Thies Lindenthal at MIT: Full Time Research into Domain Markets

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I want to share some news from Thies Lindenthal, the creator of IDNX, “the first scientific grade price index for Internet domain names,” operated by Lindenthal with extensive sales data from  Sedo. Using IDNX, you can see how domain names have performed since 2006 and compare the performance of the domain market to that of the NASDAQ 100.

Thies recently announced that he has begun a post-doctoral studies program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he will be researching the domain market in depth. The goal is of his research is produce empirical papers on several research questions, such as:

NicaraguaCanal.com: Smart End User Purchase

Reuters is reporting that “Nicaraguan lawmakers granted a 50-year concession to a Chinese company on Thursday for it to design, build and manage a shipping channel across the Central American nation that would compete with the Panama Canal.” The construction of this Nicaragua Canal would likely generate a significant amount of revenue for the country if/when it’s built.

Smartly, the company behind the Nicaragua Canal project appears to have bought the matching NicaraguaCanal.com domain name. The current registrant for the domain name is HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co., Ltd, which is the same company mentioned in the Reuters article.

NicaraguaCanal.com has a registration date of August of 2007, and it appears to have been owned by a domain investor. In 2009, the domain registration was made private. According to Daily Changes, the domain name was on Sedo DNS until September of 2012 when it moved to Afternic DNS. The Whois registration remained private until May 18, 2013. The domain name is still listed for sale on Sedo, but based on the current ownership, I would assume it’s a dated listing that should probably be taken down.

NicaraguaCanal.com does not currently resolve, but I assume the company has plans for it – or didn’t want someone else to control it. Interestingly, PanamaCanal.com appears to be owned by a tour company, not affiliated with the Panama Canal.

Sedo Updates Buyer Control Panel

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In a Facebook update shared yesterday, Sedo  announced that the company had rolled out updates to its buyer control panel, in an effort to “to make it easier for our #domain buyers.” When a company like Sedo makes client facing changes, I think it’s important for domain investors to know what changed.

After reading the post, I reached out to Sedo’s Daniel Le Ray, and he was able to provide me with details about the changes that have been made, and he also shared before and after screenshots of the control panel.

Here are the changes that were made according to Sedo’s  Product Management team:

Is.com and Prices.com Listed on Sedo

Sedo  just issued a press release this morning announcing that the company locked up the Is.com and Prices.com domain names under exclusive brokerage contract, with Dave Evanson serving as the broker. The asking prices for these two domain names were not shared, so the best way to find out is to contact Dave directly.

The domain names show Domain Capital as the registrant, but the press release quotes Mike Bahlitzanakis as the owner.

In 2006, the Ottawa Citizen posted an article about domain names, and

Coronavirus Spreading: Coronavirus.com on Sedo

At the World Health Assembly held recently in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that a SARS-like virus is a major health threat. According to WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan, “The novel coronavirus is a threat to the entire world.”

I was curious about who owns Coronavirus.com, because if the world reaction to this coronavirus is similar in scale to SARS, it is probably going to be worth

May Great Domains Auction Nets $175k

Sedo’s May Great Domains auction ended last week, and the converted total sales value in USD was $174,838.09. The largest sale was MPH.com for $62,000. Several three letter .com domain names sold in this auction for fairly solid prices considering the letters.

I believe this is one of the most successful Great Domains auctions in a while, with the exception of the auction that included the sale of Moms.com (for over $250,000). Listed below are the sales from this month’s auction.

mph.com 62000 $US
engineer.co.uk 10099 £
upv.com 10000 EUR
child.org 9976 EUR
sbq.com 9300 EUR
chz.com 9100 EUR
kjq.com 8600 EUR
d-y.com 5655 EUR
booklets.com 5099 $US
emq.com 5000 $US