WEST PALM BEACH, FL – The domain name memento.com has sold at Sedo.com according to their latest weekly domain sales report. The name, currently parked at Godaddy.com, is a word which means “an object kept as a reminder or souvenir of a person or event” – pretty interesting its worth that much. You just never know these days what a domain name will be sold for. People often ask my opinion of what their domain names might be worth, and in most cases, no one really knows. It … [Read more...]
Nonprofit “ICANN” Exists to Serve the Public Good, Or Does It? What Say You?
PALM BEACH, FL – An important awareness message came out of The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) today, and it should make, even the least interested shopper, question whether or not price increases to consumers are justified when an item or service is purchased from a company with specific oversight from an authoritative body. Whether it is over domain names, or anything else, the question should be, when does a company - any company, which is permitted to … [Read more...]
Bad News for ICANN: Pressure Intensifies for Decision Behind .Org Price Cap Removals
PALM BEACH, FL – Sometimes they say “where there is smoke, there is fire,” and the room keeps getting hotter for ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, for its poor, super-controversial and extremely suspect decision to allow the Registry Agreement with Public Interest Registry to renew without price-caps in place. The whole situation is turning into a hot potato / can of worm’s scenario where -if- any backroom deals or funny business exists; … [Read more...]
Wyden: “I Will Explore Every Avenue To Ensure Users, Nonprofits Are Protected”
PALM BEACH, FL - In the ongoing debacle which has highlighted ICANN's unusual position on the .org registry sale which resulted in the billion-dollar sale of .org to a private equity company, US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) told The Register that the response from Ethos Capital to his and several of his colleges concerns regarding the sale .org - just isn't good enough. ....nothing in this response addresses my concerns that selling .org to a private equity firm would be a … [Read more...]
Profiteering? ICANN’s “Terrible Blunder” Expected to Cost Non-Profits Dearly
PALM BEACH, FL – On November 13, 2019, news began circling that Public Interest Registry (PIR), the Reston, Virginia-based not-for-profit created to manage the “.org” top-level domain name had been acquired by a private equity management firm called Ethos Capital. Since then, the ICA, Internet Commerce Association, a non-profit organization representing domain owners, delivered a letter to ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, calling on the … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Releases Weekly Domain Name Sales List 11/11/2019 – 11/17/2019
PALM BEACH, FL – 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 GamesApp.com at $15,000 USD, the top ccTLD as Porn.co at 20,000 EUR ($22,154.90 US) and the top other as Dawn.org a at $50,000 USD [will be interesting to see what Dawn.org is used for]. Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 11/11/2019 – … [Read more...]
With Price Caps Removed, Dot Org Domain Name Registry Acquired by Ethos Capital
PALM BEACH, FL – In a move that surprises few industry experts, Public Interest Registry (PIR), the Reston, Virginia-based not-for-profit created by the Internet Society in 2002 to manage the “.org” top-level domain name has been acquired by private equity management firm Ethos Capital. The acquisition comes shortly after ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, permitted the removal of price caps on “.org” domain name registrations on June 30, … [Read more...]
End User 4 Letter Double X .COM Beats Out 3 Letter .COMs in Sedo Weekly Sales List
PALM BEACH, FL – When Sedo released its weekly sales list yesterday, a list of public transactions above $2,000., the weeks highlights included saxx.com (purchased by www.saxxunderwear.com) sold for $65,000 USD as well as three, three letter .com domains: OLI.com at $50,000 USD, ZEQ.com at $44,030 USD and DYO.com at $35,000 USD. Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 11/04/2019 – 11/10/2019. Domain … [Read more...]
Domain Industry Takes Note of ICANN Update to Public Comment Guidelines
PALM BEACH, FL – On October 9, 2019, ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit corporation that sets policy for the global Domain Name System (DNS), updated its “policy guidelines” for how it collects and takes into considering feedback from the ICANN community or the general public. The update was posted on the organizations website by David Olive, Senior Vice President of Policy Development Support. The ICANN site states the following … [Read more...]
NamesCon 2019 Domain Auction Returns from Explosive Year of $2.4 Million is Sales
PALM BEACH – What do you do when a live and online auction produces lackluster results? Why, you re-run it again a couple of months later (Just kidding - As soon as I saw the title of the email, Back by “Popular Demand”, I thought, yea right – but NUMBERS my friends, do not lie, and those numbers show that Domaining, is indeed very much alive and well; at least at NamesCon it is.) Yesterday, NameJet.com and RightOfTheDot.com announced via email and a formal press release … [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...]
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...]
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...]
A “PRIME” Example That .COM Leads in Necessity; nGTLDs Registered Defensively
NEW YORK, NY – It has been recently discovered, that the single word domain name Prime.com, which had been reportedly for sale in the seven figure range (Between $1M and $5M), at least since 2011, is now intellectual property of tech-giant Amazon. The name, which was originally registered in 1987, shows being parked since 2004 via archive. An exact ‘price’ of the domain is not currently known (although I am sure someone out there is working diligently to try and dig … [Read more...]
Why I Told My “New gTLD” Project to “Suck It” – Will Rebrand with King of all URLs
NEW YORK, NY - It takes a lot for a guy like me to give-up on a project or otherwise throw-in-the-towel, especially when I am not even sure how hard I really tried to begin with, but I like to be two steps ahead, and I like to work smart, not hard. That’s why I told Uniregistry to keep the Find.cars URL domain - forget it, let it expire, I’ll just re-brand as FindCarsforSale.com. Here’s my thought process and how it all went down; hill. Two years ago, when .cars domains … [Read more...]