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The
Lowdown
April 2022
Archive
Welcome to
the
Lowdown from
DN Journal - your source
for notable news and information from all
corners
of the global
domain name industry!
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN
Journal
Editor & Publisher
Ron Jackson. |
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Internet
Commerce Association Seeking Nominations for the
6th Annual Lonnie Borck Memorial Award
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When NamesCon
returns to in-person conferences with NamesCon
Global this summer in Austin, Texas,
one of the highlights will be the Internet
Commerce Association's
presentation of the 6th Annual Lonnie Borck
Memorial Award. The honor will go to someone
voters across the industry will select in
recognition of that person's efforts to "foster
a sense of community within the domain name
industry." Anyone
is welcome to submit a name for consideration
using this online
form before nominations close at the
end of the day, May 31. ICA
members will then vote on the top
three submissions and the ICA
Board will select the winner. The
ICA established the Lonnie Borck Memorial Award
in 2016,
shortly after the late |
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great
domain investor
and humanitarian
unexpectedly passed at the age of 47. Lonnie
was universally loved for his generosity and
selflessness. |
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Lonnie
Borck |
The
first three Lonnie Borck Memorial Award
recipients were chosen based on their
exceptional efforts in "championing
the rights of domain name
registrants" and, as such, those
came from the legal arena. Starting
with the 2020 award, the criteria was
broadened to include every corner of
the domain industry.
The previous
winners of the Lonnie Borck Memorial
Award were:
2017 - David
Weslow
2018 - John
Berryhill
2019 - Kathy
Kleiman
2020 - Ron
Jackson
2021 - Michael
Cyger
Now
you can help choose the 2022 winner and
you are also welcome to share
the form link with your
industry colleagues! |
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(Posted
April 29, 2022) To refer
others to the post above
only (and not the full
Lowdown column) you can use this
URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2022/dailyposts/20220429.htm
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Dazzling
Acquisition of Gems.com for $1.5 Million Gives Gem
Shopping Network One of the Internet's Most Prestigious
Addresses
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We
have learned through a reliable source
that the Gem
Shopping Network (GSN), seen on cable
systems nationwide, has acquired the premier
domain name Gems.com for $1.5 million.
When contacted about the sale, Mark Thomas
at VIP
Brokerage, who represented the seller
in the transaction, confirmed the information we
had was accurate. That ranks as the 2nd highest
publicly reported domain sale of the year
to date (we will be adding it to our
charts when our next bi-weekly domain
sales report comes out Wednesday
evening, April 27). GSN,
founded in 1997, is a private company but a source
who is familiar with the company's operations
estimated the TV retailer's annual sales are in
nine figures. A December 2020 article in the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution |
Image
from Bigstock
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about
the Duluth, Georgia
based company, estimated GSN had 130 employees at
the time. We reached out to contacts at GSN to see
if they wished to comment on their acquisition of
Gems.com and will update this article should they
decide to do so.
One thing is for
sure, Gems.com will gives GSN a world class
upgrade from their current address at
GemShopping.com. It's the kind of category-defining
domain that brings a company invaluable
credibility both online and off. In
2018, a year after Ring
bought the Ring.com domain name for $1
million, CEO Jamie
Siminoff estimated the domain ended up
being worth $30-$50 million in business for
the company.
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As
for VIP Brokerage, this is yet another
coup for Founder Mark Thomas who posted
the second highest sale of the year in 2021
with Christmas.com at $3,150,000.
He also worked with DomainAssets.com
to close last year's #11 sale of EE.com
at $1,350,000. In 2019,
Thomas had two of the year's top five
sales, moving #3 California.com for
$3 million and #5 TM.com for
$1,250,000. Now, in 2022, Mark's
Gems.com sale, as of this writing, is
second only to the $1.8 million
sale of Galaxy.com that MediaOptions
confirmed making in February. |
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(Posted
April 25, 2022) To refer
others to the post above
only (and not the full
Lowdown column) you can use this
URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2022/dailyposts/20220425.htm
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Latest
Verisign Report on Global Domain Registrations
Shows Numbers Can Be Deceiving
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I've
just returned from a very pleasant
family vacation on the opposite side of the
country from our home base in Florida,
spending it in the beautiful Pacific Northwest
near Seattle. Of course, the domain
industry never rests so there has been a lot to
catch up on since getting back. While I was away Verisign
released their quarterly Domain
Name Industry Brief (.pdf file)
that always includes a treasure trove of
information. The latest edition, covering the closing
quarter of 2021, reveals that the year ended
with 341.7 million domain names registered
across all extensions worldwide. |
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Given
the boom in the domain aftermarket, that
represents a smaller year over year increase in
registrations than most might expect. Only 1.6
million domains were added, pushing the total
up just 0.5% but, in a moment I'll show you
why growth was better than those numbers indicate.
While the overall
growth rate was modest, it was a different story
for Verisign's flagship .com TLD. 2021
ended with 160 million .coms registered, a
jump of 8.3 million from the previous year,
representing a healthy 5.47% increase for
.com. Verisign also administers .net and,
as has been the case for years, that TLD continues
to tread water, ending 2021 with 13.4
million registrations - the same number the
.nets had a year earlier.
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The
ccTLDs finished 2021 with 127.4
million domains registered. That is down
5.3 million, a 4% drop, year
over year. Now, that would be very
disappointing if we couldn't track it to a
single cause - but we can. China's .cn
underwent a zone reduction in 2021 that
lopped a whopping 9.4 million
domains from the TLD, accounting for all
of the general ccTLD drop and then
some. When you take .cn out of the
equation, the ccTLDs actually gained
4.1 million domains and enjoyed
a |
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3.8%
increase. With the .cn situation, you can
also see why the total number for all TLDs
appeared to be so lackluster year over
year. |
Shifting to the
new gTLDs, while they have been producing
impressive aftermarket sales in some select TLDs,
their total number of registrations slid in 2021,
finishing the year down 5.2% to 24.7
million after coming in 1.3 million
below the previous year's number. In this group,
with hundreds of competing TLDs, the
results vary wildly with some clear winners at the
top while most others are still working on
building recognition and a loyal user base. |
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(Posted
April 22, 2022) To refer
others to the post above
only (and not the full
Lowdown column) you can use this
URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2022/dailyposts/20220422.htm
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Registrar
Sav.com Doubles Number of Domains Under Management
to 2 Million in Just Six Months
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The
blazing fast-growth story of domain
registrar Sav.com
continues unabated with the low-cost service
provider reaching 2 million domains under management,
just six months after passing in the 1
million milestone last fall. Sav, who also
operates an aftermarket platform for buying
and selling domains, is now one of less that 30
accredited domain registrars, out of 3,000
worldwide, to hit the 2 million mark. Sav.com
Founder and CEO Anthos Chrysanthou said,
“Our exponential growth is driven by three
factors. First, every member of our support team
is 110% committed to exceeding customer
expectations. With a Trustpilot rating that
ranks #1 versus well known registrar brands, their
efforts are clearly helping to differentiate
Sav.com and attract customers." "Second,
instead of charging the traditional 20%
commission for selling domains on our aftermarket
platform, Sav.com only charges 4%. When
combined with our highly optimized Domain For Sale
landing page that is tested and proven to maximize
sell-through rates, our 4% commission is
definitely motivating domain investors to transfer
and sell domains at Sav.com.” "And
third, Sav.com attracts investors, entrepreneurs,
and SMBs alike by offering instant
ownership transfer on domain purchases, extremely
low domain registration and renewal rates, free
WhoIs privacy, free SSL, and no domain backorder
placement or fulfillment fees.” |
Anthos
Chrysanthou
Founder & CEO, Sav.com |
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Chrysanthou also
noted that Sav.com recently added a
user-friendly website builder tool to help
entrepreneurs and small businesses quickly and
easily establish a presence on the web. It
includes a library of customizable templates, SEO
optimization, and a comprehensive set of eCommerce
features with a a free 30-day trial available
to anyone who wants to take it for a spin.
When we reported
SAV.com reaching the 1 million mark last
October, I mentioned that I had added
SAV to the very short list of registrars that I
use three months earlier and had already
registered over 100 domains there. That number has
now passed 250. I've known Anthos for close
to 20 years, so the existing trust factor gave me
a good reason to sample SAV.com, even though I
wasn't looking to add another registrar. However,
once I did that, the lowest prices in the market,
reliable service and expanding feature set made
putting more domains there a no brainer for me. |
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(Posted
April 9, 2022) To refer
others to the post above
only (and not the full
Lowdown column) you can use this
URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2022/dailyposts/20220409.htm
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Radix
Revenue Rose Over 35% in 2021 Producing a 60%
Surge in Profit Compared to 2020
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Radix,
one of the world’s largest registries for new
top level domains, announced today that the
company generated over $38 million in total
revenue in 2021, a 35% jump from their
revenue in 2020. Radix’s net profit soared by an
even higher percentage, over 60% more in
2021 compared to the previous year. Over the past
two-year period, Radix has seen its net profit
almost double. Radix
reported that the bulk of their $38 million in
revenue - 72% - came |
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from
standard registration renewals while new
standard registrations produced 15% and
premium registrations accounted for 12.5%.
Based
on registrars’ country data, Radix reported the
top contributor to their revenue was the United
States with 47% of the total share. The
top nTLD that contributed over 30%
to Radix’s total revenue was .Online,
followed by .Site and .Store.
.Online has consistently been the highest revenue
contributor for Radix over the past two years and
an internal analysis they did indicated .Online
has been the top nTLD by renewal revenue
across the industry in 2021. |
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(Posted
April 5, 2022) To refer
others to the post above
only (and not the full
Lowdown column) you can use this
URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2022/dailyposts/20220405.htm
*****
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