French .net term sells for close to $80,000.

Sedo has completed the sale of coiffurefemme.net for 55,000 EUR, or almost $80,000 USD. The domain means women’s hairstyle in French. This is a surprising price paid for this domain, and the domain’s whois record is protected by whois privacy so it’s difficult to understand who bought it. The .com version of this domain is listed for sale on Sedo and BuyDomains with no specific price. If anyone has insight to this purchase please comment below.

Here are other sales from Sedo completed over the past week:

revenueshare.com $15,000
vetement.com 14,000 EUR Clothing in French
wyominginn.com $11,000
goforgoal.com $10,000
laptopinfo.com $7,500
zud.com 7,100 EUR
habillement.com 7,000 EUR Clothes in French
affordit.com $7,000
mylt.com $6,700
comtrade.com $6,000
savemylinks.com 5,100 EUR
korting.com $5,000
kungfumovies.com $5,000 GreatDomains auction
greatestfilms.com $5,000
payable.com $5,000
hochschulen.com 4,500 EUR
allgemeine.de 14,000 EUR General in German
rachat-de-credit.fr 13,500 EUR Repurchase of credit
sexe.ch 12,500 EUR
messenger.ch 5,000 EUR
doping.de 5,000 EUR DomainVermarktrForum Doping in German
pastahut.co.uk 4,500 GBP
zehn.de 4,000 EUR Ten in German
walkms.org $16,900
belgium.info $10,000

Posted under Domain Sales

Follow up to story about Chicago2016.com.

The battle over Chicago2016.com is turning into an olympic-scale battle. Stephen Frayne Jr., who owns Chicago2016.com, has filed a lawsuit to keep the domain name that is currently pending a UDRP decision at WIPO.

As noted in Domain Name Wire’s previous article, Chicago 2016’s United States Olympic Committee (USOC) uses Chicago2016.org as its web site.

In the lawsuit, Frayne argues USOC is violating his first amendment rights, as he plans to use the domain name as an open forum to discuss the merits of bringing the olympics to Chicago. Frayne is also seeking attorney’s fees. The lawsuit also names Domain Trade, Inc., a Japan company that has threatened UDRP action over the domain Tokyo2016.com. Domain Name Wire has obtained a copy of the lawsuit, which can be viewed here (pdf).

USOC had attempted to acquire the domain name from Frayne before filing the UDRP. According to the lawsuit:

On or about November 14, 2007, Frayne met with Mr. Stiers [of USOC] alone at Chicago 2016’s offices and Frayne informed Mr. Stiers that he was interested in hosting an online public debate about the interests of the citizens of Chicago who are not getting the full story out to the public on the Chicago bid. In other words, Frayne informed Mr. Stiers that not only was his domain name not for sale, but that he planned to use this website as a public forum to allow for criticism, as well as support, of the Chicago bid that may not have otherwise been widely recognized in the local media up to this point.
26. At this point, Mr. Stiers asked if Frayne was aware that Chicago 2016 had acquired a trademark on Chicago 2016 and Frayne acknowledged that he was aware of that fact.

Mr. Stiers told Frayne that chicago2016.org was receiving about 1,000-2,000 visitors per day with spikes around major news coverage and asked Frayne what his traffic was at chicago2016.com. At that time, Frayne did not have the tracking code installed so he had no idea what kind of traffic he was getting. Mr. Stiers asked Frayne repeatedly (at least 4 times) to discuss prices at which Frayne would part with the name. Upon information and belief Mr. Stiers knew that if Frayne offered to sell his website, then Mr. Stiers could then proceed against Frayne before a WIPO Panel or in federal court to show that Frayne had engaged in bad faith. These repeated attempts to lure Frayne into offering to sell his website represent a bad faith attempt by Chicago 2016 to hijack Frayne’s domain name. Regardless, time and again Frayne told Mr. Stiers very politely but plainly that he was not interested in selling his domain name.

In his lawsuit, Frayne also noted that USOC hasn’t gone after Chicago2016.NET, a pro-USOC web site.

A Chicago Tribune story today quotes a USOC representative explaining why he thinks it should get control of the domain:

“We certainly see Chicago2016.com as the logical default domain for our site, and we believe having someone else control it is misleading for people seeking information about Chicago’s bid,” said Patrick Sandusky, a spokesman for Chicago 2016, a m oniker protected by trademark…

Sandusky said he hadn’t seen the lawsuit, and so couldn’t comment on it. But he added, “I can tell you this is absolutely not about free speech, but about the natural domain for our site, and the domain name that is rightfully ours.”

The trademark was filed after the domain was registered.

Posted under Domain Registrars

Auction company to sell trademarks and domains related to failed online bank, doctor’s web site.

IP Auctions, Inc., is getting ready to auction off the NetBank.com domain name and associated trademarks. The defunct online bank was one of the more popular online banks in its heyday until the feds had to step in and takeover.

IP Auctions, Inc. had the asset listed on its web site but it is no longer there. A cache of the company’s web site shows the auction was scheduled for the end of this month.

The company is also auctioning off DoctorTalk.com on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Treasury. The domain name and web site was seized by the government because the owner failed to pay his taxes.

The minimum bid is $280,000 according to the IRS web site. A $10,000 deposit is required for bidding.

A look at IP Auctions, Inc’s appraisal for the web site shows a flawed appraisal of $526,000. The appraisal uses discount rates of no more than 10% to calculate the NPV of future cash flows for the site. Anyone with an early stage web venture knows that a discount rate of 20% to 30% (similar to what venture capitalists use) is more reasonable to take into consideration risk. Furthermore, I can’t find anything in the appraisal that considers the costs of running the web site. Even if the appraisal considers the costs (and just doesn’t say it), it appears that much of the revenue is from personal consultations from the doctor that owned the site. His time surely had value, and paying someone to provide these consultations would cost a lot of money.

Posted under Domain Sales

Defunct company had a number of challenges. Its (domain) name didn’t help.

A few years ago a new startup sprang onto the scene in Austin, Texas. Called ItzBig, it was a new type of job web site. It was backed by some big names in online job recruiting, including former executives of hire.com. Venture capitalists piled on board, throwing cash at the company.

But there was one glaring problem: its name. When ItzBig.com was launched in stealth mode, I assumed the name was just a placeholder until the company unveiled itself.

The problem with its name, of course, is that no one who heard it in conversation would find the web site. They’d go to ItsBig.com instead of ItzBig.com.

But as time went on it became clear that the name wasn’t going to change. Someone made the poor decision to name the company ItzBig. That’s a big branding mistake.

A couple weeks ago news hit the street that ItzBig was shutting down. Online recruiting is an intensely competitive space and the company’s concept wasn’t cutting it. At one point the company had 70 employees.

Obviously the company didn’t fail because of its name. But it’s clear that choosing such a poor name, instead of a better name that may have required buying an existing

Posted under Uncategorized

Latest issue tips scales at over 125 pages.

The September issue of Modern Domainer magazine will start shipping Monday, and this issue is a monster at over 125 pages.

The main feature is the second in the two-part series “Domainer’s Blog Bible”, which includes selected posts from Domain Name Wire. I’m happy with the selections Modern Domainer chose as it will re-introduce some topics that haven’t been discussed much lately. Please be sure to read the date below each article to understand what we were discussing at the time.

Other articles in this issue include:

-GeoDomain Expo wrap-up including photos (they somehow managed to get a sober photo of me at the TrafficZ party).
-TRAFFIC New York preview
-Verizon v. Navigation Catalyst lawsuit
-.Tel TLD preview
-Update on Snowe Bill
-Interview with Don Ham of HitFarm

Advertisers include 19Parking.com, EuroDNS, BuildsOut, RevenueDirect, Sendori, and WhyPark , among others.

There’s also a preview of Domainer Mardi Gras, a conference and party being put on by Modern Domainer and Parked.com in February during Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Modern Domainer is an editorially-independent publication backed by the founders of directNic and Parked.com.

Posted under Domain Services

The road to profits lies in an integrated approach to domain management.

In the domain business there are low “switching costs”. A switching cost is the time and money you incur to change service providers.

Consider domain parking, where you can move 1,000 domains from one parking company to another in about 15 minutes. Even switching registrars is relatively painless compared to many other service provider changes you do in the “offline” world.

To see an industry that has mastered switching costs, look at banks. People don’t close out one bank account and switch to another bank just because they can earn a half point more interest. Switching banks is a pain, and banks have made it that way by offering value added services like free bill pay. After setting up ten payees in bill pay it’s a lot of effort to redo that at a different bank. This is part of the reason banks offer bonuses if you set up direct deposit. Who wants to go through the hassle of changing banks if you have to fill out direct deposit forms again?

My point isn’t that domain companies should create barriers to you changing service providers. That will earn a company a bad will (see GoDaddy ’s 60 day hold on whois changes or Register.com requiring you to call in to get a transfer out code). Instead, domain companies need to offer integrated services that create more value than just domain registration or parking. These value added services make it more costly — or at least inconvenient — for you to change companies.

One company that is doing well at this is Oversee.net. Between Moniker , DomainSponsor , and SnapNames they have a trifecta. Park your domains at DomainSponsor and earn bonuses you can use to buy domains at SnapNames or register them at Moniker. Keep a certain number of domains parked at DomainSponsor to earn more bonuses. Register your domains at Moniker in order to be able to sell them on SnapNames or live auctions.

Even before its acquisitions, Oversee understood how easy it is to switch providers. That’s part of the reason it started a leasing program for DomainSponsor, which allowed it to lock in parking portfolios for 6 to 12 months. They created a benefit for domain owners, too, in the form of upfront payments.

Other companies are also trying to create an ecosystem of services that add benefits to customers and makes them less likely to switch. I suspect Thought Covergence’s acquisition of Name Intelligence had a lot to do with that.

Even if a company doesn’t have a suite of domain services it can still increase switching costs. When I have a domain forwarded at a registrar I’m unlikely to transfer that domain. Doing so would probably create downtime as I set up forwarding at the new registrar. Domain privacy also makes it more difficult to transfer a domain name. A domain registrar can give these services away for free to lock in more customers.

Posted under Domain Services

Public Interest Registry reports milestone.

Public Interest Registry (PIR), the registry that manages the .org top level domain, announced today that there are now 7 million .org domain names registered. Since management of the registry was assumed by Public Interest Registry in 2003, .org registrations have increased more than 250%, the registry reports

As part of the announcement, PIR got Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales to comment about .org:

“We can’t imagine Wikipedia as a .com — .ORG is a core part of our identity,” says Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia and member of the Board of Trustees of The Wikimedia Foundation. “.ORG is available to anyone in the world, and it is a great way for an organization to signal an ambition to be inclusive and global.”

True, although like many popular .org sites Wikipedia also owns Wikipedia.com.

.Org is the third most popular generic TLD behind .com and .net. Although .org domain names were originally meant for non-profits, anyone can register a .org domain name. Below are some of the biggest aftermarket .org domain names sales according to DNSalePrice.com:

Domain, SalePrice, Sale Date, Sales Venue
Sexe.org $151,400 Jun 08 Private
Date.org $150,349 Dec 06 SnapNames
FreeCreditScore.org $123,000 May 07 Sedo
Revolution.org $120,000 Jul 08 Sedo
RingTones.org $120,000 May 08 Moniker /Traffic
Loan.org $105,500 Dec 06 SnapNames
Coffee.org $100,000 May 08 Sedo
University.org $100,000 Oct 06 Moniker/Traffic

Posted under Domain Registrars

You’ve been paying more at the pump. Now you’re paying more at the registrar.

I’m not sure when this happened, but a reader pointed out that GoDaddy has hiked prices on .net and .org domain names to $13.19 per domain. That’s a 30% increase.

This is probably just a business decision by GoDaddy to maximize profit. It can easily calculate how many .net and .org sales it loses and determine if the price hike is worth it.

When I asked GoDaddy about its high prices on Neustar offered domains back in June, a company spokesperson said “Our price points are a product of our internal research, testing and other market indicators.”

That’s fair. But registrars like GoDaddy can’t raise prices like this and then complain to congress about registry price hikes at VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) and other registries. GoDaddy has done that in the past, despite the fact that it has charged more for .net than .com frequently in its history and VeriSign charges much less for .net than .com.

If you’re a GoDaddy faithful, I’d recommend signing up with the Discount Domain Club. It costs $89.99 to join, but then you pay $6.95 for .com and $7.19 for .net and .org. Given current GoDaddy prices, you’ll make up the membership fee with as few as 15 registrations. You can save an extra 2% by prepaying by check or wire transfer.

Posted under Domain Registrars

Renew domains before end of September to avoid additional fees.

It’s that time of year again — time for VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) and other registries to increase their wholesale price of domain names.

VeriSign’s wholesale prices for .com and .net increase on October 1, 2008. The new .com price will be $6.86. With ICANN’s 20 cent fee that means the minimum cost to your registrar is $7.06. .Net prices will be $4.23 before ICANN’s fee.

Earlier today Domain Name Wire wrote about GoDaddy ’s latest price increase on .net and .org domains, which have shot up about 30% to $13.19 including the ICANN fee.

Almost all of the registries are increasing prices, and eNom sent out a notice today that its prices will increase 50 cents effective September 30. You can expect other registrars to follow.

It’s amazing that the wholesale price of domains is increasing while domain registrations are ballooning. Most of the registry costs are fixed, and the cost to manage each incremental domain goes down as more are registered. But don’t blame VeriSign, Public Interest Registry, and the other registries. They have a monopoly on their extensions, and if ICANN is going to give them free reign to raise prices each year, they may as well max it out. Registrar complaints that they’ll have to pass on the costs to customers fall on deaf years since big registrars such as GoDaddy have pricing that doesn’t have any correlation to wholesale cost. .Net prices, anyone?

You can beat the price increase by renewing your domains before October. If you have domains you know you’ll hold onto for many years, go ahead and renew them at today’s rates for multiple years.

Posted under Domain Registrars

dotMobi says it will start to enforce guidelines for domains won at auction.

In June I wrote a second article about premium dotMobi domain names that were won at auctions at Sedo . At the time, not a single domain won at the first Sedo auction was in compliance. Compliance basically requires a dotMobi compatible parking page followed by a mobile web site within 6 months. Although it’s not surprising that few of the domains had real web sites within 6 months, it was shameful that few even had .mobi parking pages.

dotMobi representatives said they were working on a compliance program, and the registry is now rolling it out. Slowly. On its blog it said it will start the compliance program in September (one year after the initial auction) and will restart the clock. It may also give more than 6 months lead time to develop the sites, meaning that auction winners from the first auction will have at least 18 months to create a functioning web site.

The compliance rules apply to all domains auctioned off by the registry through Sedo, Moniker ’s TRAFFIC auctions, and GoDaddy . It also applies to any domain that was originally auctioned at one of these events and later traded hands. In other words, if you bought a domain from someone who bought it at one of these events you are beholden to the original terms.

Although mandatory development of sites that were mostly purchased for investment may sound like a pain, it will increase the value of all .mobi domain holders’ portfolios when these hundreds of premium domains are active on the mobile web.

Posted under Domain Sales