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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. |
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Domain
Cost Club Adopts WebUnited's Domain Mirroring
Service Allowing Any Domain to Add Web3 Services |
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A number
of new companies have been hard at work developing
ways to build a bridge between the
traditional domain name system and Web3
and the additional feature set it brings to the
table. I spoke with representatives from several
of those companies at the Internet
Commerce Association Annual
Meeting in Las Vegas a few weeks ago,
including Lars Jensen and Kathy Nielsen
from WebUnited.
We have a profile of the company in the works and
coincidentally they are also in the news today
with an announcement that Domain
Cost Club now has WebUnited's domain
mirroring service live on their platform. The
thing that most impressed me about WebUnited's
solution when Lars and Kathy told me about it, was
how easy it is to apply. It allows any traditonal
DNS domain name, regardless of extension, to
be seamlessly mirrored onto the blockchain through
WebUnited's technology. This innovation makes it
possible for registrars like Domain Cost Club (DCC)
to offer customers Web3 capabilities without
altering the existing Web2 domain functionality. |
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The
Web3 functionality can be added during DCC's checkout
process where taking the mirroring option will
allow registrants to use their domain name on Web3.
They can then connect their domain to a crypto
wallet for payments and digital identity, use it
for Web3 email or to publish a Web3
website. In their press release, WebUnited
stated "domain mirroring allows registrants to
future-proof their domains, giving them new
functionality that goes beyond what's possible in
Web2 and paving the way to use domains in the
fast-growing world of Web3."
Paul
Apanowicz, Director of Project Management at
Domain Cost Club, said "This is the easiest
way for anyone to future-proof their domain. Any
domain can now instantly become a Web3 asset. This
is a massive leap forward for the industry, and
we're proud to be at the forefront."
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WebUnited VP Kathy
Nielsen noted, "WebUnited is bringing
innovation to the domain industry by adding real
Web3 utility to DNS or Web2 domains. With Domain
Cost Club now live, their customers can
easily mirror DNS domains to the blockchain and
start participating in the Web3 economy with
just a few Page 2 clicks."
By enabling customers
to add the Web3 mirror to their existing Web2 domain
names, registrars can generate additional revenue
and boost renewals while providing valuable
access to existing and future Web3 applications.
Web3 adoption is growing exponentially, and
registrars can gain an early-mover advantage by
positioning themselves at the forefront of the
internet's next evolution while increasing customer
retention and lifetime value.
Lars Jensen, Co-CEO
of WebUnited, added "This isn't just another
Web3 product - it's an expansion of how domains
function. For the first time, any domain can
exist in both Web2 and Web3, unlocking new
possibilities for users and businesses alike. This
is the future of the internet, and we invite
registrars to be part of it. |
Kathy
Nielsen
WebUnited
Vice President, Business Development |
For
more information on how you can resell domain
mirroring, write to write to hello @
webunited.com. To mirror a Web2 domain to Web3, visit www.domaincostclub.com/web3.
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(Posted
March 4, 2025) 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/2025/dailyposts/0304.htm
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AI.com
Broker Larry Fischer and the Domain's Owner
Comment on Potential for Industry's First 9-Figure
Sale |
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Over the
weekend TheInformation.com published an
article titled AI.com
Is for Sale. Asking Price? $100 Million
(subscription required to unlock the story) by Akash
Pasricha. It was about pioneering domain
broker Larry Fischer (GetYourDomain.com)
being selected by the domain's owner to handle a
potential sale of what is probably the
most valuable domain name one could imagine at
this point in time when artificial intelligence is
revolutionizing the world we live in. Before
the article came out I spoke with both Larry (who
has been a friend for over 20 years) and Akash, who
wrote an insightful biographical sketch about
Larry that made it easy to understand why he was
chosen to the market this unique asset. As big a
name as this is, it's not Larry's first rodeo as
Akash noted, writing "Fischer has spent
nearly 30 years buying, selling and brokering
deals for marquee internet domains. On top of Messenger.com,
his greatest hits include selling Skincare.com
to L’Oréal in 2015, selling Teams.com to
Microsoft in 2020 and selling Chat.com in
2022 to HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah, who
quickly flipped it to OpenAI." Of
course, everyone in the domain business, already
knew Larry was one of the small handful of super
brokers that the greatest names tend to go to. So,
no surprise AI.com would end up with him, but the
eye-popping potential of this domain leaves
a BIG question in everyone's mind - just how
high can it go? The highest publicly reported
all-cash domain-only sale (no business or other
assets included) on record is Voice.com at $30
million. Larry has no doubt that AI.com will blow
that number away and he confided that he has
already received higher offers since the news
broke that AI.com is available.
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Image from Bigstock
Larry
Fischer
GetYourDomain.com
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It's no
longer a question of whether or not it would be a
record breaking sale - it is a question of could it
be one that defies gravity and launches a domain
asset into an entirely unprecedented nine-figure
orbit. Larry thinks it could happen and told me
the reasons why.
"Potential
buyers are those who crave exclusive ownership of
something unparalleled,"
Larry said. "Imagine a crypto mogul like
Justin Sun or a tech titan like Sam Altman,
Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk seizing
this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For
them—or any visionary Tech or AI
company—acquiring this domain isn’t just a
purchase; it’s a power move. It transforms
them from being one of many to being the only one.
This is a trophy piece. Once it’s off the market,
it’s gone forever. Years from now, people will
look back and say, ‘Can you believe they secured
AI.com for just nine figures?’"
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In
addition to his own insight, Larry was able
to provide me with some exclusive comments
from the owner of AI.com himself - a
long-time investor who values his privacy
but was moved to speak given the singular
significance of this particular domain. He
said, “I
prefer to think of myself as a thinker
and visionary rather than a traditional
businessperson. I’m more of a geek or
nerd, like Elon Musk, and I approach things
from that perspective. The things I’ve
done feel inevitable to me—like I was just
born in the wrong country and in the wrong
era. I’ve
always been ahead of the curve, working on
things before they’re fully ready for
the market. It’s like inventing
something—always ahead of its time. The
timing hasn’t always aligned, and the
market often isn’t ready when I’m
already there.”
"As
for AI.com,
acquiring it didn't have anything to do with
the growth of Artificial Intelligence in
recent years, it was just simply, to have a vanity
domain name that so happened to be my |
Image from Bigstock
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initials.
And out of the blue, Artificial Intelligence
has picked up it's pace exponentially in the
industry, and I was in the middle of it. As
usual, I happened to be there ahead of
its time. I'm truly blessed on my luck
really. So,
when the time came to sell the domain,
choosing the right broker was just as
important. For me, the answer was clear:
Larry Fischer. His reputation, talent,
and personality made him the perfect fit.” |
For
more infomation on the availability of AI.com,
your first stop should be https://linktr.ee/larryfischer.
Serious inquiries and offers for AI.com can be directed to:
[email protected]
and Media Inquiries can be made to Jeffrey Fischer at
718-285-0808.
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(Posted
March 3, 2025) 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/2025/dailyposts/0303.htm
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Larry
Fischer & Ari Goldberger Close Multi-Million $
Sale of Commerce.com to Claim New Year's Top Sale
to Date |
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With
this post, the first publicly reported 7-figure
domain sale of the new year is now on the
record. Industry pioneers Larry Fischer (GetYourDomain.com)
and Ari Goldberger (ESQwire.com)
teamed up to close a $2.2 million sale of Commerce.com
set a new high water mark for 2025. It is no
surprise the dynamic duo were the ones to do it as
they have been closing high altitude deals for
more than 20 years now. An
especially interesting twist to this sale is that
it is the second time Larry & Ari have
been involved in a sale of Commerce,com. Back in
the early 2000's they were on the buyer's side of
a transaction in which he helped Anything.com
acquire Commerce.com in the first place. That deal
was the first six-figure sale done at Sedo.com
and in the same week, they closed a second Sedo
transaction at that level for Woman.com.
Six-figure sales were still a novelty in those
days so the deals brought Sedo a lot of positive
publicity that helped jump start their rise to
prominence and status as an industry institution
today. Most
of the high end sales Larry and Ari have done over
the years have been subject to NDAs, but they have
been cleared to release enough of them to make
their appearances on our charts commonplace.
Larry, for example. had one of last year's Top 10
sales with Rural.com at $550,000.
Commerce.com will takes its place at the top of
our 2025 leader board when our next bi-weekly domain
sales report comes out tomorrow
evening (Wednesday, Feb. 19). |
Larry
Fischer (left) & Ari Goldberger
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(Posted
Feb. 18, 2025) 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/2025/dailyposts/0218.htm
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New
Verisign Report Shows .Com and .Net Registrations
Down Again in 2024 - ccTLDs and Non .Com
gTLDs Both Up |
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VeriSign,
(the administrator of the .com and .net
TLDs) has released their latest quarterly Domain
Name Industry Brief (DNIB) covering
the 4th quarter of 2024. This update showed
that the total number of domain registrations
across all TLDs worldwide ended the most
recent quarter at 364.3 million. That is up
4.4 million registrations year over year
representing a 1.2% increase. Almost half
of that jump came from a surge in the final
quarter of 2024 when 2 million domains were
added.
.Com
remains, by far, the dominant TLD on the Internet
but .com's total number of registrations continued
a recent trend of slipping from the previous year.
With 156.3 million domains at the end of
4Q-2024, .com was down about 3.3 million
from the same point in 2023 - a 2% decline.
.Net has slowly ebbed as well. .Net was
down by 400,000 domains YOY to 12.7
million at the end of 2024, a 3% drop. |
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ccTLDs
finished 4Q-2024 with 140.8 million
registrations, 2.5 million more than a year
ago, representing a 1.8% increase YOY. New
gTLDs enjoyed the largest jump but, being newer,
they are working from a much smaller user base than
the .coms and ccTLDs. Still, by adding 5 million
domains the new Gs hit 36.8 million domains
at the end of 4Q-2024, giving them an impressive 15.9%
increase year over year.
For
legacy
gTLDs not including .com and .net, registrations
stood at 17.6 million at the end of 2024, an
increase of 535,000 domains year over year, a
3.1% increase for that group.
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(Posted
Feb. 7, 2025) 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/2025/dailyposts/0207.htm
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A
Comprehensive New Book from David Clements Aims to
Take The Mystery Out of the Domain Business for
Mainstream Readers |
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A lot of
the most widely-known names in the domain world
will be en route to Las Vegas this weekend.
They'll be getting settled in for the Internet
Commerce Association (ICA) Annual
Meeting that will be held Monday and
Tuesday (Jan. 27 & 28, 2025) at Resorts
World. Many want to get into town by Sunday
evening when a pre-show get together sponsored by DomainEasy.com
will be held at Crash N Burn. Among
those attending will be David Clements, the
Founder of Brannans.com,
who has been one of the busiest domain brokers in
the industry over the past two decades. In that
time David has been involved in over 10,000
domain transactions, negotiated in 20 different
languages across 75 different countries. With all
of the experiences that he has been through David
is the kind of guy who is often told "you
should write a book!" Well,
guess what. He did! So when you see David
at the ICA meeting his name tag may say author
as well as domain broker. The book is just coming
off the presses and should be available on Amazon
by the end of the month (quite possibly before the
ICA meeting is even over). When it is out we'll
come back to this spot and add a link for those
who want to order. |
David
Clements
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Editors'
Note: The Amazon links for David's book
did go live while the ICA meeting was underway.
The Kindle
edition is available here and the hardcover
edition is here. |
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Even
though domain names are absolutely essential
to the functioning of the Internet itself and
are extraordinarily valuable brands for
businesses all over the world - few books have
been written about the business - especially
the digital asset investing side
of it. That is because most people on the
street - and even in the mainstream business
world - still have only a vague idea (if any
idea at all) about what we do.
When
you do see domain "books" online
they typically barely skim the surface and
aren't much longer the the title alone
on David's book. That is The Ultimate
Domain Name Handbook: Your Essential Guide to
Buying, Branding & Selling Great Domain
Names.
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David didn't
leave himself much wiggle room with that
one! However, that confidence comes from an in-depth
knowledge of what he is talking about.
David shares that insight across 23
chapters and 250 concise pages.
I
just got my hands on a pre-release text
file for the book today, so won't have a
chance to read it until I get on the plane
for Las Vegas, but the titles for the
opening chapters make it clear David has set
out to take readers on an A to Z journey
through our world. It starts with Domain
Name Gold, A Brief History of Domain
Names and The Players in the Domain
Name Industry and gets progressively
more granular as it goes along, dealing with
the mechanics of acquiring, buying, selling
and brokering domains, their critical role in
branding, how to protect your assets,
pitfalls to avoid, etc.
For
now, I just wanted to let you know the book
is on the way and, for those going to the
ICA meeting, you'll have an opportunity to
chat with David in person about his new dive
unto the literary world! |
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(Posted
Jan. 24, 2025) 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/2025/dailyposts/0124.htm
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After
Gaining Sole Control of ParkLogic Michael Gilmour
Transforms the Traffic Monetizer Into a Domain
Asset Management Powerhouse |
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2024
was a big year for ParkLogic.com
Founder & CEO Michael Gilmour - in fact
the biggest in the 18 years since he and partner
David Gibbs established the company back in
2007. They have been a leader and innovator in the
domain monetization business ever since (and one
of the very few who are still standing after all
these years). ParkLogic has been doing much more
than standing though - they have been in an all
out expansion sprint since early last year
when David retired and sold his share of the
business to Michael, making him the sole owner. Michael
(who was profiled in a 2008 DNJournal Cover
Story) already had plans in mind to
take ParkLogic far beyond the domain
parking business and turn it into a one of a kind,
one-stop domain asset management company.
As the sole decision maker he and his team were
able to quickly set about turning his vision
into what is now a reality. I recently got
on a zoom call with Michael for a tour of what
ParkLogic enables clients to to do today and what
I saw was truly remarkable. As you would expect,
making life easier for Domain Investors was at the
heart of the platform but there are also next
level services for Domain Registries and
Registrars. |
Michael
Gilmour
ParkLogic Founder & CEO
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For
investors who have quality traffic to monetize
Michael said, "The recent release of ParkLogic
Next provides hyper-local targeting capabilities
that will ensure continued returns from domain
traffic into the future. Each day, over 300 metrics
are analyzed for each domain name to determine which
monetization solution will provide the highest yield
for clients. For example, the rules based decision
engine can now target all German speakers, on IOS
devices, in New York between the hours of 10am and
1pm with a particular advertisement."
With that data in hand,
ParkLogic is able to increase your revenue by
selecting the best of several monetization options
to get the best price for that traffic in that
location at that time. They point to five levels
of monetization that are involved:
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Being
part of a larger pool of traffic instantly
scales new clients revenue. ParkLogic will
establish and manage monetization accounts on
behalf of clients with all major partners. You
will receive the highest payout levels
everywhere due to the massed volume of ParkLogic
traffic.
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Algorithms
manage the flow of traffic to the highest paying
monetization solution. Effectively we are
auctioning your traffic each day to the highest
bidder.
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Optimization
of the page content to better match domain
traffic to the right advertiser.
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New
technologies to help extract every bit of value
from domains traffic.
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Portfolio
management to reduce revenue leakage
Over
the years, Michael Gilmour (center) has been
a featured speaker at major domain conferences
around the world. In this shot, Michael chats with
attendees at the 2020 NamesCon Global
conference in Austin after appearing on the Keynote
Hall stage.
ParkLogic
also works closely with Domain Registrars all
over the world, helping them grow their own domain
portfolio so they can either enjoy the revenue
from the traffic or resell the domains for a
higher value. From experience, they have found
these opportunities for Registars:
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Domains
that have been registered and have their
nameservers still pointing at the registrar
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Domains
that have been purchased but not paid for.
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Domains
that have expired
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Domains
that are a part of the registrars growing
portfolio
ParkLogic
provides registrars with a report that helps them
determine which are the best domains to keep and
add to their own portfolio. They can also
register domains that meet an agreed set of business
rules in a nominated registrar account - a
completely outsourced solution for registrars to
grow a new revenue stream. For
Domain Registries, ParkLogic works closely
with registry partners to help them to better
understand their non-existent domain traffic (NXD)
and the potential commercial opportunities it
represents. In particular, if you are a country
based registry (ccTLD) then there is a significant
opportunities with NXD traffic and building your own
domain portfolio for resale or retaining it for the
ongoing revenue. The ParkLogic Registry platform
provides detailed analytics at the registry, domain
and IP address levels. This provides registries with
an unprecedented level of data to assist them in
meeting their business goals. Check out this
page for screenshots of their registry dashboard
and some of the statistics available for NXD domain
traffic. In
addition to everything noted above, I was equally
impressed with the advanced new interface
that allows you to track all of your domains and
revenue data with multiple ways to display,
slice and dice the information so you can quickly
review your assets and their performance at a
glance. It's something you really need to see for
yourself to appreciate. If you will be attending the
Internet
Commerce Association (ICA) Annual
Meeting in Las Vegas Jan. 26-28,
2025, that is something you may be able to do in
person with Michael Gilmour or Chief Revenue
Officer Matt Herbert as they will both be
there. You can email [email protected]
to check on setting up a demo.
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(Posted
Jan. 15, 2025) 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/2025/dailyposts/0115.htm
*****
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Sedo
Premium Broker Mark Ghoriafi Gets 2025 Off to a
Flying Start With $600,000 Sale |
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After a
big year as a Premium Domain Broker at Sedo
in 2024, Mark
"Mr. Premium" Ghoriafi has
rocketed out of the 2025 gate with another huge
sale. Mark contacted me on this Saturday (Mr.
Premium apparently never sleeps!) to let me know
he has just closed a $600,000 deal for Pack.com. Mark,
who we profiled in this 2023 article,
represented the seller in the Pack.com
transaction, combining his innovative marketing
approach with outbound efforts to find just the
right buyer for this premium asset. Mark said,
"After seven weeks of negotiations intertwined with ongoing
relationship building throughout the Christmas
holidays, the deal officially concluded on January
10th." Like I said, the guy never sleeps.
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We
will be charting the Pack.com sale when our next
bi-weekly domain
sales report comes out on the evening
January 22 where you will no doubt find it at or
near the top of the leader board.
By the way, if you will be attending the Internet
Commerce Association's 2025
Annual Meeting coming up January
26-28, Mark and I will both be there and will be
looking forward to catching up with you and our
fellow ICA members in Las Vegas.
Mark
Ghoriafi (right) and Ron Jackson at the
2023 NamesCon Global conference in Austin.
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(Posted
Jan. 11, 2025) 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/2025/dailyposts/0111.htm
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