s IBA judges were
treated to many remarkable and
inspiring stories of
achievement. We look forward
to sharing many of these
stories with people around the
world over the coming months,
through the Stevie Awards blog
and social media channels,
with the hope that they will
inspire and instruct the next
generation of business
achievers.”
David
Castello Update: Bree is Killing It in the UK
and He is About to Release His First Novel
It's
been awhile
since I've updated you on the
adventures of David Castello who,
as many of you know,
returned to his musical roots
in 2011 after blazing a trail
through the domain industry with his
brother Michael (also a
veteran musician) via Castello
Cities Internet Network.
While
Michael continues to run CCIN,
David turned his attention to
playing drums for Nashville
based rock trio bree - a
group named after Bree Castello, the
band's dynamic
singer/songwriter/guitarist who is
also David's wife (bassist Maryk
McNeely completes the powerful
line up). The band has spent much of
this year touring the UK
where their popularity is
surging.
David
Castello at work!
bree
on stage at L-Fest in Staffordshire,
England last month,
one of the major stops on their UK
Tour.
While
in the UK shooting also began on a new
documentary about Bree and
the band that is being directed by Gregg
Houston for Babysweet
Productions. The release date
for the full documentary has not
been set yet, but David sent me a
3-minute trailer for the production
that will give you some great
insight into what the band is all
about (click the Play button below):
While
being part of a hot rock trio
would be enough of a creative
outlet for most people, David
is not most people. He has
always had a scholar's
interest in World War II
history (and is, in fact,
an expert on that topic). So,
having just gotten back from
the band's latest swing
through the UK, he decided to
use the short break to publish
his first novel - The
Diary Of An Immortal.
David
expects to get the final cover
back this week, the last task
before publication. The 1920
photo at right is a rough mock
up of it that shows an ancient medical school atop
Chakpori Hill in Lhasa,
Tibet that was destroyed by Chinese artillery in
1959. This location and
incident will be a primary
setting for the novel's
narrative. I'll let you know
when it has been released.
This
latest news reminds yet again
of how many highly creative
and talented people
we have in (or that have
passed through) our field.
They certainly help make it a
more interesting place to work
and play!
City
Brand Media Rolls Out New Email Service &
Announces Key Additions to Executive Team
City
Brand Media
(CBM), known for its nationwide
network of websites built on (City).com domain
names (like Oakland.com
and Scottsdale.com),
is taking advantage of those assets
to introduce a new city-based
email platform. The
service gives customers an
opportunity to acquire an email
address tied to their home town like
[email protected], an
example used in a 60-second
video at Scottsdale.com
that details how the service works.
City Brand Media has over 100
(City).com sites currently active
and expects that number to swell to 300
by October 1, so the service will be
available in wide array of markets.
CEO
& Partner Fred Mercaldo
told me the service just started
with a soft launch in the Scottsdale market that
generated over $7,000 in
revenue in the first three days of
availability. "We had numerous
and expected glitches that have been
fixed, and we are now in the process
of creating 25 additional custom
videos for the launch this month
of Oakland.com and two dozen more (City).com
brands we manage in the Bay
Area," Mercaldo said.
Fred
Mercaldo
City Brand Media CEO & Partner
"Our ultimate goal for CBM and our client (City).com
owners is to have this platform
available on 400 sites. At that
level if we sell only 5 email
addresses per month per site, this
program will generate over $200,000
per month in recurring yearly
revenue and we expect to exceed this
number," Mercaldo added.
CBM's
email platform will get a
boost from a new alliance
with Arizona State
University. Mercaldo told us, "Beginning August 18th,
five seniors and graduate
students at the ASU Cronkite
School of Journalism and
Mass Communication’s PR
Lab will have the
“City Brand Email”
platform as a class
project, delivering to
us a formal business plan
on how to successfully
market these custom
City-based emails in every
market, large and small."
"Recently, this PR Lab developed complete
marketing strategies for our
government’s Trade.gov website,
and last semester completed
comprehensive marketing
analysis for Avnet
and InfusionSoft. These
students are cutting edge
and extremely advanced
individuals who frankly, I
am more impressed with than
numerous existing digital
agencies already operating
in the marketplace."
In
addition the new service
news, CBM announced the
addition of five key members
to their Executive Team -
President Jason Banks,
Chief Financial Officer Chris
Buls, Chief Growth
Officer Andrew Bart,
Advisory Board member Ammar
Kubba and Syndicated
Featured Columnist Don
Henninger.
CBM's
addition of Henniger
underscores the company's
commitment to producing rich
content for the network
that will generate and
continually grow traffic to
CBM Sites. Henniger
is a former Managing Editor of the Arizona
Republic and
Publisher/CEO of the Phoenix
Business Journal. At
CBM he will be writing
a weekly column for called
“The Human Side Of
Business.”
Mercaldo
noted "new President
Jason Banks has an incredible track record in our very
space, with successful
monetization and network
building of city portals for
over 15 years. Jason
Don
Henninger
CBM Syndicated Featured
Columnist
also brings with him a proven team of
outsourcing resources in the
social media, programming,
content, and platform
building arenas. Jason
is full time with CBM as of
this week, and we are very
excited to have him lead our
team."
Ammar
Kubba
CBM Advisory Board Member
Of
course, the name of new
Advisory Board member Ammar
Kubba (Founder & CEO
of afterTHOUGHT)
is already well known to
everyone in the domain
space. Mercado said, "Ammar is the owner of the email “@identity”
program that CBM is in the
process of purchasing and
installing on what will be
400 managed sites. Ammar has
retained a 10% interest in
the platform. He has
been a close friend of mine
for many years, and his
track record speaks for
itself."
While
CBM already has a big
footprint in the U.S. their
growth will not be contained
by America's borders.
Mercaldo said, "Our international portfolio is
incredible. We expect all
international sites,
depending upon size, to be
launched in early 2017.
However, we are presently
not seeking or signing,
except in special cases, any
new (City).com brands
until we address all of our existing
brands under contract,
and the content, SEO and
monetization needs of them
all."
Photos
& Highlights from the 2016 DomainX
Conference in New Delhi, India
India's
3rd annualDomainX
conference concluded Sunday
(August 7) at Shangri-La's Eros
Hotel in New Delhi. We
have photos and highlights from the
two-day event in the nation's
capital for you but before we get to
that let's touch on a new event that
DomainX organizers Manmeet Pal
Singh and Gaurav Kohli
staged the day before the conference
began.
That
was the inaugural BlogX
conference (co-founded Manmeet and Manoj
Dhanda from MicroHost.com) that was held on
Friday
(August 5), also in New Delhi but at a
different venue - the JW Marriott
Aerocity Hotel. BlogX was
originally slated to be held at the
same hotel as DomainX but a larger
signup than expected forced a move to
the larger venue. BlogX gave
bloggers and content managers their
own place to connect and learn while
networking with leaders in the
blogging community.
Above:
DomainX organizers Manmeet Pal
Singh and Gaurav Kohli on stage at
their inaugural BlogX event
that preceded DomainX on Friday
(August 5, 2016) at the JW Marriott
Aerocity Hotel in New Delhi,
India.
Below:
A section of the crowd at BlogX.
The event was moved from Shangri-Las's
Eros Hotel to the Marriott due to more
people registering than had originally
been expected. (Photos from Gaurav
Jain).
Above:
The 2016 DomainX conference got
underway bright and early Saturday
morning (August 6) but in a major
change of pace it started on the
road. Organizers decided to give
attendees a unique networking
opportunity by kicking off the
show with a day-long visit to the
world famous Taj Mahal in Agra.
Below:
The historic Red Fort adjacent
to the Taj Mahal was also a popular
stop on DomainX's opening day road
trip. (Photos from the Domain Name
Owners Association of India).
Above:
After spending the day at the Taj
Mahal Saturday, DomainX
attendees regrouped for dinner and
an evening of networking back at Shangri-La's
Eros Hotel Saturday night. (Photo
from the Domain Name Owners
Association of India).
Below:
Among those who got together to
compare notes and share advice were
(left to right) Anshul Goyal (iWeb.biz),
Jitendra Vaswani (BloggersIdeas.com)
and Gaurav Jain (ManthanMedia
Group, Indore). (Photo from Gaurav
Jain).
Above:
On Sunday morning (August 7) DomainX's
formal business program got underway
with an opening address from Chief
Guest Samiran Gupta, the Head
of India for ICANN. Mr. Gupta
spoke about how Domain
Names are at the Forefront of Innovation
in India. (Photo from Manmeet
Pal Singh)
Below:
Next up Jon Yau delivered a
keynote address on the Evolution
of StockPhoto.com, sharing his
journey from buying StockPhoto.com
for $250,000 and using it as
the foundation for a very successful
ecommerce business. (Photo from Gaurav
Jain).
Above:
The morning session continued with a
presentation from Mr. Pavan Duggal
(Advocate, Supreme Court of India)
that helped give attendees a
better understanding of the impact
of Indian cyberlaws on the
business of domain name investing.
Below:
Sedo's Global Chief Sales
Officer Dima Beitzke was next
on stage, providing his insight into
the Premium Domain Name market.
Dima and his Sedo colleague, Sophie
Pieck (at far right), the Country
Manager for France, Italy and India,
also spent a lot of time answering one
on one questions from attendees at the
Sedo booth in the Exhibit Hall. (Photos
from the Domain Name Owners
Association of India).
Above:
After a busy morning consuming
nutritious domain information, it was
time for attendees to refuel their
bodies too during a sumptuous buffet
lunch. (Photo from the Domain Name
Owners Association of India).
Below:
The afternoon session began with
Donuts Inc. Director of Business
Development Anand Vora on stagetackling the question Is
India a Domain Investors Market?Karn Jajoo (Radix Registry
Manager of Business Development and
Marketing) and Nivu Hussain (.CLUB
Marketing Manger) added their
expertise to this conversation. (Photo
from Manmeet Pal Singh)
Above:
Next up was a special panel that gave
attendees with legal questions a chance
to Ask the Domain Name Legal
Experts. The Panelists (left
to right) were Ankur Raheja (CyLaw.in),
Zak Muscovitch (Muscovitch Law
Firm at DNAttorney.com), Rodney D.
Ryder (Partner with Scriboard) and
Gurpreet Singh Monga (Managing Attorney & Internet Law Head at Amarjit & Associates).
Below:
In the next session the topic turned
to Investment Opportunities in
the .IN Extension with Paul
Singh (seated, from Price.in) and Shiva
Kandula (Our.in) offering advice
on this subject. (Photos from Manmeet
Pal Singh)
Above:
Next on the stage was Krishna Yogi,
the CEO of Mapta.gs, who
conducted a Q&A session on
Mapta.gs, a hot new startup in the smart
address space
Below:
The final business session of
the day and DomainX 2016 was a panel
discussion titled Will This
Sell? in which four industry
experts shared what has worked for
them that might help attendees get better at
making end-user sales. Panelists (left
to right) were: Manmeet Pal Singh,
Doron Vermaat (Co-Founder,
Efty.com), Deepak Ramani and Pankaj
Vijayvargiya (CEO, Bitlevel
International).
Above:
With business out of the way, the last
thing on the agenda was Domainx's
annual Awards & Recognition
ceremony, recognizing the talent in
India's domain industry and
introducing those who had been elected
to the Domain
Name Owners Association of India
board, the trade association that
helps stage DomainX. Manmeet Pal
Singh (at far left) was happy to
announce his show partner, Gaurav
Kholi, was elected President
of the board. Also named to the
board (left to right after Gaurav),
were Sunny Bajaj (Vice
President), Aishwin
Vikhona (General Secretary), Chetan
Varma (Secretary), Gaurav Jain
(Treasurer, with Sahhil Beri
who is not pictured) and Vinay
Murarka. (Photo from Gaurav Jain).
Below:
Just before everyone went their
separate ways this group got one more
photo together before saying their
final goodbyes. (Photo from
Abhishek Jain of RustyBlogger.com).
Above:
One final important note on DomainX
2016. In addition to giving
attendees a chance to make new
connections, reinforce existing
relationships and expand their
knowledge, the show caught the
attention of national TV
station Loksabha Television,
who invited six of the experts in town
for DomainX to sit down for a televised
interview that aired live
at 10PM Sunday night. Those who
took part in the telecast were (left
to right), Sophie Pieck (Sedo),
Dima Beitzke (Sedo), Pankaj
Vijayvargiya (CEO, Bitlevel
International), Paul Singh (Price.in),
Anchor & Host Anurag Punetha,
Asihwin Vikhona (Aishwin.com)
and Gaurav Kohli (DomainX).
Below:
Bitlevel International CEO Pankaj
Vijayvargiya seen commenting about
the domain name industry on Indian
national TV station Loksabha TV
in a live broadcast Sunday night
(August 7 2016). In a country with the
vast potential that India has, this
kind of exposure for what is still a
very new industry there is priceless.
Congrats to everyone involved in a
productive weekend that saw domain
names celebrated in the national
capital of one of the world's great
nations. (Photos from Pankaj
Vijayvargiya).
SnapNames
Boosts Resources to Give .TV & .CC Fans a
Better Chance to Catch Dropping Domains
SnapNames.com,
a pioneer in the domain drop
catching business, has some good
news for fans of .TV and .CC
domains. Following its recent
integration with with fellow drop
catching giant NameJet
for deleting inventory, SnapNames
has decided to devotemore
of their resources to catching
expired .TV and .CC domains.
A
company press released noted, "Although
the fulfillment of backorders placed
on SnapNames for .CC and .TV domains
has always been possible, the rates
of acquisition were low compared to
other extensions. Now SnapNames has
dedicated a substantial amount of
resources to these extensions, and
one can expect a fulfillment rate on
par with the rest of the
deleting inventory."
As
industry veterans know, the
.CC domain extension is
technically the ccTLD
for the Cocos Islands (a
chain locatedoff the
coast of Australia), but it
was re-purposed under a
licensing agreement to serve
as a globally available TLD
that anyone can
register. As a short
extension with memorable
repeating characters it has
gained favor among some
registrants and investors,
especially those in China.
.TV
domains were also originally
launched as a ccTLD
serving the Pacific islands
of Tuvalu but the TLD
quickly caught the attention
of investors around the
globe for its obvious
connection to anything
related to television.
Like .CC it is also a
globally available TLD that
anyone can own. Websites
with video content have
naturally led the way in .TV
adoption with popular
streaming services like MLB.tv
among the most prominent
examples.
SnapNames,
with its patented drop-catching
technology, has been acquiring names
on the Drop since 2001.
Recently, NameJet and SnapNames
joined forces and SnapNames started
powering the drop on NameJet, giving
customers a better chance at
acquiring backordered deleting
names, and being able to use
their platform of choice with an
integrated auction platform.
Photos
& Highlights from the 1st Domain Startup
Summit in Santa Monica, California
The
inaugural edition
of the Domain
Startup Summit
conference was held last Saturday
(July 30, 2016) at the Cross
Campus in Santa Monica,
California. The event was
created by domain industry
veterans Jason Thompson and Dwayne
Walker but it was aimed to unite
a much broader audience
including the startup, domain
branding and investment industries.
Above:
Domain Startup Summit Founders Dwayne
Walker (far left) and Jason
Thompson (far right) with three of
their judges for the Pitchfest
session - a show highlight that gave
startup owners a chance to pitch their
business ideas to the investment
community. The judges are (left to
right after Dwayne) Morgan Linton,
Carmen Palafox and Braden
Pollock.
Below:
After Walker and Thompson gave their
welcoming comments, the conference got
underway Saturday morning (July 30,
2016) with a Keynote Address -
titled Dropping
Vwls Is So 2004: How .CLUB And Other
New Domains Are A Smarter Branding Bet
For Startups & Entrepreneurs
Worldwide - from the .CLUB Registry's
Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Sass.
Above:
a cross section of the audience
sitting in on the Domain Startup
Summit's full day of business sessions
Saturday.
Below:
The day's first panel discussion - Growth
Hacking & Growth Engines for
Startups, Tech Companies and Brands
- featured (left to right) moderator
Dwayne Walker, Edwin Choi (VP,
Mobovida),
Justin Wu (Growth.ly) and
Max Pelzner (ThinkBox.io).
Above:
The morning session continued with an Angel
Investors Fireside Chat: Tips from
Angel Investors featuring (left to
right):moderator Michael
Cyger and Angel Investors
Braden Pollock,
Morgan Linton and Dwayne
Walker.
Below:
David Ehrenberg, CEO at Early
Growth Financial Services, closed
out the morning session with a well
received Keynote Address on Startup
Fundraising 101.
Above:
After a lunch break and the 1pm Pitchfest
session I told you about at the top of
this report, the topic turned to
Startup Branding: How Startups Are
Using New Domain Brands in a panel
discussion featuring (left to right)
moderator Braden Pollock, Andee
Hill (Donus Inc.), Muhammad
Kausar Saleem (GDN Registry FZ), Lucas Webster
(Shaving.club & The Grooming
Network) and Page Howe (.LA Domain
Names).
Below:
Another highlight of the afternoon was
this Fireside Chat: Startup Life -
A Real Life Journey of Building and
Selling Your Startup featuring
moderator Dwayne Walker and
Bill Karamouzis (MathGames.com and
TeachMe.com).
Above:
The Domain Startup Summit's 3rd
Keynote Address of the day featured .XYZ
Registry Founder Daniel Negari who
was interviewed by Braden Pollock.
Daniel talked about How Startups
Are Branding & Launching New
Businesses.
Below:
Audience members like 101Domain's
Joe Alagna (standing) had an
opportunity to ask questions
throughout the day including the final
session covering Successful
Startup MVPs: Tips On Building
Successful Startup MVPs that
featured Austin Truong (Linebreak.io),
Carlos Orellana (IDEAS, Inc.), David
Barlev (Goji Labs), Ron Peled
(Educents).
For
Walker and Thompson the maiden
voyage of DomainStartup Summit
couldn't have gone much better. In a
note the day after the show Thompson
told me, "The
energy was amazing. I'm still
on Cloud 9!"
Sedo
Gives Its Website a Major Makeover - Redesign
Brings Better Mobility & Accessibility
If
you visited
popular domain marketplace and
monetization provider Sedo.com
today, you may have done a double
take. The company relaunched its
website this morning with a
new lookand
feel on their home page and some
key changes under the hood
as well.
A
company press release about the
makeover said the redesigned
interface features "improved
accessibility for clients,
customers and end users of the
widely successful marketplace and
its suite of domain support
services. The mobile friendly
web design and optimized usability
as well as the improvedChinese
language website mark the
starting point of a broader, more
diverse product portfolio."
A
screenshot from the top of Sedo's
new home page
The
release also said, "Beginning
with Sedo’s end user interface,
the whole website’s infrastructure
has begun to be tackled and revamped
with further adjustments to
continue. Our multi-lingual approach
was also at the forefront with
websites in additional languages
coming soon such as Russian, Dutch,
Italian and more.
Sedo
CEO Tobias Flaitz
said, “We’re very proud
of the newly designed
website going live. This
crucial step upholds Sedo as
THE most trusted and leading
business partner for global
premium domain trading. With
this responsive design
now available on all
devices, the opportunities
for success are increased
and supported by value
adding services and
maximizing domain
monetization.”
Sedo
never misses an opportunity
to promote the inherent
value of domain names and
they did so again on this
occasion, noting their
secondary market allows
"businesses and
individuals to secure the
best internet addresses so
they can be found faster
online, improve SEO
results and the
likelihood of new
business growth and
development. A quality
domain name also
differentiates companies,
startups and small
businesses from their
competition who may not be
utilizing the strongest name
or online strategy."
The
company is confident the
changes
Sedo
CEO Tobias Flaitz
undergone
in this relaunch will
"broaden successful
results from the search
function, further increasing
its ability to compete
industry-wide while still
maintaining Sedo’s status
as a neutral service
provider and sales partner,
a core tenet of our
corporate presence."
THE
Domain Conference Opens Voting for Their 2016
Domain Industry Awards
When
THE
Domain Conference
(TDC) returns to Fort Lauderdale,
Florida next month show
organizers will again hand out their
annual Domain Industry Awards.
Winners in nine categories are
selected in industry-wide voting and
anyone can now cast one
ballot. The final ballot,
released this morning, includes all
of those nominated in an open call
for nominations last
week.
The
rules specify that "All ballots
must contain the full name of the
person voting, either in the email
address of the sender or on the
ballot. Any ballot submitted without
the full name of the person voting,
will not be counted. No ballot
box stuffing will be
permitted."
Voting
will close at close at 9 A.M.
U.S. Eastern Daylight Time Friday
(August 5). All votes must be sent
to [email protected]
(Armor
Payments is an escrow company that
has been enlisted to serve as an
independent 3rd party vote counter).
The winners of each of the Awards
will be announced at THE Domain
Conference Keynote and Awards
Luncheon on Tuesday,
September 13th.
Here
is the complete ballot that you can
copy and email to [email protected].
Select ONE in each
category:
Uniregistry
Had 22 Previously Unreported 6-Figure
Domain Sales in 2015 - Here is the List
If
you read
our weekly
domain sales reports you
know that over the past three weeks
we charted hundreds of previously
unreported Uniregistry
domain sales from the first half of
this year. That data came from their
VP of Sales (and one of the most
successful domain brokers in
industry history) Jeff Gabriel,
who sent us a file containing all of
the company's top sales dating back
to February 2015 (the last time the
company released sales data). There
were thousands of sales in
the file totaling approximately $42
million.
We
wanted to get the current year
sales out first and due to the vast
amount of data we broke it into
three groups, charting the January-February
sales in our July 14
column, March-April
sales the next week and
finally May-June
sales last week.
Now
that we have Uniregistry's most
recent sales on the record, I turned
to their huge list of previously
unreported 2015 sales. We
don't include sales from previous
years in our weekly sales reports,
but if any that come in are large
enough we add them to the
appropriate year's Top 100 Sales
Chart in our Domain
Sales Archive. 22
of Uniregistry's 2015 sales, all .coms
and all in six figures,
qualified for our 2015
Top 100 Chart and have
now been added to that list.
One
of those, RP.com at $575,000,
rank among the 10 biggest sales of
2015. In the table below you can see
all of the Uniregistry sales that
were added to the chart, along
with where they rank on the 2015 Top
100:
Domain
Name
Price
Date
Sold
2015
Top 100 Ranking
RP.com
$575,000
2015-05-01
#10
(tie)
Yinyue.com
$240,000
2015-06-02
#28
FinancialNews.com
$200,000
2015-02-17
#32
(tie)
Say.com
(co-brokered with
MediaOptions.com)
$200,000
2015-04-22
#32
(tie)
Fenghuang.com
$195,000
2015-05-24
#37
Recette.com
$170,000
2015-03-02
#45
SportsWorld.com
$150,000
2015-03-06
#49
(tie)
Discuss.com
$150,000
2015-06-04
#49
(tie)
DrugAddiction.com
$150,000
2015-11-12
#49
(tie)
5432.com
$148,000
2015-10-15
#60
Enersis.com
$145,237
2015-08-18
#61
U8.com
$130,000
2015-06-25
#70
(tie)
Tonix.com
$120,000
2015-06-11
#81
(tie)
Ocio.com
$120,000
2015-08-25
#81
(tie)
CDKey.com
$110,000
2015-07-14
#88
(tie)
SOP.com
$110,000
2015-09-17
#88
(tie)
Lokai.com
$105,000
2015-10-09
#93
(tie)
NewsAsia.com
$105,000
2015-10-16
#93
(tie)
Generosity.com
$100,000
2015-09-11
#99
(tie)
MetaTrader.com
$100,000
2015-10-22
#99
(tie)
RTV.com
$100,000
2015-12-22
#99
(tie)
CIP.com
(co-brokered with
MediaOptions.com)
$100,000
2015-12-28
#99
(tie)
Uniregistry
had hundreds of other notable 2015
sales that helped paint a much
clearer picture of activity in the
aftermarket last year, so we also
prepared a special
document (in Excel
format) that includes all of the
2015 sales they reported (over 2,400
in all, including ccTLDs
and non .com gTLDs).
This
treasure trove of data from
Uniregistry is immensely helpful to
domain investors who study previous
sales to get a better understanding
of market trends and the prices
specific kinds of domains sell for.
We are very appreciative of their
willingness to share their results,
information that can help all of
us become smarter, more
successful domain investors.
If
you've been out of the loop lately, catch up in the Lowdown
Archive!
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).
