PALM BEACH – A company which many ordinary people (non-industry) have probably never heard of called “MicroStrategy Incorporated” has announced it has sold an Internet web address, Voice.com for $30,000,000.00 in cash. As you can see, that’s a lot of zero’s in that number and represents what many who invest and trade in Internet domain names likely find so exhilarating about it. For those who are not that savvy when it comes to Internet domain names, this a “website … [Read more...]
Why Verisign ‘NASDAQ:VRSN’ Will Inevitably Get Its .COM Domain Price Increase Sought
PALM BEACH – There has been a lot of talk in tech and domain circles lately about the company “Verisign” (NASDAQ:VRSN), its obvious monopoly in the .com domain game, and it’s long list of subsidiaries, but things really started to heat-up back in October 2018 when the company managed to renew its “cooperative agreement” with the United States Government through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), minus long-standing pricing caps on one of … [Read more...]
Forbes Cites Survey Saying 70.5% Don’t Trust Alternatives Domain Names
PALM BEACH – According to Forbes, 70.5% of consumers don’t trust newer alternative Internet domain names over legacy names. These figures, used in their recent article titled, “Strategies for Getting The Most Out Of Your New Domain Name” were cited from a survey of 1,000 people across the UK who represented a range of ages. Those surveyed were asked, “Do you trust companies with .co.uk and .com domains more than those with other newer domains like .eu, .biz, .net, .fashion, … [Read more...]
Seven Days Remain to State Your Case on Price Cap Removal for Legacy Domains
PALM BEACH – ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and PIR, Public Interest Registry, are considering the removal of current ‘price caps’ on legacy domain extensions such as “.org”, “.biz”, and “.info”; if you have an opinion on them doing so, you have limited time to make your comments and opinions heard as the window for public comment proceedings will close in seven days on April 29, 2019. The current Registry Agreements expire soon and they … [Read more...]
Biggest Threat to .COM Dominance Is Google’s Involvement in New gTLDs
NEW YORK – According to industry news website, DomainNameWire.com, Google’s launch of “.dev” domain names is off to a prosperous start with the zone file representing over 64,000 registrations just one day after it entered general availability. That’s amazing even for a bearish believer of nGTLDs. I guess it is only a matter of time until more and more people begin accepting the fact that all of the good .com domain names are long gone, and there are these new sort of odd … [Read more...]
Might Be Good Time to Revisit That .Org Portfolio; Which to Hold, Which to Grab
NEW YORK, NY – According to industry news website DNJournal.com, the registry behind .org domain names, Public Interest Registry, or otherwise known as PIR, has got itself a new CEO. Although personally I had never come across the name before, DNJournal describes incoming Chief Executive Officer Jon Nevett as a well-known and widely respected domain industry veteran - and this domain enthusiast has no reason to doubt it, especially since Nevett is one of the founders of … [Read more...]
Will JP Morgan’s Launch of Cryptocurrency Further Squeeze Domain Name Sales?
NEW YORK, NY – It’s been a very interesting few years recently hasn’t it? As if there weren’t enough reasons for your typical domain name investor to diversify his online bets, here comes another big one. Financial powerhouse JP Morgan Chase has announced it will be launching its own cryptocurrency called "JPM Coin" with a fixed rate value of $1. The move solidifies a [sort of] ‘questionable’ industry with instant validity in my opinion as JP Morgan acts as the first major … [Read more...]
Uniregistry Moves to Rebrand as “UNI”, Without Ownership of UNI.com???
NEW YORK, NY - If you had not heard yet - domain registry, parking and portfolio management company “Uniregistry” has launched a re-branding effort changing its popular brand name from “Uniregistry” to simply “UNI”. Two things immediately came to mind upon seeing this news. Does the company own the UNI.com domain name? The answer: Surprisingly it does not. The domain name UNI.com has been registered since 1993 and is currently owned by an Italian company which according … [Read more...]
ICA Lays Ground for Compelling Argument Even the Most Bias of Opinion Cannot Deny
NEW YORK, NY – Two things happened on November 1, 2018, when the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced it would renew its Cooperative Agreement with Verisign while removing price caps on fees it charges registries: Verisign’s stock (VRSN) shot up $25 per share in a single day (then levelling off at still a healthy gain), Verisign came out blasting domain industry participants, calling them “Domain Scalpers” near suggesting that … [Read more...]
From $132 to $100M: Was YellowPages.com The Smartest Domain Name Grab Ever?
NEW YORK, NY – Back in April of 1996, Dane Madsen registered YellowPages.com, an idea that popped into his mind after being demanded to come up with ad-copy for one of his firms clients, Sprint, who was rushing to be included in the next issue of the print Yellow Pages book; back then if you missed the deadline, you needed to wait an entire year for your business to seemingly exist. At about the same time, Dan was told about a company called “Network Solutions”, which … [Read more...]
Verisign Warns Industry: Far Greater Worry Then Their Minuscule Rate Increase
NEW YORK, NY – They say that when you mess with the bull, you get the horns. Yesterday, Verisign, the company behind all issuing of .com domain names to ICANN approved registries, came out blasting attempts by industry insiders trying to control a price cap that was set by something called the Cooperative Agreement, an agreement between the NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration) and Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN), which for years, prevented any increase … [Read more...]
Verisign Receives Regulatory Approval to Raise .COM Prices; Restrictions Deleted
NEW YORK, NY – Although many had hoped it wouldn’t happen, Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN), the company behind the registration and creation of .COM domain names, has been given the virtual green light by the US Government to raise the price of .com domain names by 7% in each of the last four years of a six-year incremental contract. Late Thursday, news broke that the “Cooperative Agreement”, an agreement between the National Telecommunications and Information Administration … [Read more...]
Will .COM Domains Get More Expensive with Expiration of “Cooperative Agreement”?
LONG ISLAND, NY – The “Cooperative Agreement” between NTIA (The National Telecommunications and Information Administration ) and Verisign includes a price-cap on .com domain names, however, this agreement must be renewed by November 30, 2018. This means that sometime very soon the price you pay for all of your .com domain registrations and their renewals may be raised, and there is no telling how much this increase might be. The NTIA, an agency of the U.S. Department of … [Read more...]
California.com Puts GEO Domains Back on the Map with “Mid-Seven Figure” Sale
NEW YORK, NY – According to Industry news site DNW.com, and a press release, the Iconic US State Name, California.com has been acquired, along with a group of related domain names, in the mid seven figure range. Not bad for a parked domain name. What is truly amazing about this sale, and near-every business broker will spin their head around about, is that the sale is for an asset by itself, a possible business at a great address, with NO BUILT IN REVENUE OR … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Weekly Domain Sales List Includes .App at $14k, .Me at $8,500
NEW YORK, NY – Recently released is Sedo’s weekly sales list, a weekly list of public transactions above $2,000. This weeks highlights included the top .com sold as Ivypay.com at $22,000 USD, the top ccTLD as Hola.me at $8,500 and the top other as Host.app at 12,000 EUR ($14,020.20 USD). Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 07/16/2018 – 07/22/2018. Domain … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Releases Weekly Domain Name Sales List 07/09/2018 – 07/15/2018
NEW YORK, NY – Recently released is Sedo’s weekly sales list, a weekly list of public transactions above $2,000. This weeks highlights included the top .com sold as BTCExchange.com at $55,000 USD, the top ccTLD as Park.co.us at 22,500 GBP ($29,508.19 US) and the top other as KYG.org at $8,800 USD. Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 07/09/2018 – 07/15/2018. Domain … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Moves NBX.com at $130K, Reward.net at $10K in Latest Sales Report
NEW YORK, NY – Recently released is Sedo’s weekly sales list, a weekly list of public transactions above $2,000. This weeks highlights included the top .com sold as nbx.com at $130,000 USD, the top ccTLD as feel-the-flow.de at 12,500 EUR ($14,654.16 US) and the top other as Reward.net at $10,000 USD. Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 07/02/2018 – 07/08/2018. Domain … [Read more...]
The 472 Domain Names That Couldn’t Stop The Inevitable Collapse of ‘Toys R Us’
NEW YORK, NY - Toys R Us is a brand we’ve all grown up with. The company was originally founded by Charles P. Lazarus (October 5, 1923 - March 22, 2018), the son of a local entrepreneur who wished to someday mimic his father’s work with his own enterprise. Those dreams became a reality in 1948 when young Charles, 25, opened his first children’s furniture store called “Children’s Bargain Town” in Washington, D.C. After years of early success, Lazarus added toys and changed … [Read more...]
Top 100 .com Domain Name Sales of 2016 Verses 2017 Suggests Market Stabilization
NEW YORK, NY - Last year about this time (June) I compared the highest valued .com sales of 2015 to 2016 which were publicly available at that time via NameBio.com (the list changed slightly today effectively creating a $2M difference and 30% decline rather than 35% indicated at that time[provided that 2015 remained unchanged]). It's also important to note that 2015 contained two blockbuster sales for $8M each. Today, comparing numbers for 2016 to 2017, from what data is … [Read more...]
Uh Oh: 400,000 Less gTLD Registrations First Quarter of 2018, Vs Previous Quarter
NEW YORK – New gTLD proponents will be less than excited to learn that according to the latest Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief, new gTLD domain registrations, despite there being more awareness :) and more names available for registration, such extensions experienced a decline of 400,000 registrations or loss of 2% within the first Quarter of 2018 (Q1) when compared to the last Quarter of 2017 (Q4). Verisign creates these industry briefs to include quarter-over-quarter … [Read more...]
gTLD Madness: Five Years Later and Where Are We Now? T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Panel Debate
NEW YORK - By the time I started visiting domain conferences in person, unfortunately, what I feel was the greatest domain conference of all time, Howard Neu and Rick Schwartz’s T.R.A.F.F.I.C., had seen its last days. I wish it weren’t so. I think the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences were the best respected domain conferences in history; I can only wish that Howard and Rick, for whatever reason, will team up again and bring it back one day, because everything else, in my opinion, … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Releases Weekly Domain Name Sales List 05/08/2018 – 05/14/2018
NEW YORK, NY – Recently released is Sedo’s weekly sales list, a weekly list of public transactions above $2,000. This weeks highlights included the top .com sold as IXA.com at 25,000 EUR ($29,609.62 US), the top ccTLD as NX.de at 33,320 EUR ($39,465.81 US) and the top other as BroadwayTickets.nyc at $25,000 USD. Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 05/08/2018 – 05/14/2018. Domain … [Read more...]
