Here's
the The Lowdown from
DN Journal,
updated daily to fill you in on the
latest buzz going around the domain name
industry.
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson.
One
of Europe's Top Conferences - Domaining Spain -
Opens Registration for April 2013 Show in
Valencia
Domaining
2013
(the fifth show in a popular conference series
that has also been known as Domaining Spain
and Domaining Europe) has opened
registration for the next annual event, coming
up April 25-27 in Valencia, Spain.
The conference, co-produced by founder Dietmar
Stefitz and veteran show runner Jodi
Chamberlain, will return to Valencia's Sorolla
Palace Hotel where the successful 2012
event was held last spring.
I
covered this year's show that attracted an
exceptional group of domain investors and
corporate executives from around the world.
That, coupled with the scenic splendor of
Valencia made this well run event one of the
most enjoyable I've had the pleasure of
attending.
Jodi
Chamberlain and Dietmar Stefitz
Domaining 2013 Co-Producers
Valencia,
the third largest city in Spain, sits
directly on the Mediterranean Sea
and offers a marvelous mix of historic and
ultra modern architecture, fine dining and
beautiful countryside just minutes out of
town.
The
conference, with a registration fee of
just €600, is a bargain for a
show of this quality and the hotel's show
room rate of €70 a night is an
absolute steal - especially
since that price includes a great
breakfast buffet. For a top notch hotel
like the Sorolla, I've never gotten a
better deal anywhere in the world.
If
you are quick on the draw you can save even
more. Jodi and Dietmarwill give thefirst
ten DN Journal readers who register 50%
off the show ticket, reducing it to €300
for those lucky early birds. Use the promo code:
DNJournalDomainingSpain at this
regsitation link: http://www.amiando.com/Domaining2013.html
to take advantage of that limited time offer.
A
panel session I moderated at the Domaining
2012 conference last spring in Valencia,
Spain.
The
agenda for Domaining 2013 will be releaswed
soon. Ms. Chamberlain said a major theme has
already been determined though. That will be ICANN's
New gTLD program and what the industry is doing
to prepare for the impending explosion in the
number of available domain extensions.
New
Domain Sales Platform at DotBuyer.com Targets
End Users With Pricing Guidance and Quality
Names
There
are a lotof
well established domain sales venues out
there so you might not think there is a need for
any more. Certainly any new players in that
competitive space would have to offer something
different to gain a toe hold in the market.
With a new sales platform at DotBuyer.com,
Australia based Kikabink International Pty
Ltd. thinks they have come up with just the
kind of twist needed to stand out in the
crowd.
That
twist is a focusonend users
- the kind of buyers all sellers most want to
reach because they are willing to pay more than
domain investors who want to buy on the cheap.
Obviously existing sales venues want to reach
end users too, but DotBuyer, the brainchild of
Kikabank Founder Simon Johnson, thinks
they have a better shot at doing it because of
inventory controls and additional tools their
system has in place.
DotBuyer
is a closed platform that screens sellers,
accepting only those who have quality assets to
offer their buyers. If you are accepted to list
there, you will be rewarded with an
exceptionally low 5%commision
rate (and there is no charge to list your
names). There is also no charge for buyers to open
an account.
DotBuyer.com
Founder Simon Johnson
Johnson
said that DotBuyer also helps to educate businesses
by providing price guidance and search
engine metrics. "We have levelled the
playing field by enabling businesses to find out
what domain names have previously sold
for," Johnson said. "This helps to
educate buyers so they don't pay too much for a
domain name. The historical sales figures
are powered by Kikabink's Domain
Sales App - one of the largest
databases of historical domain and website
sales, dating back more than 10 years with more
than 154,000 domain name sales."
Johnson
added, "DotBuyer has many domains in
multiple vertical markets, from trades and place
names to premium generic keywords that describe
entire industries. There is something for
everyone - from small businesses, to advertising
agencies, right up to multinational corporations
searching for their next big brand. Many people
incorrectly assume that all the good domain
names are already taken and they settle for
something less. In fact, domain names can be
bought and sold, just like property, so it's
about time that businesses had the tools to buy,
value and sell this virtual real
estate."
Castello
Brothers Sign Big Nashville.com Deal With
DevDigital Covering Management, Development,
Monetization and Sale of the Site
The
Castello
Brothers
(Michael and David) have signed a
management, development, monetization and sale
agreement for one of their premier properties
- Nashville.com
- with Nashville based DevDigital
- one of the largest software and web
development companies in Nashville.
While
terms of the deal are subject to a non
disclosure agreement, I can say that I have seen
the details and there are significant cash
considerations involved as well as ongoing
performance metrics that give both parties an
opportunity to reap very impressive additional
revenue from the agreement going forward.
David
Castello told me, “DevDigital’s owners,
Peter
Marcum and Mitch Ballard, and I are
members of the Nashville cigar club at The
Standard (a Robb Report Top 5 Private
Cigar Club) and we’d been discussing this deal
for a good six months. Nashville.com is
now going to be developed to its fullest
potential and it will have a tremendous
impact on Nashville.” (Editor's
note: If The Standard Cigar Club sounds
familiar to you it’s probably because its
ballroom was the location where the video
for "Whisky" - a song written
and sung by upcoming Nashville based rock artist
BREE who David both manages and plays
drums for).
The
Castello Brothers: Michael (left) and
David
The
Castello Brothers acquired Nashville.com
in 2003. Michael Castello
said, “It is the only major geodomain in
our portfolio that was not acquired in
1995-97 and we spent good money for it.
Regardless, after our successes monetizing
PalmSprings.com, Acapulco.com,
LagunaBeach.com and WestPalmBeach.com,
we knew that Nashville.com was a wise
investment.”
In addition to managing sites
for numerous
Nashville businesses and developing an
online tour management system used by Rascal
Flatts and Jason Aldean,
DevDigital had their eye set on capturing
as much Nashville directed traffic as
possible. DevDigital’s Peter
Marcum said, "We have a Facebook page
about Nashville that has grown to 115,000
Likes. When I met David Castello he told
me that he and his brother owned the worldwide
brand for Nashville with
Nashville.com. I thought it was a
fairly outrageous claim until I took a
closer look and came to the realization he
was right. After that I knew it was
only a matter of time until we
forged a deal.”
DevDigital
will also be one of the companies building out
the six brands comprising the newly incorporated
Castello Brothers, Inc in Toronto: Rate.com,
Bullion.com, Whisky.com, Bootleg.com,
Kennel.com and GolfClub.com.
Nico
Zeifang, CEO of Team Internet AG's ParkingCrew,
Comments on Why Company Went After New
Acquisition - Elephant Traffic
In
a major move last weekTeam
Internet AG acquired Elephant
Traffic (a well established domain
monetization company that was co-founded
by Czech Republic super
entrepreneur Jan Barta who was
profiled in our May 2011Cover
Story). Team Internet is now
integrating Elephant Traffic into
its rapidly growing ParkingCrew.com
platform. I caught up with Team
Internet
CEO Nico Zeifang today to find
out why the company went after Elephant
Traffic and what the deal means for the
ET clients who now become members of the
ParkingCrew.
DNJournal:
Nico, for people that are not familiar with Elephant
Traffic, what was it about their brand
and client base that made them such a
desirable acquisition for you?
Nico
Zeifang:Basically,
it was a logical step for us. On
the publisher side, we had been the
preferred PPC partner for
Elephant Traffic publishers for more
than a year before we made the
acquisition. On the advertiser side,
Elephant Traffic has done a tremendous
job in educating advertisers
about Direct Navigation traffic
and the advertiser base was of great
interest to our newest Tier-2 ad network
DNTX.com.
At DNTX we are excited to provide
existing Elephant Traffic advertisers
with access to a lot more targeting
options which we believe will
seriously help them to improve yield on
their campaigns.
Team
Internet CEO Nico Zeifang
DNJournal:
Will
the Elephant Traffic brand be retained for any
other use or will you simply migrate Elephant
Traffic clients to the Parking Crew
platform?
Nico
Zeifang:Elephant
Traffic users will be migrated. Publishers will
be migrated to ParkingCrew.com
where they will profit from our fast growing Pay
Per Click Monetization product for their tier-1
traffic as well as our vast inventory of
DNTX.com advertisers for their tier-2 traffic.
Advertisers
will be migrated to DNTX.com where they
will enjoy a lot more targeting options
then previously, including Geo
Targeting, Desktop vs. Mobile vs. Tablet
Targeting, Carrier- and Device Targeting
for Mobile users and Adult vs. Non-Adult
Traffic.
DNJournal:ParkingCrew has experienced a lot of growth over
the past couple of years. What has
helped you to succeed in a sector – domain
parking – that many had all but
given up for dead after seeing steep
revenue declines in recent years?:
Nico
Zeifang:I
believe that there are three major
aspects that have helped us succeed in
this market:
We
understand the customer mindset (after all,
we had been just that for more than 10
years each - Domain owners looking to
monetize their inventory)
We understand both major markets: com/net/org
as well as ccTLDs. We make sure that
every visitor that hits our platform gets
monetized to the fullest. No matter if the
visitor is from the U.S., Germany
or Japan. No matter if he uses a
desktop computer or an outdated cell phone.
We
scale through technology rather than
manual optimization which helps us to keep
overhead costs to a minimum and thus allows
us to pay out much higher rev shares
than other companies in this market.
If
you are interesting in learning more about
ParkingCrew.com you can visit their website here.
Seven
of My Favorite Thanksgiving Sayings (and Sincere
Thanks From Me to You)
Americans
are celebratingone
of our most meaningful holidays today - Thanksgiving
- a day when we pause to give thanks for
the many blessings in our lives, from
family and friends to shelter, clothing and the
food we have to eat.
Judging
from the Thanksgiving Day feasts that are part
of the celebration in so many American homes
visitors from abroad might think that food
is at the top of our gratitude list but
the real spirit of the holiday lies much
deeper than that. Far better writers than me
have captured the essence of Thanksgiving
in some favorite quotes I'd like to share with
you today:
"God
has two dwellings; one in heaven, and the
other in a meek and thankful heart." - Izaak
Walton
"A
thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue,
but the parent of all other
virtues." - Cicero
"We
tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a
result of getting something we don't have, but
rather of recognizing and appreciating what we
do have." - Frederick Keonig
"We
would worry less if we praised more.
Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent
and dissatisfaction." - Harry A.
Ironside
"What
we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for
others and the world remains and is
immortal." - Albert Pine
"Gratitude
unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what
we have into enough, and more. It turns denial
into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to
clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a
house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace
for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."
- Melody Beattie
"God
gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today.
Have you used one to say "thank
you?" - William A. Ward
One
of the many things I have to be thankful for
today is you - the DN Journal reader. When
this year ends I will have been writing for you
for 10 years. It has been a wonderful
experience that I never would have had without
your constant support and encouragement over the
past decade. For every one of you, I
hope that your Thanksgiving Day is a truly joyous
occasion!
Woman Who
Lost Lawsuit for Squatting on Man's Personal
Name Forced to Pay Plaintiff's Legal Fees Too
A
lot of peoplehave
had UDRPs filed against them or
been sued for registering a
domain based on a celebrity's name.
However, under the Anticybersquatting
Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), a
person doesn't have to be a celebrity
for you to get in trouble if you
register their name as a domain, then
try to sell it to them for a profit.
Last Janauary attorney David Lin
of Brooklyn based Lewis
& Lin won an ACPA judgment
for a New York real estate
investor named Paul Bogoni against
a woman named Vicdania Gomez who
registered PaulBogoni.com and PaulBogoni.org
then demanded Bogoni pay her $1
million each for the domain
names.
The New
York Timesreported
that the Federal District Court for the
Southern District in Manhattan ruled that Ms. Gomez,
who apparently has a prior social
relationship with
Mr. Bogoni,
had committed cyber-extortion in
accordance with the ACPA, a federal
law intended to protect individuals
from online registrations of personal
names and trademarks made in bad
faith. After winning the suit, Lin told
the the Times, "This case
shows that people have ownership in
their own names, and they can’t be
used to ransom back to them for
extortionate purposes or for
blackmail."
Now,
you might have thought would have been
the end of it, but Lin and Mr. Bogoni
thought this squatting incident
was so egregious they might by
able to get the court to do something it
seldom does, order the defendant to pay
Bogoni's legal fees too. Last week,
after waiting 10
months for a
decision, Lin and Bogoni got some more
good news - the judge agreed with them, ruling
that Ms. Gomez is now on the hook for
Bogoni's legal fees as well as her own.
That is no small matter - Lin said his
fees exceeded $70,000. The judgment
requires Lin to provide detailed
information on the work he did on the case
before the court will set the exact amount
Ms. Gomez will have to come up with, but
it's not going to be pocket change.
A couple of
points to take away from this are 1)
registering someone's name as a domain and
then trying to sell it to them at a profit
is the kind of "bad faith"
that can wind up teaching you a very
expensive lesson (and it doesn't have to
be a trademarked or company name to put a
big dent in your
bank
account) and 2) if someone tries this
with your own name, Mr. Lin's track
record indicates he might be a good guy
to put on the case (both David and his
partner Brett Lewis are well
known in the domain industry).
Guess
Who is Heading to Hollywood After Winning
Nashville's Musician of the Year Competition -
BREE with Bandmates David Castello and Maryk
McNeely!
In
a Lowdown poston
October
24th I told you about a rapidly
rising Nashville-based rock trio fronted by
singer/songwriter/guitarist BREE with Domain
Hall of Fame member (and BREE's manager) David
Castello on drums being nominated for the 2012 RAW Nashville Musician of the Year
Award. The nominees took the stage last
night in Nashville where the audience and a
panel of judges selected the winner who will now
move on to the RAW National Finals in Hollywood,
California in January. I am happy to report
that BREE, David and bass player Maryk
McNeely are on their way toTinseltownafter taking all of the marbles in Music
City!
BREE
& bandmates David Castello & Maryk
McNeely on stage in Nashville last night
delivering
the performance that won them the 2012 RAW Nashville Musician of the Year
Award.
The
national RAWards
Indie Arts program, now in its
fourth year, is a massive undertaking that
recognizes outstanding new artists in multiple
fields across the U.S. Last night's
semi-finals were staged simultaneously in 54
different cites across America. Congratulations
to BREE, David and Maryk on their big win
and best of luck to them as they head to
Hollywood where we like their chances of
claiming RAW's 2012 American Musician of the
Year Award.
Attorney
and T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder Howard Neu Takes
the Field With a New Domain Legal Team
T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Conference Co-Founderand
veteran domain attorney Howard
Neu has just launched a new
venture. Neu has teamed up with well known Federal Litigation
Attorney Roger Teich to anchor a one-stop
web site for legal needs at DomainLegalTeam.com.
Neu
said the new site will offer help for "all your legal needs, from UDRP
and ACPA litigation to transfers, contracts, escrow agreements, leases, tax ramifications, joint ventures and partnership agreements, incorporations, corporate litigation and all other internet-related legal problems and
concerns."
Teich,
who built up a long, successful track record
duruing his time at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher &
Flom, LLP and as a clerk to United States Judge Pamela Ann
Rymer, said "We are enthusiastic that there is finally one place where everyone can resolve their legal problems and obtain valuable advice at very reasonable cost without having to go to different attorneys for each item."
The team will get additional technical and legal support from David
Black. In addition to owning and operating his own virtual litigation assistance company called
ShadowCounsel, Black will serve as litigation support specialist and ESI manager for the Domain Legal Team.
Black was previously a senior intellectual property paralegal and electronic evidence liaison at the
Silicon Valley offices of Cooley Godward LLP (now Cooley
LLP) and
Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich (now DLA Piper).
Black said, “Domain Legal Team is a virtual practice providing legal services to a client base that expects information management expertise utilizing the best available technologies. We’re more nimble, more efficient and ultimately more productive
- at a lower cost - than traditional law firms clinging to increasingly outmoded ways of conducting business in an electronic
era."
Howard
Neu
DomainLegalTeam.com
Roger
Teich
DomainLegalTeam.com
Neu,
of course, will also continue to produce the
industry's longest running domain conference
with T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder Rick
Schwartz. The 24th show in the popular
series that began in 2004 will be held at the Bellagio
Hotel in Las VegasMay 29 - June
1, 2013.
ICANN
Drops a Bomb - New TLD Point Man Kurt
Pritz Resigns Due to "Conflict of
Interest"
ICANN
CEO Fadi Chehadesent
shock waves through the domain community
(especially the segment of it involved in the
planned rollout of hundreds of new gTLDs
next year) when he announced the resignation of ICANN's
Chief Strategy Office, Kurt Pritz, today (DomainIncite's
Kevin Murphy, who covers ICANN closely, was
the first to spot the
letter breaking the news that Fehade
posted on the ICANN website).
Fehade
said that Pritz, who has played the lead role in
ICANN's controversial new gTLD program, "submitted
his resignation because of a recently identified
conflict of interest."
Unfortunately, Fehade did not disclose
what that conflict entailed, an omission that is
drawing ademand for more information
from those who have already invested hundreds
of millions of dollars in new gTLD
preparations and applications.
Kurt
Pritz
Michael
Berkens
Michael
Berkens, who runs the popularTheDomains.comblog and is also co-founder of a new
gTLD consulting company, RightOfTheDot.com,
issued a call for ICANN to "Come
Clean" on the Pritz
resignation in a blog post today. Given
the possibility that Pritz's conflict
may be related to the new gTLD program - one that involves many competing
interests who are counting on a level
playing field - Berkens said, "This
is not acceptable...In his first
address at ICANN as CEO in Toronto Mr.
Chehade spoke of transparency
time and time again. Now it the perfect
time to for ICANN to do the right
thing and tell those applicants who
just gave ICANN over $350 million
to apply for a new gTLD, many of
whom have spent years of their
life on the program what exactly the
conflict of interest is, when it was
detected, why it wasn’t detected
earlier."
So
far, Mr. Pritz, who was a widely respected
figure at ICANN, has been unavailable for
comment and Mr. Cheade's only comment on the
matter was the brief note he posted today:
To
the ICANN
Community,
Regretfully,
I have accepted the resignation of Kurt
Pritz, who has served most recently as ICANN’s
Chief Strategy Officer.
Kurt
has submitted his resignation because of a
recently identified conflict of interest,
which he immediately communicated to ICANN.
After analyzing this conflict of interest,
we decided that a change in Kurt’s role
within ICANN
would be appropriate. Kurt decided to
resign his position and role as an officer
of ICANN,
to best serve the interests of the
organization. Kurt will be engaged as a
subject matter expert where needed, but
will have no access to new gTLD
applicant information nor will he play a
role in the new gTLD
program.
I
have already put in place a plan for the
reassignment of all of Kurt’s management
responsibilities.
I
would like to thank Kurt for his many
years of service and commitment to ICANN
and our community.
Respectfully,
Fadi
With
the amount of money that has been poured
into the new gTLD program by so many
different entities, it is obvious that
this issue will remain a hot topic
until those with a stake in the process
get the answers they need to
alleviate their concerns.
Pritz
had been with ICANN since September
2003. Prior to joining domain
name system's oversight body,
Pritz spent nearly a decade at Walt
Disney Imagineering where, as
Vice President, Engineering &
Production, he was responsible for the
technical design and delivery of theme
park shows and rides worldwide.
Companies
in the News: MediaOptions, DomainIndex, Nominet
and Telnames
Domain
brokerage companyMediaOptions.com,
whose founder & CEO, Andrew Rosener,
was interviewed in our September 2012 Cover
Story about the brokerage business, announced
a key addition to their management team
today. Tess Diaz, one of Go Daddy's
longest tenured (6 1/2 years there) and most
respected Executive Account Managers, has accepted a
new Coordinator of Business Development position
with Panama-based Media Options.
CEO Andrew Rosener
said Tess was the person who got him interested
in the domain business in the first place.
Rosener said, "I couldn't be happier to have the opportunity
to work even more closely with Tess. For the past
six years Tess has been a critical advisor
and assistant to our business in her role at Go Daddy as our Executive Account Manager,
but now that we have her full time and attention, I look forward to the improvements and
innovation she'll bring to the team."
Ms.
Diaz said, "I'm delighted to join the Media
Tess
Diaz Coordinator of Business Development MediaOptions.com
Options team. Media Options is such a
responsible and respected leader, particularly in increasing end-user perceptions on
domain value via education and their own portfolio of
online businesses. Together, our clients can expect to experience Media Options' established results through our ongoing
commitment to improving efficiency and effectiveness."
Elsewhere, Nominet'scontroversial
plan to introduce .uk
domains that would compete with the long
established .co.uk extension that
Nominet already administers, resulted in
a dire
prediction of dramatically
reduced .co.uk values being issued
by DomainIndex.com
today.
The
domain
name benchmarking, rating and appraisal
service, said DomainIndex.com "believes
the introduction of the .uk TLD would massively
destroy the value of existing .co.uk
domains and in fact Nominet´s
announcement already inflicted harm to
the value of .co.uk domains and the
aftermarket, as well as the investment
climate in the .uk TLD. Our analysis of
the proposal, which Nominet defends as a
move to increase Internet Security,
would have several adverse
effects." The adverse effects
DomainIndex predicts are detailed
here.
In
news from another TLD, Telnames
is trying to breath some life
into the .tel extension,
that has been rarely seen since
its 2008 birth, by releasing a
new Mobile
Website Builder app for the
iPhone that was announced
today. The company said
the app, now available as a free
download from the Apple App
Store, "enables
professionals and businesses to
buy and create their own mobile-friendly
website in less than 10 minutes
with just their thumb."
Telnames
CEO Khashayar Mahdavi
said, "We believe this app
changes the game by removing all
the complexities
involved
in buying and building a
mobile-ready website. From today
anyone, regardless of technical
ability, can get their own place
online in a matter of minutes."
More information on the
application and Telnames can be
found at http://telnamesapp.tel.
Moving
Music/Video
Tribute to Veterans Created by Sams Family
Members Going Viral
The
United Stateswill
observe Veteran's
Day Sunday (Nov. 11), a day
that recognizes the service of all
U.S. military veterans. The
meaning and emotion behind Veteran's Day
has been captured in a remarkably moving
way in an original song and video that
has been put
together by
three very talented members of the Sams
family. The name is familiar to
people in the domain business thanks to
industry veteran David Sams (who
was the subject of September 2011 Cover
Story).
Before
he got into this business David had phenomenal
success as a Hollywood TV producer.
He played a key role in launching the
most popular syndicated talk show in
television history with Oprah
Winfrey. He was part of the
legendary team that launched other smash
hits like Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!
and he won 9EmmyAwards
along the way.
Today
I learned that David isn't the only member
of the family with extraordinary
talent. David posted a link to a music video on
his Facebook account this morning
featuring an original song called
"Dear Veteran" that is
marvelously sung by his 13-year-old
daughter Elizabeth, who also
co-wrote the tune with her mother, Renee
Sams. After being both floored
and inspired when Elizabeth sent him
a copy of her song, David put his video
production talents to work stitching
together a stunning collage of scenes
that completed this
very special package.
David
Sams
at a 2009 Academy Awards
dinner in Hollywood, California
David
and daughter Elizabeth Sams
It
looks like "Dear Veteran" is quickly
goingviral. Within an hour of when David
posted the YouTube link to the video,
more than 50 others has shared the link with
their friends. By the end of the day it will be
in triple digits if not more. You can see this
special gift to our veterans by clicking Play on
the video below.
The
Top
20 All-Cash Domain Sales Reported Since
DNJournal.com Started Tracking the Aftermarket
in 2003
Last
weekin
a post
about Marchex releasing a list of
their 500 biggest domain sales
over the past four years, I noted that I
have never published an all-time
top domain sales list, because I can't
vouch for sales reported before
we started tracking and verifying
aftermarket sales in late 2003.
Many of
the sales reported prior to that were
not cash deals. Instead payment was often made,
at least partially, with stock
(usually of questionable value
at best). Still others were entirely
bogus. Since no one (that I
know of) was checking, it was
something some unscrupulous
people did in an effort to pump
up the perception of value
in a keyword string or TLD that
they had a financial interest
in. Of course, there were some
impressive real sales in
that era too, I just can't vouch
for which ones were and which
ones were not.
What
I did do a couple of years ago
this month, is post in this column a list
of the Top 20 Sales ever reported
by DNJournal.com. With the
release of the Marchex sales last week,
it occurred to me that this might be a
good time to update our all time
Top 20 covering sales we have reported
since we began tracking the market
almost 10 years ago.
As
it happens none of the Marchex
sales were high enough to elbow
their way onto this list. It
takes at least $1.5 million
to make it and the top sale on
the Marchex 500 was Norwegian.com
at $700,000. No surprise
really because at these levels,
sales that rank among the
decade's 20 biggest are few and
far between.
In
fact only two sales made
in the two years since we first
published this list qualified
for the DNJ Top 20 (2003-Now).
One of those, the late 2010 sale
of Sex.com,
brokered by Sedo's
Jeff Gabriel (now the
President atDomainAdvisors.com),
soared all the way to #1
where it remains at a
cool
$13
million. The other newcomer
- coming on board at #12 - is
last year's $2,600,000 sale
of Social.com, handled
jointly by Monker.com
and NameQuiver.com.
Here is the complete Top 20:
The
20 biggest cash domain sales
ever reported by DNJournal.com
1.
Sex.com
$13,000,000
12.
Social.com
$2,600,000
2.
Fund.com
$9,999,950
13.
Computer.com
$2,100,000
3.
Porn.com
$9,500,000
14.
Seniors.com
$1,800,000
4.
Diamond.com
$7,500,000
15.
Fly.com
$1,760,000
5.
Slots.com
$5,500,000
16.
Dating.com
$1,750,000
6.
Toys.com
$5,100,000
17.
Auction.com
$1,700,000
7.
Clothes.com
$4,900,000
18.
DataRecovery.com
$1,659,000
8.
(tie) Vodka.com
$3,000,000
19.
Ticket.com
$1,525,000
8
(tie). Candy.com
$3,000,000
20.
(tie) Russia.com
$1,500,000
10.
Shopping.de
$2,858,945*
20.
(tie) Tandberg.com
$1,500,000
11.
CreditCards.com
$2,750,000
20.
(tie) Cameras.com
$1,500,000
*Shopping.de
sold for €1,960,000 in 2008.
The dollar equivalent at that
time was $2,858,945.
While
the Top 20 chart above is
current through today - November
8, 2012 - changes will occur
over time, so, to make an updated
listalways available,
I have placed a permanent DNJournal
Top 20 Chart (2003-Present)linkin our Domain
Sales Archve with
that chart being updated every
time a new sale qualifies for
the elite list.
Big
Changes at Sedo - Three Co-Founders &
Chief Sales Officer Leaving
Earlier
this yearSedo
Co-Founder and Former CEO Tim Schumacherleft
the company that he started 12 years
ago with Ulrich Priesner, Marius Würzner
and Ulrich Essmann. Today, the popular
domain monetization and aftermarket sales
company announced
that Priesner, Würzner and Essmann will also
be exiting, along with Chief Sales Officer Liesbeth
Mack-de Boer, shortly after the 1st of the
year.
Moving
up from within Sedo’s ranks, Dirk
Ochotzki will now serve as Head of
Operations, Joel Ghebaly as Head of
Product Management (Traffic Monetization), and
Simonetta Batteiger as Head of Product
Management (Trading).
Sedo
CEO Tobias Flaitz
Tobias
Flaitz, CEO of Sedo Holding AG,
said, “I would like to thank the
departing founders and management
members for the last 12 years in which
Sedo has matured from a fast growing
start-up to the world’s largest domain
marketplace with more than 140 employees
serving our global customer base. With
changing market requirements and
increasing competition, Sedo enters the
next stage in its growth with changes at
the management level that will let the
company continue to cater to today’s
client expectations.”
Co-Founder
Ulrich Essmann, who has been serving as
President of Sedo.com, LLC, said “By
the nature of the domain business, Sedo
has always been an evolving
organization, and embracing change
is part of the company’s DNA. Today we
are very proud to pass on management
responsibility to longtime team
members who will enable Sedo to
capitalize on its tremendous growth
opportunity and bright future.”
With
Mr. Flaitz anchoring the next generation
of Sedo leadership, the company's announcement
said Sedo is poised for further growth in its
second decade by bringing to market
innovative domain solutions that help
companies and entrepreneurs capitalize on their online
real estate potential, citing a recently
launched suite
of services to help launch promote and grow new
gTLDs as one example.
Rick
Schwartz Launches New Business Based on
"Million Dollar" Domain Names at
JointVentures.com
"Domain
King" Rick Schwartzhas
added a new business to an
entrepreneurial portfolio that already includes
the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
domain conference and eRealEstate.com,
the home base for his domain monetization and
development endeavors. Schwartz has just
launched Jointventures.com,
a
new platform that will he said will give
companies wanting to differentiate their brand
online an opportunity to secure a premium
generic .com website domain name with zero
up-front capital cost through a joint
venture or a leasing arrangement."
Schwartz
said over 1,000 of his company's generic
and brandable website domain names, including Homemade.com,
Tradeshows.com, VirtualTours.com
and Widgets.com, have been set aside for
free use or to lease to qualifying companies. He
said JointVentures.com offers "a
new strategy for CEOs and marketing
executives of small, medium and large companies
with growth ambitions to get a "million
dollar website domain name" without the
high price tag or capital layout of category
defining domain names frequently reported
sold in today's secondary market."
Rick
Schwartz
Founder, JointVentures.com
The
plan allows member companies to apply for
a profit-sharing joint venture and if
selected receive the exclusive right to use and
develop the premium domain name of their choice
in exchange for a domain partnership deal
based on pay-per-lead, pay-per-sale,
pay-per-call, and/or percentage equity stake.
Domain name lease agreements for an affordable
monthly fee are also being offered.
Schwartz
said selling domain names for cash is not
a part of his company eRealEstate.com's business
model. He noted that he has sold only 18
domain names outright over the past 18 years,
but those have totaled over $10 million
dollars, including transactions that received
international media attention including iReport.com
(sold to CNN for $750,000), Men.com
for $1.3 million, Candy.com
for $3 million + royalties, and Property.com
for $4 million plus stock.
"I
started in this business in 1995 with
a 20 year plan, and we are now in
the final phases," Schwartz said.
"Our business does not have the
resources, time, or infrastructure
necessary to actively go into all of the
business industries for which we own
domain names receiving traffic,
generating over 100,000 potential
customers every day. In fact, we never
planned to do so. Instead, today we
lease our domain names or joint venture
with companies to develop them into
website businesses, and then receive a
fair percentage of our partners'
increased profits."
Schwartz
said that over 3 million
consumers per month visit the
eRealEstate family of websites, that
includes some
Rick
Schwartz welcoming attendees to the
Oct. 2012
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference at Ft.
Lauderdale Beach, Florida
of the
most popular category-defining
destination website domain names in the
world, such as Candy.com,
BirthdayParty.com, PunchBowl.com,
ChiantiWine.com, HelicopterCharter.com,
CubicZirconia.com, Property.com
and many more, all operated by domain
lessees, joint venture partners and
other agreements.
In addition to his own domains, Schwartz said JointVentures.com
services will also be available to domain
investors that have category defining
domain names and others of "obvious
great value." Schwartz said,
"Great domains with low earnings on PPC can
increase domain investor payouts by large
multiples with just our standard $1500
per month annual lease. The cost of which is
still just a fraction of a full running brick
and mortar store capable of attracting mostly
customers from a very specific and small
geographic area compared to a worldwide
presence with unlimited expansion
capabilities."
Schwartz
added that JointVentures.com does not
accept .net, .org or
any country specific domain names
or any other extension. .Com only.
While JointVentures.com has already made
a "soft" launch Schwartz said
the official opening will be on December
1, 2012. For additional information
on the marketing, branding, credibility,
memorability and business growth
benefits of operating a business online
from a premium generic .com domain name
Schwartz encouraged interested companies
to review the information and list of
category defining domain names provided
atJointVentures.com
and apply now.
Sedo
Releases 3rd Quarter Sales Results - Reports
Much Stronger Median Sale Prices Than a Year Ago
Editor's
Note: After this article was posted,
Sedo issued an updated
release deleting references to the median
price increases cited in their initial press
release that was quoted in this article. In
researching median price questions raised by Andrew
Allemann at DomainNameWire,
Sedo reported finding a currency error that
produced incorrect median numbers, resulting in
that metric being withdrawn in their updated
release.
Domain
aftermarket powerhouseSedo.com
released their latest quarterlyDomain
Market Study(.pdf file) today. The
report breaks down sales results on Sedo's
popular platform in the recently completed 3rd
quarterof 2012. The numbers Sedo
reported mirror a trend we saw in the
3Q-2012 data we collected from sales venues throughout
the industry - higher median sale prices
but lower total dollar volume compared to
the same quarter a year ago (a breakdown of our
data will be in our next monthly
newsletter that we expect to publish
tomorrow).
The
drop in total dollar volume resulted from fewer blockbuster
sales at the ultra high end of the market as
weakness in the general economy seemed to make
buyers too skittish to pull the trigger on
seven-figures deals (only one has been
publicly reported in 2012 - PersonalLoans.com
at an even $1,000,000 last February).
Though high end sales have been few and far
between, the mid range of the market has been a different
story with a steady stream of sales at
median prices that have moved up from a
year ago (the median price is the point at which
half of all sales were higher and half were
lower).
Sedo
reported "median sales prices for the most
popular generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) saw significant
increases from the same quarter a year ago,
indicating strong momentum in domain
value. Specifically, .COM domains saw a
year-over-year increase of 41%, while
.NET and .ORG domains both increased 44%.
By contrast, the lack of high end sales across
the industry resulted in total dollar volume at
Sedo falling over 20% from $19.3
million in 3Q-2011 to $15.1 million
in 3Q-2012.
Sedo'saverage sales price for .COM
domains increased from $2,107 in
the previous quarter to $2,225 in
3Q-2012 with .COM domains accounting for
49% of Sedo's sales. The average
sales price of .NET sales "plummeted
almost $1,000 in the third quarter,
suggesting that the high average
experienced last quarter was the result
of several very high value sales,"
another illustration of how a handful
of sales can skew total dollar volume
and average sale prices
dramatically. The
average sales price for .ORG
domains increased to $1,313, up
9% from the previous quarter,
largely thanks to the sale of Work.org
for $55,000.
The
Sedo report said domains were purchased by buyers in more than 160 countries worldwide,
"further highlighting both the
global importance
of securing the right domain for a business and the
creative approaches some registries have
implemented to market country code
Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)." Sedo
also noted that Buy Now transactions
(sales made at fixed prices rather than
through back and forth negotiations)
accounted for 42% of all sales
there - further evidence of a trend that
has been growing annually - buyers
showing a preference for set prices
rather than haggling for a domain.
How
Will All of Those Big Marchex Domain Sales
Revealed Thursday Fit Into DNJournal's Charting
System?
As
I told youyesterday,
when Marchex
announced they were spinning off their massive
portfolio of domain assets into a new company
called Archeo (this
.pdf file has details on what the
new company will be doing), Marchex also
released, for the first time, the
prices they received in each of their top
500 domain sales over the past four years.
With
49 of those sales hitting six figures,
ranging all the way up to $700,000, obviously
many of the newly revealed transactions would
have ranked high on the annual Top 100 sales
lists we publish at the end of each year (you
can see all of those in our Domain
Sales Archive - scroll down past the
weekly headline links to the last section with
links to the annual Top 100 charts).
Since
Marchex did not release the dates their
sales were made I couldn't assign qualifying
sales to a specific Top 100 chart so I had to
decide how to best recognize this treasure
trove of new sales information and fit it
into our existing data covering tens of
thousands of sales reported over the past
decade in a way that would make it easily
accessible to our readers going forward.
We
have never had a situation like this come up
before, so I considered several options before
deciding the best route would be to add a special
entry in our Domain Sales Archive detailing
how the Marchex sales, made over a span of
several years, came to be released, including a permanent
link to their complete Top 500 list - just
as there is a link to each of our Top 100
charts.
In
the years over which the Marchex sales
were made, I found that it took a
minimum of $73,500 for a domain
to qualify for any one of our
annual charts across that span. 72 names
on the Marchex list beat that number.
With a lot of detective work it
may (or may not) have been possible to
eventually run down the years in which
those sales were made so they could be
put on existing Top 100 charts - but
that would have meant that an average of
18 names on each of the present
charts since 2008 would be deleted.
Since
our purpose is to try to bring you more
sales information rather than less, I didn't
think that was the best option. You could have
still dug through hundreds of weekly columns (all
of which are linked to in the Archive) to find
the 72 notable sales that would have been
bumped, but that would take forever rather than
having them readily available to you where they
are now.
Also,
since none of the Marchex sales were reported
when they happened, none were included in our weekly
reports over the years - another
reason to make their list a permanent
special entry, otherwise the 428 Marchex
sales that would not have qualified for one of the Top
100 lists, would never be seen again in our
Sales Archive.
Last but
not least is the fact that the Top 100
lists, with or without Marchex sales,
are still just a sampling of the
sales that have taken place over the
years. We all know that publicly
reported sales represent just a
fraction of aftermarket activity.
Most sales, especially at the high end
of the market, are never reported due to
non disclosure agreements. For that
reason we have always taken pains to
note that our charts are meant primarily
to be an educational tool that allows you to see how much
specific domain names have sold
for - not a complete list of every sale
that took place as such a list is
impossible to compile due to the
majority of sales being kept private.
The vast number of significant sales
Marchex made that went previously
unreported is a perfect example of that.
We only see the tip of the iceberg.
Still,
being able to detail the specifics from
a broad range of public sales is helpful
in giving all of us a better
understanding of domain values and sales
trends over a long period of time.
Through the links in our Sales
Archive to all of our
weekly columns since 2003, the annual
Top
100 charts
and now the Marchex list - all of that
information is readily available to you
in one spot.
One
final point while I am on the subject of
reporting sales. I am often asked why we don't
publish an all-time top sales chart. The
reason is that I have always refused to vouch
for any sales reported prior to the fall of 2003
when we began collecting, verifying to the best
of our ability and publishing reported sales.
Prior to that a lot of people were claiming
to have made big sales - many of which were
later proven to be bogus -
comprised of either "funny money"
deals that involved more worthless stock
than cash or even worse - numbers that were
nothing more than someone's vivid
imagination. At the time no one (that I
know of) was attempting to verify whether some of
the sales claims being thrown around were real.
As a result, I am not comfortable including
pre-2003 sales on an "all time"
chart with my name on it. I'm sure there
were many legitimate and sizeable all cash
sales made in earlier years, I just can't tell
you with enough certainty which ones fit that
description.
Marchex
Splits Into Two Companies - Domain Assets Go to
New Business Dubbed Archeo - Prices Paid in
Highest Marchex Domain Sales Revealed For the
First Time
Marchex,one
of the few public companies in the domain
business, made a huge splash in 2005 when
the Seattle based company spent $164 million
to acquire a portfolio of more than 100,000
domains that had been assembled by reclusive
investor
Yun
Ye (who did business under the Ultimate
Search banner. We detailed the early history
of Marchex in a September
2006 Cover Story).
Since
then Marchex has tried several ways to
best monetize their domain assets (which
have grown to approximately a quarter
of a million names today) and along
the way the cash flow from their domains
gave them funds they used to branch into
new areas including pay per
call (rather than pay per click), call
analytics and mobile marketing.
With
the advent of the iPhone and explosion
of cell phone use in general those
three areas became the company's most
important growth centers and today
accounts for more than 80% of
Marchex's business with the company
recently hitting $120 million in
annualized revenue from those
categories. Marchex CEO Russell
Horowitz said, "Our
company is the largest mobile
advertising company few have heard of.
But most important, it’s driving
better
advertiser ROI than
any other mobile business." Details about
this key component of the Marchex
strategy are in a new 16-page Marchex
Summary (.pdf file) that the
company released today.
In
a phone interview Wednesday Horowitz told me the rapid growth of
its call/mobile advertising platform
resulted in the company becoming a kind
of "half man, half beast"
with the domain assets not getting
the attention they deserved due to
the company's focus on its new profit
centers. So, after a
strategic review, management decided to spin
the domain assets off in a new
company called Archeo - a move
that was announced after the stock
market closed this afternoon. Horowitz
said that the spin off of Archeo (whose
goal is to "develop the
industry’s most dynamic domain and
advertising marketplace") will
help Marchex unlock maximum value
from each side.
Horowitz
will remain as Marchex CEO and
also serve as Chairman at Archeo,
but he said an entirely new
management team will be
hired to run that company.
Horowitz said he believed the
assets going to Archeo are worth
nine figures based on the
fact that Marchex raked in
$30 million for a tiny
fraction of their portfolio
- a few hundred names that have
been sold over the past three
and a half years - names that
Horowitz said were neither core
assets nor the best domains in
the Marchex portfolio. Horowitz
added that the company has
turned down seven-figure offers
on several domains it continues
to own.
In a
release of new information that
will be of special interest to
domain investors, Marchex underscored
the point above by publishing, for the
first time, the prices they received
for their top 500 domain sales.
More than a dozen of those went for
prices ranging from $200,000 to $700,000
as shown below:
The Marchex
sales list included 35 more
six-figure sales. You can see the
complete list of their 500
largest sales here (.pdf
file).
With Archeo
the
company plans to be involved in domain
sales, monetization and development
saying:
We
will take a build or partner
approach to develop businesses
complementary to our vertical focus
and expand our strategic domain
sales support efforts. This
includes entering the buy-now
market where we did not previously
participate.
Our
premium vertical PPC product
will focus on innovative new
features and entering new verticals.
Our
unique and highly valuable domain
portfolio and history in performance
advertising provides a limitless
ability to build new businesses.
For further
details, see a tidy summary - in bullet
points - of the Marchex Story,
tracing the company's evolution, and the
Birth of Archeo in this two-page Word
document.
If
you've been out of the loop lately, catch up in the Lowdown
Archive!
We need your help to keep giving domainers The
Lowdown, so please email [email protected]with any interesting information you might have. If possible,
include the source of your information so we can check it out (for
example a URL if you read it in a forum or on a site
elsewhere).
