The Afternic X account posted a link on X without much context that caught my attention this morning:
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โ Afternic (@afternic) October 3, 2025
Visiting DomainNames.com shows a landing page announcing that something is coming soon with revolving words like “groundbreaking,” “innovative,” “disruptive,” and “transformative.”
While not much more is shared on the landing page itself, the title of the page likely gives away what is coming: “DomainNames.com – Premium Domain Marketplace Coming Soon.”
DomainNames.com was originally acquired by Frank Schilling for $370,000 at the NamesCon auction. The domain name had previously been owned by Network Solutions. I don’t believe Frank did anything with the domain name, but it was acquired by GoDaddy when the company acquired Uniregistry.
I have not heard anything about DomainNames.com, so I am just as curious as everyone else to see what GoDaddy does with the domain name.
This is the same type of lander as AI.com, which is rumored to have recently sold in the range of US$100 million.
Asset class separation would be the best thing to happen to the domain industry IMO. I can think of countless industries where clear delineations exist regarding assets and quality to the benefit of business and consumers.
Stocks and lumber are two such examples.
How many of these “premium” soliticitations do you get a day?
“I’m reaching out to you regarding the premium domain HardwoodFloorContractors.com …which is for sale…………”
What is the REAL definition of a “Premium” domain?
i probably have a dozen “Premium” domains at best – the domains that VC money and unicorn money chases.
Everything else is just “a domain” – including this guys HardwoodFloorContractors.com.
Just like godaddy’s “Boost” – this is just more bullshit – just like everybody “reaching out to me” – when all I want is someone “reaching around me”
Genius move by GD.
I see that Godaddy lists premium domain names they have already sold e.g. Link.com, First.com, Fancy.com and Affiliate.com. Is this their standard for defining premium domain names? And how many domain names worldwide that meet such criteria are currently for sale? If only domain names of this level can be listed for sale, then this is inevitably a very niche platform.
“Premium domains” used to simply mean domains that the registry charged a higher registration/renewal price for.
Aftermarkets have hijacked the term and made it subjective for marketing purposes.