Uniregistry

Some Thoughts About TRAFFIC Awards

Following the TRAFFIC conference awards, I had a brief discussion with a couple of friends about the voting process. The genesis  of the discussion was that some nominees reached out to friends, clients, and others to ask for their support for the awards.

I think this year’s TRAFFIC Award voting process was improved from prior years, and it seems to be a  fair way to conduct voting. Some people may have opined that  it doesn’t seem like a total industry award because you have to be on the TRAFFIC email list to nominate, but I believe anyone can sign up to be on the list. I think it’s smart to do it this way because it cuts down on fraud and lessens the chance that someone can stuff the ballot box. I think having a third party, Escrow.com in this case, review the votes (just like the Domainers Choice Awards used a third party service, too) was also a smart idea.

Some people may feel like industry awards

Weekend Thoughts, Updates, and Tips

The 10th anniversary of the TRAFFIC conference is now in the books, and I am glad that I attended. As usual, the networking was good, and I had some productive meetings. I also met some people I had not met before, and that is one of the most valuable aspects of the conference. I shared some additional thoughts about the conference below.

If you called me or emailed me at some point during the last two weeks, I will try to reply to you soon. My wife and I spent a few days in Florida prior to the conference, and that was followed by several nights in Punta Cana, which was then followed by the TRAFFIC conference. Although I’ve been working, I have a few emails and phone calls to return.

Here are some thoughts and updates:

10 Recent Domain Name Purchases & Acquisitions

It’s been a while since I’ve shared some of my recent domain name purchases, so I thought I would share a handful of them today. You are welcome to share some of your domain name acquisitions in the comment section if you’d like. This isn’t the appropriate place to list names for sale though 🙂

The 5 domain names below were either purchased in private or purchased at auction. Generally, I’ve been buying directly from domain owners or via NameJet. That hasn’t changed all that much.

5 recent domain acquisitions:

Uniregistry Domain Names Now at GoDaddy

Uniregistry has been selling its new gTLD domain names since the end of February of this year,  but they have not been selling them via GoDaddy, the largest domain name registrar in the world. According to a tweet from Uniregistry founder Frank Schilling, as of yesterday, new gTLD domain names managed by Uniregistry are now available for purchase by customers at GoDaddy.

I checked, and GoDaddy is now selling Uniregistry extensions like .link, .sexy, .tattoo, .blackfriday, .guitars, and others. The pricing seems comparable to other registrars, although the prices are more expensive than buying the domain names directly from Uniregistry (not taking any discounts into consideration).

In February of this year, Kevin Murphy of DomainIncite.com wrote an article about “why registrars are boycotting .sexy” and other Uniregistry new gTLD domain names. In his article,

Uniregistry is Still Hiring

By now, I am sure you heard about the two big Uniregistry hirings this past week. Uniregistry hired Vern Jurovich as its Chief Operating Officer, and the company also  hired Michael Ward as its Director of Registrar Operations. Both of these individuals have considerable experience in the domain name space, and these hirings make sense for the company as it competes for talent with several other growing domain industry companies.

In addition to these two hirings,  Uniregistry also has other job opportunities for qualified individuals. According to its  career page, Uniregistry is looking to hire employees in the following areas:

B. Riley & Co: 20 Million New gTLD Domain Names by 2016

Earlier this week, Sameet Sinha, Sr. Equity Research Analyst at B. Riley & Co., published a research report on the new gTLD business and Rightside. The report, which is available to B. Riley clients and subscribers, made some projections about the new gTLD domain names and the impact they will have across the board in the domain industry (from registries to registrars to service providers…etc). In addition, Mr. Sinha initiated coverage on Rightside (ticker: NAME) with a Buy rating and $15 price target.

Mr. Sinha’s report offered an extensive overview of the domain name space, as well as a history of the new gTLD program. It was quite comprehensive, and I think it will give readers a greater knowledge about the technical aspect of domain ownership and operations. If someone were to ask me for a resource to  explain the gTLD program, I think this report would give them all of the information they need to learn about its genesis and future.

I thought Mr. Sinha’s report was quite interesting, especially because it comes from someone  outside of the domain investment space.  With Mr. Sinha’s permission, I want to share some excerpts from the report as well as a few projections that were made:

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