Phil Corwin Takes Job at Verisign

Elliot Silver
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When the Internet Commerce Association announced that Phil Corwin was leaving the organization last week, I was unsure what he would be doing upon his departure. The ICA didn’t announce Phil’s career plans, and I figured we might hear from Phil via a LinkedIn update or something along those lines to learn why he left the ICA.

This afternoon, Phil announced that he will be working at Verisign, Inc. as its Policy Counsel. The news was announced via tweet:

This seems like an important role at the publicly traded company, and Phil’s connections and knowledge of the industry should be a big help for him and for Verisign. I

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Video: Emoji Domain Name Discussion

Elliot Silver
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Domain name broker Darryl Lopes shared a video interview on LinkedIn that he conducted with domain industry veteran Page Howe. The topic of the long conversation is emoji domain names. I don’t know a ton about emoji domain names, but I do know there are people who believe in the viability and commercial value of them.

I embedded a video of the conversational interview Darryl shared. If you have any questions about emoji domain names for Page or Darryl, you are welcome to post them in the comment section. Enjoy your weekend!

Directnic Acquires Fabulous

Elliot Silver
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A little over a month ago, Konstantinos reported that Mike Robertson had returned to Fabulous. Mike worked at Fabulous for nearly nine years, and he departed the company in 2011, later taking on his current role as Business Development Director at Directnic in 2014. From what I understand, the Fabulous / Mike Robertson news was prematurely sent out, and now we know why.

According to a press release I received, Directnic has acquired Fabulous from Dark Blue Sea. I understand the deal includes the Fabulous domain name registrar, parking service, a large domain portfolio, and other intellectual property. Terms of the acquisition were not shared.

Fabulous is a well-liked domain registrar based in Australia, and it has been a favorite for domain investors over the years. From my vantagepoint, the popularity of Fabulous waned over the last few years, and there have been some key departures during that time, including Mike as well as Evergreen’s Jen Sale, among others. I think Fabulous has retained its reputation as a customer-focused registrar over the years.

Mike told me that Directnic and Fabulous will continue to operate as separate brands, as they both service a different audience. Fabulous will undergo a website and infrastructure update to add some new functionality and improve the user experience. Mike’s title will remain the same – Director of Business Development for both Directnic and Fabulous. He will be involved with high level account management and partner relationships.

Here is the press release I received:

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UK Financial Magazine Writes About .com Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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There was an article about .com domain names in the “UK’s best selling financial magazine,” MoneyWeek. The dotcom frenzy is far from over, written by Dominic Frisby, discusses how valuable exceptional .com domain names are right now and how expensive they can be to acquire. I think the author is on point, and some of the insights he shared are factors in my own domain name acquisition strategy.

Within the article, Evergreen COO Jen Sale is quoted extensively. I presume Mr. Frisby spent a fair amount of time discussing domain names with her, and it was a wise move to get her expert thoughts on the state of the .com domain name market. I understand that Evergreen has been involved in quite a few substantial domain name sales and acquisitions during the prior two years, and Jen has a good pulse of the state of the market.

I recommend that you read the article in its entirety, but I shared a few quotes from the article for your convenience:

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Payoneer Escrow Offering 50% Discount

Elliot Silver
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Payoneer Escrow has a special offer for new clients in conjunction with the Merge Show. I was told that the company is offering 50% off transactions for new customers. The offer is valid on transactions that are started at Payoneer Escrow from now until then end of 2017.

Although this offer is targeting people who have not used Payoneer Escrow before, current customers are able to use the discount if they do a deal with someone who is not a customer. By way of an example, if I (a Payoneer Escrow customer) sell a domain name to a company that has not used Payoneer Escrow before, the discount would be applied. In this case, the new user would start the transaction for the discount to be applied.

This is a nice acquisition

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Venture Launched As Domain Name Leasing Platform

Elliot Silver
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While evaluating a domain name that had a message of “Lease this Domain” on the top of its parked landing page, I noticed the link directed me to Venture.com. Venture is a recently launched business that offers “premium domain leasing with transparent and affordable pricing.” Venture was founded by Dr. Kevin Ham and it is operated by his company.

The company’s about us page explains the idea behind the domain name leasing concept that drives its business model:

“After decades of experience in the internet business, we figured out a way to address the supply and demand issue surrounding valuable domain properties. The idea came during a visit to California and introduction to the Irvine Ranch, a 93,000 acre plot of private, masterly planned urban land. The Irvine company’s commitment to good stewardship of their land inspired us to build a model that would connect unused digital properties to startups, entrepreneurs, and big ideas.

Thousands of premium domains lie vacant, waiting for a great idea to be built on them. Unfortunately, many of the entrepreneurs and startups with these ideas can’t afford the multi-million dollar asking prices. So, we decided to bring the commercial real estate model to digital real estate and made it even better.”

The Venture platform stands out for several reasons. The most obvious factor is the quality of the brand name. Venture.com is a (multi) million dollar domain name and it is a great brand name. There is a level of trust established with a great brand name, and the design of the website is also modern and crisp.

Similarly, because a portion of Kevin Ham’s domain name portfolio is listed for lease on Venture, the quality of the available domain names is stellar. For instance, here are some of the highlighted domain names for lease on the homepage: Rack.com, Mugs.com, Beat.com, OH.com, HO.com, CheapTravel.com, and ET.com. There are thousands of others that are great.

Perhaps the biggest differentiating factor is the monthly lease prices are listed right on the landing page. If someone clicks the lease inquiry button on the Uniregistry parked page and lands on Venture.com, they will know exactly how much the monthly lease rate is. It also looks pretty easy to get started (and terminate the lease) although I did not test this out.

It looks like the company is allowing third parties to list their domain names on Venture as well. Here’s the call to action on the Owners page of the Venture website: “Make your domains available to entrepreneurs who can bring their ideas to life on your digital properties while you receive a healthy stream of cash flow.”

I reached out to Kevin for a comment about Venture, and here’s what he told me:

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