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Namecheap hits $109.1 million revenue in 2017

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

One of the largest domain name registrars crossed the 9 figure mark in 2017.

Domain name registrar Namecheap has been a big domain name registrar for a long time but didn’t always show up on top registrar lists because it was an Enom reseller.

Now that it has pulled most of its domains onto its own registrar accreditation, the company’s size has become apparent. It’s among the top five largest domain name registrars for .com domain names.

In 2015, Namecheap had revenue of $76 million and three-year growth of 117%. It fell off the Inc 5000 in 2017, but is back for the 2018 list. Its 2017 revenue was $109.1 million. That’s up 78% over three years, and up 44% from 2015.

According to the company’s Inc 5000 listing, it employees 950 people.

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.Club posts $7.2 million revenue, lands on Inc 5000

by — Uncategorized 11 Comments

Revenue more than quadrupled from 2014 to 2017.

New top level domain name registry .CLUB Domains has landed at #1164 on the newly released Inc 5000 for 2018. The list is ranked based on three-year revenue growth.

The company had $7.2 million revenue in 2017, up 419% over 3-years. It launched its domain name in early 2014.

This is the first look we’ve had at .Club’s financials in a while. .Club CEO Colin Campbell previously discussed the group’s 2015 financials with DomainName Wire. In that year it had about $7.0 million in bookings, but that excludes any sort of revenue recognition so it’s not necessarily comparable.

Whois API remained on the list for a second year, coming in at #651 with $2.7 million in revenue and 775% three-year growth. It will be interesting to see what happens with this company in the age of GDPR.

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Gumwand Inc. files lawsuit to get Gumwand.com domain name

by — Policy & Law 0 Comments

Gum removal company continues to chase elusive domain name.

The company that makes the Gumwand is suing to get Gumwand.com. Photo from Gumwand.net

Gumwand Inc, a company that sells tools to remove gum from flooring and public spaces, has filed a lawsuit (pdf) in Federal District Court in Virginia to get the domain name Gumwand.com.

The company uses Gumwand.net and has been trying to get Gumwand.com for years. It originally sued the owner of Gumwand.com in 2015 in New York. The court issued a default judgment in 2017, demanding that the domain name be transferred to Gumwand Inc.

But Gumwand Inc. has had trouble getting the domain transferred. The original defendant has changed its name several times, according to the company.

It filed a case with National Arbitration Forum this summer. The Forum denied the complaint but the decision hasn’t been published yet.

So now Gumwand is doing what it probably should have done in the beginning: file a case in the Eastern District of Virginia, where .com registry Verisign is located. It filed an in rem case there on August 9. If the court enters a default judgment, it can order Verisign to transfer the domain name.

One thing perplexing about this case is that Gumwand.com was registered before Gumwand.net. It may be that the creator of the device announced the product without registering the domain name. It will be interesting to read the UDRP decision to see if it explains the order of events.

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Christian.com domain name sells for $600,000 (again)

by — Domain Sales 2 Comments

Domain name sells for the exact same price that it sold for in 2009.

Sedo domain name broker Dave Evanson announced today that he brokered the sale of the Christian.com domain name for $600,000:

The domain name is in escrow at Sedo and the buyer’s identity hasn’t been revealed yet.

Christian.com sold for the exact same amount in 2009 when Boris Kreiman bought the domain name shortly after buying Call.com for $1.1 million. Kreiman told Domain Name Wire that he was going to create a Christian social network using the domain name.

The domain was about to be sold at the Rick Latona TRAFFIC auction in 2009, but the transaction went through Sedo. So this is the second time Sedo has had a hand in selling Christian.com.

After the 2009 deal, the domain was under Whois privacy until late 2015. At that time the domain Whois record changed to Avatar Invest Inc. in Russia.

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DreamHost enables export-to-WordPress for its Remixer website builder

by — Services 1 Comment

No lock-in with DreamHost’s site builder.

I’ve been reviewing non-WordPress website builders over the past month and have more reviews to come.

These site builders make it easier for non-techies to build websites than using WordPress. But there’s a big drawback: lock-in.

Each builder is proprietary and they are designed to limit the ability to export to a different platform and/or webhost. In return for an easy-to-use site builder, you agree to be locked in indefinitely with the service.

But hosting company DreamHost announced today that it is opening up its Remixer site builder. Customers that use Remixer to build a site can export it to WordPress on a Dreamhost shared hosting account. Even though the initial export is to a Dreamhost account, customers could then use the WordPress export feature if they wish to change hosting companies.

Being able to start designing a site in a simple site creator and then harness the customizability that WordPress offers seems like a big win.

DreamHost says that it is the first company to allow exporting from a standalone website builder to WordPress.

Although I haven’t tested Remixer yet, I will do so in the future.

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