News.com: ICANN, VeriSign make strange bedfellows
Tucows’ Ross Rader comments on the recent VeriSign vs. ICANN lawsuit settlement proposal (the lawsuit was about VeriSign’s SiteFinder initiative):
ICANN, VeriSign make strange bedfellows | Perspectives | CNET News.com
As many have already pointed out before, the proposal ensures a pro-longed term for VeriSign to take care of the gTLD .COM. It also includes a price increase.
This affects us all, so make sure to comment on the ICANN website.
Internet Advertising Revenues surpass $3 billion for Q3/2005
According to a press release by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Internet advertising revenue for Q3 of 2005 has surpassed $3 billion USD.
New York, NY (November 21, 2005) The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) today announced that Internet advertising revenues totaled a record $3.1 billion for the third quarter of 2005, making this the highest quarter reported and the first time that quarterly revenues surpassed $3 billion. The 2005 third-quarter revenues represent a 33.9 percent increase over 2004 third-quarter total of $2.3 billion and a 4.7percent increase over the 2005 second-quarter total of $2.9 billion. Based on historical data, the annual revenue run rate for 2005 could exceed $12 billion, well above last years record total of $9.6 billion.
Livedoor purchases a large Direct Navigation portfolio
Livedoor purchases a large Direct Navigation portfolio.
from their press release:
TOKYO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nov. 21, 2005–Livedoor Co., Ltd. (TSX: 4753) (http://www.livedoor.com) today announced that it has acquired Innovation Interactive, a US-based performance marketing firm. Innovation Interactive’s assets include full suite of Search Engine Marketing solutions from 360i, customized Search Management software platform from SearchIgnite, Direct Marketing Solutions, Contextual Marketing Solutions, as well as a large portfolio of Direct Navigation domains.
economy.com sells for $27 million
Moody's Corporation Acquires Economy.com not just the domain though:
Corporation (NYSE: MCO) today announced that it has acquired
Economy.com, a leading independent provider of economic research and
data services, for US$27 million. The acquisition will deepen Moody's
analytical capabilities to broader areas of economic and demographic
research, expand the range of products and services offered to
institutional customers and introduce new customers to Moody's. It will
provide Economy.com with access to Moody's extensive client base, deep
product marketing capabilities, and other resources needed to expand
its business. The transaction was funded by cash on hand and closed
today. Additional terms of the transaction will not be disclosed and
the financial impact to Moody's is not expected to be material.
Business 2.0 on Domainers and Domains as an investment strategy
Quote:
The December issue of Business 2.0 features an article about the Master$ of their Domain$ by Paul Sloan. A great piece and well worth the read. As Peter Ejtel already hinted in his blog, the publicity of recent sales was only the start. There also was an article in the Wall Street Journal, entitled “Thanks to web ads, some find new money in Domain Names“.
The article overall is written in an entertaining and positive style,
so it should help to promote the industry. However we probably don't
have to wait a long time to see more articles, some of them probably
not this positive. All in all a great start for the big wave of
publicity that this industry is going to receive. Maybe even I can find
the time to write an article.
Some exerpts:
Schwartz owns about 5,000 names, with less than a third falling into
the “adult” category. [...] he claims, that[’s] are earning him $2
million a year.
[...]
Wall Street jargon, direct navigation. Though it may seem odd in the
era of powerful search engines, it turns out that millions of Internet
surfers don’t use search at all. Instead, they type what they’re
looking for right into the top of their Web browser. Looking to buy
candy? Type in Candy.com, a name Schwartz bought in May 2002 for
$108,000. A page filled with links to candy-related products comes up.
Click on one of the ads and the advertiser pays Google, which in turn
sends a share to Schwartz and the company that runs Candy.com. Some
days Candy.com makes Schwartz $300 in profits; the site paid for itself
in a year and a half.
[...]
Besides some of the more or less well known domainers, the UltSearch
portfolio sale, the “factcheck.com” story, the article also features an
investor in this industry, one of the founders of Internet REIT (Internet Real Estate), also featured in the Wall Street Journal article.
Bob Martin and domain speculator Marc Ostrofsky. They named their
company Internet REIT and, according to Ostrofsky, are spending $250
million, probably far more, buying out domain owners as fast as they
can find good names. (Ostrofsky, for the record, was the man who pulled
off the much-publicized sale of Business.com for a reported $7.5
million in December 1999.)
[...]
who works from his apartment in Queens, N.Y., owns fewer than 100
names, but at least one is a gem: Cellphones.com. The site — a plain
page with relevant links —
makes an average of $1,300 a day.
[...]
He returns to his hotel room in the early morning to find a contract
under his door. Total price: $4.2 million. He paid $90 for the name in
1996.
Very good timing, considering Rick Schwartz has just announced his preliminary schedule for the Silicon Valley TRAFFIC conference.
Business 2.0 on Domainers and Investing in Domain Names
 |
The December issue of Business 2.0 features an article on several Domainers. The author, Paul Sloan, visited the Targeted Traffic conference in Florida. The article is entertaining to read and contains interesting information on how much revenue some Domainers generate – plus some details on some domain sales. It is rumored that Business 2.0 published this article early due to a similar article that was published by the Wall Street Journal. |
| picture from the article showing Michael Bahlitzanakis |
Wall Street Journal on New Money in Domains
The wall street journal published an article on domains in advertising. The story mentions fish, IREIT, Sedo, Marchex, Domain Systems, Afternic and other players in this field.
Domain Name Sales picking up
While one person wants to get into the Guinness Book of World Records by selling TheRecordBreakingDomain.com, someone else has …
Domains for fun?
While in North America and Europe more and more people are starting to
realize that investing in domains is a fulltime job that yield quite
lucrative returns, Andrew Straw describes how domains are 'a fun outlet':
Scoop: Internet Domains a Fun Outlet