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GoDaddy Auctions sold 38,366 domains last month including Go.Pro for $40k

Andrew Allemann — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:34:35 +0000

A phenomenal .pro sale among domain sales on GoDaddy Auctions.

GoDaddy Auctions sold 38,366 domain names last month, about 1,000 fewer than it sold in December.

That includes the eye popping sale of Go.Pro for $40,000.

That’s not a typo. The domain was purchased by a doctor in Maryland.

Other top sales for the month include:

diy.org $60,000
bestrecipes.com $45,000
uros.com $30,000
quod.com $30,000
10-4.com $16,000
eventguru.com $15,925
retireme.com $15,495
definedbenefitplan.com $15,000
gamebreak.com $12,650

About half of the domains were sold via auction and the other half via “buy now” listings.

The top word included in domains sold was “online”, followed by “best”, “blog”, and home. Other popular keywords include:

news
music
free
casino
business
insurance
design
home
video
shop
health
site
club
your
world
auto
life

“Online” is almost always the most often included keyword you’ll find in GoDaddy’s domain sales report. Domainers should take note.

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6 things that could go horribly wrong with new TLDs

Andrew Allemann — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:55:24 +0000

If any of these things happen the new TLD program will have some serious headaches.

ICANN officially opens its application window for top level domain names today, giving companies, organizations, and individuals 90 days to submit their plans for a .whatever.

The plan has many notable flaws, but six of them seem to me like the biggest break points in the program — things that could delay individual applications or lead to lawsuits against ICANN.

1. Community gaming

This is going to be a big one. The application process gives preference to applicants representing “communities”. But I suspect just about everyone (save for .brands) will try to claim community status. .Music? We represent the music industry and fans. .Sport? We represent every person who has ever stepped onto a sports field. .Sex? You get the idea.

2. GAC advice on controversial TLDs

Speaking of .sex, don’t expect this to ever see the light of day. The guidebook gives the Governmental Advisory Committee the power to kill or, at minimum, delay the allocation of any controversial string. .Gay and .sex come to mind. And believe me, if .gay is denied then ICANN is going to take a lot of heat.

ICANN is giving the GAC this power because of immense pressure. It may have been required to push the new TLD program forward. But it’s a big mistake. If you’re going to open up the top level, you may as well allow at the top level what can be registered at the second level: everything. Yes, that includes thing’s I’d rather not see, such as hate terms.

There’s one thing playing in ICANN’s favor here. The application price tag of $185,000 is high. Given the GAC mechanisms to quash controversial terms, groups like the KKK would have to fork over a lot of money just to try to stir up the pot.

Yet part of me wants to apply for .womenshouldbeabletodrive just to piss off a certain country…

3. Restriction on applicants guilty of cybersquatting or reverse domain hijacking

There’s a provision in the guidebook that forbids groups from applying for new TLDs if they or related persons have shown a “pattern of adverse, final decisions” against them on UDRPs, ACPA lawsuits, etc. The spirit of the rule in the guidebook would ensnare companies such as GoDaddy and eNom (Demand Media). But I highly doubt it is enforced against these companies. Perhaps ICANN can weasel out of it by showing “exceptional circumstances”, or the applicants will just show their alternate entities on the applications.

Don’t expect this provision to stop anyone who has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking to be rejected. I know of no entities that have been found guilty of three RDNH’s, the threshold in the guidebook.

4. Discounts for needy applicants

This is a smaller concern, but the $2 million program to discount application fees to “needy” applicants is really bad. Worse, any TLD that is approved under the discounted program probably doesn’t have enough money to really make their new TLD work.

There’s no penalty for asking for the discount, so I expect just about everyone who might qualify to go for it, which could lead to delays. You’ll also have a lot or organizations upset about the results, as ICANN will effectively pick winners and losers — something it says it doesn’t want to do.

5. Registry/registrar cross-ownership

The guidebook allows registries to own registrars and vice-versa. However, it notes: “ICANN reserves the right to refer any application to the appropriate competition authority relative to any cross-ownership issues.”

Who is the appropriate competition authority? Depends on the location of the registry or registrar? Or would the U.S. antitrust authorities have jurisdiction?

The most likely targets of any sort of action would by VeriSign and GoDaddy given their dominance in the industry. But if there are competing applications for the same TLD, and one comes from an integrated entity, don’t be surprised if a non-integrated organization tries to push antitrust concerns. If a registry were smart, it would wait until after allocation of a TLD to pursue vertical integration. As for registrars, that’s a bit harder: by applying for a new TLD they are effectively becoming a registry.

6. Batching

What if more applications are received than ICANN can process at one time? ICANN will “batch” the applications. How will it do this? No one really knows. All the guidebook says is that it won’t be based on when the application is received and it won’t be a lottery. It will be a secondary timestamp.

A secondary timestamp? As in someone will concoct a system like a drop catching service to ping the server when this secondary timestamp scheme starts?

A smart thing for ICANN to do in this case is to ask for volunteers to delay delegation. I bet a number of .brands would take ICANN up on this if it means delaying or reducing fees.

a final prediction…

OK, so there are my six things that could go horribly wrong. I bet the biggest ticking time bombs haven’t even been identified yet.

But I have one prediction for new TLDs that I think is pretty solid: the application closing will be delayed. It’s set to close April 12. But I expect a flurry of last minute activity, forcing ICANN to extend the deadline.

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Paul Stahura’s Donuts Inc to apply for 10 TLDs

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:00:47 +0000

eNom founder’s company will apply for ten top level domains.

eNom founder Paul Stahura plans to apply for ten new top level domain names through his new company Donuts Inc., Bloomberg reports.

Donuts raised $1 million in outside capital beginning in April of 2011. Based on the directors involved with the company, it looks like TL Ventures and Austin Ventures are backers.

It was fairly clear to me from the SEC filing that the company was formed to apply for new top level domains. This was confirmed with a trademark filing.

Stahura also testified on capitol hill in favor of top level domain expansion while he still worked for Demand Media, which bought eNom from him.

The application period for new top level domains begins Thursday.

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GoDaddy rocks on with Kid Rock (video)

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:04:55 +0000

GoDaddy party transforms Chase Field into amusement park.

Every year Go Daddy spends millions of dollars on a holiday party for its employees at Chase Field in Phoenix.

This year it expanded with a road show in Iowa and Colorado, but the big show in the desert was as big as ever. The company gave over $1 million in cash prizes to its employees and entertained them with performances by Kid Rock, Dierks Bentley and Trace Adkins.

The pictures and video of the event are pretty phenomenal, including a huge “Mount Rushmore” statue of the GoDaddy Girls.

Here are some pictures from the event as well as video featuring Bob Parsons, Kid Rock, and more.

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Demand Media Demands Focus on Its Registrar Business

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 18:10:43 +0000

Stock investors need to pay less attention to Demand Media’s content business and more to its domain business.

If you ask most stock watchers, they’ll tell you Demand Media is a content company. The company, they’ll say, relies on driving eyeballs to its ad laden pages.

But underneath this is the truth: the “rock” of Demand Media is the domain name registrar and its huge portfolio of parked domain names.

When it announced quarterly earnings yesterday, the company reported a 20% hike in registrar revenue compared to the third quarter of 2010. It now has 12.2 million domains managed on its platform. That’s up from 10.6 million a year ago.

Make no mistake — Demand wants its content business to drive revenue increases. But investors should pay more attention to its domain name registrar business than they currently are. With new top level domains on the horizon, domain name registrars like eNom are well positioned. Not only will they realize a spike in registrations but they also have the clout to push registry providers for incentives to promote their domains.

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Where to Find the Cheapest .XXX Landrush Pricing

Andrew Allemann — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:12:18 +0000

Comparison of .xxx landrush pricing.

Just like I did for sunrise, I’ve compiled pricing for the .xxx landrush. The landrush period runs November 8-November 25. During this period adult companies can apply for any .xxx domain they want that wasn’t reserved during sunrise or blocked by the registry. If more than one company or person applies for the same domain it will be sent to an auction. There’s no benefit to applying early on in the period; it’s not first-come-first-served.

Finding pricing for landrush is not easy, so you should verify pricing with the registrar before placing an order. I found that many registrars haven’t “recovered” from sunrise enough to post their landrush plans. There’s also a bit of pricing confusion as well. Most registrars charge an application fee plus a one year registration fee if successful. But some registrar post just one fee that clearly doesn’t include both charges.

Bottom line: verify everything before placing your order.

Based on what I found, it looks like DomainMonster and eNom offer the best pricing for .xxx Landrush. The eNom pricing is for resellers, which just about every eNom customer I know is. Hexonet also has a good price (excludes VAT).

If you work for an .xxx accredited registrar that is not on the list below, please send your pricing to me and I’ll update the chart.

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Wireless Company Files UDRP Over AEE.com After Losing Domain

Andrew Allemann — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:05:26 +0000

Wireless products company in China loses domain in suspicious circumstances; files UDRP to get it back.

Wireless company Shenzhen AEE Technology Co., Ltd has filed a UDRP for the domain name AEE.com.

But before you question this filing for a three letter domain name, there are some interesting circumstances surrounding this domain name. You can discover them with the help of DomainTools’ historical whois.

Shenzhen AEE Technology Co., Ltd owned the domain name until early July of this year. The domain name was registered at ~~Name.com~~ NameCheap.com and didn’t expire until 2015. Then on July 11 the domain was suddenly transferred to eNom and placed under whois proxy.

On October 21 the domain shifted to Dynadot. It was protected with a whois privacy service and showed Dennis Vink as the owner. The next day the named registrant using the privacy service changed to Alvaro Bernal.

[Update: I originally wrote that the domain was at Name.com. It was actually NameCheap, an eNom reseller. It then transferred to another eNom account (non-NameCheap) before being transferred to Dynadot.]

The web site now has new blog with the title: “AEE Alvaro’s Enchanting Experiences”.

Yep, this whole thing smells a bit fishy.

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