Roundup: this week in the Domain Name Business It was another exciting week in the domain name industry. Here’s a look back. Domain Registry of America may finally get cut off from ICANN. The notorious company that sends misleading domain renewal notices to domain owners has been suspended by ICANN and a full termination may be coming. Sedo is planning a big new […]
Domain Name Wire - Saturday, July 26, 2014 - 10:42
Verisign stock jumps after earnings report Stock investors still think .com is king. Verisign reported earnings yesterday and shares in the company are up 12% in trading so far today. Why the jump in share price after a dismal quarter for net domain name adds? Well, Citigroup upgraded the company from sell to neutral today saying “fundamentals have likely bottomed”...
Domain Name Wire - Friday, July 25, 2014 - 12:15
Paula Deen spends $27,900 on domain name for new venture (end user sales) Celebrity chef among end users who bought domain names last week. Celebrity chef Paula Deen, who experienced a spectacular fall from grace last year over her prior use of racial slurs, is making a comeback with Paul Deen Ventures. She’s launching a subscription service called Paula Deen Network (PDN). She just made a smart move...
Domain Name Wire - Friday, July 25, 2014 - 11:11
Verisign reports slowing growth, hikes .Net prices 10% .Com base inches forward, .Net prices are increasing. Verisign reported earnings after the bell today, and the results for .com/.net aren’t that promising. It gets harder to grow something as it gets bigger, but net adds across these two domain names slowed by quite a bit. Verisign reported just 0.42 million net new ads during ...
Domain Name Wire - Thursday, July 24, 2014 - 16:49
HA Domain name auction grosses $774k, Cute.com and Digital.com sell for 6 figures Heritage Auctions’ latest domain name auction goes well. Heritage Auctions latest domain name auction has concluded with $773,876 worth of domain name sales. That doesn’t include after-auction sales, which almost always increase the total sales number. That total (and the prices below) include a 15% buyers’ premium....
Domain Name Wire - Thursday, July 24, 2014 - 16:0
Google registering “MusicKey” domain names Google registering MusicKey ccTLDs. What are they for? Usually, when I see a company registering a bunch of similar domain names, I can track it down to a new product announcement. But I can’t figure out what Google is doing with Music Key domain names. On Monday, the company registered MusicKey.co. It has registered MusicKey [...
Domain Name Wire - Thursday, July 24, 2014 - 14:12
A look inside today’s virtual domain name tradeshow Virtual tradeshow is clunky but presents a good opportunity to chat with domain name companies. I remember going to a virtual tradeshow about a decade ago. It was clunky and hard to use. Apparently that’s the case in 2014 as well. I just attended Webfair Virtual, an online tradeshow featuring a bunch of domain name […]
Domain Name Wire - Thursday, July 24, 2014 - 12:42
Interesting .CEO comments started by Paul Kedrosky Last night venture capitalist Paul Kedrosky discovered .CEO and tweeted his thoughts on it to his 275,000 followers: Conversation obviously followed. One person noted: Kedrosky responded “Exactly.” Another comment: To which Kedrosky responded “And that exact thought had already crossed my mind.” There are some...
Domain Name Wire - Thursday, July 24, 2014 - 11:59
Weekly Expired Domain Report Domain sales charts — expired or otherwise — make for some strange bedfellows. Any given week presents an orgy of bizarre juxtapositions. What else but the domain market can bring together Bill Cosby and French Marxists? Malaysian tourism for New Yorkers alongside Azerbaijani gossip in the ccTLD of Western Samoa? (I’...
Domain Name Wire - Thursday, July 24, 2014 - 10:39
Google and Vint Cert explain the NTIA transition (video) Simple video explains what’s going on with the U.S. government’s role in the internet. Vint Cerf, the “father of internet” and former Chairman of ICANN, now works for Google. Cerf has narrated a new Google video about the history of internet governance, ICANN and the role of the U.S. government. (See video emb...
Domain Name Wire - Thursday, July 24, 2014 - 9:13
Neustar reports earnings, and revenue bump from .Co Revenue was up 8% in the quarter, some of which is attributed to the company’s acquisition of .Co. Neustar reported second quarter earnings after the bell today. Revenue was up 8% and adjusted net income was up 1% compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company’s Security Services segment reported 28% growth, 12% [&#...
Domain Name Wire - Wednesday, July 23, 2014 - 16:30
Larry Strickling speech to American Enterprise Institute Speech lays out what’s ahead and why some people are overreacting. Lawrence Strickling, Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), gave a speech to American Enterprise Institute yesterday about the transition of internet functions away from NTIA. The transition of the IANA functions ...
Domain Name Wire - Wednesday, July 23, 2014 - 13:4
An interesting dates question in a UDRP What if you registered a domain long ago, let it expire, and then registered it again? The date you first registered a domain name is a critical factor in a UDRP. Generally speaking, if your registration predates the complainant’s rights in a term, then the complainant can’t win a UDRP. That’s because it’s imp...
Domain Name Wire - Wednesday, July 23, 2014 - 9:32
.Tokyo domain name nears 10,000 registrations Geo domain has a pretty good first day with nearly 10,000 domain name registrations. .Tokyo launched earlier today and now has 9,598 domain names in the zone file. That means day one adds were near 9,000. This is by far the largest city to launch a new top level domain name so far, and the […]
Domain Name Wire - Wednesday, July 23, 2014 - 0:22
An update on Moniker I’ve transferred many of my domain names out. I’m working on the rest. It’s been 7 weeks since domain name registrar Moniker switched to a new platform. 7 weeks since Moniker broke. The company has fixed a lot of the problems, even if confirmation messages were clearly written by a coder. But as I’ve written [...
Domain Name Wire - Tuesday, July 22, 2014 - 13:27
Comparing home appraisals to domain name appraisals Appraising homes is easy compared to valuing domain names. Texas doesn’t have an income tax. But the state needs revenue from somewhere, and in Texas that “somewhere” is mostly property taxes. Every year I have to pay about 2.4% of my home’s value in property taxes. This steep rate creates a bit of a dance [&#...
Domain Name Wire - Tuesday, July 22, 2014 - 12:25
These 10 domain names in this week’s HA auction are worth their reserve These ten domain names strike me as fairly priced for the right buyer. Heritage Auctions holds its next domain name auction on Thursday, July 24. It’s getting quit a bit of press around this auction, thanks in part to the Bitcoins.com domain name. There’s a $750,000 reserve on that one. It will be interesting to […]
Domain Name Wire - Monday, July 21, 2014 - 15:28
New TLDs this week: .Tokyo, .Moe, .Consulting and more Two Japan-focused domains kick off the week. It’s another busy week for new top level domain names, including a big .city domain name hitting registrar’s shelves on Tuesday. Tuesday Tuesday sees the launch of two Japan-focused domain names…in English. The biggie is .Tokyo, by far the most populous city TLD to enter ...
Domain Name Wire - Monday, July 21, 2014 - 10:25
ICANN Finally nabs Domain Registry of America, termination likely coming Domain Registry of America hits a wall. ICANN has finally managed to suspend a scourge of the domain name registration business, Brandon Gray Internet Services (dba NameJuice.com). You might not know the company by that name, but if you own domain names then you’ve likely received postal mailings from Domain Registry of America...
Domain Name Wire - Monday, July 21, 2014 - 9:17
Minds + Machines nixes Priority Reservation System after registrars complain Registrars complained to ICANN’s compliance department about program. Minds + Machines has nixed its Priority Reservation System for new top level domain names after registrars questioned aspects of the program. The program allowed customers to reserve domain names ahead of launch. Unlike typical pre-registrations, customers we...
