.XYZ Celebrates 10th Anniversary After Explosive Growth Takes Registry From One TLD to Nearly 3 Dozen

The .XYZ Registry will reach a major landmark Sunday, June 2, when the new TLD administrator turns 10 years old. The company, founded by Daniel Negari, has blazed an extraordinary trail  since its launch, one that came amid a high level of skepticism about .xyz's chances of breaking through the new gTLD clutter in a .com world. We wrote about that in a June 3, 2014 Lowdown post the day after the new extension launched. We noted then that the outcome would hinge on how well the TLD was financially backed and  marketed. The few new TLDs that were succeeding were doing it through major monetary investments and non-stop work to promote a new brand while starting from scratch in a seriously over-crowded field. 

Negari and his team clearly understood that as they hit the ground running, ignored the doubters (which we were among) and never looked back.  If anyone looks at where the .XYZ Registry is today (and are being honest with themselves), I think they would have to admit they never saw this coming - 3.4 million .xyz domains registered (among the top 5 gTLDs worldwide) with registrants including global brands like Google parent, Alphabet.xyz and Block.xyz (best known for their wildly popular Square payment processing business). 

Negari and company's canny networking and marketing efforts also helped them turn their TLD into a popular option in the startup world, as well as crypto and other new tech categories.  It's not just .xyz either. Along the way the registry has steadily been acquiring other TLDs, most from operators who had failed to gain traction with their extensions. The .XYZ Registry has 35 TLDs now. Negari believed his company could turn them into winners and no doubt a lot fewer people would bet against that now than they would have a decade ago.  

The current TLDs in the .XYZ portfolio

I know I've mentioned marketing several times already, but as another example of how thoroughly .XYZ does that, you need only look at how they are celebrating their 10th anniversary. It started with a press release on May 24 but that first one was just the first of ten press releases! They are coming out one a day with each telling the detailed .xyz story in a series of chapters that will culminate June 2. There is a ton of interesting information in those chapters and fortunately they have all been assembled on the .XYZ blog so you can see them all in one place. .XYZ's main office is in Santa Monica, California but in January 2014, six months before .xyz launched, we snapped the photo of Daniel Negari at right while he was giving us a tour of additional office space he had just leased in Las Vegas. When I look at it

now it makes me think of the theme song from that old TV Show, The Jeffersons, "We're Movin' on Up!" When we climbed those office stairs in 2014 I don't think anyone, other than Daniel of course, could have envisioned just how far up his new enterprise was headed!

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Monday, May 27 is Memorial Day in the United States, a national holiday when most businesses will be closed while Americans honor and mourn those who died while serving in United States Armed Forces. Memorial Day is also viewed as the unofficial start to summer and with that comes an extended weekend for many, filled with family gatherings, cookouts, trips to the beach and travel near and far. It is easy to take those things for granted but they came at a high cost and we will be forever grafetful to those who served and gave all to preserve the freedom we enjoy today.

(Images from Bigstock)

(Posted Memorial Day - May 27, 2024)  

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NamesCon Global 2024 Ready to Roll with World Class Speakers and Ambitious Agenda for 4-Day Event in Austin

It's almost here! The 2024 edition of NamesCon Global, the domain industry's biggest event for investors, developers and service providers will get underway Wednesday, June 5 at the Downtown Omni Hotel in Austin, Texas, the historic capital of the Lone Star State. It will continue there through Saturday, June 8 when the shows closes with its traditional Fun Day.

You may recall that last year, for the first time, NamesCon Global ran concurrently in the same Austin venue with Cloudfest USA, America's premier event for the Internet infrastructure industry. That will be the case again this year and anyone who buys a ticket to one of the events can also attend any sessions they wish in the other. That productive pairing was possible because WHD Events GmbH owns both events (they also produce the world's biggest infrastructure conference, the main Cloudfest conference that attracts thousands of attendees to Rust, Germany in March of every year). 

I've always looked forward to NamesCon Global but never more so than this year because, on opening day, I will have three separate face to face fireside chats onstage in the Keynote Hall with groundbreaking domain brokerage and consulting legends Andrew Miller (Managing Director, Hilco Digital Assets), Jen Sale (CEO, Evergreen.com) and Andrew Rosener (CEO, MediaOptions.com). If you're going to NamesCon and hear these three speak, you're going to go home with a vastly better understanding of what it takes to succeed in this business and life beyond it (a topic that Jen has some especially illuminating advice about).

Our sessions are set to run at these times on Wednesday, June 5:

10:25am - Andrew Miller's High-Stakes Deals: How Does He Do It? Andrew Miller of Hilco Digital Assets has overseen some of the most significant, high-profile deals in domaining. His blockbuster transactions include Chat.com, Gold.com, Home.com and Universal.com - and the companies he has founded include CreditCards.com and InsuranceQuotes.com. Andrew will candidly discuss what it takes to set up and close high-stakes deals. Andrew, by the way, also happens to the the subject of DNJournal's current Cover Story.

11:15am - WWW: Whois, Wellbeing and Wanderlust – Domain and Life Learnings with Jen Sale. The quickest way from Point A to Point B is a straight line, but where’s the fun in that?  Jen Sale will tell you how adding a sense of adventure to not only your domaining career but your whole life can lead to greater prosperity—and greater wellbeing. If you want to take advantage of what an online career can offer- on your terms - you'll want to hear what Jen has to say!

2:40pm - The Climb To The Top: A Conversation with Andrew Rosener. Andrew Rosener has been the force  behind some of the biggest deals in domain history – including selling Prime.com to Amazon, Zoom.com to Zoom, and X.com to Elon Musk. Named Escrow.com Broker of the Year for six consecutive years and featured on renowned life-hacker Tim Ferriss’s podcast, Drew has reinvented domain valuation methodology, investing strategy, and figuring out what’s about to rock the digital world next so join us for a peek under the hood of his massively-successful domain industry machine - and, if you missed it, be sure to check out our May 2023 Cover Story about Andrew - one of the most widely read articles we have ever published.

These three sessions are just part of an extraordinary agenda NamesCon Global has put together this year. Take a look at it and the full list of exceptional speakers and, if you haven't gotten a ticket already, there's a pretty good chance you will want to get one now. I hope to see you in Austin but for those who can't be there, we wil, as always, be putting a complete show recap together for you as soon as we get back home from what is shaping up to be a landmark event.

Andrew Miller
Managing Director, Hilco Digital Assets

Jen Sale
CEO, Evergreen.com

Andrew Rosener
CEO, MediaOptions.com

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.ORG in the News with BIG Sale of Humanity.org and Registry Making $180,000 in Prize Money Available for 2024 Impact Awards

May has been a good month for .ORG with the latest feather in the popular TLD's hat being a $225,000 sale of Humanity.org that Sedo reported this week (we will be charting the sale when our next bi-weekly domain sales report comes out Wednesday evening, May 29. That is not only the biggest .org sale of the year to date, it is also the biggest non .com gTLD sale of the year in any extension. 

The monetary value of high quality .org domains was established long ago but the TLD's greatest value comes from being the trusted internet home for so many outstanding individuals and organizations around the world. Every year , the .ORG administrator, Public Interest Registry (PIR) recognizes many of the best of them with their annual .ORG Impact Awards. It is an event that spotlights outstanding mission-driven people from the global .ORG Community for their positive contributions to society. Nominations for the 2024 competition opened this month and will remain open through June 

19. Any person ororganization with a .ORG domain can enter, free of charge. To nominate an organization or individual for a .ORG Impact Award, just visit www.orgimpactawards.org.

The entries will be evaluated by a judging panel of leaders in the Internet, nonprofit, and marketing sectors and winners will be chosen in seven different categories:

• Health and Healing

• Quality Education for All

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

• Environmental Stewardship

• Hunger and Poverty

• Community Building

• Rising Star

Organizations may apply for multiple categories of awards if more than one category is a good fit. The top five entries in each category will be named as finalists on August 13, 2024, and will be eligible to be named the 2024 .ORG of the Year. Winners will be announced on October 8, 2024 at an in-person awards ceremony in Washington, D.C.  

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Defining Success: With $300,000+ Sale of Pose.com New Kate & Todd Partnership Already Paying Off 

At the beginning of this year Buckley Media Founder and star domain broker Kate Buckley revealed she, in tandem with new partner Todd Henderson, were combining their resources to create a new full service domain brokerage and branding agency at Defining.com. That partnership has already paid off with several high end transactions - most under NDA - but also one that she was able to share with us today - Pose.com at $302,670. Defining.com represented a private seller in making this one happen. We will be charting the sale when our next bi-weekly domain sales report comes out May 29th and Pose.com will almost certainly rank among the top ten publicly reported sales of the year to date (it would stand at # 6 if it were on the chart today). 

The sale happened to come at a time when I was already putting together a story on Kate & Todd's new company and how it came together. We expect to be publishing that by the end of this week. Of course, Kate (who was profiled in a 2018 DNJournal Cover Story) is already one of the most familiar faces in the industry and Todd, who has an incredible record of branding success, soon will be. If you're going to NamesCon Global in Austin in a couple of weeks, you will have a chance to meet both of them there and also see them on stage in one of the most highly anticipated sessions of show week (June 4-7).

(Image from Bigstock)

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.ART Registry Celebrates 7th Birthday With Over a Quarter Million Art Lovers Using the Definitive Domain

The .ART domain registry is celebrating its 7th birthday this month. Since launching on May 10, 2017, .ART has become the Internet home for over 254,000 artists, creators, museums, galleries, and institutions around the world. Over that time, the TLD has established itself as an essential digital space for artistic expression and cultural engagement. .ART earned that position by consistently leading various initiatives, leveraging the synergy between art and technology, that clearly demonstrated their commitment to nurturing a dynamic community of creatives and art enthusiasts.

Here are just a few of the many examples and milestones the registry has to celebrate today:

• Art Therapy Initiative: Establishing a $1 million scholarship fund for Art Therapy graduate studies at George Washington University, .ART continues to support programs that harness creativity for healing, positively impacting lives and communities.

• Presence at AAM Annual Meeting: Demonstrating ongoing support for museums and cultural institutions, .ART will again participate in the American Alliance of Museums’ annual meeting. 

• Healing Powers of Art: This year, .ART was proud to have produced an impactful documentary exploring the therapeutic roles of art in mental well-being.

• Digital Innovation in Art Award: For the seventh year, .ART proudly sponsors this award as part of GP Bullhound’s ALLSTARS, celebrating technological creativity in the art world. Learn more and enter here. 

• Meet the .ARTists: A series of monthly live-streamed webinars that has elevated the profiles of diverse talents within our community. The growing awareness of .ART has attracted notable figures and businesses like Sharon Stone (SharonStone.art) and rising AI star Pika (Pika.art), underlining the expansive appeal of the .ART domain. 

• Launch of ID.art in Beta: The beta launch of ID.art marks a significant advancement in digital identity, offering innovative tools for artists and creators to showcase their work and connect globally

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Nordic Domain Days 2024 Wrapped With a Record Crowd on Hand for Non-Stop Networking and Updates on the Latest Industry Trends

On Monday we told you about the Nordic Domain Days (NDD) conference getting underway that day in Stockholm, Sweden. The two-day show concluded Tuesday evening (May 14, 2024) with another record crowd on hand for the event that Lars "LG" Forsberg founded in 2015. Once the dust settled in Sweden's beautiful capital city, we circled back around to LG to get his take on how things went this year.

"Nordic Domain Days 2024 built upon the success of our previous events, and our attendees could tell that this was the case from the feedback we received during the event," Forsberg began, with his eye already on the next one. "This was our seventh event in nine years, and next year will be our 10th anniversary. While we cannot reveal the dates, it's safe to say that NDD 2025 will happen in Stockholm in mid-May unless something earth-shattering happens."

May 13 & 14, 2024 - Stockholm

Above: Stage host and moderator Robert Jacobi welcomed a capacity crowd  to Nordic Domain Days 2024. (All photos in this article are courtesy of Nordic Domain Days).

Below: At center, IT.com Director of Channel Development Tess Diaz was
one of many Americans who made the trip to Stockholm for NDD 2024.

LG noted, "Something unique about this iteration of Nordic Domain Days was the composition of the audience. With ICANN CPS in Paris the week before, a larger portion of our crowd came from North America and the Asia Pacific region, as they were already in Europe. The NDD team is always happy to see new people at the conference, and with yet another growth spurt at roughly 20% over last year, we are in or around the sweet spot of our desired size."

Above & Below: Every survey of domain industry conference attendees produces
 the same results - the main reason people go to conferences is to take advantage of the 
networking opportunities. Proving them was job #1 for the NDD 2024 team.

LG confirmed that, noting, "It has always been the team's intention to maintain a specific size for the event, not exceeding 400 attendees. This deliberate choice allows us to prioritize the quality of our venues and the intimacy of our space, ensuring that each attendee feels valued and can engage in meaningful conversations. The idea behind Nordic Domain Days has always been to be a place for Excellent Networking and good conversations. 

Above & below: NDD 2024 attendees building new relationships and strengthening existing ones. 

While the emphasis on networking that did not come at the expense of an exceptional business agenda that was jam-packed with informative and invaluable presentations and panel discussions. LG noted, "Our main stage agenda is an integral part of NDD and we will always provide it to facilitate conversations before and after each session."

The dozens of business sessions at NDD 2024 gave attendees plenty to think and talk about, including (above) a presentation from Radix's Varun Punjabi who provided "A Deep Dive into an E-commerce Seller's Journey & E-commerce Domains".

Another (below) featured Sedo's Christian Voss (left) and Team Internet's Matthias Kaiser (center) with Domain Crawler's Rickard Vikstrom to talk about Domain Mastery: Navigating Success in Traffic Domain Investing.

LG added, "This year, there was also a focus on collaboration in tackling DNS Abuse and Registrant Data Validation. The EU directive NIS2 was heavily featured, as was e-identification. On the other hand, NDD 2024 held our first-ever Aftermarket session, which was very well received. I can already disclose that NDD 2025 will feature even more on this particular subject," LG added.

Above (left to right): Braden Pollock (LegalBrandMarketing.com), Alan Shiflett (GoDaddy) and Giuseppe Gaziano (GGRG.com) presented NDD's inaugural session dedicated to the domain Aftermarket. 

In conclusion he noted LG Forsberg added, "The NDD team and I are very happy with how the event turned out, and we can't stress enough that to make this event happen, we rely on our many partner's support and the attendance of our awesome industry!"

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Experts from Both Sides of the Atlantic Gathered in Sweden for Today's Start of Nordic Domain Days

LG Forsberg founded Nordic Domain Days in 2015 to serve as a yearly domain industry event for the Nordic geographical and cultural region that encompasses Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. The industry as a whole knows no bounds though, so well-run regional conferences like this continue to attract increasingly larger crowds year after year as domain professionals from other parts of the world come in to make or strengthen connections in the world's fastest growing markets.  

The 2024 edition of Nordic Domain Days that got underway at the Clarion Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden today is no exception with domain pros from the U.S., the UK, throughout Europe and beyond on hand for two full days of wide ranging business sessions and face to face networking.

May 13 & 14, 2024 - Stockholm

Sedo Premium Broker Mark Ghoriafi and GoDaddy Domain Investing Community Manager James Iles (who is also an outstanding journalist) are there and are sharing some photos with us so we can give you a peak into the busy proceedings.

Things actually got off to an early start Sunday evening (May 12) when Forsberg (standing at top center) welcomed some of the first to arrive in Stockholm to a VIP Dinner. 

Above: Braden Pollock (LegalBrandMarketing.com), Nordic Domain Days Founder LG Forsberg and Sedo Premium Broker Mark Ghoriafi ready for the show to begin this morning in Stockholm.

Above: Of the 15 business sessions held on opening day one of special interest to domain investors was this afternoon discussion about the current state of The Aftermarket that featured (left to right) LegalBrandMarketing.com Founder and angel investor Braden Pollock, GoDaddy Senior Director of Global Sales and Product Leadership Alan Shiflett and Host Giuseppe Graziano, the Founder of brokerage and consulting firm GGRG.com.

LG Forsberg noted that this was the first Nordic Domain Days session ever to focus solely on the domain aftermarket. The panelists gave the audience advice on how to build and manage a successful domain name portfolio while also sharing insights into recent aftermarket trends.

As we write this, opening day at NDD was winding down with a Grand Social Event at the Living Room Bar & Main Stage at the Clarion. 

Of course, one of the premier attractions at Nordic Domain Days is the historic and beautiful host city, Stockholm, Sweden.

Enjoying an evening stroll around Stockholm are (left to right): Mark Ghoriafi, Nicole Derseweh (Creator and CEO at Love Lox), Braden Pollock, Alan Shiflett, GoDaddy Marketing Director Trip Briscoe and James Iles.

Day 2 of Nordic Domain Days gets underway bright and early Tuesday morning at 9:30am (local time) and continues through a 7pm Farewell Dinner.

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Revelation of  $8,515,000 Price Paid for Gold.com Ramps Up Buzz for Andrew Miller's Appearance at NamesCon Global

Coming off last month's news that Hilco Digital Assets Managing Director Andrew Miller helped broker the $15.5 million sale of Chat.com last year (the 2nd highest publicly reported domain sale of all time), anticipation has been building for Andrew's keynote session at the upcoming NamesConGlobal conference in Austin, Texas (June 5-8). Thanks to George Kirikos, who just reported the previously undisclosed $8,515,000 price paid for Gold.com in March, the needle on the buzz meter has just been pinned to the right because Andrew's hands are all over this one too. 

In a post on his FreeSpeech.com site, George revealed he found the exact price paid for the domain in an SEC filing made by the parent company of subsidiary JM Bullion, the new owner of the domain. Long time readers know George has been bringing gems like this to light for over 20 years now. That information has given the industry at large a huge boost in credibility as these sales clearly demonstrate how valuable these top tier assets can be. 

With the sale a public record now, Andrew was able to confirm George's reporting of yet another blockbuster win for the Hilco team. Coincidentally, Andrew also happens to be the subject of our current cover story, titled The Sound of Success: How Record Breaking Domain Deal Maker Andrew Miller Keeps Hitting the Highest Notes. If you aren't already familiar with his story (one we first chronicled in one of our earliest cover stories back in 2005), checking out the new profile will give you some great insight into how Miller has been consistently orchestrating deals at this level for so long.

We will be adding the Gold.com sale to our charts when our next bi-weekly domain sales report comes out Wednesday evening (May 15). It will take over the top spot on our Year To Date Top Domain Sales Chart, at a price that is over 7 times higher than the current leader. Gold.com will also take a place among the 10 highest verified publicly reported sales of all time.

Andrew Miller

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After Successful Debut in Dubai Last Fall, Domain Days Answers Call for an Encore With Release of November Dates 

With Nordic Domain Days coming up next week in Stockholm, NamesCon Global set to go next month in Austin, Texas and the London Domain Summit following in August, the 2024 domain industry conference calendar is really starting to heat up. That being the case, it seems appropriate that the year's final major event, will be held in the UAE's dynamic desert metropolis, Dubai, on November 5th and 6th. That's when Domain Days will return for an encore after a very successful launch last fall. 

Domains Days Founder Munir Badr announced the 2024 dates when the show will return to the  popular venue where it launched last year, the Marriott Resort Palm Jumeirah. Munir said ticket sales and hotel reservations will be opening later this month. 

The ground-breaking 2023 event, with IT.com Domains as the title sponsor, attracted nearly 200 attendees and 40 speakers from around the 

world. The Internet Commerce Association's Legal Counsel, Zak Muscovitch, was a featured speaker. Zak said, "After only a few minutes at Domain Days it was clear that Munir had exceeded all expectations and put on a first class domain name conference, not to be missed. Everything about Domain Days is top notch including facilities, organization, speakers, and attendees." 

LegalBrandMarketing.com CEO Braden Pollock, who also served as a moderator at Domain Days, added, "What I enjoyed the most about Domain Days was not only were there lots of familiar faces, but I also met serious players from other parts of the world that don’t normally make it to US based domain conferences. After the first event, it became a must-attend conference."

These scenes (above and below) from the 2023 edition of Domain Days provide a peek at how Munir Badr and his team utilized the spectacular Dubai skyline and harbor to provide an unforgettable backdrop for their debut event. They are committed to making the 2024 conference even better and will be giving us updates to share with you as they develop in the weeks ahead.

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