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Do discounts demote the value of domain names?

by — Domain Registrars 9 Comments

I don’t understand the logic of promoting discount prices to end users.

Picture of sleazy salesman gesturing to the inside of his burgundy coat

“Hey, you lookin’ for a good deal on a domain? I’ve got options.”

Many times a month I get promotional emails from domain name registrars. The newsletters are filled with special offers on domain name registrations.

Get this extension for only $1.99! This one is half off—just $4.99! Or save big on this extension, just $9.99 for the first year!

I understand that price is a factor when people search for domains. If they see a domain they like in two different new TLDs, they will probably pick the less expensive one, all things being equal.

Offering discounted sale prices for the first year clearly works, judging by how many registries offer these deals to registrars.

But the idea of someone seeing a special price in a newsletter, clicking through and registering a domain because it’s on sale? To me, this devalues the role of a domain name.

A domain name is a critical component of one’s web presence. It’s the only component that’s hard to change after it is selected. Promoting that certain extensions are on sale demotes the importance of domain name selection.

Now, if that newsletter is targeted to domain investors, there is some value in telling them they can get extension .abc at a discount so they can buy a few. Same goes if you want a spammer to register a thousand domains at discounted prices.

But if it’s geared to end users, it doesn’t make sense to me.

GoDaddy to host NamesCon auction with ROTD, submissions now open

by — Domain Sales 1 Comment

Submissions open for January’s domain name auction, which will take place on GoDaddy’s auction platform.

Hands holding bid cards in auction

The annual live domain name auction at January’s NamesCon will be hosted on GoDaddy’s platform rather than NameJet. Right of the Dot (ROTD) is organizing the auction as in past years.

This year’s auction will include names such as laptop.com, arcades.com, offices.com, lasers.com, and calories.com.

Anyone can submit domain names for inclusion in the auction through ROTD’s website.

There will be about 120 names in a live auction that takes place on January 30, 2020 in Austin. A further 500 names will be included in an online auction that ends February 14.

As usual, there will be pre-bidding. Potential buyers can start placing bids on December 1.

Walmart’s Vudu is a reverse domain name hijacker

by — Policy & Law 5 Comments

Vudo.com was registered well before the streaming video company existed.

A screenshot of Vudu.com showing Good Boys video

Vudu filed a cybersquatting complaint against Vudo.com. It was found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking.

Vudu, a streaming video subsidiary of retail giant Walmart, has been found to have attempted reverse domain name hijacking over the domain name Vudo.com.

The company filed a cybersquatting complaint against the domain name owner, even thought the owner registered the domain name well before Vudu was founded. A key requirement of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) is that the Complainant’s trademark rights must predate the domain owner’s registration. After all, if he registered the domain before the Complainant had trademark rights, then it’s hard to prove that he registered the domain to target a non-existent brand.

In finding reverse domain name hijacking, a World Intellectual Property Organization panel wrote:

The Complainant entirely sidesteps the glaring deficiency in its case on the second and third elements of the Complaint. The Domain Name is a homophone of a dictionary word, and it was registered long before the Complainant or its trademark existed. The Complaint repeatedly emphasizes the registration of the Complainant’s domain name in 1995 to suggest that the Complainant has senior rights, without disclosing that this registration was by an unrelated party. The Complainant evidently acquired that domain name in 2007 and began using VUDU as a mark in September 2007, as it claimed in its applications to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The Complaint insinuates that the Respondent’s change of registrar and IP addresses over time is somehow significant, but the Complainant does not explain how it is significant and offers no evidence or argument whatsoever that the Respondent is not, as claimed, the original and continuous registrant of the Domain Name. Even without glancing at the WIPO Overview 3.0, counsel for the Complainant should have recognized from the plain language of the Policy that at the time of registration the Respondent could not have been attacking a trademark that did not exist and was not in contemplation for years to come.

Vudu was represented by Drinker, Biddle & Reath, LLP. The domain owner was self-represented.

End user domain sales led by $50,000 for a .Org

by — Domain Sales 0 Comments

A baby furniture company, a London-based publisher and a yoga studio in Asheville bought domain names.

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

This week’s end user sales list of domains sold at Sedo is led by two .org domains. It’s not clear yet what the buyers will do with them, but I’m particularly interested in Dawn.org. It sold for $50,000.

Here’s a look at some of the domains end users bought. See prior end user lists here.

Dawn.org $50,000 – The domain resolves to a page that shows the word Dawn and “the new beginning.”

Cats.org $15,000 – An Ohio company called Lands LLC bought this domain. It sells t-shirts.

JobScan.com $12,500 – Forwards to JobScan.co. This service helps optimize your resume and LinkedIn profile to increase your chances of getting hired.

SafeReach.net $9,500 – SafeReach provides emergency alerting systems for companies. The domain forwards to its website at SafeReach.net.

DeltaBaby.com $6,735 – This domain was bought by Delta Enterprise Corp., which does business as Delta Children’s Products Corp. and currently uses DeltaChildren.com for its website. They are a manufacturer of children’s and baby furniture and products such as bassinets, mattresses, pillows, storage and decor, walkers, and strollers.

CLIG.com €5,000 – Forwards to GetClig.com. Click provides an expense management product. Nice upgrade.

Dennis.group $3,500 – Bought by the Dennis Publishing Group, an international media company based in London.

EmailExpert.com $3,250 – A beta preview shows that this site will connect people with email marketing vendors, agencies and consultants.

MER.ch €2,950 – Forwards to shoppingcity.ch/kosmetik. This is an online cosmetic store index for listings within Switzerland.

CypressConsulting.com $2,880 – This domain was purchased by a consulting firm by the same name.

ThreeB.com $2,875 – Three B is a real estate company in Iowa.

Wohnung-Berlin.de €2,500 – A luxury vacation apartment rental and property management company in Berlin. Wohnung translates as “flat”.

DigitalRatgeber.de €2,500 – Wort & Bild Verlag Konradshöhe GmbH & Co. KG acquired this domain and forwards it to Digital-Ratgeber.de. Dropping the hyphen is a nice upgrade.

ByteGrowth.com $2,275 – This was purchased by Beijing Bytedance Network Technology Co., a Chinese internet technology company operating several machine learning-enabled content platforms. It is headquartered in Beijing.

AshevilleYoga.com $2,000 – Forwards to YourYoga.com, a website for Asheville Yoga Center in Asheville, NC.

Who bought domains at Uniregistry this week

by — Domain Sales 5 Comments

A hardened modular building company, customer service SaaS provider, and scanning software company bought domain names at Uniregistry.

Screenshot of CoverSix website. It shows a modular building with mountains in the background.

CoverSix Shelters acquired CoverSix.com, which it forwards to its longer domain name.

Uniregistry released its weekly top sales today, and a surprising number of them already link to active websites. Here’s a look at who bought what.

1. gorgias.com $34,500 – Gorgias.io bought the .com to forward to its existing website. It provides a customer service platform for e-commerce stores.

2. go2greece.com $21,000 – According to a splash page on the site, the owner of Malia.co.uk is relaunching its website.

3. vuescan.com $10,000 – Hamrick Software offers Vuescan, which is scanning software that works with over 6,000 scanners. The company previously tried to get the domain via UDRP.

4. only.fans $9,490 – OnlyFans is a service for social media that lets you earn from subscriptions. It uses the domain onlyfans.com, and forwards only.fans to its .com.

5. agyl.com $8,800 – Appears to be a domain investor.

6. vegasluxuryhomes.com $8,500 – The buyer is in Nevada, so this seems like an end user.

7. werank.com $8,000 – Someone in Hong Kong.

8. dreamview.com $8,000 – Someone using DreamHost for hosting acquired the domain and has a coming soon page. Maybe DreamHost itself?

9. autis.com $8,000 – Autis is an engineering firm that uses Autis.es. It forwards the .com to the .es.

10. toysforgood.com $7,600 – The buyer is in California.

11. zweck.com $7,500 – Zweck is a Miami company that does vehicle sales, performance, projects & parts focused on Porsche automobiles, as well as storage for all collector cars.

12. squama.com $7,000 – The buyer is in Russia.

13. onlinelawschools.com $6,500 – The buyer is in Iowa.

14. nickelanddime.com $6,250 – The buyer is in California. This is a great domain for many businesses.

15. eclosings.com $6,000 – Florida title company Jax Title appears to have bought the domain. It forwards to JaxTitle.com.

16. civy.com $5,000 – The buyer is in Oregon.

17. coversix.com $5,000 – CoverSix Shelters sells hardened modular buildings. It forwards the domain to CoverSixShelters.com.

18. nzevents.com $5,000 – NZ Events in Texas.

19. ananda.net $4,200 – The domain has Domains by Proxy.

20. braingame.com $4,000 – The Whois record has privacy.