Domain Name News: March 14 Week in Review

Every Friday, DomainSherpa.com provides you with a hand-selected, editorially-based review of the weekly news. In this summary, you will find the latest articles and videos produced by DomainSherpa staff and contributors. You will also find links to the best news articles in the domain name industry – so you don’t have to spend your time searching for news or reading something that was not worth your time.

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This Week’s DomainSherpa Interview

• VIDEO: How to Sell a Domain Name Redux – With Adam Dicker

  Everyone loves to hear about people selling a domain name for hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. But a sales price of that magnitude is the exception, not the rule.

  In 2013, Sedo transacted more than 37,000 domain name sales on their marketplace. The average price was almost $1,900, with a median price of about $600. The fact is, most domain names sell in the range of $100 to $10,000.

  To discuss his personal portfolio statistics, I invited back to the show past Domain Sherpa Adam Dicker, who shares his strategy and roll-up-your-sleeves tactics to sell three- and four-figure domain names.

  Watch The Full Show Now »

Additional Resources

• DomainSherpa Discussion – Mar 12, 2014

  This is the show where we discuss domain name industry news with a panel of veterans and thought leaders.

  In this DomainSherpa Discussion:
  * Question from the audience: is a firstname.newTLD worth registering?
  * Question from the audience: should I have business insurance for accidental domain name registration of a trademark?
  * Google.com gives away 5,000 domain names if you build a website
  * Donuts.co takes-back properly registered domain names because they were on a reserved list but accidentally were sold — this happened to TWO Sherpas on today’s panel
  * Is the TMCH system being “gamed” by people to register generic domain names in new TLDs
  * A new database of domain name historical sales is available
  * How Page Howe made his domain name go from zero to $11,000 on Estibot.com
  * And more!

  Read/Watch »

This Week’s News in Review

See Who Registered 1,659 .domains Domain Names in First Hours – 13-Mar-14
A look at registrants of .domains domain names. Individuals and companies registered 1,659 .domains domain names in the first hours after the domain entered regular-price general availability yesterday. I’d group the purchases in five groups: Brands: domain name brands were on top of this release, of course. Many of them got the domains through sunrise…
Patient.com Domain Name Hit With UDRP – 13-Mar-14
UK health software company claims that owner of Patient.com is cybersquatting. Egton Medical Information Systems Limited, an electronic healthcare records software company, has filed a UDRP against the domain name Patient.com. The domain name was registered in 1997 but was acquired at Sedo in 2012, according to historical whois records. I don’t believe the sale…
Senator Thinks “.sucks” Domain Name Sucks – 12-Mar-14
Senate Commerce Committee chairman Jay Rockefeller (D., W.V.) said Wednesday that companies shouldn’t be allowed to register website names that end in “.sucks” because it will allow third parties to conduct a “predatory shakedown scheme” of companies and nonprofits…
Sen. Rockefeller, Adweek & Politico Pick Up On The .sucks Story We Told You About in December – 12-Mar-14
Back on December 19th we wrote about one new gTLD applicant’s plan to charge $25,000 for a .sucks domain registration in a post entitled; “You’ve Got To Be Kidding: $25K For A .Sucks Domain Name Registration”. Today Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) called .Sucks “little more than a predatory shakedown scheme designed to force large corporations, small businesses, non-profits, and even individuals, to pay ongoing fees to prevent seeing the phrase ‘sucks’ appended to their names on the Internet.”…
Dior Files URS On Dior.clothing & I’m Going to Blame The Company for This One – 12-Mar-14
A URS was filed by designer fashion house Christian Dior on the domain name Dior.clothing yesterday. I’m going to blame the company for this one. No one likes to pay for insurance just like no one wants to spend money to register defensive domains, but if your in business you need to do certain things and make good business decisions…
New York Man May Have Lucked Out With Apple Carplay – 12-Mar-14
New York registered CarPlay.com domain name in 2000. Nearly 14 years ago New Yorker Thomas Fitzgibbon registered the domain name CarPlay.com. “I just thought cars are going to be automated in the future, and we’re getting to the point where that’s happening today,” he explained to Domain Name Wire. “I figured people would be playing…
Donuts’ “Eco” Debacle Affected Two-character Domains Too – 12-Mar-14
Donuts has clawed back a couple dozen premium domain names from their erstwhile owners after accidentally selling names that were supposed to be restricted. The second-level strings “eco” and “00″ were inadvertently released for sale in Donuts’ new gTLDs, even though they’re on ICANN’s lists of names that must not be registered. After noticing its…
Agreed Becomes The 1st Licensed Internet Escrow Service to Accept Bitcoin & Litecoin – 11-Mar-14
California-based Agreed Escrow announce today it has partnered with GoCoin to become the first licensed Internet escrow service to allow clients to pay with Bitcoin and Litecoin through its site at Agreed.com…
Former Apple Executive Joins GoDaddy Board – 11-Mar-14
GoDaddy adds woman to board and her background might signal a coming IPO. GoDaddy has appointed Betsy Rafael to its board of directors. She is the former Chief Accounting Officer at Apple and Finance VP at Cisco Systems. Rafael also serves on the boards of Echelon and Autodesk. Rafael is the first woman on GoDaddy’s…
Will .exposed See a Big Sunrise? – 11-Mar-14
Donuts’ new gTLD .exposed goes into sunrise today, but will it put the fear into trademark owners? It’s arguably the first “ransom” TLD to go live in the current round and the first since .xxx, which scared mark holders into blocking over 80,000 domains back in late 2011. Most new gTLD sunrise periods to date…
DomainHoldings Brokerage is Staying But Parent Company Changed to Bidtellect – 11-Mar-14
The Baltimore Business Journal has just covered John Ferber and his new venture Bidtellect which is what the company known as DomainHoldings, Inc. is changing its name to…
Companies are Exposed to .exposed Top Level Domain Name – 11-Mar-14
Trademark counsel should pay attention to the latest TLD to enter sunrise. A lot of people have focused on .sucks as an example of a top level domain “shakedown” in which companies will feel compelled to register domains for protective purposes. There’s a similar domain name entering sunrise today that hasn’t received much attention: .exposed…
New Top Level Domain Names Still Facing Compatibility Issues – 11-Mar-14
Important software still not recognizing new domain names. Registrants of second level domain names under new TLDs such as .photography and .tattoo are learning firsthand about the issue of Universal Acceptance. The term refers to systems not recognizing new top level domain names for what they are, and thus not being compatible with domain names…
Fiskars is Stoppable, Domain Name Panel Rules – 11-Mar-14
Company loses dispute for Unstoppable.com domain name. Fiskars, a company you most likely know for its scissors, has a trademark on “Unstoppable”. But a Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) panel has ruled that its rights to the term are stoppable. The company filed a cybersquatting complaint under UDRP against the owner of Unstoppable.com…
Brands Finally Find a New gTLD They Like for Sunrise .company Has a Few Hundred – 11-Mar-14
Much has been made of the lack of Sunrise applications and Brands seeking their matching trademark or brand domains in the new gTLD rollout. I just reviewed the Zone file for the new Donuts gTLD .Company and it seems like this is a gTLD Brands are ding some registrations on…
New TLD Trademark Notifications Top 20,000 – 11-Mar-14
The Trademark Clearinghouse has sent over 20,000 notices to trademark holders based on domain registrations matching trademarks. The Trademark Clearinghouse has now issued 20,076 trademark notifications based on second level registrations in new TLDs. The notifications are sent to entities that have registered their marks with the Trademark Clearinghouse whenever someone registers an SLD that…
Trademark Clearing House Up to 27,252 Marks – 11-Mar-14
The Trademark Clearing House (TMCH) issued its monthly update. As of March 10th 2014, there are 27,252 marks submitted for a total of 59, 593 trademark years. 20, 076 notifications were sent to holders based off attempted new gTLD registrations…
Chinese Game Company 37wan.net is Buyer of 37.com for $2.1 Million & Predicts $36 Million in Profit – 10-Mar-14
According to a story out tonight in Chinatechnews.com, the buyer of the domain name 37.com for $2.1 Million dollars is Shanghai-headquartered 37wan.net a Chinese Gaming company. The company officially renamed the company 37 Game today…
Google Giving Away 5,000 Free New gTLD Domains – 10-Mar-14
Google is giving away free .み��”な domains. According to a company spokesperson, the first 5,000 people to submit a .み��”な web site idea via a campaign web site will receive a coupon for a free one-year registration in the new namespace. The offer expires April 5. The regular retail price at registrars appears to be…
PIR Goes Live With Three Non-latin .org gTLDs – 10-Mar-14
The internet has its first IDN versions of legacy gTLDs. Public Interest Registry had three new gTLDs delegated over the weekend, all non-Latin versions of its flagship .org. The gTLDs were .सं��–ठन, which means “organization” in Hindi, and the Chinese .机构 and .组织机构, which seem to be two ways of saying “organization” too. They’re not…
Tencent Pays $15 Million for 15% Stake in JD.com – 10-Mar-14
According to Wall Street Journal, the Chinese Giant, Tencent, has agreed to pay $215 million for a 15% stake in JD.com. JD.Com’s planning on a $1.5 billion IPO. JD.com, formerly known as 360buy.com, is a distant second in the Chinese e-commerce market to Alibaba’s shopping sites, Taobao.com and Tmall.com…
M.dot Rebranded As Go Daddy Go Mobile – 09-Mar-14
App Advice reported that M.dot has been rebranded to Go Daddy Go Mobile. M.dot has just been updated to version 2.0. At the same time, it has been rebranded as GoDaddy GoMobile…
Classified Ventures Seeking $3 Billion for Cars.com – 09-Mar-14
Now that the sale of Apartments.com is completed at $585 million, Classified Ventures is looking for $3 billion for Cars.com. William Launder, Dana Mattioli and Mike Spector wrote an article tonight for the Wall Street Journal…
Twitter Starts Supporting (Some) New gTLDs – 07-Mar-14
Twitter has started recognizing new gTLDs on its web page and on Tweetdeck. As of some point in the last 48 hours, you can type something like “nic.berlin” or “fire.plumbing” in a tweet and Twitter will automatically turn it into a clickable link. The switcheroo seems to have happened in the last two days, as…
.secure Applicant Loses CTO to Yahoo! – 07-Mar-14
Yahoo has reportedly hired a new chief information security officer in the form of Alex Stamos, outspoken CTO of .secure new gTLD applicant Artemis Internet. The news of Stamos’ departure was first reported by Re/code, citing unnamed sources, a week ago. Stamos did not respond to a DI request for comment but I gather he’s…
FT.com Covers Frank Schilling – 07-Mar-14
One of the most prestigious publications in the world, the Financial Times out of London just published a huge cover story on Frank Schilling. “Tucked inside a nondescript building on Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman, a stone’s throw from the island’s largest and glitziest hotels, Frank Schilling’s home feels a bit like the Batcave…”
Go Daddy Risking Oscars Wrath With .buzz Premium Domains? – 07-Mar-14
The new gTLD registry Dot Strategy included many famous brands on its list of premium .buzz names, including two that could get its partner, Go Daddy-owned Afternic, in hot water. Until a couple of hours ago, nic.buzz carried what appeared to be thousands of premium listings, organized by category and carrying prices of $1,000 and…
Final .eco Applicant Completes Evaluation – 07-Mar-14
Planet Dot Eco has finally passed its ICANN evaluation, meaning the four-way contention set for one of the oldest public new gTLD ideas, .eco, can move forward a little. In its Initial Evaluation last August, the company scored a miserable 1 point on its financial evaluation, failing to hit the target of 8 points, and…
14k of Enom’s 23k New gTLD Registrations are From Namecheap – 07-Mar-14
Yesterday we reported on the top 20 domain name registrars in terms of new gTLD domain name registrations. The domain name registrar in second place on the list was Enom with 23,167 new gTLD domain name registrations…
Warner Bros. Gets Gauntlet.com Domain Name After Filing UDRP – 07-Mar-14
Entertainment company now controls Gauntlet.com domain name. Warner Bros. has filed a UDRP against the domain name Gauntlet.com, and it appears the domain name registrant handed the domain name over as a result. It’s not clear yet if a payment was involved, but I’ve reached out to the previous domain owner. Warner Bros. distributed the…
.buzz Signs RRA With GoDaddy & Frank Schilling New Uniregistrar is One of .buzz Registrars – 07-Mar-14
.BUZZ signed its RRA with GoDaddy in New York City at the Momentum 3rd Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress and announced over 40 other registrars that will be taking .BUZZ registrations. One of the registrars on the list grabbed my eye, Frank Schilling Uniregistrar Corp which is the new domain name registrar that is suppose to be rolling out any day…
Largest Domain Name Sales Database Ever Built Launches With Over 315k Domains & $1,135,277,224 in Sales – 07-Mar-14
According to a press release we received today the biggest domain name sales database ever built just just rolled out. The database is at DNPric.es…
GoDaddy Has 40% of The New gTLD Market; 1and1 for Its $50m Got 12k Registrations – 06-Mar-14
A new site (or at least new to me) is showing the most detailed stats I have seen for new gTLD’s. According to ntldstats.com, there are a total of 215,638 new gTLD domain registrations as of 16:30 (time zone not defined) on March 6th…
.photos is First Day Winner in Donuts’ Latest Batch of New TLDs – 06-Mar-14
.Photos easily outpaces three other domain names that reverted to regular pricing yesterday. Four more new top level domain names from Donuts launched with regular pricing yesterday: .Photos, .Careers, .Shoes, and .Recipes. .Photos led the others by a wide margin when it came to the initial hours of release. At the time the zone reports…
Google’s First New gTLD Racks Up 2,300 Domains – 06-Mar-14
Google’s Charleston Road Registry reached 2,300 .み��”な domain names on the new gTLD’s first day of general availability, immediately making it the biggest IDN gTLD by volume so far. The string is Japanese for “everyone”. As you might expect, it’s an unrestricted space. About 230 names — 10% of the TLD — are non-IDNs. I…