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This is how a healthy new top level domain looks

by — Uncategorized 4 Comments

.App is a shining example of a healthy and stable top level domain.

One thing that has become clear since new top level domains came onto the scene nearly a decade ago is that you can’t judge a TLD by the number of registrations. Registries have played all sorts of games to make themselves look more successful than they really are. Some gave domains away for free, and nearly all TLDs in the top 10 by registrations continue to offer first-year registrations for next to nothing.

There’s one TLD in the top ten that stands out from the rest: .app.

Google paid $25 million for the rights to the .app domain in 2015. It then observed the market and deliberately launched the domain in 2018.

It priced domains affordably but not cheap. Current prices are about $15-$20 per year. It also required sites using the domain to install an SSL certificate, which adds legitimacy to the namespace and cuts down on people using the domains for nefarious purposes because of the extra hoop they have to jump through.

According to nTLDStats, there are about 750,000 .app domains registered today. The shape of the growth chart is healthy:

Chart showing growth in .app domain name registrations over time

Chart from nTLDStats

There was only a small dip during the “junk drop” anniversary. Growth was particularly strong in late 2019, and I seem to recall some promotions, but certainly not anything like the dollar sales that other registries offer. Regardless, there wasn’t a commensurate drop one year later.

The distribution between registrars is also healthy. GoDaddy has 57% of the namespace. This is a positive sign because you should expect the biggest registrar to have the most registrations, and GoDaddy hasn’t done deep discounting of domains (for the most part). Google, NameCheap, Key-Systems and Name.com round out the top 5.

Aftermarket sales for .app haven’t been particularly strong. Shopify paid $200,000 for shop.app and launched a shopping and payments service through it. 8 other domains have sold for at least $15,000. That’s just public sales, of course. But an aftermarket isn’t the primary sign of a healthy top level domain.

Few companies have the financial wherewithal to plunk down $25 million for a top level domain and then be patient and deliberate in launching and marketing it. But Google deserves credit for how it has managed .app, and it should be held out as an example for the next round of top level domain expansion.

Judge returns mixed bag in Pocketbook.com domain dispute ruling

by — Policy & Law 0 Comments

Both sides get some wins and losses.

Image of Pocketbook eReader

The judge in a dispute over Pocketbook.com issued a ruling on motions to dismiss.

Judge Dolly Gee has ruled on motions to strike and dismiss in a lawsuit over the domain name Pocketbook.com.

PocketBook International SA, a company that sells ebook readers, tried to get the valuable domain name through a UDRP but lost the case. It subsequently filed a lawsuit in September 2020. SiteTools, Inc, which owns the domain, countersued with claims including reverse domain name hijacking and trademark cancellation.

The judge returned a mixed result for both parties:

Denied the plaintiff’s motion to dismiss the counterclaim for trademark cancellation based on abandonment.

Granted the plaintiff’s motion to dismiss the RDNH counterclaim on basis that the domain was only temporarily suspended, not indefinitely suspended, so this doesn’t qualify as reverse domain name hijacking. I always thought of RDNH in lawsuits as a way to recover up to $100,000 for the inconvenience of spurious cybersquatting claims, but Gee wrote:

In this case, although Defendants’ Domain was temporarily suspended “for the pendency of the UDRP proceedings,” the Domain is once again live. Counterclaim at ¶ 21. The Counterclaim makes clear that the UDRP proceeding against Defendants was unsuccessful, and Plaintiff currently has no right to the Domain. Any reverse domain name hijacking claim here is therefore preemptive. Defendants make no compelling argument to the contrary.

Denied the defendant’s anti-SLAPP motion.

Denied the plaintiff’s motion to strike the defendant’s affirmative defenses, other than the ones the defendant agreed to strike

Granted the plaintiff’s motion to strike references to its failed UDRP attempt:

The Court has already held that the UDRP proceeding has no precedential value in this litigation. April 13, 2021 Ord. at 6. Moreover, Defendants’ quotation from the UDRP panel
decision is not relevant to Defendants’ surviving abandonment counterclaim. See Counterclaim at ¶ 13. Because the quotation of the UDRP panel decision is thus “immaterial,” and may cause prejudice to Plaintiff by citing to the panel’s non-binding conception of the legal standard in that arbitration, the Court GRANTS Plaintiff’s motion to strike the quoted paragraph. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(f); Bianchi, 120 F. Supp. 2d at 841.

The judge’s decision can be read here (pdf).

18 recent end user domain name sales

by — Domain Sales 0 Comments

An appliance retailer, a waster transport company and “the Pet Guy” bought domains.

Picture of hundred dollar bills with the words "end user domain sales"

There were no major public sales at Sedo this past week, but still a nice collection of end user domain sales.

Here’s a list of end user domain name sales that just completed at Sedo. You can view previous lists like this here.

Reconomia.com $15,000 – Reconomia is a refurbished appliance company that uses the domain reconomia.fr.

Plerion.com $11,000 – Plerion is a new business that says it is “The Building Blocks for Modern Security Teams.”

NewHomeCenter.com $9,500 – NewHomes.io connects people to Central California home builders.

WeSang.com $7,500 – Delivery Hero Korea LLC is a delivery platform that is being acquired. This might be part of a rebranding or new service.

HRautomation.com €6,500  – This is an exact match descriptive domain for RampUP SAS, a French firm with an HR automation platform called Axel. It forwards this domain to HeyAxel.com.

PupPub.com $6,488 – Jeff Seidenfaden, “the Pet Guy,” bought this clever domain.

Driverfy.com $5,500 – Track 5 Media creates job sites. I suspect this is tied to truck driving; the company has a site called All Truck Jobs.

ShibaSwap.net $4,900 – This domain is used for the Shiba Token cryptocurrency.

S-Fin.com $4,500 – SFin – smart investieren GmbH is a German real estate firm.

BikeLift.de €3,600 – This domain forwards to the site for Biohort, which sells storage devices for bikes.

ACCshop.com $2,500  – Hydrosystems SRL is a water transport systems business. I’m not sure what it will use this domain for.

MoldLink.com €2,200 – i-mold GmbH & Co. KG offers solutions for injection molding tools.

Lend.ly $4,500 – Lendly, LLC offers loans online. It uses the domain GetLendly.com.

Rhomberg-Reisen.at €3,000 – Rhomberg Reisen GmbH is a travel company that uses the matching .com domain name.

GoodMorning.io €2,899 – Attendware uses the domain Attend.com. I’m not sure what this domain is for.

NursingTheory.org $2,995 – SSC is a nursing company in Wyoming.

GameInside .com $2,203 – The buyer is setting up an online game site.

HuxHealth.com €2,000 – A landing page says Hux will be “Your daily edge for modern life” and will sell products.

 

 

 

 

Aftermarket sales of meta domains are hot

by — Domain Sales 3 Comments

Domains with meta in them are suddenly selling for big bucks.

Picture of Mugatu from Zoolander with the words "Meta domains...they're so hot right now"

I commonly point to the word blog as an example of a word that became popular after the initial .com goldrush, citing it as proof that there are still opportunities to register valuable domains in .com as words become more popular.

The number of new and popular words going mainstream has picked up in the last few years, thanks to blockchain terms. The latest is meta. And the payoff for domains isn’t limited to just .com, either.

I pulled a list from NameBio of all domains with ‘meta’ in them that have sold for over $2,000 or more. I stripped out ones where meta was part of other words (e.g., domains with metal, metaphor). So far this year, 41 domains with meta in them have sold for $2,000 or more, compared to just 4 last year. And just 16 of the domains that sold this year were .com. Clearly, when it comes to blockchain-related topics, people are willing to go with alternative extensions such as .io.

Or even .best. .Best? Yes, meta.best sold for $10,000. Meta.so sold for $149,000! Metapay.finance sold for $8,100 just days after it was registered.

Now would be a good time to review your buy now prices if you happen to have domains that have meta in them.

Of course, a word of caution is necessary. Remember when people registered 3D domains in droves?

Still, this is just the latest example of a keyword suddenly becoming hot.

Managing DNS abuse – DNW Podcast #359

by — Podcasts 1 Comment

Tucows CEO Elliot Noss talks about the company’s new initiative.

Picture of Elliot Noss, CEO of Tucows with the words "Managing DNS Abuse"

A lot of good comes from the internet. So does a lot of bad: phishing, spam, explicit child material, etc. On today’s show, Tucows CEO Elliot Noss shares an initiative his company is undertaking to raise awareness and formulate how Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX) responds to abuse connected to domains registered through Tucows and its resellers. Domain registrars are just one part of the internet, but they can play an important role.

Also: EU headaches, OpenSea, Sav milestone and more

Sponsor: Dan.com API Partner Program

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:13 — 25.8MB) | Embed

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