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The
Lowdown
June 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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Acquisition
of Innovative Aftermarket Sales Platform Dan.com
is Another Smart Move By GoDaddy
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I
had no idea
GoDaddy
was about to buy fast-growing, innovative domain
sales platform Dan.com,
but when Dan broke the news in a blog
post this morning, buttressed by a
separate press
release from GoDaddy, my
instant reaction was, "Well, that makes perfect
sense." GoDaddy,
of course, was already an aftermarket powerhouse
and in recent years that division of the company
has played an increasingly important
role in the industry giant's overall
success. With its incomparable name recognition
and expansive sales network GoDaddy is
the first place many businesses look when they
need a premium name for their |
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enterprise.
However, as
business history has often shown, even the best
known brands can have a profitable apple cart upset
by an innovative newcomer. Especially one
that arrives on the scene with an extraordinarily appealing
product at a great price that is winning
over new converts every day. Few domain
companies in recent years have fit that description
better that Dan.com. Getting
Dan eliminates a growing competitive threat and
brings GoDaddy some impressive new technology that
will go a long way toward future proofing
their aftermarket cash cow. So, it's all good
for GoDaddy and a fitting reward for Dan.com
Founder Reza Sardeha and his entire team for
the remarkable sales engine they created. What
remains to be seen is how well it works for domain
buyers and sellers. Dan has a much lower fee
structure (ranging from 5 to 9%) but more
widely-known GoDaddy/Afternic sells an enormous
number of domains for clients, making it a lot
easier to justify their 20% commission. At this
early stage, no one knows exactly how the two
platforms will be used to complement each other or
where the fee structure will settle. If
they can combine the best of both platforms, everyone
will come out a winner. As it always does, it
will all come down to the execution. Seeing
how the newly minted GoDaddy/Dan team goes about the
process is something everyone in the industry will
be watching with keen interest in the months ahead -
and it won't be long before it gets started, the
deal is expected to close in the 3rd quarter
and that starts Friday (July 1)!
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(Posted
June 28, 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/20220628.htm
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Domain
Sales Remain Hot With Public Company Closing $1.6
Million Acquisition of Chill.com
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Chill
Brands Group PLC
has made the $800,000 final payment due
to complete a $1,600.000 acquisition
of the Chill.com domain name. The
company, that trades on the London Stock Exchange
(CHLL), is a developer, producer and international
distributor of cannabidiol (CBD) products. They
zeroed on Chill.com as the key component for
executing a
refresh of the Chill brand that they believe
will improve consumer targeting and ensure that
marketing of the brand is consistent across all
regions.
Chill
Brands CEO Callum Sommerton said, "We
are the proud owners of a highly brandable, premium
domain asset reflective of a word that is
pervasive in the everyday lives of consumers and
is easy to
say, spell, and remember. In an increasingly complex
world, people |
Image
from Bigstock
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everywhere are
looking for ways to
chill. Those qualities are gold dust for
marketers, and we intend to maximize the
potential of the Chill.com domain by expanding and
improving our brand which, in common with our
consumers, should be bright, energetic and youthful."
We
will be officially charting this sale when our next
bi-weekly domain
sales report comes out Wednesday
evening, July 6. Unless a bigger seven-figure sale
comes to light before then, Chill.com will move into
#3 spot on our Year-to-Date
Top 100 Sales Chart that tracks publicly
reported domain sales. As of now, only IT.com at
$3.8 million (also completed with a final
payment this month) and Galaxy.com at $1.8
million have been bigger. This is the sixth sale
of more than $1 million reported so far in
2022.
A
special thank you to George
Kirikos who was the first to sound
the alert on this deal being finalized. If you
aren't already following George on Twitter,
you should be!
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(Posted
June 27, 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/20220627.htm
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Donuts
Fills Branding Holes with a More Relevant New Name
- Identity Digital
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Donuts
Inc.,
the administrator of the world's largest portfolio
of top level domain names with more than 300 TLDs,
has given itself a new name - Identity Digital
(and a new web address at Identity.digital).
The new brand has been applied to both Donuts and Afilias,
the well-known TLD operator and service provider
that Donuts acquired in 2020. When
Donuts was founded in 2010 to operate its own new
TLDs, the name was a clever way to stand out in
the huge crowd that gathered around the
opportunity to run one or more of what wound up
being over 1,000 new domain extensions. Now
that more than a decade has passed and new TLDs
have become more familiar to web users, the time
was right to pull all of the |
Has
a
New Name
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elements
of the business together under a single new brand
that would clearly articulate what the company
does. In their words, that is "helping
customers find, grow and protect their authentic
digital identities."
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A
press
release announcing the move
today noted, "A new corporate name,
logo, visual identity, voice/tone and
website (identity.digital) are all critical
elements in bringing the rebrand to life. |
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This
rebrand coincides with helping customers
understand that they no longer have to
compromise when they get their domain name.
As the heart of their digital identity, they
can use both sides of the dot to express
what their company is and why it matters.
United under one brand, Identity Digital
cements its status as a leader in connecting
the online world with domain names and
related technologies that allow people to
build, market, and own their authentic
digital identities."
Identity
Digital CEO Akram J. Atallah said,
"This brand refresh is an exciting
moment for our company and stakeholders.
Identity Digital reflects a stronger
platform for expressing the core values we
have had all along – to provide a secure,
authentic digital identity. The new name
lets us more precisely define to customers
who we are and what we can do for them. The
internet is expanding, and businesses must
have a digital presence to survive and be
successful, so the timing was critical.” |
Akram
J. Atallah
CEO, Identity Digital |
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(Posted
June 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/20220622.htm
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The
2022 Web Marketing Festival in Italy Last Week
Reminded Us What We've Been Missing
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As
the domain industry gears up for
its first major in-person conference in over
two-and-half years (NamesCon
Global in Austin later this
summer), it has been good to see that several
other large Internet related conferences have been
able to stage well-attended events around
the world. While we haven't eradicated Covid
19 completely, it looks like we've finally made
enough progress to allow people to safely get back
together for the kind face to face meetings
that are so important for building relationships
and growing businesses in every field. The
latest example of that was the 2022
Web Marketing Festival that ended
Saturday (June 18) at Rimini Fiere in Italy.
Thousands of attendees and over 250 exhibitors
from around the world turned out for the annual
event that serves as an accelerator of culture,
training and innovation for the online marketing
industry. The three-day festival featured over
100 events devoted to training, B2B meetings,
networking, culture, concerts, shows and
entertainment. |
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Natalija
Japerte, Intis Telecom Business Development
Director (at right), with a fellow
attendee ready to head into the 2022 Web Marketing Festival
at Italy's
Rimini Fiere center last week. |
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A new registrar, IT.com,
was one of the domain companies that had a
big presence at the Web Marketing Festival. In the
photo below, IT.com's Social Media Manager, Tatyana
Tarassenko (left), was on hand to greet
attendees at the company's booth. It made a
lot of sense for IT.com to exhibit in Italy.
The country's ccTLD is .it, so being able
to register 3rd level domains at IT.com (like
Rome.it.com or Vino.it.com) could resonate with
Italians who also recognize .com's status as the
world's most popular gTLD.
Below:
The vast exhibition space at the Rimini Fiere
included a number of spots where attendees could
take a break, catch up with messages and chat with
friends.
Above
& below: IT.com Business Manager Rolandas
Japertas (at right) stayed busy making new acquaintances
from the steady flow of attendees at the IT.com
booth throughout the Festival.
Below:
Meanwhile, Tatyana (right) continued to
work the room, making sure no one went home
without an IT.com business car and ink pen....and
you thought Social Media Managers only
worked online!
We
don't know who ended up with the bottle of
champagne at the IT.com table above, but those who
missed out still had no problem getting a
celebratory drink at this evening party
sponsored by IT.com (below).
After
seeing photos from the Web Marketing Festival
(courtesy of Igor Furdyk at Linkoeln.com)
we are even more excited to know that our turn
is coming on this side of the pond when NamesCon
Global runs August 31 through Sept.
3 in Texas's capital city. Hope to see you to
Austin!
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(Posted
June 20, 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/20220620.htm
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Joe
Uddeme at NameExperts.com Brokers $570,000 Sale of
IW.com + $3.8M IT.com Deal Closes Early
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Our
next bi-weekly domain
sales report Wednesday evening (June
22) will be highlighted by the completion of the
first publicly reported 2-letter .com sales
of 2022. We just got word this afternoon from NameExperts.com
Principal Joe Uddeme that he had brokered a
$570,000 deal of IW.com. Joe
represented the seller. A post about the sale on Twitter
made by the CEO Founder and CEO of 62.com,
Xiaosheng
Liu, indicates his company represented
the Chinese buyer of the rare two-letter domain.
For Uddeme, this will be his second Top 20 sale of
the year
to date, joining his April sale of Bobber.com
at $250,000 (Joe also had the biggest non
.com sale of the year in 2021 when he helped close
a $750,000 deal for Poker.net). We
also have an important update on that $3.8
million transaction involving IT.com
that we told you about last
November. The buyers made a $1.5
million down payment at that time and agreed the
pay the remaining balance over a 36-month period.
Broker Igor Furdyk at Linkoeln.com
(who represents the new owners of IT.com)
let me know this week that the company decided to
pay off the balance early and has now taken
possession of the domain to conclude the
blockbuster transaction. |
Image
from Bigstock
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The
new owners had already been putting IT.com
to good use as the foundation for a widely
publicized domain
registration service
that offers third level domain names
ending with .it.com - making names
like buy.it.com, sell.it.com, etc
possible. They have also been buying up
the IT letters in every possible TLD and
just added IT.cm to that list after
acquiring the domain for $38,500.
With the
IT.com sale now concluded, the domain can
be charted for the first time and will
almost certainly be the #1 sale on both
our bi-weekly
Top 20 Sales Chart and our 2022
Year-to-Date Top 100 Chart
when those are updated with the release of
the next sales column Wednesday evening. |
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(Posted
June 17, 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/20220617.htm
*****
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Break
the Code 2 Gives .Tech and Radix's Marketing Team
Another Win and Other Marketers an Example to
Follow
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I've
often written about the innovative
marketing campaigns Radix
has come up with to successfully promote their
various new gTLDS (Radix administers .tech,
.online, .store, .site, .website,
.host, .space, .fun and .press).
For each of their end-user targeted campaigns they
have created a novel approach that has caught
people's attention. One
of Radix's biggest hits was a Break the Code
campaign in 2020, tailored for the tech
community, that attracted
over 100,000 developers who competed
for thousands of dollars in prize money by solving
puzzles, ciphers and trivia challenges. The
campaign was so popular there had to be an encore
and there was - the now completed Break
the Code 2
competition, that racked up even
more eye popping numbers. Over 110,000
competitors signed up, generating more than 1.3
million visits to BreakTheCode.tech
in just three weeks. Overall, the campaign
generated 8 million+ impressions digitally. |
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When
it comes to attracting eyeballs to new TLDs, Radix is clearly doing something
right, so we wanted to get more insight into
how their process works, thinking there have
to be some tips in there that would help all of us
who are trying to market our domains and websites.
To get that information we connected with Suman
Das, Senior Director of Brand Operations at
Radix. Suman clued us in on the tactics and
thought process behind Radix’s marketing of its
top-level domains in general, as well as Break The
Code 2 in particular.
|
Suman
Das
Radix Sr. Director of Brand Operations |
"At
Radix, each TLD is still treated as an
individual brand with its respective
managers," Das noted. "We
operate in this way because each TLD
caters to a very specific target group.
So while .Tech Domains focuses on
engaging with the tech community through
innovative campaigns such as Break The
Code; .Store Domains focuses more
on campaigns such as #IdeaToStore
to enable aspiring store owners to take
the first step. Recently, we concluded #FempowerOnline,
a campaign for .Online Domains to
bring forth women-centric online
business ideas by aspiring women
entrepreneurs. These are just some of the
many examples of how we at Radix are able
to create high-impact end-customer
campaigns because of our dedicated focus
to each TLD."
Regarding
the internal process of creating a
campaign like Break the Code and BTC
2, Das said, "Every campaign at
Radix is born from the same principle: customer-centricity.
Therefore, we start with intensive research
about the customer, changing market
trends, |
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engagement
patterns, customer channel affinity, their
preferences, etc. The more we understand
our customers, the higher the impact we
can create." |
"Talking
specifically about Break
The Code 2, the most important insight
we were working with was that the tech community
has a high ad filter and doesn’t appreciate
intrusive advertising," Das noted. " This inspired us to
create a campaign in the form of a
high-engagement game. We put in months of
additional research and planning to make it more
air-tight. Once we had the basic structure and
theme in place, we spoke to industry heavyweights
such as GitHub, Namecheap, Digital
Ocean, MLH, Dev.to,
and Hackernoon. They immediately loved the
concept and came on board as partners. From
thereon, we worked towards the actual creation of
the game along with planning a comprehensive
marketing campaign to promote the game."
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Das
added, "The game's theme was inspired
by Windows-98, with a moral
conflict ingrained within. We planned for
a bunch of easter eggs and cheat codes
to be peppered throughout the game. As a
final joke and to end the game on a high
note, we got Steve Wozniak,
Co-founder, Apple Computer Inc, to drop a
video where he was revealed to be
behind the conflict. It took the
community by surprise and left them in
awe!," Suman declared with
justifiable pride.
Still,
some might wonder, why the Win 98
theme? Das explained, "The
nostalgia associated with Windows 98 and
the 90’s PC gaming experience
immediately struck a chord with our
target audience. The challenging
nature of the puzzles appealed to even the
most hard-to-please techies. What |
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began as a “digital
touchpoint” for .Tech Domains quickly
morphed into an experience that brought
the tech community together and
organically transcended to Reddit, Discord,
and Twitter." |
Das said,
"What’s more, the tech community loved the
game so much that we had fan-made browser
extensions and NFTs about the game."
We asked Suman what elements the Radix decision-makers look for
that they consider necessary for a campaign like Break The Code to
be successful. He said, "For us, the key ingredients
for any campaign to be successful are value generation for
the end customer, virality, engagement, and earned
media potential. We also look at the ROI for which we
rely on internal financial models and metrics."
As to what metrics
Radix looks for that increase chances for success in marketing
campaigns such as these, Das said, "Our success metrics
mainly include sign-ups and website visits. Social
proof and post-campaign feedback are also closely tracked."
Last, but not least,
on the heels of their success with the second edition of Break the
Code, we had to wonder what's next for .Tech? Suman
replied, "Our purpose has always been to help anyone
looking to create a positive impact using tech, and our marketing
efforts aim to reflect that. In the future, we will continue to
drive engagement, build a sense of community, and be a vehicle for
those that want to better the world through tech. Keeping
that in mind, our team is working on some exciting initiatives at
this point, and we will be launching them soon." |
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(Posted
June 14, 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/20220614.htm
*****
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NamesCon
Global Accepting Domain and NFT Submissions for
Live Digital Asset Auction September 1, 2022
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When
the NamesCon
Global conference
returns this summer with an in person format
for the first time in over two and half years,
a major highlight will be the long awaited return
of the show's premium domain auction in
front of a live audience. The big event
will be held on Thursday, September 1, 2022
starting at 3PM (CDT) at the Omni Hotel in Austin,
Texas. The conference itself will begin there
on August 31 and continue through Sept 3. A
lot of things have changed since the last auction
event of this kind (also held at the Omni in
Austin, on January 30, 2020). One of the biggest
changes has been the emergence of NFT collectibles.
NamesCon is recognizing that development by
expanding their traditional domain sale into a Digital
Asset Auction that will feature select NFTs
(appraised at $5,000 and up) alongside about 150
premium domain names. |
Auctioneer
Wayne Wheat (left) and RightOfTheDot
President Monte Cahn conducting the
NamesCon Global
Live Domain Auction in Austin, Texas January
30, 2020. |
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Above:
Part of the crowd at the 2020 NamesCon Global live
domain auction.
Below:
World Champion auctioneer Wayne Wheat directing
the fast-paced 2020 auction.
One thing that won't
change this year that RightOfTheDot.com
will again conduct the big event with ROTD
President Monte Cahn at the helm and World
Champion auctioneer Wayne Wheat calling the
action. ROTD has now opened
submissions for the auction so, if you
have top tier assets you would like to have
considered for the sale, now is the time to
send them in. Keep in mind, quality is
going to be the over-riding factor in what gets
selected for the auction catalog. ROTD provided
this submission criteria:
-
1
to 4 number (such as 123·com)
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1
to 4 letter (such as abc·com)
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1
word (with meaning)
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Keyword
and high-traffic English terms/words
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.com,
.net, .org (the auction will focus on .com
premium names, but other TLD extensions will
be considered)
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Standard
renewal-priced domains (no premium or tiered
renewal fees over $100 per year)
The
submission deadline is August 12, 2022.
You will find all
of the details about the auction and submission
process here.
We are looking
forward to seeing you in Austin this summer (registration
is open now) and if you can't be there this is the
place to come for wall to wall coverage of the
show! |
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(Posted
June 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/20220609.htm
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2½
Year Wait for Return of NamesCon Global Finally
Coming to End - Less Than 90 Days To Go
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When
we all headed home from the
last NamesCon Global conference after
it concluded on February 1, 2020, none of
us had any idea it would be over two and a half
years before we would have a chance to do it
again! The big show was one of the countless
casualties of the global Covid 19 pandemic but,
thankfully, organizers were able to keep the
flame alive with a series of well-produced NamesCon
Online events. Still, like Marvin Gaye &
Tammi Terrell used to sing, "ain't nothing
like the real thing, baby!" |
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That's why the
excitement is starting to build for NamesCon
Global's long-awaited return to
real life less than 90 days from now. It will
be happening August 31 through September 3
at the Omni Hotel in Austin, Texas,
the same place where we left off in 2020! While we
first told you about the show coming back in February,
a lot has happened since then including posting of
the agenda and the naming of some of the key
speakers (all of which you will find on the the NamesCon
website). If you visit now you will
also find discounted
early bird tickets (offer good until
June 17) with an additional 20% off applied
for DNJournal readers using the link above. While
you are at it, it would also be a good idea to book
your hotel room at the Omni while you
can still get the NamesCon conference's special
rate ($229 a night + taxes).
Now that we are
entering the final countdown and new conference
details will be getting colored in continually
from now to show time, we'll be bringing you
regular updates on NamesCon Global as they come
in. Of course, we are also planning to be at the
conference to cover it all and to finally
see all of you who can attend in person
again - it is long overdue and we are really
looking forward to that! |
|
(Posted
June 1, 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/20220601.htm
*****
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