MMX, a company that operates a number of new gTLD domain extensions like .Work, .Law, .Fit, among others, published a Trading Update and AGM Notice for the first half of 2020. According to the update, it would appear that the business has not really been hampered by the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic:
MMX Trading Update and AGM Notice for H1 2020https://t.co/e174pPZ5VH #businessnews #technews #domains pic.twitter.com/ShIRfca78g
— MMX (@mmxdomains) July 30, 2020
In July of 2016, Andrew Allemann reported that the auction for the .Web extension closed with a winning bid of $135 million. It was subsequently reported that Verisign was behind the winning bid in that auction, although the operation of .Web has been held up due to a dispute, also reported on by Andrew.
It has been several years since the .Web auction, and it looks like we may be coming to and end point with the ongoing dispute. According to Verisign’s Q2 2020 earnings call (transcript via Seeking Alpha), a final hearing related to .Web is coming up in August. The news about .Web was shared by Jeffrey Eckhaus:
One of the neat things about domain investing is the number of ways people can make money from their domain investments. I have always been strictly a .com investor, and that has worked for me. There are plenty of other people who are creating their own investment strategies, and they are finding their own success.
I want to highlight two examples of people I do not know personally, but I have seen them share stories of successful domain investing.
I follow Jason Sheppard on Twitter, and I appreciate his willingness to share details about his domain name sales. This morning, he shared that he sold Basic.vc $4,999 via DAN.com. This is a domain name that he registered just a handful of months ago, and he reported that he is now in the money on his .VC domain name investments:
The Verge published an article about a teleconferencing startup that recently raised 7 figures in funding and its name made me think, “hmmmmmmm.” The startup app is called Mmhmm, and it uses the Mmhmm.App domain name for its website. Personally, I think the brand name is pretty confusing and the domain name exacerbates that confusion a bit.
Here’s what The Verge wrote about the app and its funding round:
Earlier today, Amazon announced the launch of Honeycode, a mobile and web app building with no programming or coding required. Notably, from a domain name perspective, Amazon launched this new development tool using the Honeycode.AWS domain name. Amazon operates the .AWS extension:
Introducing Amazon Honeycode: Quickly build powerful mobile & web apps – with no programming required. Build a better way to work for your team. https://t.co/MI4syczRiE pic.twitter.com/SwnsOAO23K
— Amazon Web Services (@awscloud) June 24, 2020
This morning, TechCrunch published an article about a banking and financial services startup called Vivid, a self-described “unique mobile banking app.” While the startup’s brand name is Vivid, it uses the Vivid.Money domain name for its website. There’s nothing really wrong with using a .Money domain name, but in my opinion, Vivid should add “Money” to its branding, and either be known as Vivid Money or Vivid.Money. I think brands operating on new extensions should embrace the extension, and it is especially important in the case of this startup called Vivid.
