After Dazzling the Domain World Titan and LOGO.com Founders Supercharge Latest Enterprises with Strategic Partnership

When I entered this business over 20 years ago one thing I quickly noticed (and have frequently commented on) is the number of extraordinarily creative people who somehow found their way into the domain industry. It probably shouldn't surprise anyone because a domain name gives its owner the primary tool he or she needs to create a unique and unforgettable presence on the web. Visionary entrepreneurs understood that immediately and many who thrived in the domain world leveraged that success to take advantage of exciting new opportunties they spotted in related fields.

A couple of prime examples are Titan Founder Bhavin Turakhia and LOGO.com Founder Richard Lau. After starting Directi with his brother Divyank and building it into a domain industry powerhouse that they sold to Endurance for $160 million, Bhavin went on to found Radix, Flock, Zeta and, most recently, booming business email service provider Titan. 

Richard started as a domain investor then created, developed and sold what is still the world's biggest conference for domain investors, NamesCon. Since then Richard has been makinhg new waves by creating the innovative free logo service, LOGO.com, then turning it into a full service graphic design and branding platform. LOGO.com’s offerings now include domain names, a website and business cards to give emerging businesses everything they need to succesfully launch. 

With the new Titan partnership in place, LOGO.com has beefed up its menu even more. Those who sign up for a LOGO Pro subscription will get a free trial of Titan’s business email while all other LOGO.com users will be able to purchase the popular Titan service alongside the other business-critical products in the LOGO.com line up. 

Titan’s business email offers a user-friendly interface and native apps, long with 50GB storage per user, Calendar and Contacts apps, and multi-account support. Powerful features such as Read Receipts and Email Templates help users reach their customers more easily and efficiently. Priority Inbox, Follow-up Reminders, and Send Later help boost productivity while advanced security features such as anti-spam, anti-virus, two-factor authentication, and data encryption ensure that accounts are always protected.

Bhavin noted, “Through our partnership with LOGO.com, we aim to offer a digital platform to young businesses trying to build their brand. With a professional-looking email from Titan, we want to help them solidify their online presence and build credibility right when they’re getting started  We’re excited to get more businesses online via LOGO.com and be a part of their growth journey.”

Bhavin aidded, "The gains are phenomenal for Titan’s partners as well - pairing Titan with their products increases NPS (Net Promoter Score, a metric used to gauge customer loyalty, enthusiasm and satisfaction), and also exposes customers to the provider’s branding within Titan for over 150 hours every year."  

Titan Founder Bhavin Turakkhia

Logo.com Founder Richard Lau

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Verisign Reports Total Domain Registrations Worldwide Climbed to Over 359 Million at the End of 3Q-2023  

VeriSign, (the administrator of the .com and .net TLDs) has released their latest quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB) covering the 3rd quarter of 2023. This update showed that total domain registrations across all TLDs worldwide rose to 359.3 million at the end of the latest quarter. That is an increase of 8.5 million domains year over year (YOY), representing a 2.4% rise.

While the total for all TLDs was up, .Com, the world's most popular TLD, experienced a small but rare tick down in the past quarter, slipping to 160.8 million domains registered after reporting 161.3 million at the end of 2Q-2023. Meanwhile, .net continued to tread water just above the 13 million mark it has been at for several years now.

Verisign reported total country code top level domain (ccTLD) registrations increased to 138.1 million at the end 3Q-2023 after adding 5.4

million domains over the past year - an increase of 4.1%.  The top 10 ccTLDs (by number of registrations) were .cn (China), .de (Germany), .uk (United Kingdom), .nl (Netherlands), .ru (Russia), .br (Brazil), .au (Australia), .fr (France), .eu (European Union) and .it (Italy) - the same order they were in at the end of the previous quarter.

Total new gTLD (new generic top level domain) domain name registrations reached 30.2 million at the end of the 3Q-2023 after adding 2.9 million domains over the past year. That represented a healthy 10.6% increase year over year.

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Inside the NIS2 Directive - How New EU Legislation Will Impact The Domain Industry in Europe and Beyond

By Simone Catania
Global Content & Communications Manager, InterNetX

Editor's Note: Most of you will recall that the way WhoIs privacy is now treated worldwide resulted from legislation enacted by the European Union. Now, new EU legislation aimed at strengthening defenses against cyber threats is going to require changes that key domain industry companies around the world will have to deal with. To break down what this involves in a concise summary, we called on Simone Catania at InterNetX whose company has published a definitive (and free) ebook on this complicated matter).

The NIS2 Directive, with the objective of bolstering security within the European Union, is set to leave lasting impressions on the domain industry — particularly with regard to the obligation for registries, registrars, privacy/proxy services to improve DNS security through increased accuracy in domain data registration.

The NIS2 Directive (EU) 2022/2555 is an evolution of the original NIS Directive from 2016. It was prompted by the realization that the expanding 

Simone Catania
InterNetX Global Content 
& Communications  Manager

digital landscape comes hand in hand with new and more complex cyber threats. The directive aims to establish a comprehensive framework to address these threats, ensuring the resilience of critical infrastructure and promoting a high common level of cybersecurity across the EU member states.

The objectives of the NIS2 Directive can be broadly categorized into three primary goals:

●  developing a culture of shared responsibility in addressing cybersecurity risks

●  ensuring that essential service providers and digital service providers adhere to strict security standards

●  facilitating swift and efficient information sharing and collaboration for responding to cyber threats among member states  

The NIS2 Directive poses challenges for the domain industry, particularly regarding verification processes and the allocation of responsibilities between registries and registrars. It emphasizes stringent verification for domain registrations, but the lack of clear procedures presents difficulties for domain professionals. Additionally, the directive has implications beyond the EU, affecting companies outside the EU that offer services to EU customers, which raises concerns about balancing legitimate access and data privacy.  

Article 28, for example, focuses on the necessity for TLD registries and domain name registration service providers to gather and maintain accurate, comprehensive data on domain name registrations. Therefore, TLD registries and domain name registration service providers must craft policies and procedures to validate the accuracy of the information in their databases. Non-personal domain name registration data should be made publicly available promptly after domain name registration.  

Although it aims to strengthen cybersecurity in the EU, the directive will result in significant changes and problematic situations for digital operators and domain professionals. For this reason, the industry must remain vigilant and make an effort towards collaboration in order to navigate its complexities effectively.

To help you understand this complex piece of legislation, InterNetX has developed an insightful e-book titled "NIS2: Unraveling the Directive". It provides an in-depth understanding of the EU regulatory shift and explores its impact on multiple parties within the domain industry. You will gain valuable perspectives on how the EU's mission of ensuring a safer digital environment for users and businesses can be achieved through accurate domain registration data and recognize its broader implications for the domain industry. 

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ROTD Auctioning Off Original Artwork AND the Graffiti.art Domain Name Wednesday Night in Miami

We've all become familiar with the live and online domain auctions that Monte Cahn and his crew at RightOfTheDot.com, including World Champion auctioneer Wayne Wheat, are famous for. However, ROTD is going to be blazing a new trail tomorrow night (Wednesday, November 8) in Miami when, in tandem with Wonderland 2023 and Kandyflip.Art, they will be auctioning off a dozen top tier original works of graffiti art. In addition to those, ROTD will be putting the coveted graffiti.art domain name on the auction block. It will all be part of a special event at the Versace Penthouse titled "An Evening With The Souls of Gianni Versace, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring & our guest of honor, Artist Robin Van Arsdol." 

As with past ROTD sales, this auction will be conducted both live and online, however if you want to attend in person you will need to purchase a Wonderland 2023 ticket in advance (link will give you a 20% off discount). To participate in the online auction that is open to all, you will just need to register here.

The artwork came directly out of the pulsating 1980s New York City scene. This collection features works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf and other street art legends. They are pieces that have defined a generation and continue to influence the art world today.

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LDNS Rebrands as Domain Summit After Acquiring DomainSummit.com Domain from Mike Mann

When founder Helmuts Meskonis staged his 2nd annual London Domain Name Summit (LDNS) in August, he didn't know that would be his last event under that name. The conference, that has been using the Summit.London domain name,  wound up drawing people from not just London, the UK and Europe, but both sides of the Atlantic and beyond. That prompted Helmuts to start thinking more seriously about a rebrand that would accurately describe the global reach of his show. It was an idea that had been on the back burner but turned into a boiling pot when he went to the ICANN meeting in Hamburg, Germany a couple of weeks ago. 

That trip set off a chain of events that led to Helmuts acquiring the DomainSummit.com domain from industry pioneer Mike Mann for $17,500. With the domain in hand, Meskonis just announced that LDNS has officially been renamed Domain Summit and will run under that flag when the conference returns to London August 19-21, 2024.

To find out how this all came about so quickly I got in touch with Helmuts this morning and caught him while he was still in Dubai after attending last week's inaugural Domain Days conference there. Meskonis will be flying home to London tomorrow and being up in the clouds this week seems apropos for him because he has been over the moon since acquiring the new domain.

"I went to ICANN78 in Hamburg after the 2nd London Domain Summit in order to network and promote next year's conference," Helmuts began. "I discovered that some larger organizations associated the Summit with being a UK specific event. I found that many of our current exhibitors had the same view. While they were polite about my use of a  .London domain, they suggested I should move to a .com name."

Helmuts Meskonis

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Domain Days in Dubai Made a Crowd Pleasing Debut: Photos & Highlights from the Final Day

The inaugural edition of the MENA (Middle East & North Africa) region's first major domain conference, Domain Days, concluded a well received two-day run Thursday (Nov. 2) at the Marriott Resort Palm Jumeirah in Dubai (photos and highlights from opening day Wednesday are here). The conference was founded by Munir Badir who previously founded the UAE's largest privately owned domain name registrar & web/cloud hosting company, AEserver.com, where he continues to serve as CEO. 

As you would expect, the conference drew most of its attendees from the UAE and neighboring nations but guests came form around to the world to make contacts and learn more about opportunities in the MENA region.

Above: The many familiar faces at Domain Days Dubai included (left to right) Robert Jacobi (Founder, RobertJacobi.com), Team Internet CEO Michael Riedl and Domain Days CMO Jason Nickerson, who was one of many U.S. residents at the event.

Below: After a busy opening day, capped by a networking dinner at Bal Harbour Beach, attendees filed back into the main hall Thursday morning (November 2) to get ready for another big day featuring 10 business sessions and a fabulous conference closing yacht cruise. 

Above: Domain Days Founder Munir Badr welcomed attendees back for another round of informative presentations and panel discussions that included three sessions before the mid-morning coffee break. 

Below: After an opening session that provided advice on setting up a business in the UAE and the taxation system for digital firms, Patrick Swoboda and Kamel Al Tawil took the stage  for an Exploration of Local Cloud, Data Centers, and Connectivity. They were followed by Monarx CTO Rob Seger who shared A Hacker's Story.

Above: After a coffee break, it was back to business withy moderator Tess Diaz (far right) getting Transformative Tales of Website Builders, Control Panels, and Automation from Site.pro CEO Filip Borcov and BaseKit CEO Simon Best. A pair of Fireside Chats (below) followed to complete a highly productive first half of the closing day schedule.

Above: At 12 Noon, Extendify Co-Founder Arthur Grabowski sat down with Robert Jacobi to discuss how Web hosts are leaving money on the table with WordPress and what steps they can take to stop wasting that opportunity for significant additional revenue.

Below: The next Fireside Chat at 12:30 shared the story of How Miss Group became Europe’s fastest growing digital solutions. Tess Diaz welcomed Basekit CEO Simon Best and Miss Group’s Fredrik Björklund to the stage to fill attendees on how it was done with tips they could employ to grow their own enterprises.

That session (below) featured (left to right) Leonid Todorov (General Manager, APLTD), Domgate CEO Philippe Boos and, at far right, Internet Commerce Association General Counsel Zak Muscovitch.

In the next session, Fahd Batayneh (ICANN Stakeholder Engagement Director - Middle East) covered ICANN’s Multifaceted Approach to Mitigating Domain Name System (DNS) Abuse.

Above: At 3pm, London Domain Name Summit Forum Helmuts Meskonis talked about The Power of Influence: How Businesses can Lead and Guide Domain Name Investor Communities. Helmuts explained how how businesses can foster unity, facilitate knowledge sharing, and create platforms for collaborative decision-making that empower domain name investor communities.

Filip Borcov then returned the stage to complete the business agenda of Domain Days Dubai with a Keynote on Growth hacking, hosting & website builder. 

For the grand finale, Domain Days treated attendee to an evening  VIP Event - a four-hour mega  Yacht Cruise aboard the Desert Rose I (below), sponsored by Monarx and Team Internet.

Above: The harbor cruise gave guests a chance to enjoy quality time with old and new friends from around the world with Dubai's fabulous skyline providing a stunning backdrop for the networking event. Photo: Jack Dai.

Above: Domain Days Founder Munir Badr thanks DN.com owner Jack Dai for making the journey to Dubai from his home in China to support the conference. They say you only get one chance to make a good first impression and Domain Days certainly succeeded on that count! With the strong roots planted this year, this looks like an event headed for a permanent placed on the global industry calendar.

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When it Comes to Building Successful Businesses Colin Campbell and Joe Foster Wrote the Books 

Last month I told you about .CLUB Founder and serial entrepreneur Colin Campbell's new book, START. SCALE. EXIT. REPEAT being released by Forbes Books. Since then, as I expected, it has become a best selling business book on Amazon and other outlets. In addition to sharing his own tried and true principles for building successful businesses, Colin interviewed over 30 experts, authors and seasoned entrepreneurs who added their invaluable advice for start ups. One of those he called on was Reebok Co-Founder Joe Foster who launched the athletic shoe company with his brother Jeff and turned it into one of the world's most recognized brands.

Joe is someone Colin has always looked up to and tried to emulate in his own career - and the results he has achieved have proven he couldn't have picked a better guiding light. The two became friends before Colin's book came out and they have developed a mutual respect that I was 

Reebok Co-Founder Joe Foster is one of the 
business icons featured in Colin's new book. 

fortunate to witness in person last weekend. The opportunity arose when Colin and his wife Kim invited Joe, his brilliant wife Julie and a half dozen of Colin's domain industry friends (Howard and Barbara Neu, my wife Diana and I and two of everyone's favorite Aussies, Michael Gilmour and Matt Herbert) to spend the weekend at a vacation home they have on North Captiva Island (an idyllic island located off southwestern Florida's Gulf Coast that is accessible only by boat (or small aircraft).

Colin Campbell and his guests, including Julie and Joe Foster, on the boat beginning a 5-mile 
ride over to Florida's North Captiva Island Saturday (October 28). Photo credit: Barbara Neu.

Diana and I were able to hear much more of the amazing story straight form the horse's mouth when we sat with Joe and Julie Saturday night at the cozy restaurant Colin and Kim took everyone to in a golf cart caravan (no cars are allowed on the island).

Clockwise from left to right: Joe Foster, Julie Foster, Howard Neu, Kim Campbell, Colin 
Campbell, Michael Gilmour, Matt Herbert, Barbara Neu, Ron Jackson and Diana Jackson.

As any person in their right mind would do after hearing more about Joe's story, the first thing I did when we got home Monday was order a copy of Shoemaker! Now, I have two great new reads going at once, Joe's book and Colin's book.

One other important thing about Colin's book. I had downloaded a Kindle copy the day it came out but while we were with Colin over the weekend he gave Diana and I a signed copy of the hard cover edition that is literally a work of art in itself. The first thing you notice when you pick it up is that is unusually heavy and the reason for that goes beyond its 458 page length. It is because it was printed on extremely high quality paper with full color divider pages between the 58 brisk chapters. The typography and illustrations are also gorgeous as is the slipcover with raised lettering. Colin wanted the book to have the beautiful simplicity of an Apple product and that goal has been achieved. 

I have hundreds of hard cover books in my library at home (almost no paperbacks) because I love the feeling of a well-made book in my hands - one with the quality of binding and backing that reflects the value of the content on its pages. The hard cover version of START. SCALE, EXIT. REPEAT. has that to a higher degree than the vast majority of all books that have been released over the past two or three decades (a period in which the materials used in most products have been whittled down as much as humanly possible to cut costs and increase profits). START. SCALE, EXIT. REPEAT. is having none of that and is a breath of fresh air in that regard. That's why I am comfortable calling the book a work of art beyond the artistry associated with the excellent writing that also makes it stand out.

So, a big thank you to Colin and Kim for bringing old friends together and introducing new ones that were a joy to meet and get acquainted with - and thanks to Colin and Joe for sharing your hard earned wisdom in these two amazing books! 

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Opening Day Photos and Highlights from the Debut Edition of Domain Days Dubai

When Munir Badr announced in July that he was going to bring the MENA (Middle East & North Africa) region's first major domain conference to Dubai, the Founder & CEO of the UAE's largest privately owned local domain name registrar & web/cloud hosting company AEserver.com, detailed why he believed the time was right for the groundbreaking Domain Days event.

"As a long-time resident of the UAE, I've witnessed its incredible growth from a desert to a futuristic megapolis. The local internet, domain, and web industries have flourished, leading me to gather experts, companies, and speakers from the region and beyond for learning, networking, and fun in Dubai, where the future unfolds!"

Munir's vision became a reality Wednesday, November 1, 2023 when he stepped to the podium at the Marriott Resort Palm Jumeirah to welcome attendees from around the world to the inaugural event. Badr opened the two-day conference with a riveting account of the path he followed to make it happen. 

Domain Days Founder Munir Badr welcoming guests 
to his inaugural event November 1, 2023 in Dubai.

Above: The busy registration desk shortly before Domain Days Dubai opened Wednesday.

Below: Attendees settled into their seats for the first of 12 opening day business sessions.

A dozen opening day business sessions followed, featuring a wide variety of topics starting with the  fascinating evolution and milestones of the UAE's .ae country-code top level domain and ending nine hours later with the story behind Morocco's largest ICANN Registrar and Hosting company.

Above: In a popular morning Keynote Address, conference Co-Host Dr. Marwan Alzarouni, Strategic Advisor & CEO of the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism & Dubai Blockchain Center, spoke on Charting the Future: Dubai's Pioneering Role in the Digital Asset Landscape.

Below: The next session was also a highlight with IT.com's Joe Alagna and Tess Diaz covering Domain Industry Startups - Going from Nothing to Something - Bootstrapping, Pre-IPO, and Acquisitions.

Sessions followed on The state of Middle East & North Africa (MENA) Domain Ecosystem, ESG: Shaping a Sustainable Future in the Domain Industry and 25 Years of Domaining with InterNetX & Sedo – the registrar and aftermarket perspective. Then it was ime for the 1PM Lunch Break.

Above: Among the many familiar faces in the crowd at Domain Days Dubai are (left to right) Sedo CMO Christian Voss, Jack Dai (DN.com), Yiqiu Tao (Sedo) and London Domain Name Summit Founder Helmuts Meskonis.

The afternoon sessions began with Behar Esmat's presentation on Universal Acceptance: Preparing your business for today’s domain names and email addresses, followed by a panel discussion about the Local & Global Domains Aftermarket that featured Abdu Tarabichi, Adel alTerkait,Tess Diaz, Braden Pollock, DN.com's Jack Dai and Tess Diaz. 

Above: Next up, Arab Domain Academy Founder Ayoub Kehel, fondly known as Mr. Kehel, discussed his mission - Empowering Arab Domain Name Investors: The Arab Domain Academy Journey. 

A 4pm coffee & snack break gave attendees a chance to fuel up for the final three-session run down the stretch that closed out day one. Those included The Rise of Web 3.0 featuring Freename's Eleonora Bellotto and Not Sitting on the Sidelines: Marketing a TLD by .Store Registry delivered by Arjun Pande, Director - .Store Domains.

Above: In the final opening day business session, Hamza Aboulfeth, Founder & CEO of Genious.net, told attendees how he built Morocco's largest ICANN Registrar and Hosting company. Munir Badr followed with some closing remarks and things to look forward to on day 2 Thursday, then joined the crowd in getting ready for a 7:30PM Networking Dinner at Bal Harbour Beach,  sponsored by Munir's company, AEserver.

Above: Domain Days attendees arrive at the Bal Harbor Beach
 restaurant  for Wednesday night's Networking Dinner. 

We expect to have Thursday's Day 2 photos and highlights from Domain Days Dubai available to share with you by the end of the day Friday, so check back here in The Lowdown for those!

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