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GoDaddy (finally) integrates Afternic into Domain Manager
Beta users can list and manage domain names from inside the GoDaddy Domain Manager.
GoDaddy has integrated the Afternic listing and management process into its domain manager.
It’s been a long time coming, but GoDaddy has finally integrated Afternic listings into the GoDaddy.com domain manager more than four years after the registrar bought Afternic.
Domain investors who pick up the unique domain appraisal system token at NamesCon will get access to the new beta Domain Manager that has the integration.
To begin the integration, users will enter their Afternic credentials to merge their Afternic account into GoDaddy. After this, all domain pricing and listing will take place from GoDaddy’s website.
This means that GoDaddy Premium Listings is on its way out. Premium Listings has been a bit redundant since GoDaddy acquired Afternic in 2013. But with GoDaddy’s 60 day lock and without a full Afternic integration, Premium Listings held on as a stopgap.
The old way of listing domains on Afternic that were just acquired at GoDaddy involved:
1. Log in and list at Afternic.
2. Domains that have transferred ownership at GoDaddy are locked for 60 days, so the Afternic fast transfer integration doesn’t go live yet. List on Premium Listings so the domain is active during the 60-day window.
3. After 60 days, get email from GoDaddy asking you to opt-in to fast transfer. Click and authentication required.
Now it will work like this:
1. Log in and list on GoDaddy.
That’s it. You will no longer have to click on a confirmation email. Domains will be added for sale on GoDaddy immediately and throughout the AfternicDLS network after 60 days.
There’s an additional benefit for domain owners. Many have been asking for for-sale only landers, and Afternic now offers them. Directly within the listing process, customers can choose to have the domain forward to an Afternic lander with an inquiry form and Afternic’s phone number.
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GoDaddy makes bulk domain appraisal tool available to NamesCon attendees
Conference attendees can get unique token to unlock bulk appraisal tool.
GoDaddy’s bulk appraisal tool summarizes the domain names that were appraised.
GoDaddy is opening up its domain name appraisal tool–both in volume and level of detail–to NamesCon attendees.
A token is necessary to access the tool that can be used to appraise up to 100,000 domain names. Tokens will be in NamesCon attendee swag bags as well as at the GoDaddy booth.
In addition to getting access to bulk functionality, the tools provides more data than GoDaddy’s standard online appraisal tool:
- GoValue – This is the value that you currently get from the online tool. It’s the estimated sales value.
- Wholesale value – What Godaddy estimates the domain would sell for in an expired domain auction.
- List price – This is how much domain investors would typically list the domain for. This will be higher than the GoValue.
- Sales probability $500 – The likelihood that the domain will sell within a year if priced at $500. This is expressed as a percentage.
- Sales probability at GoValue – The likelihood that the domain will sell within a year if priced at the GoValue. With typically portfolio turnover in the 1%-2% range, you can expect most domains to have low values.
- Sales probability at wholesale – The likelihood that the domain will sell within a year if priced at the wholesale value
This data can be extremely valuable. Many people haven’t agreed with GoDaddy’s GoValues. Adding the additional valuation metrics helps make sense of the data.
In particular, seeing the sales probability gives a level of confidence about demand for the domain name.
I tested the tool out today and got some good insight from it. There are some limitations, however.
Some of the values are capped. This was an issue mostly for the wholesale value, which frequently showed $1,000 because that’s the limit it will show (meaning the domain is worth $1,000 or more at wholesale). At the same time, I found many of the wholesale values to be much lower than what the domains sold for just recently on GoDaddy Auctions.
Also, GoDaddy’s appraisals for new top level domain names seem to be very high. There’s not much data to go off of, which makes it more difficult to create an automated valuation for them.
Still, nitpicking individual values misses the point of how you should use automated appraisals.
The system also generates a portfolio summary graphic, which you can see above.
The tool will only be available until February 27.
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Sedo enables listing of domains with premium renewals, releases more new TLD sales data
Premium renewal domains can now be syndicated through SedoMLS.
Sedo announced a new arrangement with Donuts this week, but I think the bigger news was secondary to the headline.
The headline announcement was that Donuts is now listing its platinum domains through SedoMLS. These are the very expensive domains (think $25k and up) that Rightside and Donuts held back to negotiate sales rather than listing at fixed prices through the registrar channel.
It’s two other items in the announcement that caught my attention.
First, all registrants of domains that carry premium renewals can now list their domains in SedoMLS. This means that domains listed for sale on SedoMLS could come with more than just a higher upfront cost; they can also have a higher renewal.
This is okay as long as it’s clear to buyers that the domains have a higher renewal price and that renewal price is disclosed. There has been a lot of controversy over .tv domains that have premium domains and buyers not being aware. For this reason, I’m cautious about buying .tv domains on the aftermarket.
The second item in the announcement was the disclosure of some Donuts platinum sales that took place on Sedo prior to the new SedoMLS deal. They’re nothing like home.loans for $500,000 and the.club for $300,000. Still, it will give you an idea of other registry-direct activity in the market. Unfortunately, they were all purchased by one person, so it doesn’t paint a broad picture. The sales are:
Super.market $25,000
Black.market $30,000
TV.show $35,000
The.news $50,000
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WIPO responds to ICA’s UDRP Platform
WIPO is upset and largely missed the point.
World Intellectual Property Organization, one of the many groups that manages UDRP cybersquatting cases, has expressed its displeasure with Internet Commerce Association’s* (ICA) opening platform for UDRP review.
Speaking to World Trademark Review**, Brian Beckham, head of the internet dispute resolution section at WIPO’s Arbitration and Mediation Center, made a number of comments. I have annotated them individually:
While this ICA advocacy piece purports to identify a range of so-called ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’ related to administration of the UDRP, it suffers from a number of glaring omissions. Namely: (1) it fails to acknowledge the UDRP’s globally-recognised success for all stakeholders;
Well, the blog post announcing the platform states:
“The UDRP although flawed in many significant respects, has been largely successful in being used to resolve thousands of domain name disputes since its inception in 1999.”
(2) it finds fault with the entire UDRP system based mainly on incidental and unrepresentative decisions, or the practices of a single (for-profit) provider;
There are certainly problems with other providers, but WIPO is not immune to bad decisions. And while bad decisions are relatively scarce, they create an undue burden on domain name holders.
(3) it betrays a clear misunderstanding of the actual mechanics of impartial and efficient ADR case management and fails to appreciate the respective oversight roles; and,
I’m sure WIPO can discuss these in greater detail, but I think we can all agree that adding fairness and checks and balances to ensure it is truly “impartial” is a good idea.
(4) it misses the elephant in the room: the fact in itself that trademark owners are forced to invest in remedying often obvious instances of cybersquatting knowingly undertaken with impunity.
This is the elephant in the room? In a perfect world, trademark holders could get back obvious instances of cybersquatting for free. They could also enforce trademarks for free. Heck, WIPO could lower its fees to help. But it’s not a perfect world, and some complainants abuse the system.
Especially where the numbers of domain names impacted by the UDRP are necessarily dwarfed by the total extent of domain name registrations, it is remarkable that ICA sets its sights on the one credible mechanism currently at trademark owners’ disposal. Any harm that will come to the UDRP will likely shift rights owners’ higher-level attention to the parties involved in these abusive practices.
A few things here. First, WIPO often touts the high number of UDRP filings and usually neglects to put it in perspective of the total number of domains registered. Now, suddenly, it cares about this ratio.
Second, it’s not ICA that is drawing attention to UDRP. It’s part of an overall review of rights protection mechanisms at ICANN. Because ICA cares about the outcome of UDRP review, it’s expressing its opinion.
Third, I don’t read anything in the ICA platform that suggests that UDRP should go away or not be at trademark owners’ disposal. In fact, I don’t see anything in its platform that suggests changing the actual UDRP. It doesn’t want anything to get in the way of trademark holders filing and winning legitimate UDRP cases; it is merely trying to limit the damage from bad and abusive cases.
* I am a member of ICA but was not involved with crafting the platform.
* Free registration required, although the registration pages and login pages do not appear to be secure.
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New TLD company MMX swings to profit for 2017
Pureplay new top level domain name company hits profitability.
Minds + Machines (MMX) announced today that it was profitable in 2017, the first year that it has been profitable as an operating company.
H2 2017 billings totaled about $10 million, up from $5.6 million in the first half of 2017.
Renewal revenue in 2017 was $5.6 million. With fixed operating costs reduced to below $5.5 million, that means the company’s recurring revenue exceeded fixed operating costs.
The release says that the company is continuing its strategic review:
The strategic review continues to progress and the benefits of consolidation in the industry remain. Whilst the longevity of the discussions has been at times frustrating, it is hoped that the process can be brought to a successful conclusion by the time of the full year results which are expected to be released in April 2018.
This suggests that the company might make an acquisition or be acquired by then. Or, it could do nothing.
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End user domain name sales up to $195,000
The cryptocurrency surge continues to drive sales at Sedo.
A cryptocurrency domain name sold for six figures.
Sedo had some big sales to end users this past week and the top two are related to blockchain. That’s not a big surprise but the interesting thing is that the second domain, Orbs.com, doesn’t have anything to do with blockchain on the surface. It’s an example of a blockchain company going after a solid brand name.
Also, note the owner of Pens.com buying a ccTLD and a sale of a .berlin domain name.
Here’s the list of end user domain name sales from the past week at Sedo:
(You can view previous lists like this here.)
CryptoWorld.com $194,888 – Mike Mann revealed that the owner is Binance.com, a cryptocurrency trading platform.
Orbs.com $50,000 – Another domain that sold for big bucks due to blockchain. The buyer is creating a technology to let consumer brands transition users to the blockchain.
Pens.de €23,740 – National Pen Co., which also owns Pens.com.
Kadena.com $17,000 – The law firm St. Onge Steward Johnston & Reens LLC is the new owner so it was likely for one of its clients.
MetalStamping.com $15,000 – An Indiana firm that uses the domain name MetalStamp-Inc.com.
BPI.co $8,900 – BPI-China owns BPI-cn.com. I can’t get that name to resolve to figure out what they do but this was clearly an acronym purchase. It’s not every day that you see a three letter .co sell for so much.
YellowSeed.com $6,750 – Yellow Seed facilitates “connections between farmers and new markets in order to create thriving human, agricultural and ecological systems.”
LiveNext.com $6,500 – The buyer is unknown but they put up a holding page with their logo.
VR.berlin €5,990 – German bank Volksbank Raiffeisenbank Rosenheim-Chiemsee eG.
TropicSport.com €4,000 – Tropic sport sells sunblock and skincare products.
CCFL.org $2,488 – Illinois CPA Society. The domain stands for Center for Corporate Financial Leadership.
JonasTaxidermy.com $2,000 – Jonas Brothers Outdoor Industries, Inc. in Denver.
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Sedo adds support for .ETH ethereum name trading
Domain names from the Ethereum Name System can now be sold on Sedo.
Domain name marketplace Sedo is now accepting .ETH domain names for buying and selling on its marketplace.
.ETH domain names are not part of the domain name system you use to send email and visit websites. It’s also not like the alt-root domain names that have popped up from time to time.
Yet they have a goal that’s similar to domain names — make addresses that would be long, incomprehensible strings easier to remember. For example, a user can use a .eth domain for a wallet address.
But .eth domain names are quite complicated. It’s a fairly new system that will change and evolve over time, so owners really need to know what they’re buying. For example, a dispute resolution process is likely to be introduced at some point.
And those high prices you’ve seen for .eth domain auctions, such as exchange.eth for $600,000? Here’s the thing; the buyer of that domain name can relinquish it after one year and get his money (ether) back.
There are a handful of .eth domains already listed on Sedo. Most of them are IDN domain names that mix scripts but look like names such as payments.eth and trading.eth. (This makes me think .eth domains will have their own version of phishing.)
.ETH domain names might be worth a look, but I’d advise anyone interested to spend quite a lot of time researching and understanding the space.
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UDRP reform is coming. Here’s ICA’s position
Here’s what domain investors would like to see happen during the review of the UDRP.
For the first time in the 18 years since it was introduced, the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) regarding cybersquatting is being reviewed.
This is an issue for domain name investors to watch. Expect certain interests to push for new rules that make it easier to take away domain names even when it’s not warranted.
In the domain investor’s corner is Internet Commerce Association (ICA), a trade group representing domainer interests. Yesterday, the ICA issued its platform (pdf) for changes it believes should be made.
Notably, none of the changes have to do with the language of the policy itself. It is generally agreed that the requirements for forcing a domain owner to transfer a domain are fair. It’s how they are implemented that is the problem.
The platform includes five sections: accountability, transparency, uniformity, predictability and balance. Here are the major proposals from each section, along with some commentary.
Accountability
- Dispute Resolution Providers (DRP) should be under contract, not just accredited by ICANN. (Many people are surprised to learn that groups like National Arbitration Forum and World Intellectual Property Organization do not have contractual relationships with ICANN.)
- Compliance Framework for oversight, standards and monitoring of DRPs.
- Procedure to make complaints against DRPs.
- Regular review of UDRP. (Once every 18 years probably isn’t enough.)
Transparency
- Require all DRPs to disclose their ownership, affiliations and management.
- Establish standards and procedures for panelist accreditations and de-accreditations. (How panelists are accredited (or not) is a bit of a mystery.)
- Require DRPs to follow an established and fair procedure for appointing panelists to UDRP cases. (This is a big one for me. DRPs can assign whomever they want to be a panelist on a given case. They can assign the same person to be a panelist on all cases if they want. There are reasons that there’s not an even split between panelists and cases. For example, a panelist isn’t available or the language of the dispute. But DRPs should be required to follow a round-robin assignment queue. It only skips in the case of language, in which a round robin with panelists that speak the language is used. If DRPs are concerned that a panelist isn’t capable of handling a certain type of case then they should be deaccredited, not skipped.)
- Require transparent UDRP disclosure. (The only way to make sure DRPs are doing their job is to be able to monitor them effectively. Right now they disclose data however they want.)
Uniformity
- Establish a uniform set of supplementary rules.
- Prohibit inconsistent supplementary rules. (This would obviously be solved by establishing a uniform set.)
- Revise rules to clarify that complainants and respondents can nominate panelists from any DRP roster. Apparently, right now it’s not clear if respondents can.
Predictability
- Require all DRPs and panelists to subscribe to a single consensus view to avoid rogue interpretations. Right now only WIPO publishes a consensus view and panelists don’t have to follow it.
Balance
- If a DRP allows staggered fees in which the complainant doesn’t have to make the final payment until a response is received, and if the complainant fails to make the final payment, then a finding of bad faith should be made against the complainant and it should be barred from filing another UDRP to any DRP. (I didn’t know this was an option at some DRPs. Apparently, complainants will file a UDRP and hope the domain owner doesn’t respond. If the owner does respond, they drop the case by failing to make the second payment. At that point, the domain owner already went through the trouble of responding.)
- Additional unsolicited submissions should be prohibited. If a complainant wants to make an additional submission under exceptional circumstances then it should explain the circumstance to the panel and not submit the additional information until it gets approval from the panel. (This makes sense…even when a panel says an additional submission was not allowed, they have already read it and it might prejudice them.)
- Require DRPs to accredit domain name lawyers in addition to trademark lawyers. (Honestly, I’d prefer a rule that says anyone who works at a law firm that represents parties in UDRPs should be prohibited from serving as a panelist.)
Additional thoughts
I have two other ideas that should be considered.
- Include a checkbox on the complainant’s form that says “I certify that I am claiming trademark rights that predate the domain registrant’s ownership of the domain name.” This could eliminate a lot of RDNH filings.
- Right now the panel can only deny the claim or accept it, which results in the transfer (or sometimes cancellation) of the domain. Perhaps there’s a middle road that could resolve cases, such as “Don’t show this type of ad on this domain anymore.”
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Donuts offers free name search technology
Registrars can integrate technology to find relevant domain names.
New top level domain name company Donuts announced the release of a free domain search tool called Relevant Name Search (RNS) today.
Many domain name registrars aren’t very good at offering relevant results to domain search queries. This is particularly the case when it comes to top level domain names that have a specific meaning. RNS is designed to fix that.
While Donuts’ goal in making the tool available to domain name registrars is obviously to help sell more domains under new top level domains, the company says the free name spinner is registry-neutral.
I tested the beta version of the tool while it was live on Name.com and found its results to be fairly good. This week I tested it for three searches and compared it to GoDaddy, which I know has invested significantly in search. Here are the results:
There are a few things to note:
1. I turned on “availability checking” on RNS so that it would compare fairly to GoDaddy which (for the most part) won’t show unavailable domains. With availability checking off the Donuts tool returned .com/.net on some of my searches.
2. I ignored premium listings and results marked as “ad” on GoDaddy’s results.
3. GoDaddy returned the odd domain TexassCoffee.com the first time I searched but replaced it with TexasCoffee.menu the second time.
So which service returns better results? I can’t pass a complete judgment. After all, registrars optimize for different things. GoDaddy is surely optimizing for both conversions and total revenue and I’m not privy to its data.
Also, GoDaddy isn’t Donuts’ target market with this tool. The target market is domain registrars that haven’t invested significant engineering resources into domain search.
It seems that Donuts’ tool does a great job of returning semantically relevant domain names.
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Politico: new NTIA chief told Cruz he’d look into way to reverse ICANN “handover”
Fortunately, Russia and China haven’t “taken over the internet” yet.
A new report from Politico reveals that the new head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, David Redl, told Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee that he’d look into ways to reverse the U.S. government’s decision to end its IANA contract with ICANN. Cruz and Lee both opposed the NTIA’s decision to end the contract.
The goal of ending the contract — which was the original long-term plan when ICANN was formed — was to make the rest of the world less concerned about U.S. control of the internet. The move could help avoid causing other governments to splinter the internet or, more likely, call for governance of the DNS to be handed to an international group like the International Telecommunication Union.
But Cruz was concerned that relinquishing this control could lead to China and Russia taking control of the internet, which is a far-fetched claim.
When it came time for Redl’s confirmation he told senators that he believed what was done was done with regards to the IANA contract. Cruz put a hold on the nomination and Redl eventually assuaged Cruz’s concerns.
But how? That concerned Democrat Brian Schatz, who placed a hold on Redl to figure out what kind of deal he struck with Cruz.
According to Politico, Redl promised Cruz and Lee that he would recommend convening a “panel of experts to investigate options for unwinding the transition.”
My guess is that this promise was a way to assuage Cruz’s concerns while knowing that a panel would suggest not making a change.
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GoDaddy finally gets an Austin office
Acquisition will give GoDaddy a large presence in Austin.
GoDaddy will soon join the ranks of Facebook, Amazon and Google by having a large workforce in Austin.
The company announced today that it is acquiring Austin-based Main Street Hub for $125 million, plus an earnout of up to $50 million.
GoDaddy intends to continue operating the 600-person company from Austin. Main Street Hub currently has two offices in downtown Austin with plans to consolidate in a new headquarters building in 2019.
Main Street Hub provides social media management services for small businesses. Its customer base is rather small at 10,000, but the typical customer pays it $300 a month. That’s significantly higher than GoDaddy’s ARPU.
While most of GoDaddy’s services are do-it-yourself, Main Street Hub falls squarely in the do-it-for-me space. It lets small businesses outsource their social media and reputation management to increase business.
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These domains have met their reserves for next week’s NamesCon auction
These domain names have already met their reserves for next week’s live domain name auction.
Next week is NamesCon, and that means that next week we have a live domain name auction put on by Right of the Dot with help from NameJet.
Bidding is currently open. While bidding is fast and furious on top domains, these domains are also well below their reserves. You can’t put too much stock in a $600,000 bid for lucky.com when the stated reserve is over $1,000,000.
But some domain names have met their reserves and will sell at the auction. Here are the top ones so far:
Tees.com $22,688
Publicize.com $15,500
Runner.com $15,000
Qaqa.com $4,100
There are plenty of domains names that don’t have reserves, too, but those don’t have bids anywhere near the above domain names.
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Catching Up with Weebly Cloud’s Chris Sheridan
This is a sponsored post from our friends at Weebly.
In this sponsored post by Weebly, I had a chance to catch up with Chris “Selfie” Sheridan, Head of Strategic Partner Sales at Weebly in the run up to NamesCon later this month.
DNW: Weebly Cloud launched in early 2015; so we are coming up on the third anniversary of the platform. Tell us about some of the highlights.
CS: It has been a very busy and exciting three years. In looking back at the evolution of the Weebly Cloud platform, I see three key developments/highlights:
1. The website market opportunity remains very big. There is strong demand for fully featured, easy-to-use web building platforms. We are supporting 200+ web hosts, registrars, and telcos as of today. These partners are leveraging our Cloud platform to capture their fair share of the 50% of SMBs that still do not have a web presence. It is really a great time to be in the website market. In addition to the offline market, we also see a lot of clients looking to switch website providers (most being driven by mobile) and this also provides a huge opportunity for our channel partners.
2. The website “product” has really evolved. When we launched in 2015, we focused on providing a solid Editor experience that was powered by our drag and drop tools. Fast forward today, the Weebly Cloud platform is now supporting Resellers with custom app integration, custom theme integration, and extended API commands like “sub-reseller” support. So, the level of engagement from channel partners with the Cloud program is increasing and becoming a more critical platform for them.
3. Ecommerce is becoming more a strategic focus for our Partners. This is a key change from 2015. It’s no longer good enough to just provide a high quality web building solution – it is now more critical for Partners to take a larger role in providing ecommerce solutions and catering to the needs of ecommerce sellers. Ecommerce customers are a higher value customer as well – they will spend more for the right ecommerce solution and they will also utilize more services from the Hosts, Telcos, and Registrars – specifically domains, security solutions, and more “selling” tools like SEO, SEM, and email marketing services.
DNW: What are the key trends you see in 2018 for the Hosting and Domain space?
CS: The underlying trend coming out of 2017 is that the “website builder” is no longer viewed as a “product” or a “feature”. It is viewed as a platform that customers will utilize to run their entire business and manage their customers. This is a huge difference. Platform vs. Product. Based on this I see two trends in 2018:
1. Web hosts, registrars, and telcos will make significant efforts to go bigger in ecommerce. I see this as a big driver for growth in Weebly Cloud. We spent significant effort on building out our ecommerce business. This strategy is working in our retail business and I look forward to extending more of this functionality to our Cloud channel. Specifically, we will be extending our new “Performance” plan to Resellers in 2018. We already offer a Business (ecommerce) plan today. The Performance plan will allow our channel to target more ecommerce client directly with improved shipping, tax, and other ecommerce features.
2. We should expect to see the website platform/product take a larger share of marketing spend and be the strategic focus of more telcos, hosts, and registrars. This transformation will take many shapes, eg. diminished promotions of domains/hosting in favor of larger web builder promotions, partnering with companies like Weebly Cloud, or some folks taking the step of building their own web builder.
DNW: What makes you personally excited about the website opportunity in 2018?
CS: Great question! In 2017, I was very encouraged to see Hosts, Registrars, and Telcos become interested in custom themes and custom apps. It signals a deeper focus by them on the website platform and their desire to further customize/differentiate their offering. Similar to this trend, we also opened up access to our channel to the Weebly App Center in 2017. This was widely adopted by our channel and is proving to be a key tool in keeping users engaged with their sites.
This deeper engagement by the Channel has been built around the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) business. As the channel becomes more successful in selling & supporting DIY services, it positions them for success on ecommerce as well. Ecommerce is its own “world”. So, after three years of supporting 200 partners in building success in DIY, I feel very confident and excited about the potential of DIY ecommerce sites and how that will material revenue and client success for our partners.
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Entrepreneur pays $500,000 to acquire Home.loans domain name
Home.loans buyer has had success with websites built on new top level domain names.
New top level domain name company Donuts announced today that it has sold the domain name home.loans for $500,000. This is the highest publicly reported sale of a domain name under a new top level domain name to date.
Entrepreneur Blake Janover bought the domain name and is launching a site covering residential home loans. Janover has a fascinating story that he relayed to Domain Name Wire for a podcast that will be published on Monday.
Janover built a successful commercial lending business last decade only to see it evaporate as the world’s economy cratered in the Great Recession. He lost his fortune.
The fallout landed him on a beach in a fishing village in the Dominican Republic. While decompressing on the beach one day, a friend called him up and urged him to get back into multifamily residential financing.
So as Janover relaxed in a hammock, he went to GoDaddy and registered MultiFamily.Loans. He set up a site on Squarespace, added good content and got it crawled by Google. Amazingly, the site instantly ranked high on Google for “Multifamily Loans” despite lacking history or backlinks.
He went on to register other .loans domains such as HUD.Loans and CommercialRealEstate.Loans, created websites for them, and saw them rank high for the terms in the domains as well as other keywords. He was on to something.
Now he’s upping the ante with home.loans.
Buying any domain name for $500,000 for a new business is a risk, and many people will look at Janover’s choice of a new top level domain name instead of .com as an even bigger risk. But Janover looks at it differently. He told Domain Name Wire:
I’m a real estate guy and look at it from a real estate perspective. .Com, .net, doesn’t feel like an effective use of this digital real estate that I’m buying. I’m buying the top of your screen. I mean, what does .com really mean anymore anyway, what is its utility? And I’m not talking bad about it. I’m just saying that for everybody that wanted to buy two-word domains, you had to have two words plus like some little thingy at the end of it.
For Janover, every time he tells someone the domain name, he’s able to start an interesting conversation.
He also owns .loan domain names but thinks that home.loans is better for his purpose than home.loan.
For more on the purchase and why Janover thinks the domain is worth the price, check in to Domain Name Wire Monday morning to listen to the full podcast.
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How to avoid UDRP – John Berryhill – DNW Podcast #170
Attorney John Berryhill explains how to minimize the chances of facing a UDRP.
Domain name investors fear bogus UDRP cybersquatting cases. How can you protect yourself against the cost of having to defend against a UDRP? On today’s show attorney John Berryhill discusses common perceptions about trademarks to help you avoid risky domains, how to protect your domains once you own them (park them or not?), and how to be careful when dealing with inquiries about your domains that might be a legal set up. Also: Glory.com, GoDaddy’s new sales message and get ready for NamesCon.
Subscribe via iTunes to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone or iPad, view on Google Play Music, or click play below or download to begin listening. (Listen to previous podcasts here.)
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Dirty “Wedding Flea Market” guilty of reverse domain name hijacking
Like an angry bride that’s not getting what she wants, wedding flea market tries to hijack domain name.
But Daddy! I want the singular version, not the plural!
Wedding Flea Market, LLC, which uses the domain name WeddingFleaMarkets.com (plural), has been found to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking for the domain name WeddingFleaMarket.com (singular).
The business organizes events in which people who have had a wedding sell their wedding stuff to people that are about to get married.
According to the National Arbitration Forum decision, the company reached out to the owner of WeddingFleaMarket.com starting in 2015 asking if he would sell the domain. He didn’t respond. The company reached out again in April 2017 and the owner declined to sell the domain. The domain owner acquired it in 2013.
After getting a trademark for Wedding Flea Market, the company reached out to the domain owner again and threatened to enforce its new trademark if the domain owner didn’t sell. It followed this up with an email from its lawyer, Donald J. McKay.
The lawyer’s email demanded that the domain be transferred for $500 or face a UDRP.
(Alarm bells! Reverse domain name hijacking!)
The domain owner responded noting that this would constitute reverse domain name hijacking. He offered to sell it for $7,500.
Nevertheless, the complainant followed through with its threat and, indeed, tried to reverse domain name hijack the domain name.
The National Arbitration Forum panelist wrote:
Complainant and its counsel knew, or should have known, that there was no possible chance of proving bad faith registration and use, as Respondent has registered the disputed domain name weddingfleamarket.com several years before Complainant could assert any rights in its WEDDING FLEA MARKET mark. Complainant was clearly aware of this, as Complainant had contacted Respondent several times since May 2015 to acquire the disputed domain name. See Resp. At Attached Annex 4. It was only after two years of attempting and failing to purchase the disputed domain name and a subsequent trademark registration, in which Complainant threatened Respondent to sell the disputed domain name for well below the fair market value or face UDRP proceedings, that Complainant sought to hijack the disputed domain name from Respondent. See Resp. Annexes 7 & 9. As such, Complainant filed this action in an additional attempt to deprive Respondent, the rightful, registered holder of the disputed domain name, of its rights to use the disputed domain name.
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15+ New Spam Emails, 9 Robocalls, 6 Spam texts within 24 hours of registering a domain
Guy who registers domain name gets an unpleasant surprise.
A GoDaddy customer posted this complaint on GoDaddy’s community forums yesterday. I’m posting it in its entirety with my annotations.
GoDaddy FAIL!!!!!! – Bought A Domain And In 24hrs – 15+ New Spam Emails – 9 Robocalls – 6 Spam SMS’s
This is not the first domain name I’ve purchased, I’ve owned dozens over the years… but this is the FIRST time this has happened with such frequency and inconvenience.
It is getting worse. Out of control. I blame a number of companies that have popped up offering very cheap access to Whois data for newly registered domains and marketing it as a way to get fresh leads.
I don’t care if WHOIS is publicly available, GoDaddy MUST provide a free service to counter the increase in robocalls, spam mail, and spam SMS. I’ve received dozens in less than 24hrs of purchasing a domain name through GoDaddy.
I’ve read the threads and GoDaddy passes the blame on 3rd parties and claims to have no control over this. I say that’s a load of rubbish. GoDaddy should provide, as a FREE service, the ability to use an alias email and phone number for registrars.
While some registrars offer this for free, I bet DomainsByProxy is a big revenue generator. It’s also worth pointing out that running a proxy or privacy service isn’t free. There are some pretty big headaches that come along with operating these services. If GoDaddy or any other registrar offers proxy for free, they will likely increase the prices they charge to register a domain.
GoDaddy is, however, getting ready to mask email and phone numbers from port 43 whois lookups starting January 25. Will this reduce the amount of spam? I hope so.
There is also no clear directions on how to go about removing one’s information from robocallers once your WHOIS information goes public.
Sorry. Once it’s in, you’re screwed. These companies doesn’t respect any Do Not Call lists, either.
I am seriously mad at GoDaddy for wasting my time having to deal with all this and having to write this post. And WHY must a phone number and email address be required in the first place. If it’s a law then that has to change because robocallers and these spamming **bleep**tards are getting more sophisticated and ambitious.
ICANN. But, historically it was never an issue. There are good reasons to have this info public as long as people aren’t abusing it.
I really hope GoDaddy can address this problem so many people are having!!!!
I think the port 43 change will help. GoDaddy also sued one of the spammers.
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MicroStrategy defends its Glory (.com)
Tech company fends off Japanese group that filed cybersquatting complaint.
$1.5 billion dollar tech company MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) has successfully defended the domain name Glory.com in a cybersquatting dispute.
MicroStrategy has a vast portfolio of high-quality domain names including alert.com, hope.com, mike.com, speaker.com and voice.com. It’s not clear what it intends to eventually do with many of its domains, but the quality and its unwillingness to sell sometimes attracts challenges.
The company bought Glory.com for $115,000 in 2003.
Glory Ltd. of Himeji, Japan tried to buy the domain name but was rebuffed by MicroStrategy. MicroStrategy offered to sell the domain for more than $10 million in an effort to get Glory Ltd to stop bothering it.
Glory Ltd., which uses the domain Glory.co.jp, filed a UDRP after its efforts failed.
A three-person World Intellectual Property Organization panel determined that Glory Ltd. did not demonstrate that MicroStrategy registered and used the domain in bad faith.
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I’m bullish on domain names
While other assets are currently overvalued, domain names aren’t.
Asset prices have been quite frothy for a long time. They were high a year ago and then they shot much higher over the past year.
Sure, sentiment might be positive. Asset prices might continue to go up. But when you look at historical valuation metrics of certain assets such as stocks, they are trading at very high prices even when you bake in tax breaks and a rosy outlook. Then there is a virtual currency created as a joke that is valued at a billion dollars.
Regardless of where you think asset prices are headed from here (and which assets will outperform), I feel very comfortable with where domain name prices are. The irrational betting that took place during the Chinese boom has more or less subsided, leaving us with investor prices that are below what end users are willing to pay. The domain market still has the important characteristic of having an investor market and an end user market, with the latter willing to pay more than how much it costs to invest in domains.
This isn’t to say that all domain bets will pay off. Even if you’re selling domains for more than you bought them for you need to consider your holding time and the domains you don’t sell.
But I believe that domain names have an underlying use and value, and I don’t think they are overvalued right now. There have been times I’ve scratched my head at domain valuations but that’s not the case at the beginning of 2018.
I’m bullish on domain names.
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20 End user domain name sales including lots of cryptocurrency domains
Cryptocurrency prices are fluctuating like mad, but crypto fans are buying domain names in droves.
The cryptocurrency and blockchain boom has definitely had an impact on relevant domain names purchases. Sedo’s sales list this week includes many blockchain related domain names. There were plenty of other crypto domains that I couldn’t tie to an end user.
But the top spot on the end user chart this week belongs to HappyMath.com, a domain name purchased by a Chinese education company.
Let’s take a look at 20 sales that took place at Sedo over the past week with end user buyers:
(You can view previous lists like this here.)
HappyMath.com $35,000 – Chinese education company OneSmart.
Otravo.com $18,500 – Otravo BV says its name stands for Online Travel Organization. Its main website is Otravo.nl.
Singpay.com $10,000 – Beijing singpay technology co., ltd bought the .com to go with Singpay.com.cn.
Kraken.co $10,000 – Bitcoin exchange Kraken bought the .co to go with its .com.
NovaHealthSystem.com $9,850 – Nova Southeastern University.
B00.com €6,300 – This doesn’t look like a domain investor purchase. The owner also has B00.nl, which has a message saying “we will be back soon.”
OfficePhone.com $7,500 – PhoneSpeak bought this category domain name.
MSmotors.com €5,000 – MS Motors in France uses the domain name MSmotors.fr.
TheRepublik.com $5,000 – Marketing firm The Republik Companies owns TheRepublik.net.
Payger.com $5,000 – The company is creating a blockchain payments system.
Zipper.io $4,999 – Another blockchain-based company.
MyHeartMonitor.com $3,900 – CardioNet, Inc sells heart medical equipment.
BitcoinInc.com $3,750 – The domain name resolves to a page that says Bitcoin Inc is “The Crypto Company”.
Rightbase.com $3,500 – Rightbase Limited looks to be starting a real estate website.
IslandRoofing.com $3,500 – The owner of IslandRoofingLLC.com smartly bought the version without LLC.
Bathlux.com $3,500 – Bathlux sells bathroom accessories.
Vinomio.com $3,000 – VinumRegio GmbH is an Italian wine and gourmet food company.
FortressCoin.com $2,650 – Victory Park Capital invests in alternative credit.
IncFast.com $2,495 – Corporate Filings LLC.
Schwartzapfel.org $2,880 – Schwartzapfel Partners P.C. I can understand why their main website is FightingForYou.com instead of the last name.
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