eNom to handle back end registrar technology for Fabulous.
Fabulous has signed a deal with eNom in which the Australian domain name registrar will outsource back end technology operations to eNom. Communication about this will be going out to Fabulous customers this evening.
This isn’t an acquisition; Fabulous will remain part of Dark Blue Sea.
As a reseller registrar eNom has a number of similar arrangements with large domain name registrars.
The front end account management for Fabulous customers will stay the same. In the back end the registrar will be powered by eNom technology.
This seems like a good move for Fabulous given Dark Blue Sea’s shrinking size and the recent buyout from Photon Group. Dark Blue Sea will no longer have to handle the technical aspects of running a registrar and can just focus on sales and support.
Fabulous customers may also get access to a wider range of top level domain names in the future thanks to the deal. Lack of TLD breadth has been a common complaint amongst Fabulous’ customers.
Acro says
Finally I can move my last remaining biz/us domains from eNom to Fabulous instead of Name.com 😀
Mansour says
This is a fancy and eloquent description of what Fabulous did. In other words, Fabulous became a reseller to ENOM.
Meyer says
It’s unfortunate they had to turn over the backend operation. This will drop the overall importance of Fab. with domainers.
Fab. offered competitive prices to domainers. It will cost Fab. more than doing it internally.
Enom is more expensive even if you have an ETP acct.
I guess Mike and Jen saw the writing on the wall.
Andy Kelly says
In the words of the famous song ~
“There may be trouble ahead !”
Sounds like this is just the tip of the iceberg to me. As a fab fan for many years the first thing that strikes me is how long will it take for fab reg rates to creep towards enom’s !
RKB says
I will definitely start move all my 17000 domains out of fabulous if my rates go up because of this.
Ray says
Does the Photon Group and Demand Media have any synergies?
It’s a big call to take and there must have been some very compelling reasons. The reasons mentioned in their PR don’t float…
Andrew Allemann says
I talked to eNom about this yesterday. From what I understand, the Fabulous account management tools will remain the same. All of this will happen in the backend.
Michael says
Yeah, just like NameCheap… eNom resellers. You have to ultimately question the prices charged to customers since purchasing is not direct from the source and a middleman always has to get paid. I would also be concerned regarding any UDRP and other disputes with too many chefs in the kitchen.
Andrew Allemann says
Michael, they aren’t resellers. They’re just using eNom’s technology. I believe Fabulous will retain its ICANN accreditation.
Sure, they have to pay eNom something, but presumably it’s less than they were paying their in house tech staff.
Michael says
Yeah – good point. I should not have used the term “reseller”. Just trying to make the case that domain fees are likely inflated due to multiple vendors being involved with the process.
Andrew Allemann says
How long Fabulous can keeps its prices as low as they are is beyond me. Can’t make much profit at those prices.
But I do think outsourcing this must be cheaper than maintaining the tech in house, so I don’t know if the move to eNom would be an impetus for raising prices.