GoDaddy adds coveted Enom inventory to its expired domain name auctions.
GoDaddy Auctions has another domain name registrar on its expired domain platform and this one is a doozy: Enom.
This morning I noticed many Enom domain names flowing through GoDaddy Auctions’ expiry stream.
The move is not surprising. Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX), which acquired Enom in 2017, already sends its non-Enom inventory to GoDaddy. For its Tucows domains, it essentially did a bake-off between GoDaddy Auctions and NameJet to figure out which one produced the most revenue. GoDaddy won.
The Enom acquisition came with a 50% ownership interest in NameJet and Tucows kept Enom’s expired domains on NameJet while sending its other domains to GoDaddy. But Tucows sold its stake in NameJet to Web.com late last year.
At the time of the acquisition I wrote:
The big question is if Enom domains will remain on NameJet and for how long. This was obviously part of the negotiation and ultimate purchase price. If Enom leaves the platform for GoDaddy at some point in the future, it will further degrade NameJet’s role in the marketplace.
We now have the answer.
So is this a win for domain investors? Yes and no.
On the plus side, they no longer have to manage domains at Enom. All domains they win will be added to their GoDaddy accounts.
Also, GoDaddy Auctions start at $12 (plus renewal, so about $20 total) whereas NameJet auctions start at $69.
But auctions at GoDaddy can be quite rich. Domain investors might end up paying more for domains there than if they same names ran through NameJet.
Also, I worry when there aren’t two strong competitors in a market. NameJet is getting weaker. Its valuable inventory is now mostly Web.com’s registrars Network Solutions and Register.com.
Dump move. So enom is going to loose all expired domains and they’ll be transferred out to Godaddy. This is a like self distraction!
That’s great news. As long as GoDaddy proves that their recent exposure of employee bidding is an isolated incident. Have they hired Rust Consulting yet?
I heard they’ll go with Mikel Amenatti on this.
I used to go on Namejet daily, now it is weekly, and soon might be monthly if that. Their list is littered with private auctions with reserves that are all way too high which results in last time I tracked had 75% of the auctions end with no sale because reserve wasn’t met. Oh, and don’t try to list your domains on there with no reserve or a reasonable reserve, they only let their buddies sell on the platform.
While GoDaddy is my preferred registrar, this move is likely not a positive for domain investors. This is right on the heels of the employee bidding scandal and on top of years of bidding games @ GoDaddy in general.
I am an active bidder @ NJ, but won’t be at GoDaddy auctions until they clean their venue up. This starts with introducing bidders IDs. GoDaddy has dragged their feet for years on this. There is no longer any valid excuse to not have them.
Brad
sounds like good news to me. The namejet shilling bidding problems appeared much larger than the Godaddy 1 employee problem.
How did we find out about the GoDaddy issue? GoDaddy
How did we find out about the Namejet issue? Domainer detectives
Difference between transparency and obfuscation
Well, it was a clever Godaddy customer domainer detective who first discovered the problem there:
“On March 11, a GoDaddy customer contacted us with serious allegations against multiple employees. These allegations alluded to employees potentially participating in auctions, shill bidding (coordinating bids to drive prices higher), and providing insider information to clients.
“We immediately started an investigation into the claims.”
Paul Nicks
https://www.godaddy.com/garage/domain-name-aftermarket-trust-and-transparency-update/
Godaddy seems to be responding decisively and responsibly and are scoping out introducing bidder handles and other possible platform improvements.
Chris. It was a domainer that discovered the Godaddy employee problem. And it was after 3 people already knew about it that GoDaddy looked into it.
Not everything is out yet.
Transparency is paramount here …
Anonymity when taking part to domain auctions is a big NO NO, GoDaddy, NameJet, DropCatch and other auction houses should introduce Bidders ID corresponding to their account details.
This way you would know who you are bidding against …
Otherwise shill bidding, fraud and other bidding games will continue to be rampant …
This is a HUGE win – for HugeDomains.
In the past you could find some good domains flying under the radar at NJ, but with this move it’s game over. Entities that have unfair advantage system access are just going to throw gasoline on the fire of the ever widening gap between rich and poor and haves and have nots.
HugeDomains should have never been allowed to bot bid on domains at GoDaddy Auctions.
Just like Frank Shilling’s bot should have never been allowed to bid on domains at NameJet.
Huge names is a godaddy tax everyone on the platform must pay, it’s a great relationship.
It’s a right of passage.
When will godaddy finally kill their scam “backorder” product and turn it into free wishlisting like Namejet? I guarantee they’d make so much more money at auctions…
Good news. Namjet suspending newly created accounts after first domain won and paid just sucks.
The downside might be that many investors might end up paying much more for the same auctions at GoDaddy compared to Namejet due to more eyes watching.
I wonder will the eNom domains with no bids go to closeout? These auctions are very bad for volume domaining I don’t know how anyone makes the math work. This is good though for private sellers at NameJet they can now dominate that site – if they aren’t already.
Yes, these names will go to closeout if they don’t receive a bid during the open auction.
Thanks for the information.
I appreciate your reporting, you do a great job.
Public auctions like godaddy and dropcatch attract deep pockets due to the ease, so yeah domainers will pay more.
I don’t even bid at godaddy and rarely at dropcatch because the prices get driven up so much it no longer is a good investment.
PATHETIC MOVE! You’ve been in the industry how long and you haven’t figured out how to build an auction platform? I have a feeling enom is looking for an exit. If they have that much inventory that’s not being renewed and aren’t motivated enough to build their own platform, Christ- even Dynadot has its own platform, they’ve thrown in the towel. They suck anyway. Good riddance.
Great summary of the pros and cons of this industry development
Is there any licit domain auction?
Is there any domain auction with clean bids?
Finally, what are the business auction domain with more irregularities in your bids?
I have suffered five auctions domains premium that at the end of the bids only pay $ 2, the first time casting badly for me, at 60 days sold for $ 15,000, the remaining four get to find the culprits with evidence and be the own business auctions domain, They apologize for being the one guilty of a ghost apparently.
Happy Day. Jose
Time to fire Jonathon over at Namejet, they brought it on themselves Namejet is self destructing, you have people place pony bids under the reserve in high 5 figures without any supervision, they should have fired him a long time ago.
Yes, inventory will be pushed much higher, you need to get godaddy to expose the bot bidders etc.. and put user names out there, or wild west will become more of a register.
GoDaddy Auctions is getting as non-transparent as NameJet, so why not list Enom domains on GoDaddy Auctions now.
DropCatch isn’t much better, domains are getting bidded up there as well.
So is godaddy going to audit this employees bidding history, and issue refunds to people who were bid up by an employee gone rogue?