Center of the Domain Universe: Vancouver + New Industry Websites and Events of Note
Jun/100
Many of the domain industry’s movers and shakers are converging on Vancouver, British Columbia for Canada’s first-ever T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference + notes on some new industry websites and events.
Two New Domain Industry Websites Launch and Two Existing Sites Unveil New Features
May/100
May has seen the launch of new domain industry websites as well as the addition of new features at existing sites. The new resources offer everything from domain promo codes that will give you registration discounts to an extensive list of categorized and rated sites that will help you find better domain names.
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Vancouver Preview – DN Journal’s Interview With Show Promoter Rick Latona
May/100
One of the most highly anticipated T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences in years is coming up June 8-10 when the pioneering industry trade show makes its first ever appearance in Canada…and a very special place in Canada at that. Vancouver is the epicenter of an area that has played a huge role in domain industry history.
Sedo’s parent, AdLINK Group unveils 2009 financial results
Apr/100
I read a brief post on DNW.com about Sedo’s annual results, so I wanted to look at the whole annual report in more detail, it can be found here. AdLINK is really composed of two divisions, the first being affili.net and the second being Sedo.
Unfortunately there isn’t too much information regarding Sedo itself, such as it’s gross margin and costs (only group costs can be found), so it’s really difficult to judge how well Sedo is really doing. The only interesting number is Sedo’s revenue for 2009, which came in at 46.6 milion EUR. That was a fall of 14.8% in comparison to 2008, when revenue came in at 54.7 million EUR.
The big question is what this revenue is really composed of. My assumption is that Sedo books only its 10% sales commission as revenue but books its entire parking revenue as revenue. I.e what it gets from google is counted as revenue and what it pays out to parking partners (domainers) is cost of goods sold.
If this would be the case, brokerage commissions amount to probably 7 million EUR of the total revenue (Sedo says it sells $8 million worth of domains a month) and the remainder, about 40 million EUR revenue would come from parking. That’s about $52 million a year, or less than $5 million a month.
That’s pretty small and it seems that in fact Oversee is an even bigger leader in domain monetization than I thought, probably being more than double the size of Sedo in terms of monetization revenue. Conversely, Namedrive looks like it’s coming much closer to Sedo than I previously thought.
I don’t want to pronounce Sedo as the laggard of the domain industry yet, but it seems like a former champion of the industry is losing out in the battlefield, at least in the short term.
Demand Media Featured in Special Issue of Time Magazine + .Com Celebrates 25th Anniversary
Mar/100
Time Magazine has published an Annual Special Issue that features an article about one of the biggest companies in the domain industry – Demand Media (the parent company of popular registrar Enom.com). Also, mainstream media is reporting on today’s 25th anniversary of the 1st .com domain registration.
A Domain Industry Climb Team Member Describes What it Took to Conquer Mount Kilimanjaro
Mar/100
DN Journal’s new monthly newsletter has the first detailed account of a domain industry climb team’s conquest of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa last week. In her own words, one of the climbers described what it took to scale the 19,340 foot mountain. The grueling 6-day mission raised almost $200,000 for a worthy charity.
Domain Industry Climb Team Reaches the Summit of Mount Kilimanjaro & Returns Safely to Base
Mar/100
The group of more than two dozen domain industry pros who went to Tanzania, Africa to climb Mount Kiliminjaro in a fund raising effort for The Water School have finished their
mission. 26 of the 27 climbers reached the peak and in the process raised approximately $180,000 for the non-profit organization.
Two Dozen Domainers Set to Begin Climb of Mount Kilimanjaro Monday!
Feb/100
On Monday at least two dozen men and women representing the domain industry will begin a climb of more than 19,000 feet to the peak of majestic Mount
Kilimanjaro. They are doing it to raise funds for deployment of a water purification system that is helping to stop waterborne disease and save lives in developing nations.
Former Fabulous.com Exec Dan Warner Named CEO at DomainAdvertising.com
Nov/090
DomainAdvertising.com has named industry veteran Dan Warner as the company’s new CEO. Warner is a well-known figure in the domain industry having previously served as the Chief Strategy Officer and COO of Dark Blue Sea, the Australian public company that owns Fabulous.com.