Less competition for expired domains, but less competition for registrars, too.
Earlier today, GoDaddy announced that it is acquiring Uniregistry and Frank Schilling’s domain name portfolio. Here are some ways this will impact the domain name industry.
Less competition for expired domains: Let’s start with some good news for domain name investors: Frank will no longer be bidding against you in expired domain auctions. He confirmed to me that he has no plans to rebuild a domain portfolio. “I’ve already built the best portfolio in the world.” The absence of one major buyer can have a big impact on bid prices.
Less competition in the registrar space: Uniregistry is very small compared to GoDaddy, but it pushed GoDaddy to improve its service for domain name investors. GoDaddy will incorporate some of Uniregistry’s innovations, but whenever a competitor is taken out of the equation, it takes some heat off of the market leader.
A buying opportunity: Once GoDaddy incorporates Frank’s inventory into its own, most of the domains will have ‘buy now’ prices and they are likely more affordable than what Frank would have sold the domains for. This gives investors and end users an opportunity to buy domains.
More expired inventory on GoDaddy: This is a loss for Dynadot. Now that Uniregistry is part of GoDaddy, its expired domain inventory will (eventually) flow through GoDaddy Auctions.
Good talent on the market: GoDaddy is retaining Uniregistry’s employees. But whenever there’s a corporate takeover like this, some employees will decide that the new environment isn’t right for them. This may mean some talented and experienced registrar and domain aftermarket people will be available to hire.
Less data/more data: I’ll miss getting Uniregistry’s weekly list of top 20 domain sales. GoDaddy doesn’t report individual sales. But GoDaddy includes sales in its comps for domain appraisals. So less data will be readily available but GoDaddy will have more data to crunch and provide to domain investors.
Andrew,
Actually, you missed one of the main points. Aman knows his legacy code was not going to scale to meet the brand’s potential. The code was unmaintainable.
Godaddy will now have engineers with UX skills. Look for some of the top engineers to move to Seattle.
The Caymans is lovely but too far a haul for the other engineering teams to commute to on a routine basis.
Look for the registries to be in the hands of Donuts shortly.
“What GoDaddy’s acquisition of Uniregistry means for domain investors?” R.I.P.
GoDaddy owning Frank’s domains and selling them through Namefind for a lot less (which they will) than Frank would, will dilute domain name values even lower than they are now.
Meaning, more domain volume selling by GoDaddy = less domain sales and lower prices for domainers IMO.
Frank not bidding/buying domains? I don’t believe it.
Once a domainer, always a domainer Frank . Tigers and their stripes.
Let’s get serious, when you liquidate 350,000 names, your not going to sit on namejet, everyday overpaying, and fighting random ghosts like corplaw, and wait a month to get your transfers, and get a 60 day lock out on them, no fun, take the money, and run.
I would say move to a tropical island, and relax, but he has already done that, so go buy a racing team or something.
Yeah , You are right.
“He confirmed to me that he has no plans to rebuild a domain portfolio. “I’ve already built the best portfolio in the world.” The absence of one major buyer can have a big impact on bid prices.”
But i cant find any industry with better ROI than domaining
I’d like to hear from some of the Uniregistry folks. If there’s any upside for them and how they feel about moving to Arizona.
Good points Andrew.
Thanks,
Domainers will loose a platform which gives them an opportunity to sell/park their domains free of any commission, if they are brokering their names themselves. Even when the names are brokered by Uniregistry, the owner is well informed throughout the process.
We will have to wait and see how many features from Uni are going to be implemented with GD
350,000 domains will now be available on the market at more “reasonable” prices. Wonder if this will affect sell rate for other domain investors, since there’s so much more inventory at a discounted rate for end-users.
I believe domain investors should move to pay-at-cost offerings, like OpenProvider, DomainCostClub etc.
Well having a portfolio with both makes it convenient, I am with once a domainer always a domainer – Frank will still be a player
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