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End user domain name sales led by a .xyz domain
A web3 technology company, two restaurant chains and an industrial vacuum cleaner business bought domain names.
Sedo dropped three weeks of domain name sales this week. For my first end user report, I reviewed the list of domains that sold just before Christmas.
The top sale that week was culinary.com, but it’s unclear who paid $80,000 for the domain name.
Here’s a list of domain names from that week for which I could figure out the buyer. You can view previous lists like this here.
Ten.xyz $29,888 – Ten is a web3 technology for encrypting Ethereum.
EnergieAusweis.de €17,850 – Ausweis is German for ID, and this domain forwards to a site that helps people create energy certificates.
nfit.com $8,888 – neuroFit, Inc. is a neuroscience company that spun out of NASA. It uses the domain name neurofit.tech.
All-on-4.com €7,500 – All-On-4 is a dentures technology business. All-on-4 is a dental implant term.
AdPartners.de €7,500 – AdPartners is a digital advertising agency.
Momomia.com $5,000 – MomoMia is an Indian food restaurant chain specializing in a dumpling called momo.
Websocket.org €4,000 – This domain resolves to a page about the websocket technology. It doesn’t disclose who is behind the site.
Foerderlotse.de €2,995 – This domain forwards to the site of Deutsche Fördermittelberatung Steidele GmbH, a company that provides funding services.
BYD-auto.de €2,980 – This website provides information about buying a BYD brand car in Germany.
Veganland.de €2,500 – VeganLand is a vegan restaurant chain in Germany.
IndustriesAuger.de €2,500 – Ruwac Industries Auguer forwards this domain to its website. The company makes industrial vacuum cleaners.
Unblocked .lol $2,500 – This site helps people access blocked websites.
Post link: End user domain name sales led by a .xyz domain
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Identity Digital gets patent for “Assisted setup of domain name registry”
Patent describes method for setting up a domain name registry.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted patent number 11,870,750 (pdf) to Identity Digital for Assisted setup of domain name registry.
The patent describes a process for setting up a domain name registry. The abstract summarizes the invention as:
A gateway server and methods operating as a web service providing a self-serve methodology for establishing a domain name registry over a communications network, comprising: receiving a request from the computing device to establish the domain name registry of a specified type; determining the specified type requires ICANN approval and receiving access credentials of the RO; confirming completion of a Registry Agreement between ICANN and the RO [registry operator]; collecting registry technical information for the domain name registry from the computing device; using the access credentials to access via the communications network the RO account on the server during a registry testing phase of the self-serve methodology to complete registry services testing for the domain name registry with ICANN; and updating a workflow interface with a completion status of the registry testing phase for subsequent access by the computing device of the RO over the communications network.
Three inventors are listed: Kroopa Shah, Senior Director, Registry Support and Management; James Galvin, Director, Technical Policy and Standards; and Jimmy Lam, Director, Product Strategy. (Titles from LinkedIn profiles.)
Identity Digital filed the patent application on April 21, 2023, and it was granted today.
Post link: Identity Digital gets patent for “Assisted setup of domain name registry”
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NameJet and SnapNames combine for $500k+ sales in November and December
Check out what sold over the past two months.
NameJet and SnapNames had a couple of slow months to finish the year, at least as far as sales of $2,000 or more are concerned.
Namefold’s two expired domain services combined for $239k of sales in November and $293k in December. 57 domains in November and 63 in December went for $2,000 or more.
Here are some domains that stand out to me:
BostonHomes.com $1,595 – Big city “homes .com” domains are super valuable. I’m less enthusiastic about long-tail real estate domains because we’ll likely see a steep drop in the number of Realtors over the next few years due to commission changes.
Mompreneur.com $6,250 – Big market for this domain geared to women entrepreneurs.
Newscaster .com $4,400 – I bought this one.
DigitalCoupons.com $4,300 – Online coupon clipping is a huge market.
RetireOnYourTerms .org $3,600 – This shows how much SEO/prior use can play a role in expired domains. I paid a lot less for the matching .com domain in July.
PittsburghRealEstate.com $3,332 – Another good city real estate domain, if not a little long.
TherapistFinder .com $2,013 – I flagged this auction while it was running. A therapist directory should absolutely not use this domain name. Stare at it long enough, and you’ll understand why. (There is some SEO value in this one, though.)
Here’s the combined list of sales over $2,000 during the past two months:
MonthDomainSales Amount 23-Novicinsights.com$13,500 23-Novsnappytv.com$8,250 23-Novtakt.com$7,800 23-Novciese.org$6,600 23-Novepicurus.com$5,555 23-Novbluesprig.com$4,710 23-Novcrosscurrent.com$4,702 23-Novmalaika.com$4,600 23-Novdigitalcoupons.com$4,300 23-Novprovidersedge.com$3,920 23-Novtechchat.com$3,700 23-Novthecakegirls.com$3,560 23-Novreefbase.org$3,500 23-Novgridforum.org$3,450 23-Novpuresoul.com$3,203 23-Novpdic.com$3,101 23-Novroboman.com$2,560 23-Novmaoi.org$2,300 23-Novbafuture.org$2,200 23-Novzray.com$2,071 23-Noveastfieldmall.com$2,051 23-Novdelitsdopinion.com$2,050 23-Novlured.com$2,050 23-Novtripmates.com$2,049 23-Novcolor-wheel-pro.com$2,019 23-Novitsok.com$12,100 23-Novbridgestreet.com$11,750 23-Novajemjournal.com$11,500 23-Novusemod.com$11,000 23-Novbankstreetbooks.com$7,550 23-Novlooksgood.com$7,077 23-Novartingeneral.org$5,750 23-Novaftron.com$4,465 23-Novservicestar.com$4,200 23-Novquicklift.com$3,649 23-Novradioworks.com$3,600 23-Novretireonyourterms.org$3,600 23-Novfcfc.com$3,038 23-Novrationalchristianity.net$3,000 23-Novsynoptics.com$2,811 23-Novmygeek.com$2,800 23-Novscreeny.com$2,625 23-Novyins.com$2,600 23-Novcafm.com$2,505 23-Novhairpro.com$2,501 23-Novhendersoninsurance.com$2,499 23-Novpoliticsoftheplate.com$2,410 23-Novhg21.com$2,400 23-Novhg67.com$2,400 23-Novadriaan.com$2,350 23-Novswales.com$2,252 23-Novpawspice.com$2,215 23-Novmakura.com$2,155 23-Novautonomously.com$2,149 23-Novtvdaily.com$2,050 23-Novinterinvest.com$2,049 23-Novthewpclub.net$2,049 23-Dectabula.com$24,000 23-Decbostonhomes.com$15,595 23-Deceeva.com$10,150 23-Decwebcraft.com$9,850 23-Dechrcr.org$6,760 23-Decpowergeneration.com$6,395 23-Decmompreneur.com$6,250 23-Dectheodore-roosevelt.com$6,055 23-Decsterlingcodifiers.com$5,761 23-Decgloballife.com$5,250 23-Decserpo.org$4,000 23-Decearlychildhoodohio.org$3,900 23-Dechexadecimal.com$3,650 23-Decietdl.org$3,100 23-Deccedd.net$3,031 23-Decasbj.com$2,504 23-Decasciiwwdc.com$2,350 23-Deccomoco.com$2,170 23-Decsupercomp.org$2,100 23-Decdailyjob.com$2,050 23-Dectherapistfinder.com$2,013 23-Decxela.com$15,700 23-Decfakeaddressgenerator.com$8,009 23-Dectoycars.com$7,025 23-Decvoosh.com$6,299 23-Decelitemedical.com$6,251 23-Decsmartbuyer.com$5,305 23-Decquadernsdigitals.net$5,000 23-Decskymania.com$5,000 23-Decneurosurgical.com$4,756 23-Declurch.com$4,650 23-Decsaly.com$4,538 23-Decnewscaster.com$4,400 23-Decplann.com$4,338 23-Decwildretreat.com$4,249 23-Declaplume.com$4,189 23-Decflightrights.com$3,950 23-Decidunn.com$3,700 23-Decseattlecentral.org$3,700 23-Decraar.com$3,433 23-Decinovamed.com$3,400 23-Decpittsburghrealestate.com$3,332 23-Decmedcode.com$3,300 23-Decmyways.com$3,300 23-Decdekon.com$3,207 23-Decmzrsrc.com$3,100 23-Decgraceway.com$3,011 23-Decnationalcad.org$3,011 23-Deckommerce.com$2,919 23-Decinterfit.com$2,800 23-Decallclaims.com$2,749 23-Deccarclick.com$2,600 23-Decnantucketproperty.com$2,600 23-Decbrightinfo.com$2,519 23-Decautodeploy.com$2,425 23-Decgchc.com$2,399 23-Decpopline.org$2,300 23-Decamcat.com$2,169 23-Decenacademic.com$2,160 23-Deccbd-oil.com$2,101 23-Decpench.com$2,005 23-Deccustomnails.com$2,002 23-Dec8b8b.com$2,000Post link: NameJet and SnapNames combine for $500k+ sales in November and December
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Efty to launch Efty Pay along with new branding
The company says Efty Pay will make domain name transactions easier for both buyers and sellers.
Efty is launching a new payments service and rebranding early this year.Big changes are in store for domain name sales platform Efty.
The company is launching Efty Pay, along with a complete overhaul of its marketplace and branding, early this year.
Efty promises that Efty Pay will simplify the domain sales checkout and transfer process, using automated workflows to make it easier for both buyers and sellers.
The domain sales platform partnered with a European payment processor to accept payments of all types. The payment processor will collect the payment and then disburse the seller’s funds directly to the seller (while sending the commission to Efty), ensuring that Efty never holds the buyer’s money directly. Efty declined to name the payment processor but said it will reveal it when it launches the service.
“The domain name aftermarket has been through many changes recently, such as consolidation, price alignment, and increased commission,” said Doron Vermaat, COO of Efty. “As a result, we’ve seen strong demand from the domain name investor community for an independent solution to sell domain names for a fair commission, giving them back more control and insights into their sales process and transactions.”
Unlike most domain sales platforms, Efty works on a SaaS model. Sellers pay a monthly fee based on how many domains they have on the platform and don’t pay a commission unless the domain sale originates through Efty’s separate marketplace.
Sellers have the option of using Escrow.com, Dan Payments, and now Efty Pay to consummate the transaction. This typically involves a fee for the seller.
In the case of Efty Pay, any sale that originates from the seller’s Efty landing page, custom (personal) marketplace, or lead import will have a 5% transaction fee. (There’s a 12.5% commission for domains sold through Efty’s marketplace.)
Efty will also launch a partner API so other marketplaces can use Efty Pay.
This all sounds a bit like Dan.com’s payment system, but Efty doesn’t look at it as a replacement.
“Our objective is to offer domain name investors freedom of choice,” said Vermaat. “This means Efty Pay will be available in addition to our existing integration with Dan.com and Escrow.com.”
It seems like a smart move. With Dan.com now owned by competitor GoDaddy, it’s possible that Dan payments will go away at some point.
In addition to launching Efty Pay, Efty is redesigning its marketplace and brand identity in conjunction with the new product rollout. An exact date of the launch has not been announced.
Efty shared this preview video with Domain Name Wire:
Post link: Efty to launch Efty Pay along with new branding
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The world’s sweetest domain names – DNW Podcast #468
Learn how GOAT Foods is building brands on great domain names like chocolate.com.
Chocolate.com. Licorice.com. Caramels.com. These are some really sweet domain names, and they’re all owned by one company: GOAT Foods. The company is leveraging these great domain names to sell snacks and confections online.
On today’s show, GOAT Foods cofounder Jonathan Packer tells the company’s origin story and explains how the high-quality domain names have helped it launch its brands. He also discloses which great domains the company is turning into businesses next.
Also: Squarespace dip, Roberto.com, Century.com, Verizon’s cybersquatting win
Sponsor: Sav.com domain transfers
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone, or click play above or download to begin listening. (Listen to previous podcasts here.)
Post link: The world’s sweetest domain names – DNW Podcast #468
© DomainNameWire.com 2023. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact editor (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Dynadot’s monthly .ai auction grosses over $300k with six figure sale
Here’s everything that closed at $500 or more.
Dynadot’s monthly .ai expired domain name auction ended last Monday. It was New Year’s Day and I wasn’t able to keep tabs on the auction. However, I now have the final bid prices.
Assuming all of these transactions go through, the auction will gross over $300,000. That’s less than the auction that closed in December, although the inventory probably wasn’t as strong. It didn’t help that the auction ended on a major holiday, either.
Vision.ai led the pack with a six-figure closing price. Here are all of the domains that closed at $500 or more:
vision.ai 100,000
trick.ai 24,977
insure.ai 24,700
dog.ai 21,311
betty.ai 20,088
he.ai 15,800
initiate.ai 13,200
magazine.ai 10,000
sustainable.ai 7,100
hoax.ai 6,101
persons.ai 6,100
ru.ai 6,100
streak.ai 4,300
producers.ai 4,054
l1.ai 3,850
discussion.ai 3,383
actualize.ai 3,209
astound.ai 2,939
reconstruction.ai 2,827
redrock.ai 2,551
selena.ai 2,345
rainfall.ai 2,025
twice.ai 2,025
epay.ai 2,001
h3.ai 1,934
visionx.ai 1,913
hose.ai 1,631
esignature.ai 1,525
thermostat.ai 1,501
jobfind.ai 1,325
katherine.ai 1,314
stylus.ai 1,289
chateau.ai 1,136
jazzy.ai 1,006
banshee.ai 1,001
enigmatic.ai 999
countable.ai 965
omo.ai 965
calvary.ai 929
cathedral.ai 918
gfe.ai 918
3dprinted.ai 898
fireup.ai 898
ugo.ai 810
employed.ai 807
emg.ai 801
mediq.ai 785
voicestudio.ai 760
brg.ai 740
drain.ai 737
protech.ai 735
zoomer.ai 703
logistica.ai 698
smartcart.ai 695
alx.ai 676
ebanking.ai 676
medscan.ai 671
utc.ai 671
bng.ai 625
documented.ai 616
fixel.ai 616
settled.ai 616
ddr.ai 605
scoops.ai 586
myart.ai 565
reserva.ai 565
waking.ai 561
dinos.ai 551
grains.ai 545
futurelab.ai 544
bhg.ai 515
gtl.ai 515
utg.ai 515
v5.ai 510
york.ai 504
sweeps.ai 501
Post link: Dynadot’s monthly .ai auction grosses over $300k with six figure sale
© DomainNameWire.com 2023. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact editor (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Verizon wins $450k cybersquatting judgment
Company gets $50,000 in statutory damages per domain.
Telecommunications company Verizon, through its Verizon Trademark Services LLC affiliate, has been awarded $450,000 in statutory damages against a cybersquatter.
The company filed the case in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. against Verizon Trademark Services LLC and Matt McMan.
If the corporate name of the defendant sounds confusing, it’s because the defendant took a rather interesting approach to cybersquatting. According to the court’s opinion, issued yesterday:
Per the Complaint, VTS LLC—under the exclusive control of its “sole organizer and contact,” Co-Defendant Matt McMan—registered multiple infringing domain names and trade names as part of a scheme to mislead consumers, damage the VERIZON mark, and extort Verizon. Id. ¶¶ 10, 67–68, 96–100. As early as April 2023, the various named Defendants (including VTS LLC), through McMan, began registering domains that derived from or incorporated trademarks owned by Verizon, which prompted Verizon to send cease-and-desist letters objecting to the unauthorized use of its trademarks. Id. ¶¶ 41, 44, 72. In response, Defendants doubled down, registering additional domain names (as well as trade names) incorporating the entirety of the VERIZON mark or other marks owned by Plaintiff. Id. ¶¶ 45, 73–74, 77, 83–84. When registering the domains at issue, Defendants often did so anonymously, using “a popular domain privacy service” known as “Domains By Proxy.” Id. ¶¶ 42, 103.
At the height of this misconduct, VTS LLC drafted a “Complaint” alleging that Plaintiff was misleading consumers. Id. ¶ 94. This same document also boasted that Plaintiff “Can’t Even Get a DBA in Washington, DC for ‘Verizon Trademark Services’ LLC because . . . Verizon Trademark Services LLC Owned By Matt McMan Will NOT Grant ‘Verizon’ written Consent.” ECF 1-10 at 4. On multiple occasions, Defendant sent versions of this “Complaint” to Plaintiff and government officials in a coercive attempt to sell or license these marks to Verizon. See ECF 1 ¶¶ 88, 94, 100; ECF 1-11; ECF 1-12; ECF 1-13. When Verizon resisted those efforts, Defendants promptly registered even more domains incorporating the VERIZON mark.
The defendant didn’t show up in court and Verizon won a default judgment.
Verizon asked for $50,000 statutory damages for nine domain registrations, including VerizonTrademark .com and Verizon .com.co. The court awarded (pdf) this amount and ordered the domains transferred to Verizon.
This appears to be the defendant’s website.
Post link: Verizon wins $450k cybersquatting judgment
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Google publishes their TLD registry software: Nomulus
Google announced this morning that they are releasing their TLD registry platform, Nomulus, which is written in Java, under an Apache 2.0 license. The company uses the software to run their own registry for their TLDs. Portfolio TLD applicant Donuts has partnered with Google and contributed to the source code – they will also be running a public test instance of the system, which is geared towards being run on the Google Cloud Platform. So far, Rightside (NASDAQ: NAME) has been operating Donuts’ registry backend.
Also covered by:
- DomainNameWire: Google open sources domain registry, Donuts collaborates as pressure on registry providers mounts. The article focusses on the rising pressure on Domain Registry Operators, and a potential switch of platforms by Donuts away from Rightside.
Here’s the full press release:
Introducing Nomulus: an Open Source Top-Level Domain Name RegistryDate: Tuesday, October 18, 2016 8:00am PT
Author: Ben McIlwain, Software Engineer
Today, Google is proud to announce the release of Nomulus, a new open source cloud-based registry platform that powers Google’s top level domains (TLDs). We’re excited to make this piece of Internet infrastructure available to everyone.
TLDs are the top level of the Internet Domain Name System (DNS), and they collectively host every domain name on the Internet. To manage a TLD, you need a domain name registry — a behind-the-scenes system that stores registration details and DNS information for all domain names under that TLD. It handles WHOIS queries and requests to buy, check, transfer, and renew domain names. When you purchase a domain name on a TLD using a domain name registrar, such as Google Domains, the registrar is actually conducting business with that TLD’s registry on your behalf. That’s why you can transfer a domain from one registrar to another and have it remain active and 100% yours the entire time.
The project that became Nomulus began in 2011 when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced the biggest ever expansion of Internet namespace, aimed at improving choice and spurring innovation for Internet users. Google applied to operate a number of new generic TLDs, and built Nomulus to help run them.
We designed Nomulus to be a brand-new registry platform that takes advantage of the scalability and easy operation of Google Cloud Platform. Nomulus runs on Google App Engine and is backed by Google Cloud Datastore, a highly scalable NoSQL database. Nomulus can manage any number of TLDs in a single shared instance and supports the full range of TLD functionality required by ICANN, including the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP), WHOIS, reporting, and trademark protection. It is written in Java and is released under the Apache 2.0 license.
We hope that by providing access to our implementation of core registry functions and up-and-coming services like Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP), we can demonstrate advanced features of Google Cloud Platform and encourage interoperability and open standards in the domain name industry for registry operators like Donuts. With approximately 200 TLDs, Donuts has made early contributions to the Nomulus code base and has spun up an instance which they’ll be sharing soon.
For more information, view Nomulus on GitHub.
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Categories: Domains
