Results of survey for “most influential” person in domain industry.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Who is the most influential of them all?
The answer is Rick Latona, according to the 5th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey.
The question of who has the most influence on the domain name industry is always controversial. I received a number of comments this year about what this question means. Can influence be only good? Can it be a company? Really, it’s up to you to decide.
But in the end, the race for “most influential” wasn’t even close. 50 people wrote in Rick Latona, who is quickly building an empire of domain name services. (You can read more about Latona’s story in this DNJournal profile.)
Some of Latona’s more popular services include his domain sales newsletter. He’s also active in the live domain name auction business and is running five of this year’s TRAFFIC conferences. Latona isn’t shy about his ambitions, and is willing to cut his losses when necessary. This past year he shuttered his AEIOU minisite service.
Of course, Latona isn’t the only one getting press in this industry. Here are other top picks, including the number of write-in votes.
Rick Schwartz 33 (TRAFFIC co-founder)
Bob Parsons 22 (Go Daddy)
Frank Schilling 21 (Name Administration)
Ron Jackson 14 (DNJournal)
Rod Beckstrom 11 (ICANN)
See more survey results here.
dfgdfg says
Imho most influential person in domain industry is whoever leads domain parking division at Google. None of the persons mentioned above influences even 1% of that.
rob sequin says
Rick, congrats. You got my vote.
Keep up the great work.
Jim Holleran says
They are all great choices but I have to say Ron Jackson #1.
Thanks, Jim
Belmassio says
Rod Beckstrom b/c he can destroy us all with a wave of his corrupt ICANN wand !
Daniel Dryzek says
I voted for Rod Beckstrom, too..
sgsdg says
Sorry, back in the real world the CEO of the largest domain registrar simply has to be the single most influential figure.
Most of the others are just personalities – how much influence does Rick Schwartz have? Can he take decisions that affect millions of domain registrants? Even Rod Beckstrom cannot make unilateral decisions.
Bizarre!
Louise says
Rick Latona represents the positive future of domains; the other (who I voted for) represents, I’m sorry to say, the bleak prospect.