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May’s hottest domain name stories

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New TLDs, Frank Schilling and .org among popular stories last month.

The words "Top 5" written on a purple background

Here’s a look back at what caught the most attention on Domain Name Wire last month.

1. More and more companies are using new TLDs – There’s more use than before, but numbers games at some registrars is obscuring it.

2. GoDaddy assigns $88.5 million value to Frank Schilling’s domain portfolio – The accounting value is about $235 per domain.

3. New site shows available one-word domain names – Listen to a podcast interview with the student who created the site.

4. .Org registry sale officially terminated – It’s official now. And PIR wants to remind challengers that it will retain the contract to run it.

5. GoDaddy is paying $218 million for Neustar’s registry business – GoDaddy revealed the price for acquiring the registry business in its quarterly filing.

Podcasts

#287 – I interview the creator of OneWord.Domains and talk about a few issues in the domain industry. (Listen)

#286 – Adrian Kinderis discusses his long history in the domain business and the challenges of operating a new top level domain. (Listen)

#285 – Zak Muscovitch and I talk about the U.S. Supreme Court hearing about domains and trademarks, and direct what happened to the .org deal. (Listen)

#284 – Mark Andre explains how he built and sold four blogs for over $1 million. (Listen)

There is demand for English domains in China

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These companies are examples of Chinese companies using English domain names.

Magnifying glass over Chinese flag

I often see English-based domains being used by Chinese startups. Here are some I came across recently when reading venture capital news.

BeBetterMed.cn
Bi Bei Te (必贝特) is a pharmaceutical company founded in 2012. It develops new drugs for cancers. The company recently raised 100+ million yuan. The name “Bi Bei Te” is likely translated from “Be Better”. For the company, BeBetter.com would be a good domain upgrade.

SimpleLove.com.cn
Jian Ai (简爱=simple love) is a milk product supplier founded in 2015. It excels in integrating dairy farms with factory processing systems. The company recently raised Series A funding of 400 million yuan. SimpleLove.com should be of interest to the startup.

QuantAngle.com.cn
Ke Tan (科探) is a software developer founded in 2014 to provide cloud services. The company recently finished Series Pre-A funding of 10+ million yuan. QuantAngle.com would be my recommended upgrade.

MediaTrack.cn
MediaTrack is a media platform offering tracks of short music videos. It was set up only in November, 2019 but has already completed its angel round of a multiple million-dollar funding. MediaTrack.com is a natural upgrade. Note that the platform does not use any Chinese name; “MediaTrack” is its Chinese brand.

vipSing.com
vipSing is a music startup founded in June 2019 to offer online music lessons to children. It has completed an angel round of about 10 million yuan funding. Note that the platform does not use any Chinese name; “vipSing” is its Chinese brand.

These examples indicate that English domains can be sold to China because there is demand for them. If you list your English domains with a global marketplace such as Afternic, you can sell your domains to China – as well as the rest of the world.

Kelly Hardy join CentralNic as policy head

by — Policy & Law 4 Comments

She will help the company and its registry clients on policy issues.

A familiar face in the domain name industry has a new home.

Kelly Hardy has joined CentralNic (London AIM: CNIC) as Head of Policy for the Registry Services division. In this role, she will help CentralNic’s ccTLD and gTLD registry partners with issues around launch processes, rights protection, dispute resolution and more. She will also represent CentralNic and its clients at ICANN, IGF and other internet governance venues.

Hardy has consulted for many domain name companies and was an active member of the .ME registry team.

If you meet Kelly at a conference and need an ice breaker, swap stories about the first job you ever had.

(Thanks Michele)

Dow wins cybersquatting dispute against D0W .com

by — Policy & Law 1 Comment

Company says domain was used in phishing attack.

Picture of Dow's headquarters in Midland, Michigan

Photo courtesy Dow.

Dow Chemical Company has won a cybersquatting dispute it brought against the domain name D0W .com. That’s a zero in the middle, so it’s d0w .com.

Registering a three-letter domain like d0w .com that includes numbers and letters isn’t cybersquatting in and of itself. These short domains can be bought and sold as investments.

However, it appears the owner of the domain has used it in an infringing way. According to the complaint, the domain was parked with ads links for “Dow Chemicals”, “Plastic Products”, “Chemical Manufacturers”.

When I visited the domain today, it forwarded to a scammy Chrome extension download page.

And Dow says that the domain was used to send a bogus email to one of Dow’s customers to get it to make a payment to a bank unaffiliated with Dow. (Emails can be spoofed. The domain owner didn’t respond to the allegations.)

This made the case an easy decision for World Intellectual Property Organization panelist Robert Badgley.

What domains Shopify and others bought last week

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Shopify added another ‘shop’ domain to its stable.

Picture of bundles of 500 euro notes with the words "End User Domain Sales" and the logo for Sedo

 

Here’s a look at some of the domains end users bought at Sedo this past week, including Shopify buying another ‘shop’ domain. You can review previous end user sales lists here.

4Kids.com $14,995 – Sacramento4Kids, a family resource for the Sacramento area, bought this domain and forwards it to Sacramento4Kids.com. I wonder if they will try to expand to other cities.

ToolPay.com $8,000 – Tools.com, a new business for construction tools, bought this domain.

Huisdieren.be €5,000 – Huisdieren.nl is a Dutch online pet magazine. Huisdieren is Dutch for pets.

Shop.gg $5,000 – Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) bought this domain. It recently paid $200,000 for shop.app to launch a new app.

SuperHuman.me $4,999 – This site is still under development with a countdown timer and the message, “Decode your DNA and become a SUPERHUMAN. We’ll help you get there.”

NiceShop.com €4,500 – The domain forwards to NiceShops.com, which appears to be a diversified e-commerce store.

Qwrty.com $3,500 – The buyer has a splash page that says “A New Interface Device is Coming”.

BioandCo.com $3,500 – Bio&Co is a French grocer that uses the domain BioAndCo.bio. This was an important upgrade.

Lens4You.ch €2,693 – Forwards to linsen4you.ch, a Swiss optician offering the ability to order contact lenses and related care products online.

BestChickenRecipes.com $2,500 – Forwards to EasyChickenRecipes.com for you guessed it… chicken recipes.

MediLog.net €2,500- Magicware created Medi-Log for managing personal health records.

LandKind.com €2,500 – The domain forwards to the website for GPS-it, a farm mapping company in New Zealand.

SKcorp.net $2,499 – Skinnovation in Seoul, South Korea bought this domain.

Skaterworld.com €2,098 – A German performance duo who perform rollerskating acts at parties and private events.



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