Domain Name Wire » Uncategorized

Groupon registers domains for payment system and POS

Andrew Allemann — Fri, 25 May 2012 15:01:27 +0000

Local deals company registers three domain names for retailer payment systems.

Groupon registered the domain names GrouponPayments.com, GrouponPOS.com, and GrouponTerminal.com on May 22.

Now we know why.

VentureBeat reports that the company is testing a payments solution to competed with Square and PayPal. Apparently the company is offering an iPod Touch with the card reader to merchants free of charge, and the service is priced very competitively compared to competitors.

The author of the VentureBeat article says an email from Groupon hints at a forthcoming point of sale system for iPod and iPad. Given the domain names the company registered, this appears to be on the product roadmap.

Here’s the whois record for GrouponPOS.com. The other domains have similar records.

Get Certified Parking Stats at DNW Certified Stats.

Jeweler sues Oversee.net for cybersquatting

Andrew Allemann — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:12:13 +0000

Jeweler files claim over six domain registrations.

Jewelry company Tacori Enterprises has sued Oversee.net in U.S. District Court for cybersquatting.

Tacori alleges (pdf) that Oversee.net is cybersquatting with at least six domain names:

Taccori.com
Tacorri.com
Tacoriiv.com
TacoriRings.com
Tacoti.com
Tracori.com

Tacori alleges that Oversee.net “is a serial cybersquatter who registers, uses, and traffics in domain names that are confusingly similar to famous or distinctive trademarks owned by others, including Tacori trademarks.” It also alleges that Oversee.net intentionally failed to maintain accurate whois records for the domains.

Tacori is represented by Howard Kroll and David Steele of Christie, Parker, and Hale, LLP. The two are no strangers to cybersquatting lawsuits; they’ve represented Verizon in multiple cases.

When asked for comment, Oversee.net responded “We are reviewing the lawsuit and plan to defend our position vigorously.”

Get Certified Parking Stats at DNW Certified Stats.

The mobile web may be growing, but how “mobile” is it?

Andrew Allemann — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:04:04 +0000

Tablet traffic is very different from mobile phone traffic.

I recently looked through the my Google Analytics account to understand how visitors access Domain Name Wire.

96% of visits come from a traditional computer such as a laptop or desktop. That leaves a relatively small number coming from mobile platforms.

But more shocking to me is how the mobile number breaks down. Almost all mobile visits come from the iPad.

To me, iPad traffic isn’t truly mobile. Sure, someone might visit the site while at a coffee shop. But you can do that on your laptop, too.

The iPad experience is more similar to desktop computing than mobile phone browsing.

Everyone talks about the explosion of mobile web use. It’s certainly growing; 8% of web traffic is a common number I hear. But I don’t think tablet traffic should be grouped into this number. And it makes up a big chunk of the 8%.

Whenever you hear a push to mobile based on these general numbers, I recommend digging deeper.

Get Certified Parking Stats at DNW Certified Stats.

Where in the world are Domain Name Wire readers?

Andrew Allemann — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:06:14 +0000

Most visits are from the U.S., but almost half from other countries.

Most visits to Domain Name Wire come from the U.S. — but it only represents 52% of the total.

Here are the top 10 countries in terms of visits to Domain Name Wire through the end of April:

1. United States
2. India
3. Canada
4. United Kingdom
5. Australia
6. Germany
7. Pakistan
8. Egypt
9. China
10. France

India represents just 6% of visits, so you can see that there’s quite a long tale of locations.

Big world cities represent the top locations for Domain Name Wire visitors.

1. New York
2. London
3. Los Angeles
4. Toronto
5. Scottsdale
6. Bangalore
7. San Francisco
8. Chicago
9. Oklahoma City
10. Seattle

It should be pretty easy to figure out why Scottsdale is on the list. As for Oklahoma City, there’s a decent size domain investor company there, but I’m surprised to see it within the top 10.

Get Certified Parking Stats at DNW Certified Stats.

Wednesday morning domain thoughts

Andrew Allemann — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:51:36 +0000

A few thoughts about the domain industry.

I’ll be at a conference all day, so I’m going to kick today off with some recent thoughts about the domain name business. I have other posts in queue for today.

…ICANN will be under intense pressure to hit its deadlines now that it’s sitting on $350 million + of applicant fees. Before it could just say “hey, it’s the process”. But now people have real money on the line.

…My guess is Frank Schilling either applies for his own new top level domains or invests in applicants. I’ll be curious to see which ones he goes after.

…If you are a domain business and send a press release the day after I see the news on another blog, don’t expect me to write about it.

…On the other hand, if you’re a new TLD applicant and want to share your application with me under embargo until the application period closes, drop me a note.

…Go Daddy has been on a PR blitz to introduce its new(ish) CEO Warren Adelman to reporters. It seems they’re putting him out there as the kinder, gentler, less controversial face of Go Daddy as compared to Bob Parsons. I’ve also seen quite a bit of advertising by the company on high tech sites. It also has launched a couple new micro sites geared to techies.

Get Certified Parking Stats at DNW Certified Stats.

No related posts.

How big is the new TLD opportunity? TLDH valued at $60 million

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:05:57 +0000

Publicly traded new TLD company has a solid market value.

Top Level Domain Holdings, a pure play company focused on new top level domains, has a market cap of around £ 39 million. That’s over $60 million USD.

We’re talking about a company that basically has no revenue. So far it has just been spending on the new TLD process.

As of last February the company had about £ 15 million in cash. A lot of that has surely been spent since then. But to be conservative, let’s assume the market cap net of cash is around £ 24 million. That’s still about $38 million.

This $38 million value is based solely on the potential of its new top level domain business. That includes applying for its own TLDs, helping clients get their TLDs up and running, and partnerships for new TLDs.

That’s a hefty valuation, if you ask me. What it shows is that a lot of people are big believers in the profit opportunity of new TLDs.

Fortunately for TLDH, it doesn’t need all of its bets to pay off. It should have a large enough portfolio to weather a few duds.

What do you think…is Top Level Domain Holdings worth its $60 million market cap?

Get Certified Parking Stats at DNW Certified Stats.

No related posts.

TLDH adds .budapest to its location top level domains

Andrew Allemann — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:54:34 +0000

TLDH adds to its stable of geo top level domains with .budapest.

Top Level Domain Holdings Limited (AIM:TLDH.L), parent company of Minds + Machines, announced today that it has applied for the .budapest domain name with the blessing of the city of Budapest. The city will earn a revenue share from the deal.

TLDH is also on the applications for .London, .Miami, .Bayern and .NRW. .NRW is for North-Rhine Westphalia, the most populous state in Germany.

These applications are pretty close to “sure things” since an applicant needs approval (or non-objection) from a governmental authority to apply for geo domains like these. The only exception would be if there’s more than one location of the same name. .NRW could also run into a bit of an issue if there’s a competing application because it’s not actually the name of a location and could have a different use.

Get Certified Parking Stats at DNW Certified Stats.