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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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.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. |
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•
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.
• Global
Recognition: The .ART community has garnered
attention in top publications such as The New
York Times and The Guardian,
featuring members like Shantell Martin, CIRCA,
and participants of international biennales
including Malta, Sydney, and Shanghai.
• .ART
Publications in the Library of Congress: Our
publications have been recognized by the Library of
Congress including our first “.ART
Odyssey: The Future of Art."
Preparations for the second edition are underway for
publication this fall. |
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•
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
The .ART team
also believes that the TLD's growth over the
past 7 years has been fueled by the value
that it brings to art lovers around the
world. That comes from the .ART domain
bringing a distinct layer to an online
presence, signaling that one’s work is
not just relevant but vital. Looking ahead,
.ART founder Ulvi Kasimo said,
“As we step into our eighth year, we
remain devoted to providing a dynamic
platform that empowers artistic and cultural
institutions to innovate, share, and
connect."
To join .ART's
7th birthday celebration, check out this
You
Tube video made for the
occasion.
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May 17, 2024) To refer others to the post
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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
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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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(Posted
May 16, 2024) To refer others to the post
above only (and not the full Lowdown
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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
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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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May 10. 2024) To refer others to the post
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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 |
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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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May 6, 2024) To refer others to the post
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ROTD
Has Year's Biggest Live Domain Auction Ready to Go
June 6 at NamesCon Global |
The
domain investing industry's biggest event, NamesCon
Global, returns to Austin, Texas
June 5-8, 2024 and, once again, the RightOfTheDot
(ROTD) live
auction of premium digital assets will
be a major highlight of show week. ROTD has assembled an
exceptional catalog
of Web2 domain names and Web3 digital assets for the event that
will get underway at 3PM (U.S. CDT) on Thursday,
June 6 at the downtown Omni Hotel. ROTD President, Director and domain
industry pioneer Monte Cahn will again team
up with world champion auctioneer Wayne
Wheat to run the fast-paced sale. Premium
domains scheduled to
go on the block include Dog.com, Fish.com,
Messages.com, Desktop.com, DataStorage.com,
Horses.com, Consulting.ai, Army.ai, Blue.org and
Christmas.net, among dozens of others. Many Web 3
names including Wallet.x, Beer.x, A.nft,
Bet.gaming and 8.polygon, supplied
by industry |
Above:
Scenes from the June 2023 RightOfTheDot
live domain auction at NamesCon Global in
Austin, Texas.
Monte Cahn is at bottom left, Wayne Wheat
at bottom right.
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leaders Unstoppable
Domains and Freename,
will also be offered as traditional and
blockchain-based digital ecosystems continue to
converge.
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Pre-bidding
is already open, allowing prospective
participants to register and explore the
full catalog of digital assets at bid.rotd.com.
While the live auction will present a unique
opportunity for business owners, end users
and investors to secure prime digital real
estate, prospecting will remain open during
a timed extended online auction that
will continue until June 18, 2024.
Monte
Cahn noted, "Our upcoming auction
at NamesCon 2024 represents not just a sale,
but a |
landmark
event for the digital asset industry,
showcasing the immense value and potential
of Web2 and Web3 domains. With over $585
million in sales to date, RightOfTheDot
continues to lead and innovate within the
digital asset space. Our legacy of
record-setting domain name and digital asset
sales underscores its pivotal role in
elevating industry standards and the
perceived value of digital properties
worldwide." |
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Goodbye
SquadHelp, Hello Atom! Popular Naming &
Branding Platform Goes Nuclear With Move to
Atom.com |
After
staking a claim as the world's largest company naming
and branding platform, Squadhelp
completed an explosive rebranding of themselves
this morning when they re-emerged from the
makeover blast with a new name - Atom -
and a new super-premium web address at Atom.com! Since
launching in 2011, Atom (formerly Squadhelp) has helped
over 50,000 clients, including Nestle, Pepsi, Dell,
Alibaba, Hilton, Phillips, and Kellogg's in
polishing their brands. Atom
also offers a full startup ecosystem for ambitious
new businesses, providing the brand building blocks
they need to thrive, starting with the perfect
domain. |
is
now
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Darpan
Munjal
Atom (Squadhelp) Founder & CEO |
CEO and founder Darpan Munjal launched the business as a bootstrapped passion project while
focusing primarily on other ventures. His vision was
the proposition that finding a business name shouldn’t be
hard. This simple idea led to the creation of a platform for crowdsourcing business names. That platform,
Squadhelp, was powered by a group of creatives which soon grew into a huge naming community.
Since then, Atom has been recognized as an Inc. 5000 startup for three consecutive years and one
of the Most Innovative Companies by Inc. Magazine while being consistently highly rated by clients
and creatives alike.
In March 2023, Atom secured $10 million
in strategic investment from Hilco Digital
Assets. This allowed the company to move into a new stage of ongoing growth, including expansion of the
team, accelerated development of new game-changing offerings, and significant increases in
overall marketing investments. |
As naming experts, the team at Atom knew it was also
time for their own rebrand. “We deeply believe in the importance of a world-class brand and the concrete impact it has on
business results," Darpan said, adding " Squadhelp was a great brand for what we used to focus on exclusively –
crowdsourcing business names with the help of a vast creative community. But, Atom helps us take
everything to the next level. Atom is an inspiring, memorable, and innovative name that people can
get excited about. As a naming startup, with this tier A+ name and domain, we are
betting on ourselves and aspiring to become a B2B household
brand."
Hilco Digital Assets Managing Director
Andrew Miller highlighted the strategic importance of the
rebrand to Atom. “We invested in Squadhelp because of its many strategic and technology advantages as a naming
platform, but from the outset, we were aligned on acquiring a next-level, hear-it-once
remember-it-forever brand, one that conveyed the power and importance of having a world-class
domain name for both the company and its customers,”
Andrew said, adding “I have been involved in many
of the most prominent domain name brands for over 26 years, and
Atom.com is a game-changing brand name for this
platform."
Under
the Atom umbrella, the company plans to add further
tools and services across domain sales, naming, testing and customer insights, trademark
and IP protection, creative services, and more
- all while maintaining their current domain name
marketplaces and crowdsourced naming
contests. Atom will continue to draw on the
expertise of its internal team and global creative community backed by innovative
AI technology built to support the Atom experts. |
Andrew
Miller
Managing Director
Hilco Digital Assets |
Darpan
Munjal summed the rebrand up with this - “Just like atoms are the building blocks of the universe, Atom.com will provide the building blocks
of success for every great startup. It will be an ecosystem for early-stage startups
that offers founders everything they need to build and launch a new brand or grow an existing
one.”
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Price
Paid for Chat.com Last Year Confirmed to Be $15.5
Million Making It One of Top 2 All-Time Publicly
Reported Domain Sales |
Last
year at this time Hilco
Digital Assets Managing Director Andrew
Miller and fellow pioneering domain
broker Larry
Fischer were busy helping Hubspot
Co-Founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah put
together a multi-million acquisition of the
super-premium domain name Chat.com. Andrew
and Larry represented the seller but Andrew also
served as a facilitator in bringing both sides
together - a role he frequently plays due to the
extraordinary high level contact list he has
developed over the past two decades. Having
a hand in historic sales is nothing new for any
one of these three. In 2022 Dharmesh acquired
Connect.com for $10 million in
the year's highest publicly reported sale (and one
of the five highest ever). Andrew and Larry,
working individually, together or with
other partners have closed hundreds of millions of
dollars worth of sales in their illustrious
careers. |
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The
exact price paid in eight-figure domain sales rarely gets released to the public and up until a
few days ago, it seemed unlikely we wouldever
learn what Chat.com sold for in the spring of
2023. However, as Andrew noted on his LinkedIn
feed, Dharmesh, during an interview on
the Lenny
Rachitsky podcast, revealed he had
paid "$15 million+" for Chat.com.
Ever since, people have been speculating about
what that + represented (we were among them
as having the exact price would allow us to
chart the sale and give the public another great
example of just how valuable top tier domains can
be).
This
week I've been in daily contact with Andrew
because we are working on a profile about
him that will be our next cover story (due
out by the end of the month). It gave me an
opportunity to talk with him about the
Chat.com sale and see if there was any way
he could confirm the exact price for me. He
always strictly adheres to any
non-disclosure agreement that is in place
but with Dharmesh opening the door, Andrew
was able to share that the price of the
domain was $15.5 million for
the name plus escrow and related costs. |
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Andrew
Miller
and Larry Fischer speaking at NamesCon
Global 2023 in Austin,Texas about some
of the biockbuster
deals they have done together including Chat.com
and Home.com. |
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With
that information we will be adding
Chat.com to the 2023
Top 100 Chart in our Domain
Sales Archive Wednesday
evening (April 17) when our next bi-weekly
domain sales report will be
out. In addition to being the #1
sale of that year, it will also be added to
our all-time
Top 20 list where it will stand at #2 behind only the $30 million sale of
Voice.com. Congratulations to everyone
involved in this landmark sale! |
|
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Radix
Records 28% Premium Domain Revenue Jump YOY Led By .Tech, .Online and .Store
TLDs |
Radix
has released their latest semi-annual report on
the registry operator's premium domain sales
results across the 10 TLDs they administer.
Their H2-2023
Recap (.pdf file) details how Radix
generated $4.8 million in Premium Retail
Revenue, including $3.1 million that came
from premium domain renewals. That represents a 28%
year over year gain for this segment of their
business. .Tech
was Radix's top performer, generating $1.36
million in revenue with $984,380 of
that coming from renewals and $377,622 from
new premium registrations. Rounding out their top
five TLDs, in order, were .online, .store,
.space and .site. The top chart below
breaks out the renewal revenue produced by
each of their leading TLDs. The second chart shows
the new premium registration revenue from
each of those extensions. |
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NEW PREMIUM
REGISTRATIONS:
There is a
wealth of additional information in the free,
full
report here (.pdf file).
|
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