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MMX: Registrations and billings up, revenue down in H1
Registrations at domain name registrars grew while one-off brokered sales dropped.
MMX CEO Toby Hall speaking at a domain name event.
Top level domain name registry MMX (aka Minds + Machines, London AIM: MMX) issued high-level earnings information today for the first half of 2020.
Year-on-year registrations grew 31% to 2.38 million as of 30 June 2020. Total first-half billings were up 7% year-over-year to $7.9 million.
One-off brokered transactions dropped by $0.8 million to $0.1 million. The company has been moving from these brokered deals to focusing on recurring registrations. And just in time, as evidenced by the precipitous fall in 2020 as the world reacted to the pandemic.
Because regular billings are recognized over the life of the registration but brokered transactions are recognized all at once, MMX’s recognized revenue dipped by 5% in the first half.
The company says that bookings for its brand-protection services also slowed in the first half in response to the pandemic, but it believes these will rebound in the second half of the year.
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A subdomain may lead to an upgrade
Companies using a subdomain for a business unit might want to upgrade to the matching second-level domain.
This company should consider one of these domain upgrades.
If you see a brand using a subdomain of its parent company’s domain, there may be an opportunity to sell your domain which matches the subdomain. That’s what I thought when I read a Baidu article (Chinese) about the entertainment startup Mao Yan.
Tianjin Maoyan Culture Media “owns the largest online movie ticketing website in China” according to Wikipedia. Although the company’s name is long, it’s generally referred to as “Mao Yan” (猫眼), a 2-pin name which literally means “cat’s eyes”.
Mao Yan was incubated inside the group-buying startup Mei Tuan. In response to strong demand for group buying of movie tickets, Mie Tuan set up an independent division in January 2012 to cater specifically to that need. They called the new division “Mei Tuan Movie” but subsequently changed it to “Mao Yan”, operating from the brand-matching subdomain Maoyan.meituan.com.
In August 2013, Mao Yan upgraded the domain to Maoyan.com after acquiring it earlier from a domain investor (price not disclosed). It became an independent company in 2016 and then listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2019. The company has expanded its services to include entertainment contents, ecommerce, and advertising.
Here are several things we can learn from this story:
- A brand of a large company operating from the company’s subdomain may upgrade to its own domain.
- 2-pin names are popular in China. In this case, both Mei Tuan and Mao Yan are 2-pin names.
- Brand-matching .com is popular, as illustrated by Meituan.com and Maoyan.com.
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The lottery ticket analogy
Domains aren’t exactly like lottery tickets, but be sure not to get sucked in by false hopes.
John buys a lot of lottery tickets. He’s a prolific lottery ticket buyer, snapping up thousands of lottery tickets every week.
He then brags about his winnings.
“Just won $50,000 on a $1 lottery ticket. I am the master!” he tweets.
“Another score! $10,000 on a lottery ticket I just bought yesterday!”
John doesn’t talk about the majority of the time when he loses. In fact, most of his lottery tickets are losers. Most of the time when he wins, it’s only a few dollars.
Other people see John’s social media and think, “I should buy lottery tickets, too!” They don’t realize that John is actually cashflow negative on his lottery purchases.
OK, so investing in domains is not precisely like buying lottery tickets. With skill and data, you can buy domains that are more likely to sell than others. You can also increase the odds that a domain will sell with optimization and marketing.
But…many people are attracted to domain investing because they hear about quick flips and huge returns on investment. The reality is that most domains aren’t flipped quickly, and many people who do have big successes to brag about still only sell a small fraction of their domain portfolio. Some are cashflow negative despite their big wins.
So I share this analogy as a caution. Don’t get sucked into the idea that domain investing is easy. Or that you’ll make insane profits. Or that the people who are bragging about making insane profits are swimming in cash.
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Domain-for-sale spammer promotes domain on GoDaddy
This email solicitation leverages the safety of buying a domain at GoDaddy.
An email I received promoting a domain for sale and asking people to buy it at GoDaddy.
Most Domain Name Wire readers get a lot of spam along these lines:
“I see you own example.com. I’m selling domainsomewhatsimilartoexample.com. If you’re interested, please reply or visit the domain to fill out the form.”
Sometimes the sender owns the domain and is trying to sell it. Other times they are frontrunning an expired domain auction.
Perhaps it has been a while since I’ve opened one of these emails (most land in spam), but I got one today that had a bit of a twist.
The email said that the domain could be purchased at GoDaddy for $350. The domain in question was registered just a few days ago and the owner listed it through GoDaddy.
“Simply search for the domain on GoDaddy.com in order to get it,” the email states. The email does not directly link to the domain search on GoDaddy.
I have to hand it to this person for ingenuity. I’m sure people are more comfortable buying a domain through GoDaddy than sending a PayPal payment to someone in India, where this domain owner is located.
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16 end user domain name sales up to $242,000
.Co.uk domain leads the way.
Sedo crushed all existing public records for two letter .co.uk domains this week with IT.co.uk. It was one of 16 domains that I could tie to end users.
Here’s a list of end user sales this past week. You can see previous lists like this here.
IT.co.uk £187,200 – The sale of IT.co.uk blows apart any previous records for two letter .co.uk domain sales. Whois changed last month to Intis Telecom, a messaging provider. The current USD equivalent is $242,000.
Melp.com $50,000 – Whelp, I don’t know who bought Melp. But it’s certainly an end user at this price.
KneeInjury.com $5,997 – Arthrex, Inc., a medical products and educational services provider for orthopedic surgeons, bought this domain. It offers training services in the areas of knee, shoulder and hip arthroscopies, foot, ankle, hand and wrist issues, as well as develops surgical solutions and engineered products.
RoofSurveys.com €5,500 – We had the roof replaced on the home we just bought, and the technology for estimating was cool. Instead of pulling out a tape measure to measure the roof, the estimator came with satellite photography of the roof that was used to calculate the total coverage. That’s not what RoofSurveys.com does, though. The buyer of this domain does on-site surveys, including the use of pole cameras and drones.
Alcina.cn €5,000 – Forwards to DrWolffGroup.com, a German manufacturer hair care and styling products, hair dyes, cosmetics and dental care products. Some of the brands they produce are Alpecin, Alcina, Plantur, Karex, Biorepair, which are well-known in Germany.
Millennium.net $4,000 – Millennium Power, a full-service valve repair, safety valve repair, and testing company serving a wide range of industrial applications, bought the domain. It currently uses MillenniumPower.net for its website.
Teska.com $4,000 – Forwards to Teska.com.tr, a Turkish manufacturer of materials for bathrooms, sanitaryware and valves.
Deutsche-Industrie.de $3,960 – Forwards to Deutsche-Industrie-Reit.de. Deutsche Industrie REIT-AG is a German investment group that focuses on German light industrial real estate. This category includes storage, distribution of goods as well as management and production.
ClickandLearn.de €3,000 – Forwards to ClickandLearn.at, a full-service e-learning and software tools provider out of Austria. With the purchase of the .DE domain, it might be expanding into neighboring Germany.
RocketAV.com $2,999 – Rocket AV bought this domain. It’s an audio-visual installation company based in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro area.
TravelSafetyTips.com $2,988 – Intersign a sign maker, bought this domain name. Some of its popular signs now are ones informing customers that they need to wear a facemask.
Sargramostim.com €2,900 – This is a pharmaceutical drug website for Leukine (sargramostim), which claims to be the first and only FDA-approved GM-CSF that reduces the risk of infection-related outcomes after allogeneic and autologous BMT. It also improves survival after delayed or failed engraftment. And I don’t know what any of that means.
CXToday.com $2,500 – UC Today Ltd. puts on a series of events about customer experience for entrepreneurs and executives.
Hatchards.com $2,499 – Waterstones Booksellers Limited, a British book retailer that operates 283 stores, mainly in the UK but also in other nearby countries. Hatchards is apparently the oldest bookshop in London and Waterstones owns it.
Thara.de €2,320 – The domain resolves to a page for THARA GmbH. The website is still being developed.
AdvancedAds.com $2,300 – Forwards to WPAdvancedAds.com, an ad plugin provider for WordPress.
Post link: 16 end user domain name sales up to $242,000
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Making a fortune with 88.com
The owners of this domain name might cash in with email addresses.
China may be the only country I know that embraces numeric domains. You can find their use in many industries. Today, I’ll talk about a numeric domain being used in an interesting way with great profit potential.
Numeric domains are popular in China. Just look at the 2019 Top 100 Chinese Internet Companies Report. It has 7 companies on the list using numeric domains: 360.com (#9), 58.com (#13), 37.com (#23), 4399.com (#42), 2345.com (#64), 71360.com (#70), and 253.com (#92). The love for numeric domains can be found in the domain industry too. Examples are 4.cn, 10.cn, and 22.cn. They are short and easy to remember.
The focus today is 88.com. This fantastic domain was acquired by game publisher Perfect World (完美世界) recently. (Whois record shows an update on June 30.) Perfect World is a public company listed in both China and the US and operates from PerfectWorld.com.
The number 88 appeals to Chinese because it is a lucky number. 8 rhymes with the Pinyin word Fa (发=making a fortune) and 88 makes it even better because we love double words. We even have the saying Hao Shi Cheng Shuang (好事成双=good things come in pairs). So, 88 is a very good number.
88.com has already gone live as an email service provider. Its online store offers vanity email addresses at varying prices. You can buy numeric names such as 88888@88.com for $24,000, English names such as Jack@88.com for 109,999 $16,000, and Chinese names such as Wang@88.com for $19,000. If you are tight on your budget, you can go for a cheap random 5-digit numeric name for $12 only. (Hey.com, a new email service, is also selling short @hey.com address for premium prices.)
According to top investor Yue Dai, “88.com to bring $100 million in profits to the company this year… I expect more than 30 million people to sign up soon.”
If execution is as good as the plan, then 88.com will be a very “Fa Fa” revenue producer!
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UDRP for Catalyzer.com could have easily been avoided
This dead-on-arrival UDRP could have been avoided by asking the Complainant a simple question.
Catalyzer, Inc, a leadership training organization, has lost a UDRP for Catalyzer.com.
The case was dead on arrival. Catalyzer recently changed its name from LGL Leadership to Catalyzer and filed a trademark application last year. The current owner of the domain appears to have acquired the dictionary word .com in 2011. Thus, he didn’t register it in bad faith to target the Complainant.
It appears that Catalyzer, which uses the domain TeamCatalyzer.com, filed the case without counsel. It also inquired about the domain before filing the dispute.
The domain owner didn’t respond to the UDRP, but National Arbitration Forum panelist correctly denied the transfer.
This type of UDRP can easily be avoided by asking a simple question on UDRP submissions:
Does your trademark pre-date the Respondent’s registration of the domain name, or is there a good reason the domain name owner would have known of your brand prior to registering the domain name?
Has this question been required, Catalyzer would have saved itself the cost and time of filing this dispute.
The domain owner didn’t respond in this case. Had he done so, it’s likely that Catalyzer would have been hit with a reverse domain name hijacking claim.
Post link: UDRP for Catalyzer.com could have easily been avoided
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Is .com king in China?
By registration volume? No. But that’s not the only measure.
We often see the expression “.com is king” which usually refers to the situation in the United States. Sometimes I also see this term used inside China. But is .com really No. 1 in China?
Well, it depends on how you interpret the expression. If you look at the number of domain registrations in China, then definitely .com is not No. 1. The following table lists the .cn and .com domain registrations in the last 15 years, according to China Statistical Report on Internet Development.
Year .cn .com 2005 1,096,924 1,202,497 2006 1,803,393 1,939,343 2007 9,002,000 2,436,000 2008 13,572,326 2,739,130 2009 13,459,133 2,783,652 2010 4,349,524 3,713,244 2011 3,644,147 3,528,511 2012 7,507,759 4,834,690 2013 10,829,480 6,311,480 2014 11,089,231 7,949,939 2015 16,363,594 10,997,941 2016 20,601,491 14,345,243 2017 20,845,513 11,307,915 2018 21,243,478 12,783,290 2019 22,426,900 14,924,706By registration volume, .com was No. 1 only in 2005 and 2006. After that, .cn has always been No. 1 . Currently, .cn is 1.5 times of .com. So, .com is not king by registration volume.
However, if you look at extensions preferred by corporate China, the situation is the opposite. For example, over 80% of corporate domains of the Top 100 internet companies in China use .com.
Year .cn .com 2018 13% 86% 2019 14% 84%Corporate demand is where you get the highest prices for domains. For example, Mi.com was sold to Xiaomi for $3.6 million in 2014 and 360.com to Qihoo 360 for $17 million in 2015. In other words, .com is No. 1 by price.
It’s safe to say that bigger companies in China prefer .com and .com domains command a higher price.
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Judge issues TRO to transfer Calculator.com back to original owner
Order comes just days after case is filed.
A judge in Florida has granted a request (pdf) for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) involving the domain name Calculator.com.
Last week, the original registrant of the domain name filed a lawsuit alleging that the domain name was stolen. Today, United States District Judge Beth Bloom granted a TRO.
The TRO requests that GoDaddy transfer the domain name back to Network Solutions. Should GoDaddy not immediately comply, the request will be sent to Verisign.
This case could get a bit complicated, though. It appears that the domain name was sold after it was allegedly stolen. It will be interesting to see if the buyer decides to fight the case in court.
Post link: Judge issues TRO to transfer Calculator.com back to original owner
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Reviewing NameJet and SnapNames sales from last month
Joseph Peterson does a deep dive on domains that sold on NameJet and SnapNames last year. Oh, and turn up your volume.
A couple of features leap out at me while looking at the top June auction results from NameJet / SnapNames. First of all, 4 out of the 5 highest sales – which were coincidentally the only 5 results with 5-digit prices – were single English dictionary words. Look at Bartenders.com ($50.0k) and Joggers.com ($23.0k). While many of you will say that stands to reason, inasmuch as this category of domain typically fetches a premium price when sold, it’s actually not true that single-word domains always dominate the auction charts. May and April showed a more diverse mixture of domains at the top, including big-ticket defunct websites, 4-digit numerical domains, and 3-letter acronyms. Those were absent last month for whatever reason.
Secondly – and much more strikingly – 2 .ORGs made it into the top 5: Psychotherapy.org ($10.3k) and Galaxy.org ($10.1k). Both topics have associations with non-profit research, which makes .ORG a natural branding choice.
Of course, not all single-word .COMs fare equally well. Consider items like Restorer.com ($4.2k), Partier.com ($4.1k), and Breakouts.com ($2.6k). Acne treatment is big business, and that’s certainly one application for “breakouts”. But few companies choose to make a negative idea their home page, which might relegate such a domain to ancillary marketing. Budgets tend to be bigger for buying a domain that will brand the buyer’s primary website. And it’s easier for an audience to identify in a positive way with Joggers.com ($23.0k) or Bartenders.com ($50.0k). The latter would be a memorable name for any business involved in the alcoholic beverage industry. So it’s not limited to classified ads for literal bartenders.
“Not .COMs” made up 13 out of 89 sales over $2k. As usual, these were mostly .ORG followed by .NET; and nTLDs were nowhere to be seen. Among .ORGs, there were 3 more dictionary words: Transact.org ($3.8k); Broken.org ($3.1k); and Loom.org ($2.6k). Textiles would be the natural subject matter for the last one, but it might simply be an acronym like CIF.org ($2.5k) or ODCCP.org ($2.1k). In case you’re wondering, ODCCP refers to the United Nations “Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention”. As expected, .ORG also includes multi-word domains related to social initiatives: GreenGrowth.org ($4.9k) and MouthHealthyKids.org ($4.3k). The outlier is VideoGames.org ($5.0k), an overtly commercial topic.
.NET had its dictionary word, Envelope.net ($2.4k); its 2-word commercial topic, WealthManagement.net ($4.0k); and an upgrade for an existing brand, Kheper.net ($5.0k), which sells athletic attire in South Africa using a local .CO.ZA website. To expand outside its borders that company will need a gTLD like .NET, since Google biases search results away from non-local ccTLDs, causing .CO.ZA to rank badly except in 1 country. Speaking of South Africa, most of us wouldn’t pay even a basic registration fee for a domain like SouthAfrica-NewYork.net; but it sold for $4,000 at NameJet – undoubtedly due to backlinks. From 1998 to 2019, this has been the official website for the Consulate General of South Africa in NYC.
427.cc ($8.4k) is the only Not-.COM sale that wasn’t .ORG or .NET It’s joined by a couple of other domains containing numerals: 88357.com ($3.7k) and 5IP.com ($2.0k). China has always been the primary market for numerical domains, and it has embraced .CC in a way other countries haven’t.
Back in 2015, Chinese appetite for numerical domains and “CHIPs” – vowel-less, “V”-less, 4-letter domains – was the driving force behind NameJet sales. As many as 85 LLLL.com domains were selling above $2k per month. Now, even with a 2nd auction house (SnapNames) included, there are only 4 such domains – and none of them CHIPs. Instead, they’re all pronounceable: OXIS.com ($8.0k); ELMI.com ($3.9k); FEBS.com ($2.7k); and ARGY.com ($3.1k), which sounds like “Argy-Bargy”, British slang for an argument, and my favorite Squeeze album.
Outside English, there were some notable sales. It’s rare for an IDN to crack the $2k reporting threshold, but xn--grz90n.com ($2.1k) did. Apparently that’s Chinese for “aviation”: 航空.com. Meanwhile, Dekai.com ($2.7k) seems to be transliterated Japanese for でかい, meaning “huge” or “enormous”. At first glance, WeinShop.com ($3.4k) seems to be a mishmash of German and English. But “shop” has been absorbed into German as a loan word to such an extent that “weinshop” is prominently used by scads of wine sellers all over the web: Bindella.ch and Gottardi.at and Weinshop24.at, for example.
A trio of Spanish domains sold: Sumas.com ($4.3k), which would be “sums” or “adding”; Canoa.com ($3.4k) for “canoe”; and Nidos.com ($2.5k). The last of these has great potential, in my opinion. Literally it means “nests”, but in practice, it refers to nurseries or daycare or pre-schools. There are several nidos within a few blocks of my apartment. Across Latin America there must be a vast number, and parents are always researching their options online.
The 2nd highest sale last month was for the phrase Perfect10.com ($47.5k). Often competitions (like gymnastics in the Olympics) are judged with a maximum score of 10. And consumers are often asked to rate products or services in the same way. So this will make an excellent brand name for some company that wants, above all, to convey quality or beauty or achievement. Other familiar phrases also sold: BigBaby.com ($4.0k), used for whiny kids and petulant adults; IKnowAGuy.com ($3.2k), used for service referrals; and SweetMemories.com ($2.5k), which brings to mind this Ann Peebles song:
Half a dozen proper names sold last month: FrankBaker.com ($4.0k); CharlotteGainsbourg.com ($2.6k); Blane.com ($2.7k); Micusa.com ($2.2k), a Moldovan surname; Mansu.com ($2.1k), a Korean man’s name; and Gilroy.com ($8.8k), which is both a surname and a moderately large city in California. A bit of trivia: Charlotte Gainsbourg is the daughter of French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, who are both singing in this song, which was a big hit in Europe (though I find it cloying):
I’m not sure whether AudioPorn.com ($3.3k) would be a collection of moans, sighs, and grunts or else erotic audiobooks. Come to think of it, it might just be Serge Gainsbourg.
More than half of what sold above $2k last month is some kind of invented name – what domainers would call “brandables”. Mostly these consist of 2 words, but some look and feel more like a single word: Sizer.com ($5.0k), TransferX.com ($3.7k), Fanbu.com ($3.3k), eSend.com ($2.6k), CPool.com ($2.1k). Fanbu could refer to a Chilean program called Espacio Fanbu, which teaches kids to draw anime characters. Then again, it turns out to be a first and last name: Fan Bu. CPool.com ($2.1k) suggests car pools, but it might be tied to cell pools, an IBM method for virtual storage.
I may as well just list the 2-word brandables: SmartPages.com ($7.5k), NetPoint.com ($6.8k), SunSource.com ($4.5k), DigitalIQ.com ($4.5k), BroadMedia.com ($4.3k), GigaTek.com ($3.9k), LoveStrategies.com ($3.5k), FindNow.com ($3.3k), BestLink.com ($3.0k), AntiqueWarehouse.com ($3.0k), MortgageRepair.com ($2.9k), AIMotion.com ($2.7k), ClosersNetwork.com ($2.6k), LuggageSource.com ($2.4k), StopCancer.com ($2.3k), CoachNic.com ($2.3k), SocialTeam.com ($2.0k), and FlexKids.com ($2.0k).
Invented names don’t necessarily need to be very creative in order to be effective. AntiqueWarehouse.com ($3.0k), LuggageSource.com ($2.4k), and StopCancer.com ($2.3k) are downright obvious – which is why they work well. If you have some gadget to sell, wouldn’t you want it to be THE gadget: TheGadget.com ($2.8k)? ClosersNetwork.com ($2.6k) reminds me of the movie “Glengarry Glen Ross” and Alec Baldwin’s “Coffee is for Closers” monologue:
The desperation of real estate agents in that Pulitzer-prize winning play turned movie is the flip side of what a lot of Americans are experiencing now, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, as the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures comes to an end. Lots of folks will need MortgageRepair.com ($2.9k).
It would be a fallacy to think that each of these brandable domains sold for a 4-figure amount purely as a blank slate. In fact, the opposite tends to be true. As often as not, these correspond to some established brand. MarcosPizza.com ($4.0k) matches a pizzeria that already operates Marcos.com. So that’s not really an upgrade for them. Virdi.com ($3.0k), however, is definitely an upgrade for the Brazilian biometrics company that runs Virdi.com.br and VirdiTech.com.
I count at least 4 companies named Alpha Motors, which would each prefer to be found at AlphaMotors.com ($4.9k). They’re scattered all over the world and mostly use domains that add some geographical tag: AlphaMotors.co.uk, AlphaMotorsWI.com (Wisconsin), AlphaMotorsUT.com (Utah), etc. AlphaMotorsFZE.com uses “FZE”, which is a form of LLC within the United Arab Emirates. And AtlanticInsurance.com ($3.0k) matches at least 6 company websites on either side of the Atlantic, whether in the USA or Cyprus. They use long clunky domains like theatlanticinsuranceagency.com. Or they abbreviate “insurance” as “ins”: atlanticinsgroup.com, atlanticinsbrokers.com. Or they find a workaround with “quotes” or a hyphen: atlanticquotes.com and atlantic-insurance.com. All awful. StoneCenter.com ($3.3k) is another domain that matches businesses in multiple states and countries.
Similarly, there are backstories and established end users for domains like StudioOne.com ($3.0k), which is the name of audio mixing software; MicroGraphics.com ($2.9k), which is yet another South African company; and EmpireOfTheSun.com ($2.4k), which is the name of a 1987 Stephen Spielberg movie but which refers to Japan in general. SoleStruck.com ($3.5k) and OidView.com ($2.6k) are already up and running as websites within a few weeks of their auctions. So either the buyers put those domains to good use right away or else they had inadvertently let them expire and were bidding to rescue them. I haven’t checked which is the case.
TakeShop.com ($2.8k) is an upgrade for a .SHOP website. AboutDebian.com ($3.5k) refers to the computer operating system Debian, which uses Debian.org. FarmersUnion.com ($2.7k) might be related to the “National Farmers Union” of various countries: NFU.ca (Canada), NFUOnline.com (Britain), NFU.org (USA). However, given the prevalence of “NFU”, it’s arguable whether they’d need this 2-word domain. Sharry.com ($2.7k) sounds like a Steve Perry song – “Oh, Sherrie, our love holds on, holds on”. But it’s more like to be used as an upgrade for Sharry.Tech. If not them, then perhaps by the Paul Sharry of fitness site ShapeUpWithSharry.com or by Indian singer Sharry Mann:
Sometimes a domain fixes a problem associated with some other domain. MisterFence.com ($2.7k) might be a patch for MrFence.com. And SmarTalk.com ($2.5k) looks enough like SmartTalk.com when shown in lower case that it might be used to redirect typos. Then again, maybe the bidders simply didn’t recognize the typo themselves. Picselated.com ($2.4k) poses its own problem since nobody hearing it will know how to spell it.
Some 2-word domains are simply descriptive: LiveClasses.com ($4.2k), HawaiiGuide.com ($2.6k), BBQSmoker.com ($2.1k), CollegeAlumni.com ($2.0k). And TalkTherapy.com ($5.8k) brings us full circle to Psychotherapy.org ($10.3k). (The American Psychiatric Association treats the 2 terms as synonymous.) How does that make you feel?
Post link: Reviewing NameJet and SnapNames sales from last month
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A site is developed on .Cn, so do you have an end user for your matching .com?
As Kassey Lee explains in this post, a developed .cn domain corresponding to your .com does not necessarily mean you have found a potential buyer for an upgrade.
It’s time to look at some 4-character domains sold in June and see if they may appeal to end users in China as upgrades. This can be done by checking both .cn and .com.cn domains of the corresponding .com sold.
TA88.com sold for $5,800. TA88 .cn forwards to HGG696 .com which looks like a betting site. The site erroneously states that its name is Crown .com but the domain actually belongs to a large Chinese forklift truck manufacturer. So, TA88.com is unlikely a potential upgrade for TA88 .cn.
FX66.com sold for $1,400. FX66 .cn is a forex investment blog where FX is short for forex and 66 is often linked to the Chinese idiom Liu Liu Da Shun (六六大顺=everything going smoothly). The site seems to be inactive with the last blog entry posted in 2017. FX66 .com.cn is developed but its contents may not be original. So, there is no strong motivation for either site to upgrade to FX66.com.
i111.com sold for $810 and is for sale at 28,880 yuan ($4,100). i111 .com.cn seems to be developed but I had a problem viewing the site. Its page source indicates that the site owner is Chen Ming (晨明=daybreak brightness), a large group of companies operating in finance, real estate, logistics, and many other fields. In this case, ChenMing.com would be a better choice than i111.com as an upgrade for the company.
66DS.com sold for $600 and is for sale at €28,600 ($33,000). 66DS.cn is owned by Da Shun (大顺), a company which provides waterproofing to tunnels and other public infrastructures. DS matches the company name but 66 seems to be unnecessary. In this case, DaShun.com would be a better choice than 66DS.com as an upgrade for the company.
WC11.com sold for $557 and is for sale at 13,880 yuan ($1980). WC11.cn is a very basic blog and it does not seem to have any serious contents. The domain does not match the site title Fo Shan (佛山). So, WC11.com is unlikely a potential upgrade for WC11.cn.
As you can see, brand-matching is still an issue faced by end users in China, which makes the search for buyers more challenging. A developed .cn domain corresponding to your .com does not necessarily mean you have found a potential buyer for an upgrade. You must first determine if the .cn name matches its brand.
Post link: A site is developed on .Cn, so do you have an end user for your matching .com?
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2020 (so far) in review – DNW Podcast #296
It’s been a long year, so let’s take stock of what has happened.
On this week’s show, I take a look back at what a wild year 2020 has been. So much has changed since we got together at NamesCon in January. I also talk about customer service and trust in the domain business. Finally, I review the top sales of the year to date.
I also cover the past week’s top news items including a .com price freeze (followed by an increase), domain sales reports, and more.
Sponsor: DAN.com
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone or iPad, or click play above or download to begin listening. (Listen to previous podcasts here.)
Post link: 2020 (so far) in review – DNW Podcast #296
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VirtualPoint sues after being hit with UDRP
Maker of electric motorcycles filed UDRP after domain purchase negotiations failed.
A Voxan electric motorcycle. Photo from Venturi website.
VirtualPoint, the same company that owns the UDRPsearch website, has sued a maker of electric motorcycles in a domain name dispute.
According to the lawsuit (pdf), VirtualPoint acquired the domain Voxan.com earlier this year. NameBio records show that it sold in a GoDaddy auction for $1,026. (It also sold at GoDaddy the prior year for $1,009.)
Shortly after that, VirtualPoint received purchase inquiries through a broker that did not identify itself as working with the company Venturi, which owns the brand Voxan.
The two parties couldn’t reach an agreement. Venturi’s final offer was $40,050, according to the lawsuit. VirtualPoint’s final offer was $144,800.
Venturi then filed a UDRP with World Intellectual Property Organization that has not yet been decided.
VirtualPoint is seeking declaratory judgment that it’s not infringing Venturi’s mark, and for Venturi’s trademark to be canceled. Brett Lewis of Lewis & Lin is representing VirtualPoint.
Post link: VirtualPoint sues after being hit with UDRP
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Original Calculator.com owner sues, claims domain is stolen
Domain name investors alerted domain owner to possible theft.
A screenshot of Calculator.com circa 2017.
The original registrant of Calculator.com has filed a lawsuit (pdf) to recover the domain name, which it says was stolen from it.
Chloe Tsakiris Alston says that she and her father registered the domain in 1997 and then developed it. The lawsuit states that the site generates $10,000 a month in Adsense revenue.
In 2018, the domain was listed in an auction on Sedo. Several domain name investors, including George Kirikos and Jamie Zoch, reached out to Alston to let her know the domain was being auctioned and to verify that the domain wasn’t stolen. The winning bidder of the auction also contacted her for verification before wiring payment for the $250,000 winning bid.
At that point, Alston contacted the domain name registrar, Network Solutions. According to the lawsuit, Network Solutions stopped a domain transfer to the alleged thief but kept the thief’s contact information associated with the domain. The alleged thief then transferred the domain to GoDaddy. It has apparently been sold since then and the new owner is also named in the lawsuit.
Alston is now trying to get the domain back through the lawsuit.
Oddly, Alston filed the lawsuit in Florida even though none of the parties are located there. The only reason I can think of for this is that the lawyer is with Recalde Law Firm in Florida. Recalde successfully recovered xportautoparts.com by getting a temporary restraining order that ordered the current registrar of that domain to transfer it back to the auto part store’s registrar.
It’s also worth noting that the original sale on Sedo by the thief was thwarted thanks to information in Whois. Several domain investors thought the sale was suspicious and were able to contact the true owner because of Whois information. This information is going away due to changes in the wake of GDPR.
Post link: Original Calculator.com owner sues, claims domain is stolen
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Reverse domain name hijacking over OpalShop.com domain name
Panelist finds the complaint was brought to harass a known competitor.
A World Intellectual Property Organization panelist has found Mighty Men Pty Ltd, trading as Opalshop, to have attempted reverse domain name hijacking for the domain OpalShop.com. The company uses the domain OpalShop.com.au.
OpalShop.com was technically registered to a dissolved company, but the owner of that company controls the domain.
Panelist John Swinson found that the Complainant didn’t show that the domain was confusingly similar to a trademark for which it had rights, and also that the domain was not registered and used in bad faith.
The Complainant failed to disclose prior communications with the Respondent, including an offer to buy the domain last year.
In finding reverse domain name hijacking, Swinson wrote:
It appears to the Panel that the Complainant has omitted material evidence from the Complaint. For example, according to the Response, the Complainant made an offer to buy the Disputed Domain Name from the Respondent in 2019. The Complaint is silent on this. The Complaint misrepresents the Chinese trade mark application as a word mark, and also did not make it clear to the Panel that the application had not proceeded to registration. The Complaint has also been drafted in a way that gives the impression that the Complainant does not know who is operating the website at the Disputed Domain Name, when (according to the Response) there have been various prior dealings between the Parties.
The Panel’s view is that the Complainant is seeking to use the UDRP to attempt to opportunistically obtain a domain name that has been legitimately used for over 20 years in connection with its ordinary meaning. The Complainant’s conduct verges on bad faith, appears to have been brought to harass a known competitor, and in the Panel’s view constitutes an abuse of the administrative proceeding.
Both parties represented themselves in the proceedings.
Post link: Reverse domain name hijacking over OpalShop.com domain name
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Invest in what you know and do your own research
Wise words about domain investing.
A new investor asked me to comment on a .cn domain he registered recently. He likes the domain because it is a “one-word” name. He had not done any research before making the acquisition decision.
Since I am the worst domain appraiser in the world, I can’t comment on the value of his domain. However, as someone who checks more than 10,000 domains everyday in order to pick one or two or three domains, I have developed some basic investing rules that I can share with you.
The first rule is to invest in what you know. For example, since I don’t understand German, I won’t invest in German names or the .de extension. In the case of the new investor, he is American with no Japanese knowledge, but the name of the .cn domain he acquired is actually a Japanese term. With no understanding of Japanese and Chinese, it is very difficult to assess the commercial potential of the domain in China.
If you invest in the extension of a foreign country, be cautious. The government of that country may change the rule suddenly. In 2010, for example, the Chinese government started requiring owners of .cn domains to submit their identification information such as photo and ID. Many western investors let go of their .cn domains as a result.
The second rule is to do your own research. The days of acquiring obvious gems such as Diamond.com and CreditCard.com were gone a long time ago. These days, many domains require research to uncover their potential. At least, that’s what I do every day. I use tools such as Namebio, dotDB, and Google to help me assess domains. For the China market, you can also try “Three steps to Chinese end user research“.
Once again, let me repeat. Invest in what you know and do your own research.
Post link: Invest in what you know and do your own research
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Verisign extends price freeze through Q1 2021
.Com price hike delayed.
Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN), the registry for .com and .net domain names, announced today that it has extended its price freeze on .net and .com domain names through March 31, 2021.
The registry instituted the freeze on prices it charges registrars in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
While the company generally raises .net prices every year, this the first year since 2012 that it is able to raise prices on .com domains. It has until October of 2021 to institute its first price increase and it must give a six-month notice to registrars. You can expect the registry to announce a price hike no later than April 2021. [Update: Verisign confirmed that it will increase prices prior to the one-year mark.]
The announcement came as part of Verisign’s second quarter earnings. Echoing what many domain registrars are seeing, new registrations of .com and .net domains spiked in Q2 as the world went virtual. New registrations were 11.1 million, compared to 10.3 million in the same quarter of 2019.
Revenue was $314 million and net income was $152 million.
Post link: Verisign extends price freeze through Q1 2021
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Seattle goes with Kraken for NHL team name
Name was one of the options tipped off by domain registrations.
It’s official—Seattle’s NHL expansion team will be called the Kraken.
Named after a mythical sea creature, the name will play off of Seattle’s waterfront and port.
Kraken is one of the names that popped up in domain name registrations a couple of years ago. As is often the case, domain registrations can tip off naming or product plans.
A cryptocurrency exchange has used Kraken.com since at least 2013. The team is using currently using the domain name SeattleKrakenHockey.com for its website. It’s a bit long, but the team can also promote NHL.com/kraken.
The Kraken are scheduled to begin play in the 2021-2022 season. It remains to be seen exactly when that season will start given Covid-19.
Post link: Seattle goes with Kraken for NHL team name
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NameBio introduces easy way to report domain sales
Self-submissions of sales is now easier.
Sales data is vital for a functioning domain aftermarket, and now domain name sales database NameBio is making it easier for people to report private sales.
The site has created a form for domain investors to report sales they made that won’t be made public otherwise. For example: sales at Afternic, sales under $2,000 at Sedo, sales through Dan or Efty, and privately-negotiated sales.
Users need to include proof of the sale in their submission. NameBio won’t remove names once they are submitted, so make sure the buyer is OK with you publishing the data.
In addition to helping the industry as a whole, submitting domains is a way to get a bit of publicity for your own marketplace or portfolio.
Post link: NameBio introduces easy way to report domain sales
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How to create a quick logo for free (and no registration)
This domain name registrar offers a free logo maker with no catches.
These were two of dozens of logo designs made with Namecheap’s logo maker.
The other day I needed to create a simple logo quickly. It didn’t need to be the world’s best logo, just something I could upload to create a basic brand identity.
There are lots of “free” logo makers out there. But each one I’ve come across either charges you to download the final logo or asks you to register/provide contact information to access your logo. In other words, you either pay for the product or you are the product.
I found one exception: the Namecheap logo maker.
Namecheap’s logo maker creates simple logos and doesn’t require an email address or registration in order to complete the process. Sure, they’ll pitch you on domains and business cards at the end of the process but there’s no obligation or registration.
You start by entering your company name and category (optional). Then you select font styles you like, color schemes, and icons. Namecheap puts these together. The end result is dozens of permutations of logo designs that you can download.
Sure, there’s no graphic artist on hand to fine-tune the logos, but this is a great service for anyone looking to create a fast and free logo, including one for a domain name they’re selling.
Post link: How to create a quick logo for free (and no registration)
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