Daily Poll

TechCrunch published an article about EBay shutting down its eBay Commerce Network. The Shopping.com domain name was mentioned in the article because it is used by EBay as a part of its Commerce Network:

“Bridget Davies, eBay’s VP of advertising, confirmed to TechCrunch that as part of the closure, listings that had been run on Shopping.com — which was still active, acting as a “publisher” on the Commerce Network — will also no longer appear. “We’re going to retain the domain, and we’re currently deciding what we will do with the asset,” she said.”

I am curious what readers think Shopping.com is worth today.

In July of last year, I speculated that Weight Watchers may have bought the valuable WW.com domain name. I assumed they might use it as a shortener for their brand. In September, I wrote about the news that Weight Watchers was rebranding as WW. Perhaps the company wanted to move away from its branding to something much more generic. In my opinion, the WW name doesn’t really say anything about the company and it seems the company will need to continually use the Weight Watchers brand so people recognize it.

Since its rebranding, things have not gone so well for the publicly traded company. An article in Market Watch illustrates what has happened to the value of the company’s stock since the name change:

Last week on Twitter, entrepreneur and angel investor Jason Calacanis announced that he received a $900,000 offer for the ADAY.com domain name, and he asked his followers if they think he should sell it:

got $900,000 offer for https://t.co/7UiHiBTDEn — take it?

— 🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄 (@Jason) February 22, 2019

It looks like most of the people who replied so far think he should take the $900k offer.

I am wondering what a domain investment audience thinks about that offer and whether Jason should take the money or not. Vote in the poll below and feel free to share additional thoughts in the comment section.

NamesCon Europe is coming up in June, and it will be held in the city of Cascais, Portugal (a short drive from Lisbon). The conference will be held from June 20-22, 2019. NamesCon shared more information about the conference in a tweet yesterday:

#ICYMI: We’ve announced the location for NamesCon Europe 2019! This year, we’ll be hitting the coastal town of Cascais, Portugal, just west of Lisbon. Learn more about what else we have in store for you: https://t.co/XTVmGsn3Pi #NCEurope19 pic.twitter.com/WztU5R17cB

— NamesCon (@NamesCon) February 7, 2019

Earlier this morning, I shared a video of the DomainNames.com auction at NamesCon. The domain name sold for $370,000, and I believe Frank Schilling of Uniregistry was the winning bidder.

I thought I would ask readers their thoughts on the purchase via poll question below. “Good buy” doesn’t necessarily mean a good price to re-sell. I presume Frank / Uniregistry will be the end user, so even if you think the price was on the high side, it could still be considered a good buy. Feel free to share additional thoughts in the comment section after you vote if you would like:

NamesCon 2019 is coming up in about 3 weeks from now. This will apparently be the last NamesCon conference in Las Vegas, according to a preview in DNJournal. I have mixed feelings about that.

I don’t love Las Vegas, but I have become accustomed to traveling there every year from NamesCon. There is an assortment of hotels, there are plenty of restaurants for every taste, and there are all sorts of activities. It can also be relatively cheap, depending on your preferences. Everything is also pretty close together, so if you want to have a private meeting, you can easily find somewhere to meet without prying eyes. It’s also a great place to find a public spot and congregate with a larger group of people. There’s almost something for everyone in Las Vegas.

I will probably attend NamesCon wherever it is held next year (buying my ticket right as this year’s event ends), but if others opt to not attend, it will be less appealing. With this year’s conference coming up in a few short weeks, I am curious to know if you plan on attending.