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...]
Call for Donuts to Release Proof of Original “Record Breaking” gTLD Sale in Late 2017
NEW YORK – With another ‘out of the ordinary’ new Generic Domain Name sale publicly announced by Donuts Inc. for Vacation.Rentals (reportedly acquired for $500,300.00 in an all-cash deal) this becomes their second earth-shattering alternative-dot transaction in the last twelve months of which many will agree, appears to be sent straight from the heavens above. In fact, all of their employees should vacate the Kirkland, Washington premises immediately and purchase lottery … [Read more...]
Is Dominion Registries Having Trouble Selling Their New Alternative Dots?
NEW YORK - According to a press release by Dominion Registries, a division of Dominion Enterprises, the company is removing a long list of previously implemented registrant eligibility verification restrictions for its new gTLD industry-specific domain extensions which consist of .AUTOS, .BOATS, .HOMES, .MOTORCYCLES and .YACHTS. The changes will be made this year, beginning first with .BOATS, which is now available to anyone at all, for just about any reason, defined … [Read more...]
Verisign Releases 2017 Second Quarter Industry Brief on Domain Name Market
NEW YORK, NY – In an endless sea of opinions (I admit, including my own) it is great to look at meaningful data when it comes to where our industry is going as far as growth, innovation and trends. If you would like to read-over the Verisign’s 2017 Second Quarter Industry report, it is online here (PDF). Some key takeaways: .com registrations are up to 129.2 million. .net and .org are still major players, but in number of registrations, far behind ccTLDs such as … [Read more...]
New gTLDs: Revolution of New Dots Is Here; There Will Be Winners, There Will Be Losers
NEW YORK, NY - One of the most problematic things about the new gTLD space is that all of the applicants are trying to accomplish the same exact thing, either ahead or before the other; to create a single authoritative place for their industry or brand. They all want 'their' dot, to be “the” dot. However, what they all seem to be aligned in parallel with, is the concern of, risk for, or fear that users will fail to adopt to the change, and that all the good .coms are already … [Read more...]
Uptrend: Revisiting the Competing Sites for the “Most Valuable Domain Name”
LONG ISLAND, NY - At the end of last year, based on what was happening in the online automotive industry, I took a good look at some of the major automotive websites as there was a steep industry decline in web traffic for the 4th Quarter. This is an update to where these sites are now and what's changed. The 3rd domain name on the list happens to be Cars.com, which was recently valued at a staggering $872 Million Dollars. If you are interested in a breakdown on just how … [Read more...]
The Domain Business: An American Dream and Reality of .Com Domaining
Below are some of the best videos on the domain business that I have ever seen. These stories lend credibility to what domainers work towards each day. I’ve been in the domain business for over a decade and I had not seen two out of three of these videos so I am sure there are others who have not seen them either and would love to watch them. These videos articulate the reason that the domain business, a relatively unknown industry, is one of the most exciting and lucrative … [Read more...]
Just 2% of Top 100 Highest Priced .xyz Domains In Use for Bonafide Services
NEW YORK, NY - According to nTLDStats.com, a data provider offering statistics for new gTLDs, the .xyz domain has the highest number of registrations out of all new gtld domains available. Looking at the highest value sold .xyz domains in all reported aftermarket sales, 98% of them are not developed or show any signs by their owners for development in the future. Out of the 100 domains checked, just two (2) of them are developed with one (1), spring.xyz, looking like it … [Read more...]
EDITED: Why Great .com Domain Names Are Paying Less Dividends for Investors
RETRACTION: A previous version of this article had listed two specific GTLD domain names sold last year (2016), instead of this year (2017); these GTLD domain names have been removed. Additionally a statement comparing the GTLDs as being sold higher than the .com domains, was a result of this error. The article has been edited to remove these examples. Although .com domain sales seemed lower than usual, so did GTLDs - in their performance when compared to last year. NEW … [Read more...]