The Lowdown
August 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.

The time has finally come. After a pandemic induced two-and-a-half year wait, domain and digital asset investors, developers and service providers from all over the world will finally get to meet face to face again this week at the 2022 NamesCon Global Conference in Austin, Texas. The big show will run Wednesday (August 31) through Saturday (September 3) at the downtown Omni Hotel.  

A jam-packed two-track agenda filled with business sessions and social events will begin playing out at 10AM (U.S. Central Time) Wednesday when

Soeren von Varchmin, Chairmain of the NamesCon Advisory Board, will host the Welcoming Session. The first day of  business will continue until 6pm when The Opening Night Reception Party will be held at the Omni. After that ends at 9pm, those still not ready to call it a night can reconvene offsite at 9:45pm for a Frank Schilling Tribute Party, open to all NamesCon attendees, that Gregg McNair is hosting at Eberly in Austin.

One other thing about this long-awaited edition of NamesCon. I will be covering it in a different way than I have past conferences. Normally, I would post a full recap of the previous day's events each morning during the show. To do that I had to spend many hours off the show floor, writing and editing photos for the next daily report. One thing the pandemic and the recent unexpected passing of Shaun Pilfold has finally taught me is that we never know when or even if we will see some of our friends and colleagues again. 

My next post will be from NamesCon. Hope to see you there but if you can't make it, keep an eye on this space for some daily highlights after the show begins. Now it's almost time for the curtain to go up!

(Posted August 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/20220829.htm

*****

After Presenting This Week's London Domain Name Summit IT.com Turns Attention to NamesCom Global

Throughout this week excitement has been building for the return of the NamesCon Global conference after its two-and-a-half year absence due to the global pandemic. While preparations for the big show that runs August 31 through September 3 in Austin, Texas entered their final stages, another lucky group of domain investors and service providers were already meeting face to face in a new event on the other side of the Atlantic. That was the inaugural London Domain Name Summit (LDNS) that was held Monday and Tuesday (August 22 and 23) in London at the Yum Sa restaurant and event center. The Presenting Sponsor of the London meetup, IT.com, is also one of the primary sponsors of NamesCon Global, joining GoDaddy as a Diamond Sponsor with Above.com taking the Title Sponsor role as part of parent company Trellian's 25th anniversary celebration.

Broker Igor Furdyk of Linkoeln.com, who helped Intis Telecom acquire the IT.com domain name for $3.8 million, was at the London Domain Name Summit and was kind enough to send us a few photos from the event. 

Above: The IT.com team at the 2022 London Domain Name Summit (LDNS) included (left to right) Tatyana Tarassenko (Growth Marketing Director), Rolandas Japertas (Business Manager), Andrey Insarov (Founder & CEO), Natalija Japerte (Business Development Manager) and Munir Badr (It.com Advisor and Owner of Aeserver.com).

Below: IT.com Advisor Munir Badr manning IT.com's stop in the London Domain Name Summit Exhibit Area. As someone who likes to have an occasional glass of red wine, I have to say that there is something about the LDNS's venue - Yum Sa - that I really love. I just can't quite put my finger on it!

Above: IT.com Business Development Manager Natalija Japerte with 
London Domain Name Summit Founder Helmuts Meskonis.

Igor also let me know that Growth Marketing Director Tatyana Tarassenko recorded a video interview with LDNS Founder Helmuts Meskonis shortly before the show began. Post show, it is still interesting because it focuses on why Helmuts started the new event and how he believes it will benefit domain investors in the UK and Europe going forward. You can view that 5-minute clip on YouTube.

(Posted August 26, 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/20220826.htm

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Domain Industry Legend Frank Schilling Returns to His Roots in Another Coup for NamesCon Global

With just a week to go until NamesCon Global returns to an in-person format for the first time in over two-and-a-half-years, the conference continues to add star power to its agenda. When the big event returns to the Omni Hotel in Austin, Texas August 31 through September 3, 2022, attendees will get to see legendary domain investor and entrepreneur Frank Schilling on stage September 1st fielding questions from fellow industry giant Gregg McNair, Chairman of the Premium Traffic Limited Group.

In February 2020, just days  after the last edition of  NamesCon Global, Schilling put the finishing touch on his astonishing run in the domain world with a stunning sale of his domain 

Above:  Gregg McNair (left) and Frank Schilling.

portfolio and the company he founded, Uniregistry, to GoDaddy. With that happening just as the global pandemic was about to upend face to face gatherings around the world, many of Schilling's friends never had the opportunity to congratulate him in person or thank him for how much Uniregistry's services made it easier and more profitable to run their own businesses. 

That will be rectified in Austin where, in addition to interviewing Schilling, McNair will host a party to celebrate Frank's achievements at 9:45pm, August 31 that will be open to all NamesCon attendees. That will set the stage for the interview that will follow the next afternoon during a special hour-long session (starting at 2pm) that will lead into Right of the Dot's big live Digital Assets Auction at 3pm.

(Posted August 23, 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/20220823.htm

*****

Radix Reports 28% Surge in Total Premium Domain Retail Revenue in H1-2022 Over Previous Half

Radix has released their latest semi-annual report on Premium Domain Name Sales (.pdf file), covering the first half of 2022. Radix, a registry operator that administers 10 top level domains, continued to see strong growth in sales of premium domains that are made through registrar channels worldwide. In H1-2022 Radix's total premium revenue came in at $3.82 million, a 28% jump over the $2.98 million they recorded he H2-2021.

Radix had an even higher growth rate in renewals of their premium names, with that category up 38% over the previous six-month period after generating $2.5 million in H1-2022. New premium registrations also posted solid double digit growth, up 24% from H2-2021.

For new premium registrations, the .Tech TLD was Radix's biggest revenue generator, producing over $390,000 on 441 premium sales. .Store was next with over $235,000 on 338 sales, followed by .Online with just under $215,000 on 279 sales. Those were also the top three TLDs in premium renewal revenue with .Tech the top earner at $643,825, however .Store and .Online flipped positions, with .Online #2 at $542,425 and .Store #3 at $520,325 in the renewal income race.

Radix data showed that the percentage of premium domains renewed goes up with every year of ownership. 68% of original premium registrants re-upped when the first renewal came due. When it was time to renew for a second time 75% did so. When a 3rd renewal date arrived that number went all the way up to 87% that decided to keep their domains.

(Posted August 16, 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/20220816.htm

*****

The Domain Industry Loses a Gentle Giant With the Passing of Shaun Pilfold 

For the past 20 years Canada's Shaun Pilfold has been a soft-spoken, big-hearted, high-achiever who has brought smiles to every room he entered. So I was deeply saddened this morning when I received notes from several friends pointing me to a thread at the DN.CA domain forum. In it a long time friend and former business partner of Pilfold's shared the news that Shaun had passed Sunday evening after a battle with cancer. 

Not surprisingly, given Shaun's nature, many were unaware his health had taken a turn for the worse. He was not the type to talk or complain about it. In fact when left a post about cancer on his Facebook page on February 4 (World Cancer Day), Shaun made no mention of his own status, instead writing, "Today, I want to remember those who are no longer with us but are living on in our hearts and memories. For those that are struggling with this horrible disease, either as a sufferer, caregiver or know someone that is, I wish you strength, hope and god's grace in fighting this beast."  He knew the

Shaun Pilfold

fight well, as it was his fight too, but his thoughts were about how the disease was affecting others and memorializing those it had already taken. That was Shaun - a man who will most certainly live on in our hearts and memories. 

Shaun was a very successful domain investor and developer, having owned and/or helped develop top tier assets like Jobs.ca, Candy.ca, Houses.ca, GoldCourses.ca and many others. His CandyCrave.ca ecommerce site has proved to be a big hit too. Sean was also a well-known player in the geodomain space as the owner of Kelowna.com, Kamloops.com and Penticton.com. Still his domain acumen is not what drew so many people to Shaun and made him one of the most beloved people in the business. It was the way he treated and connected with everyone around him.

I met Shaun in person for the first time in 2005 when we were both at the Domainfest conference in Los Angeles and the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference in Delray Beach, Florida. We already knew each other from the domain forums online but to really appreciate Shaun you had to meet him in person. My first impression was this guy was a living, breathing teddy bear - you were instantly comfortable around him and would have been happy to give him a big hug - in fact many did just that!

Above: Marcia Lynn Walker giving her friend Shaun Pilfold a hug at the 
2005 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference in Delray Beach, Florida. 

Above: Many of us first got to know Shaun through DNForum.com, 
owned at the time by Greg Ricks (at right above), who is seen here with
Shaun at the 2007 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference in Hollywood, Florida.

Above: Shaun made many other friends in the geodomain community where he was well-known as the owner/operator of several Canadian city .com websites. In this shot from the 2007 GeoDomain Expo in San Francisco, Shaun (at far left), chats with a friend during the live domain auction. 

Above: Shaun was also at the 2008 GeoDomain Expo in Chicago where he is seen 
sharing some thoughts from his seat in the audience during a panel discussion.

Above: Wherever domain people got together, Shaun was most likely there, 
making new friends and enjoying the chance to see old ones again.  Here he is 
chatting with Eliot Silver at the 2007 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference in New York City.

In 2010, Shaun finally had a chance to welcome his many industry friends to a big event on his side of the border at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Vancouver conference in Canada. This particular occasion was a surprise birthday party for Gregg McNair (at far right). When it comes to wishing people well, Shaun was always front and center and this was no exception.

With Shaun gone now, all we can do is send heartfelt condolences to his family and friends and share our stories of how he positively impacted our lives with his quiet manner, kindness and grace. It was a wonderful blessing to know him and I have no doubt that anyone who ever met him will tell you the same. Thank you Shaun, for being the man you were and showing us how to do it right in both business and life.

(Posted August 11, 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/20220811.htm

*****

Fresh Off  Forming Partnership with Hilco Global, Andrew Miller Will Be Doing Some Myth Busting at NamesCon Global

A couple of the biggest domain sales of all time were reported over this past week - NFTs.com at $15 million and Connect.com at $10 million. It is rare for sales at that level to be publicly reported as most are governed by non-disclosure agreements. That is something pioneering broker Andrew Miller is well aware of because he has been involved in some of the biggest sales ever made, some reported but most not due to NDAs (recent examples include Home.com, Universal.com and Candy.com, sales that followed major successes with CreditCards.com, InsuranceQuotes.com and many others). All told, Miller has been involved in deals totaling over $330 million with 33 of those reaching seven figures and three hitting the mind-boggling eight-figure mark.

Two months ago Andrew teamed up with Hilco Global to start a new Web 3 venture, Hilco Digital Assets (HDA), with Miller serving as the Managing Director. Andrew said, "Hilco is the world's preeminent authority on maximizing the value of assets, and my company ATM Holdings and I have a longstanding track record as a leading investor, advisor, deal maker on premium domain names and a growing expertise on NFTs & Web 3 related opportunities. Neither of us needed to do this but we saw a massive opportunity to build HDA into something very meaningful. So we aligned and here we are."

Andrew Miller
Managing Director
Hilco Digital Assets

Also, if your are already an ICA member (or want to become one) there are two more events scheduled just for you earlier on the day of the dinner (Thursday, Sept. 1). At 9am there will be a special meeting for domain brokers who are ICA members. It will be held at the Omni with the exact meeting room to be announced before the show. That will be followed at 12:40pm Sept. 1 by the  ICA Town Hall for all Members, giving them a chance to talk with fellow members, as well as members of the ICA Staff and Board. As with the brokers meeting, the specific room for the Town Hall will be assigned and announced before NamesConGlobal gets underway. 

(Posted August 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/20220809.htm

*****

Second 8-Figure Domain Sale in As Many Weeks -  Connect.com at $10 Million - Uncovered by George Kirikos

Less than a week after a $15 million sale of NFTs.com was announced, George Kirikos discovered that Hubspot paid $10 million to acquire Connect.com earlier this year. Kirikos found the details in Hubspot's 2Q-2022 SEC filing and broke the news on his FreeSpeech.com blog Sunday. Confirmation of the sales price comes after DomainInvesting.com had reported spotting a transfer of the domain to Hubspot in April.

Two of the four biggest publicly reported domain sales of all time have now come to light in the past five days. NFTs.com is second only to Voice.com ($30 million), followed by Sex.com ($13 million) and new #4 

Image from Bigstock

Connect.com. We will be adding Connect.com to our YTD Top 100 Sales Chart and All-Time Top 20 Chart when out next bi-weekly domain sales report comes out August 17. 

There is an interesting back story to the reporting of this information. As regular readers know, George is a veteran researcher who has uncovered countless big money sales over the years (our charts would have bee a lot less impressive had he not been digging this data out and cross checking it to share with the industry). Unfortunately, as happens far too often on the web, some unscrupulous sites and social media accounts have stolen his work and republished it un-credited as if the work was there own. George finally had enough of that and announced he was going to pause his research for the rest of the year to protest what amounts to IP thievery. It has to be especially galling to him because he has done the work and shared the results expecting no compensation (he doesn't accept ads on his sites) other than credit where credit is due for the work done. Uncovering the details of this huge sale of Connect.com on the way out the door for a well deserved break serves as a perfect mic drop moment as it shows how much we are likely to be missing over the next few months.

(Posted August 7, 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/20220807.htm

*****

Blockbuster $15 Million Sale of NFTs.com Gets The Domain Industry's Day Off to a Great Start

In the 2nd largest domain sale ever publicly reported, NFTs.com has changed hands for $15 million, a figure eclipsed only by the $30 million sale of Voice.com in 2019. The news came this morning in a joint press release (.pdf file) from Escrow.com and premium domain brokerage and acquisition specialists Domainer.com. 

The deal was brokered for an undisclosed buyer by teams at Domainer.com and GoDaddy.com who worked together in hand with Escrow.com who facilitated the landmark transaction. Plans for the marquee domain have not yet been announced but a Domainer.com statement said the buyer has associations with other web3 projects, such as DigitalArtists.com (a curated web3 service to artists). 

Image from Bigstock

The lead broker of the deal, Domainer.com's Matt Holden, said "It was a pleasure to work with all parties involved with NFTS.com, an incredible opportunity for the buyer to acquire a category killer domain and one of, if not the best, possible .com's in the entire web3 space." Ian Garner, Director at Domainer.com, added "The recent purchase of NFTS.com is an acquisition all brokerage platforms would love to be involved in. It has truly been a privilege to have played our part in the deal and to continue to represent a very happy buyer."

This news takes away any suspense about what the #1 sale will be in our next bi-weekly domain sales report that will be out this evening. At the same time, NFTs.com will be placed in the #1 position on our Year-to-Date Top 100 Sales Chart. Congratulations to all of the parties involved in making it happen. I think for just about everyone in our industry, this is the kind of news you love to wake up to! 

(Posted August 3, 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/20220803.htm

*****

XYZ Registry Spices Up Growing Portfolio With Addition of Latin Flavored .LAT TLD

The XYZ Registry's continually expanding portfolio of  domain extensions just reached 34 TLDs with the acquisition of .LAT that was announced today. With this move XYZ adds an extension that the seller, eCOM-LAC, launched in 2015 to serve the Latin community. The TLD has been available to the general public since then and a number of established websites already call it home. 

Anthony Harris, executive director of eCOM-LAC,  noted, "For the last few years, as a Latin American non-profit Business Federation, we have been the ICANN assigned Registry for .LAT, in line with our mission objectives, which center on the development of the Internet in Latin America and the Caribbean. This task was carried out with the assistance of our able back-end technical and marketing services provider – NIC MX. Certainly, the LAC region deserves to have a specific domain identifier which can contribute to the growth of Internet usage and content in this part of the world. It is time now for XYZ to apply their experience and expertise in order to take .LAT to the next level, and we wish them every success for the future."

 In addition to their flagship .xyz domain, the XYZ Registry operates .Cars, .Car, and .Auto, .College, .Rent, .Security, .Protection, .Theatre, .Storage, .Baby, .Monster, .Beauty, .Hair, .Skin, .Makeup, .Quest, .Homes, .Autos, .Motorcycles, .Boats, .Yachts, .Tickets, .Game, .Guitars, .Audio, .Christmas, .Diet, .Flowers, .Hosting, .Pics, .Mom, and .LOL. You can learn more about XYZ at www.gen.xyz.

(Posted August 2, 2022) To refer others to the post above only (and not the full Lowdown column) you can use this URL:
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