The Lowdown
September 2025 Archive

Welcome to the 
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.

With NamesCon Global in Miami Just Weeks Away Industry Pioneer Mike Mann Is Ready to Ruffle Some Feathers

The 2025 NamesCon Global conference is coming up fast. The big show will be held in Miami for the first time November 5 & 6 at the Ice Palace. I would recommend getting into town by November 4th as they will have an official Welcome Party that will be open to all registrants that evening from 7-10pm, giving you a great chance to get in some valuable early networking time. Also, keep in mind that prices go up the closer you get to the event. In this case, if you want to beat the next increase that will go into

effect Friday night (October 3) at midnight, you will need to register before then (you can get 20% off by using the "DNJ20" discount code that NamesCon provided for our readers). 

After running the past four years in Austin, Texas, NamesCon decided to change things up with a trip to South Florida, a region that many regard as the cradle of the domain investing because so many industry pioneers were (and continue to be) based there. Most of them are still on the scene and you will see them on stage, in the halls and at the social events. A prime example will be Mike Mann, the builder of a premium domain portfolio that contains hundreds of thousands of domains, as well as the founder of what became a wildly successful aftermarket sales platform in BuyDomains.com that he sold in 2005 for a price believed to be around the $80 million mark. He is now the Founder & CEO of DomainMarket.com. 

Mike will be part of a powerful twin-bill that NamesCon has set up to start this year's conference off with a bang. The first day of business (November 5) will begin with a 9:10am Keynote from Hilco Digital Assets Managing Director and super broker Andrew Miller about High-Stakes Domains: A Look Inside the World's Most Valuable Digital Assets. Then at 10, in the show's first panel discussion, Mike will join fellow investing all-stars Braden Pollock and Josh Reason to provide advice on Mastering Domain Investing - Building, Pricing & Selling a Profitable Portfolio.

DNJournal: Before someone starts investing in domains they have to learn what makes specific domains more valuable than others to have any chance at all to succeed. Today there is a ton of information and opinions on that topic out there but as one of the original pioneers you had to figure everything out for yourself. How did you determine what you should be acquiring?

Mike Mann: I compiled an enormous expanding data set applied to each domain; a lot of it is proprietary data that nobody else has or has even thought of. And we have special ways of acquiring and organizing the data; and ways to study that data and apply our algorithms to come up with the value of a domain, i.e., it’s appraisal; then we compare the value of the name to its for-sale price; and if there is a huge margin in our favor we buy it. We have super cool and effective user interfaces to make it all work together relatively easily; including on auctions. But it requires my personal expertise to operate it all profitably (until I train someone else). It is very difficult and time consuming to leverage the data and surrounding technologies effectively despite the easy interfaces. For a novice they should use the common tools and sets of data that many domainers use, and work hard to become the best at making sense of it all. The main rule is to stick with .Com or else the risk is too high. Some experts might know how to exploit alternate TLD domains to their advantage but it is hard to believe novices would succeed.

Mike Mann speaking at the 2023 NamesCon Global conference in Austin, Texas.

DNJournal:The domain environment today is much different than it was back then when the investment choices were just .com, .net and .org. Today, there are over 1500 TLDs available. How, if at all, do you think that has changed the picture for investors?

Mike Mann: It makes all of the legacy TLDs less valuable, diluted; except .Com, which is always the elite extension, flight to quality. All of the Fortune 500 best companies and marketing professionals use .Com. Almost all of the names in the other TLDs are worthless except some .co, .ai and .io; and the old .org and .net. I say almost because there are some exceptional names in each TLD and possibly some exceptional TLDs overall, mixed with some fraud in some of them. If 2% are exceptional then that leaves 1470 essentially doomed TLDs. Some charge outrageous fees so may survive with few users. But the main point is they just confuse people online who often think they are spam and hackers using them, or the people type them in wrong and end up at the .Com I own. It makes no sense for a serious company concerned about building a sustainable brand, and online market presence to use alt TLDs. For a hobbyist I guess it could be whimsical and interesting, but even small companies can find a great .Com for cheap, and should do so instead of losing money experimenting. 

DNJournal: While you have always been a .com guy, BuyDomains had an extraordinary collection of .net and .org keyword domains too. What do you think about their respective merits today?

Mike Mann: They lost a lot of value due to dilution and confusion, but fortunately I still have the very best ones at DomainMarket.com. So, the ones that were worth $100,000 each a few years ago are now worth $33,000 for example. I also have the best little collection of .co domains. (a registry I helped start)  

DNJournal: I doubt there is anyone established in the domain industry who doesn’t know who Mike Mann is, but NamesCon always draws in new people who are curious about this business. There are a hundred good reasons but, why would you personally say those people should be sure to join the rest of us in the audience for your session with Braden and Josh?  

A big thank you to Mike for his time and a note for you if you're going to NamesCon as a newcomer - don't be shy! Mike and the many other South Florida domain OGs who will be there are always happy to meet people and answer questions. Many of them have been doing it for 30 years now, but their passion for domains burns as brightly today as it did when they began.

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Dynadot Brings Multi-Talented Domain Pro Yiqiu Tao On Board as Director of Sales for the Rapidly Growing Registrar & Marketplace

In 2002 Todd Han (who was profiled in our September 2023 Cover Story) started a new domain registrar, Dynadot, and spent the next several years doing every bit of the work involved by himself, using a small home office as his base. The company has grown astronomically since then but to this day Dynadot has still taken no money from investors and carries no debt! Todd took a slow, steady approach through the early years to build a rock solid foundation featuring low prices and an easy to use interface that made Dynadot a domain investor favorite along the way. Equally important was his ability to recruit a group of exceptionally talented people that has fueled a growth explosion for Dynadot over the past five years. 

In 2020 Dynadot had 2.5 million domains under management and 50 employees. Just five years later, the company now has over 7.5 million domains (making them one of the six biggest registrars in the world) and 150 employees around the globe. To help keep that momentum going, Dynadot has just added another star performer to its executive team by bringing multi-talented industry veteran Yiqiu Tao on board as Director of Sales. In that role Yiqiu will be responsible for driving sales across both their marketplace and brokerage services.

Yiqiu Tao
 Dynadot Director of Sales

What exactly do I mean when I describe Yiqiu as "multi-talented"? For starters, over the past five years, while serving as Country Manager China at Sedo, Yiqiu, who was educated in Germany and holds a Master of Science degree in Economics, closed so many domain sales that the dollar value on her ledger reached eight figures. Many of those were premium domains acquired by corporate buyers, including EZE.com, Collecting.com and Q.to name just a few. Then there is her ability to speak multiple languages fluently (Chinese, German and English), enabling her to work seamlessly with clients across Asia, Europe, and North America. That opened the door for her to collaborate with leading global brands and Chinese enterprises in technology, e-commerce, and finance, including Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu and Huawei. 

At Dynadot Yiqiu believes she has a suite of services that practically sells itself. "Dynadot offers one of the lowest brokerage fees in the industry (10%), along with secure escrow and multiple settlement options — including cryptocurrency and Alipay — ensuring smooth cross-border transactions," she noted. Yiqiu also dropped some news that will be of special interest to domain buyers and sellers. "Dynadot will officially launch its dedicated brokerage service in October," she told us. "That will allow us to better serve high-value clients worldwide. Backed by a growing multilingual team and strong industry partnerships — including a strategic collaboration we recently established with Alibaba Cloud — we are strengthening connections between Asia and the West."

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Domain Summit is Heading to Asia For Invitation-Only November 2025 Event in Hong Kong

In our review of the 2025 Domain Summit conference that was held in London earlier this month, we noted that the next step for the event's Founder, Helmuts Meskonis, would be to take the show on the road. While he had already taken Domain Summit "down the street" with a new 

venue for its 4th annual London event, the ultimate goal for Helmuts was to go global. The first step in that mission will be the previously announced February 2026 Domain Summit Africa conference in Nairobi. Helmuts also indicated he would like to stage a Domain Summit in the United States in 2027 but now, just three weeks after the latest show concluded, he has already set up a new overseas event for this year! That will be Domain Summit Asia, an event that will be held November 17 & 18, 2025 in Hong Kong.

While we've never seen anyone try to produce a top level domain conference with an advance notice of just two months, Helmuts already had some key people in his corner that are making this possible, led by DN.com Founder Jack Dai who partnered with Helmuts to pull it off. The conference will be held in a venue owned by a friend of Jack's, a hall at 88 Wing Lok Street that is well known for hosting art auctions in Hong Kong.

Helmuts Meskonis & Jack Dai at the 2025 Domain Summit in London where they agreed to
work together to produce the first Domain Summit Asia in Hong Kong Nov. 17 & 18, 2025.  

DotAsia CEO Edmon Chung is also playing an invaluable role as a speaker and supporter of Domain Summit Asia's outreach campaign. Another major player in the region's domain industry, Eric Yang, will serve as moderator. The added twist that will help make it work within the short time frame available is a different format for the initial Asia event. It will run as an invitation-only conference with the goal of having an exclusive 80-person gathering for registries, registrars, platforms, and investors (an invitation can be requested here: https://luma.com/j77apjqw). 

The opening day of Domain Summit Asia (November 17) will feature talks and sessions with industry experts, focusing on the Asian domain landscape and global opportunities. Day 2 will be devoted to a group walk through Hong Kong, blending networking with an authentic local experience. Additional agenda details can be seen here.

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.ART Announces Five Finalists for 2025 Digital Innovation in Arts & Culture Award

The .ART domain registry, in collaboration with GP Bullhound Allstars, has announced the  five finalists for the 2025 Digital Innovation in Arts & Culture Award (DIAC). These outstanding companies were recognized for leading the way in shaping how technology transforms art, culture and heritage. 

GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory and investment firm that provides transaction advice and capital to the world’s best entrepreneurs and founders. The firm has 13 offices spread across the United States and Europe. 

The finalists, in alphabetical order, are:

Artcrush (Belgium) 
This company transforms public spaces into open-air galleries by turning city billboards into digital canvases - making art accessible to millions by bringing cultural experiences into everyday life. Artcrush CEO Mathieu France said, “Artcrush being named a finalist for the 2025 DIAC Award marks our first international recognition. In  just 3 years, we’ve deployed 15,000+ digital billboards across 15+ countries, showcasing outstanding art daily—a validation of both our global impact and the scalability of our model."  

Loupe Art (United States) 
The world’s first streaming platform for visual art, Loupe (loupe.art) turns screens into curated art environments across homes, hotels, hospitals, and public spaces, supporting artists through licensing and exposure. Loupe Art Curator Gabriella Silvagnoli said, "This recognition celebrates our mission of connecting global audiences with contemporary artists in new and meaningful ways. We're excited to continue pushing the boundaries of how art is experienced in homes, businesses, public spaces, and beyond."   

Peggy (Canada) 
A social art marketplace powered by AI authentication and resale royalties. Peggy (peggy.art) democratizes art collecting by ensuring transparency, equity, and accessibility for both artists and collectors worldwide. Peggy Co-founder & CEO Craig Follett said, "This is a profound honor that we share with our entire community. The recognition belongs to the incredible artists, galleries, and collectors on Peggy who are together building a more accessible and connected art world. Our technology and infrastructure exist for one reason: to empower this community and advance our shared vision of seeing art in every home. A heartfelt thank you to the Peggy team for their tireless work of the years, and to .ART for celebrating the community's collective achievements."  

SmartStamp (Switzerland) 
This ETH Zürich spin-off is developing a biometric authentication system for artworks. SmartStamp turns a smartphone into a tool for creating tamper-proof digital passports anchored in blockchain, ensuring secure provenance and compliance with EU standards. SmartStamp CCO Jonas Kastenhuber said, "This finalist nod is about turning provenance into something you can trust (in seconds). Less paperwork, more certainty and better art practice gives artworks a digital identity and intelligent archive to make admin of it easy and fun." 

WHATCLASS (United Kingdom) 
Revolutionizing music and cultural education by turning artists into teachers and fans into co-creators. Backed by ABRSM and major streaming partners, WHATCLASS blends AI-personalized learning with scalable cultural participation. WHATCLASS CEO Austen Smart noted, “WHATCLASS is creating the category-defining platform for arts education, where real human artists own their knowledge, earn from it, and fans learn directly from them. Being a DIAC finalist signals a new era of cultural accredited education, with a model designed to scale globally, just like streaming itself.”

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.HipHop Launches Equity Crowdfunding Campaign With DJ Madout as Lead Investor

The .HipHop domain registry has opened an equity crowdfunding campaign with a "Testing the Waters" phase on Wefunder. Cultural innovator DJ Madout signed on as Lead Investor for a campaign that invites investors and the global Hip Hop community to claim a stake in the ICANN approved registry that represents them on the Internet. DJ Madout is known for his dedication to amplifying Hip Hop culture around the globe. He got on board the funding campaign because he believe it presents a unique opportunity for artists, DJs, producers, entrepreneurs, and fans to own a piece of the digital real estate that .HipHop provides.

 DJ Madout said, "Hip Hop is more than music — it’s a movement, a culture, and a legacy. By supporting .HipHop, I’m ensuring the culture owns its digital foundation. This is an investment in the future of Hip Hop, for the community and ultimately by the community."

The .HipHop team, led by a cultural entrepreneur and domain industry veterans (including one of its earliest pioneers in Monte Cahn), that represent a combination of proven executive experience and roughly $600 million in lifetime domain sales. That team has made it their mission to empower creators, fans and businesses with the most culturally aligned and brandable web address.

DJ Madout

Through Wefunder, supporters can reserve investments starting at $250 and play a roll of their own in helping shape the future of Hip Hop online. 

The registry cited three primary reasons for why they believe .HipHop provides a unique investment opportunity:

• Cultural Ownership: Hip Hop DJs, artists and brands gain control over their online identities with domains like DJName.HipHop and ArtistName.HipHop.

• Proven Leadership: Members of the founding team have decades of experience in domain sales, marketing, and internet governance. 

• High-Growth Potential: With over 2 billion global Hip Hop fans, the .HipHop domain has significant untapped potential. 

The investment opportunity comes with this disclaimer:

We are "testing the waters" to gauge investor interest in an offering under Regulation Crowdfunding. No money or other consideration is being solicited, and if sent in response, it will not be accepted. No offer to buy securities can be accepted, and no part of the purchase price can be received, until a Form C is filed and only through Wefunder’s platform. Any indication of interest involves no obligation or commitment of any kind. 

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After a 6-Year Absence India's DomainX Conference Staged a Big Comeback With 2025 Event in New Delhi

After a six-year hiatus, the curtain went back up in India's DomainX conference August 30-31, 2025 at the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel, Delhi Airport in New Delhi. One of the original founders of the event that ran annually from 2014-2019 (and its current CEO), Manmeet Pal Singh, helped orchestrate the DomainX revival. The shutdown was precipitated by the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020 but with the global domain industry enjoying a rapid expansion and the popularity of new events like London's Domain Summit and Domain Days Dubai, this looked like a good time for the Indian domain community to step back into the spotlight.

Above: The traditional opening ceremony that was a hallmark of previous DomainX conferences kicked off the 2025 event. 

Manmeet told us, "We clocked approximately 140-150 participants on both days of the event with Dynadot flying in VP of Aftermarket Hallie Cao from the U.S. at the last minute and representatives from Lars Jensen’s registry, .ICU, represented by his local team based out of Mumbai." 

Another one of this year's full-time DomainX organizers, Growth Engineer and SEO Scientist Shailendra Mishra (Founder & Director at Milestone Machine LLP) told us, "On the event's opening day, New Delhi experienced unexpectedly bad weather. This resulted in some delays for arriving guests, but it certainly didn't dampen anyone's enthusiasm. All speakers presented stellar insights and personal anecdotes. We were also happy that Mr. Ajay Data, despite a sudden health decline, was able to join us digitally via Google Meet and give us some fantastic insights on the use of AI in several aspects of brand building and brand protection for businesses.

One of the highlights of DomainX 2025 was this Fireside Chat featuring (left to right) Moderator Shailendra Mishra, Manmeet  Pal Singh, Harmandeep Singh and Vinesh Bhaskarla.

Shailendra noted, "For the first time ever, we also held a one-day Domain Investment Workshop adjacent to the annual conference, which was very well received. Manmeet Pal Singh, Vinesh Bhaskarla and I hared details advice on domain name investment, tips, and tricks."

A photo from the Domain Investment Workshop at Domain 2025 with a special guest,
 Dyandot VP of Aftermarket Hallie Cao (3rd from right).

Shailendra said, "I am glad that we had representatives from ICANN, registries, and registrars available for networking and learning" He also pointed to several specific talks that were personal highlights. "Mr. Manoj Dhanda, who rebranded his cloud server company from Microhost to utho.com a couple of years back, shared great insights into the 'ins and outs' of that process and its expected and unexpected benefits. Mr. Rodney Ryder and Mr. Ankur Raheja, both well-known legal experts and IP lawyers, provided their respective case studies and numerous recent domain dispute cases they've handled, significantly improving our understanding of brand protection and infringement avoidance."

"Also, Mr. Manmeet Pal Singh presented his recent domain sales and negotiation stories, making the session tenfold more energetic and I had the fortune to participate in a couple of panel discussions in which we covered numerous sales tactics from both business and domainer perspectives."

As always, the biggest benefits from attending DomainX come from new relationships made and existing ones strengthened.

"The Indian domain name market remains promising for both new and established players," Shailendra said. "The startup ecosystem is not just growing; but maturing rapidly. There's a noticeable shift towards a more sophisticated understanding of domain assets as integral components of digital strategy, rather than just technical necessities."
"We saw an impressive and enthusiastic turnout, filling the hall with a diverse mix of domain investors, brand owners, legal professionals, and digital marketers. The energy at the conference clearly demonstrated a strong appetite for knowledge, collaboration, and innovation, suggesting a very positive trajectory for the Indian domain ecosystem in the coming years," he concluded.

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Scenes from the 2025 Domain Summit Conference That Completed Its 3-Day Run Wednesday Evening in London

Editor's Note: Our new full Domain Summit conference review has now been published so you can get a complete summary of this year's event.

The 2025 Domain Summit conference closed this evening in London, England. This year's event was held in a new venue, the city's roomy and conveniently located Business Design Centre. Domain Summit has been an annual event in London but from this point forward it is branching out with additional events around the globe (the next of those will be Domain Summit Africa, coming up next February in Nairobi). With that expansion, this year's London event was dedicated to the European market, though it will continue to attract attendees from all over the world as it did again this week. 

When the conference releases their official photos from this year's event we will put together a full review of the conference for you. In the meantime, as an appetizer, we gathered a few scenes posted by attendees on social media to give you a taste of what transpired in London over the past three days.

Above: London's Business Design Center 
where the 2025 Domain Summit was held this week.

Below: While the conference ran Tuesday and Wednesday, September 2 & 3, some of those who arrived early were treated to a tour, drinks and snacks at Team Internet's London headquarters Monday afternoon (September 1).

Above: On Monday evening, the pre-show activities continued with a Networking Party at a classic UK pub nearby.

Below: Bright and early Tuesday morning Domain Summit Founder Helmuts Meskonis (at left) made his way around the London Design Centre to welcome sponsors and exhibitors (including  DN.com's Jack Dai, at right) to this year's show.

Above: Three global partners signed on with Domain Summit to support the event's global expansion. They include .it.com Domains, Freename and Site.pro. Here you see .it.com Domans Founder Antony Insarov (at left) and Chief Strategy Officer Joe Alagna (at right) visiting the aeserver.com booth manned by Founder Munir Badr. Munir, of course, is also widely known as the Founder of Domain Days Dubai (the 2025 edition of that popular event is coming up next month).

Below: Out on the Exhibit Hall floor, Sedo's "Mr. Premium" Mark Ghoriafi (at left) took the opportunity to chat with Jeff Nyman (Digital New Media).

Above: Dozens of business sessions were presented on two separate tracks over Domain Summit's two business days. You can see the full agenda from the show here. Photo credit: Gherardo Varani (Freename).

Below: The sessions began at 10am Monday with an eye-opening Keynote from Team Internet CEO Michael Riedl. 

Above: Above.com Aftermarket General Manager Nathan Parker (at right with Senior Account Manager Jodi Chamberlain) joined Sedo's Mark Ghoriafi on stage for Broker Talk, one of Wednesday's most popular business sessions.

Below: Some more of the many familiar faces in the Domain Summit crowd, (left to right) James Barker, James Iles (GoDaddy), Leanne McMahon (Crunch.id) and Lee Lovell (DNX.com).

By all accounts we've seen, just hours after closing,  Domain Summit 2025 is already being hailed as another highly productive event for those who were there to experience it first hand. More to come!

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