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Here
Are a Couple of Hints for Your
Holiday Reading and Listening
Enjoyment
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As
we near the end of another year
we're already starting to get
reports from various companies
breaking down how they fared in
2021. An
interesting one from Namecheap,
the second world's second biggest
domain registrars is out and their
2021
Domain Insights & Trends
Report is full of
easy to absorb information,
thanks to its graphics-rich
format.
Among
the things the report provides is a list of the Top 20 TLDs (in terms
of total registration numbers) at
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Namecheap in 2021. It's not surprising to
see .com at the top but seeing .xyz at #2 with over three
times more registrations than #3 .net is an interesting sign of the
times. Another, new gTLD, .club is #4 with a ccTLD, .me,
rounding out the top five. Overall 45% of all Namecheap
registration were .coms (down from 48% last year) with all other TLDs
combined taking 55% (up from 52% last year).
Another
interesting breakout shows which TLDS have the highest percentage of
renewals. The leaders in that category are completely different TLDs
with Canada's .ca #1 (with over 72% of .ca domains
renewed), followed by new gTLD .dev, .io, .org and
another new G, .media. Two of the TLDs that are in the top five in
total registrations (.xyz and .club) are in the bottom five when it comes to
renewal rates (the lowest by that metric are .icu and .site). You can check
out the full report here.
I
can also recommend some insightful listening if podcasts are
more your cup of tea - though I have to admit this tip comes with some
built-in bias on my part. Most of you are already familiar with Alvin
Brown's excellent Kickstart
Commerce podcast series. In the latest episode I am Alvin's
guest on a 78-minute ride that recounts my journey
through radio, music retail and TV reporting before finally discovering the
domain industry 20 years ago (yikes!) - as well as why I have been in
love with this business ever since! You can check that out here
and if you don't enjoy it Alvin will give you your money back! (I know it's
already free, but it's the thought that counts)!
Host
Alvin Brown (left) interviews DNJournal's Ron Jackson at
Kickstart Commerce
In
the meantime, I want to wish all of your who are celebrating the season the merriest
of Christmases, the happiest of all the holidays and a record
breaking new year in 2022!
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(Posted
December 24, 2021) To refer others to the
post above only (and not the full Lowdown column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2021/dailyposts/20211224.htm
*****
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(Posted
December 25, 2021)
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George
Kirikos Uncovers $2.2 Million Sale
of Forge.com - One of 5 Biggest
Domain Sales Reported Year to Date
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If
it is a weekend
George Kirikos is
likely looking through SEC
filings to see if he can
uncover yet another previously
unreported blockbuster domain
sale. That proved true again this
morning when George reported his
latest major find. As
reported on his FreeSpeech.com
blog, Kirikos
uncovered a $2,202,000 sale of Forge.com
that was completed in the 3rd
quarter of 2021. George found the
proof in this SEC
filing submitted by
the buyer, private securities
marketplace Forge
Global. As Kirikos
also noted, Forge announced plans
to go public in a $2 billion SPAC
deal they announced
in September.
We
will be charting this sale in our
next bi-weekly Domain
Sales Report that will
be published Wednesday evening
(December 22). Assuming no larger
sale is reported before then, this
will rank as the 5th biggest
publicly reported domain sale of
the year
to date. It is the eight
domain sale of $2 million or more
reported thus far in 2021 (many
others reached or surpassed that
level that were not reported due
to non-disclosure
agreements).
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Image
from Bigstock
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(Posted
December 18, 2021) To refer others to the
post above only (and not the full Lowdown column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2021/dailyposts/20211218.htm
*****
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Idea
to .Store Contest Winners Ready
to Open Online Businesses
with Cash and Mentoring Earned in
Radix Event
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In
late October
we told
you about a new
contest from Radix's .store
domain registry, sponsored by Shopify,
that gave entrepreneurs who
dreamed of operating their own
business online a chance to get
the cash and professional
advice they needed to make
their dreams come true. Entrants
in the Idea to .Store
contest were invited to share
their ideas for an online store,
and nearly 5,000 people
signed up. That contest has now
closed with the winners walking
away with cash prizes of up to $30,000
along with exclusive Q&A
and mentoring from the judges. The
grand prize winner will also be
featured on David Meltzer’s
2 Minute Drill;
aired on Bloomberg TV and Amazon
Prime.
The
winner and runner-up, Indira
Andrewin and Erika Warner
respectively, were both given the
chance to pitch their ideas to a
highly accomplished panel of
judges along with four other
finalists. Judges for the contest
included Seth
Godin, Entrepreneur,
Best-selling Author, &
Speaker; Natalie Ellis, CEO
& Co-founder, BossBabe;
Danielle Canty, President
& Co-founder, BossBabe;
John
Lee Dumas (JLD),
Founder & Host, Entrepreneurs
on Fire podcast; and Neha
Naik, Senior Director
of Channel Partnerships at Radix.
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Judge
Danielle Canty said, “I absolutely loved the contest. I think it's really
allowed so many people to take that first step in their
business." Finalist Luanettee Colebrooke said, “There
were so many women (and aspiring entrepreneurs in general) that .Store
Domains encouraged. I just want to thank .Store Domains so much for being a
place where our voices can be heard and validated.”
It
was good to see the contest turned out to be a model of gender and race
diversity across participants, just as you would hope given that women
are responsible for more than half of online microbusinesses started
in the U.S. since the onset of the pandemic. According to the 2021 Microbusiness
National Survey by GoDaddy,
women-owned microbusinesses comprised 57% of new micro-businesses, up
from 48% before March 2020. The help the winners and finalists received
also went where it was needed most. The statistics shows microbusiness
owners struggle the most with digital marketing (63%), access to capital
(36%) and technical help in getting online (28%).
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Suman
Das
Sr. Director, Brand Operations at Radix |
Suman
Das, Sr Director, Brand Operations at Radix, said, “Through
this contest, .Store Domains intended to make it easier for to-be
entrepreneurs to put out their idea; the very first step in
building a business. The prizes were planned in such a way that it
sets the winners up for a good run with their ventures. The seed
money, guidance from the judges around marketing and scaling, and
the visibility that the contest has provided to the winners will go
a long way in turning their ideas to stores, and hopefully
successful ones at that.” This was .Store’s first such campaign
but almost certainly not the last. Suman Das noted, “We plan to
continue taking more such initiatives to encourage aspiring
business owners to embark on their entrepreneurial journey.”
Since
the beginning of 2021, Radix has put out multiple end-customer
campaigns that have focused on providing a platform for new ideas to
come forth. From .Tech’s StartIn.Tech
and Pitch.Tech,
to .Online Business
Academy and .Store’s IdeaTo.Store
- all of which were designed to enable the formation of new
businesses. |
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(Posted
December 13, 2021) To refer others to the
post above only (and not the full Lowdown column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2021/dailyposts/20211213.htm
*****
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When
the Domain Sales Boom Ends One
Expert Thinks The Culprit May Not
Be the One You Expect
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As
we near the end of 2021,
many
of us have begun assessing
what kind of year we've
had and what the prospects
for our industry look like
as we get ready to head
into a new year. On one
hand, we had clearly seen
a continuing boom
in the domain aftermarket.
On the other, some wonder
if competition from
growing digital assets
like NFTs and crypto
could siphon off some of
the revenue that has been
fueling the domain surge.
Last month, when I was in
touch with veteran domain
broker Neil Bostick
(QEIP.com)
about the
launch of his
new high-end domain
marketplace, Graen.com,
I got his thoughts on
where we've been this year
and what he sees ahead in
2022 and saved the notes
to share with you once we got
into this month - the
closing stretch of |
Image
from Bigstock
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2021.
Bostick's view echoed the
ambivalence about market
prospects that I noted
above. "In
general, the market is
obviously red hot and
there are a few different
things that really excite
me and a couple small
things that worry me,"
Bostick said. However, his
biggest cause for concern
turned out to be a different
disruptor (and time
frame) than that posed by
NFTs and
crypto. |
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Neil
Bostick
Founder, Graen.com |
"For
some perspective, my sales were relatively the same between 2018 and
2019 but then I did 3 times more sales in 2020 than I did in
2019. I think this was because there was a boom in new startups
beginning after so many industries were forced online (with COVID).
Then in 2021, I’ve done 3 times more sales (so far) from 2020.
I think that this was because the bigger companies that were forced
online in 2020, planned their 2021 marketing budget to account
for larger domain purchases/upgrades (they couldn’t move as
fast as the startups in 2020). With Graen, I expect to do more
than 3 times my 2021 sales in 2022 …but I don’t think that
will be because of market forces - more so just because of the
platform taking market share. There is definitely a lot of funding
still going on and that money is going to be spent in the next year
or two so I definitely have a lot of confidence that the domain
market is going to be hot for the near term."
"That
said, it is keen to note that a lot of investor demand for domains
right now may also be a side effect of just larger demand for |
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collectibles
in general. This slightly concerns me as a major indicator of a bubble
has tended to correlate with high valuations for non-productive
assets (non-income generating assets) like collectibles, a category
that some domains can fall into. So I worry if the collectibles/NFT
market implodes, domains will likely be a casualty. I do have
a lot more confidence in domains than I do in NFTs but I’d be
remiss if I didn’t note their correlation. The biggest casualty
might be Collectibles.com
which I am trying to sell." |
"As
a lifelong ‘Devil’s Advocate’, a constant thing I always think
about with domains is its lifecycle - any domain investor would be
lying to themselves if they think that domains have an infinite life. They
are intrinsically a main asset of one of the biggest technological
developments in human history - yet as any technological asset, they are
only as good as the system behind them (and all technology becomes
obsolete at one point or another). The question in my mind is when is the
climax for domains and at what point is the next generation of
‘global online real estate’ going to become available," Bostick
wondered.
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"With
new developments like the focus on the ‘metaverse’ and
all of these technology companies (like Google, Amazon,
Facebook, etc.) having their own small version of an open
source internet on their platform, I ask myself when will be the day
that someone is crazy enough to invent the new network for the
world (one faster, more efficient, safer, etc.). I think the
implication that many people might not think about is that with a
new ‘metaverse’, or platform to reinvent the internet, comes the
new opportunity or threat to have domains be made obsolete (through
the use of a new system)."
Bostick
continued, "Many
people are worried about .COM being made obsolete (or at
least, less dominant) by the emergence of new TLDs, but I would
argue that the risk of |
Image
from Bigstock
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domains
in general being made obsolete (or going the way of MySpace
handles) may be a bigger concern. That said, I ground my
work/investments/businesses in domains on the fact that if domains
are made obsolete, it would not be a fast process and so many
tech companies would simultaneously become obsolete and the return
of my domain investments and SP500 index might have similar
percentages of loss. With all the faith I have in the domain
industry, I remind myself that companies can adapt while digital
assets cannot. That's
me being a contrarian as a I don’t believe in over-selling
anything - just saying it how I think it is. Regardless, I am
very confident in the domain industry and hope that Graen.com
will be able to weather the storm as a major player for the next 20
years!
(Posted
December 3, 2021) To refer others to the
post above only (and not the full Lowdown column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2021/dailyposts/20211203.htm
*****
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