Greece Woes Impacting Domain Names?

I have been following the news about the economy of Greece over the last couple of weeks. I am not an economics expert by any stretch, but I am sure the ongoing issues in Greece will impact people and economies throughout the world, regardless of the outcome.

An interesting op-ed article was published this morning in the New York Times. Greece’s Sorry Reckoning, written by Nikos Konstandaras, discussed the issue at hand as well as some of the problems that Greece-based businesses have encountered in the last week. One thing in particular about domain names caught my eye.

From the article:

“With the E.C.B. declining to raise the limit on emergency funds this past week, our banks quickly began to run out of cash. Within days, a sophisticated society began to unravel — old people struggled to draw their pensions, trade and industry froze, websites could not renew their domain names with overseas providers, smartphone owners could not download apps as their credit cards were blocked.”

I had not thought about the domain name issue aside from the macro-economic impact on the economy and our businesses. However, the domain name issue could become a real problem for Greeks if the debt crisis  is not remedied quickly. In fact, apparently Paypal is not working in Greece, which is also troubling for Greeks who could potentially use the service to pay for domain name renewals.

There is time between a domain name’s expiration and when it will be deleted or go to auction, so the immediate concern isn’t the loss of the domain name. However, when a domain name expires, the website that is on the domain name generally goes dark, and this could certainly exacerbate financial issues if websites are not working as they should

I don’t have any suggestions or answers on how to make things better, but I am hopeful that Greek domain owners took action in advance to ensure their domain names are protected during these uncertain times.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
  1. It is just a question of time, but at the end Europe will have to save Greece because they cannot risk the country would switch to a currency pegged to US dollar or Russian ruble. Investors know that and therefore a current development has almost no influence on EUR/USD exchange rate.

  2. We’ve been buying Greek banks the past week re $EGFEY and we’re in good company Wilbur Ross-Prem Watsa etc. The Greek mess-and it is a mess-will have zero impact on domain names. This issue will be resolved soon.

  3. At 7:30pm Eastern yesterday I made a successful PayPal payment to a Greek domain registrar, so the issue isn’t inbound, but outbound payments originating in Greece due to capital control.

    Next week will be crucial in Greece after a Sunday referendum, and it will determine its financial future in many ways. There is no way to predict anything at this point.

    Domain related, I’ve seen many domain registrations of “Greece” and “Greek” domains since the crisis expanded.

  4. Heretismata Apo Tin Ellada,

    For most of us living in Greece, the closing of the banks took us by surprise.

    Personally, I can not withdraw more than 60 Euros a day which is preventing me from buying any domain. And there is talk that Greece is going impose a “haircut” on deposits (similar to what happened in Cyprus 2 years ago but with a lower threshold) – which means our deposits are at risk

    In retro speck, rather than holding on to a cash reserve, I wish I would have purchased another nice NNNN.COM or LLL.COM – They are worth their weight in Gold. And you don’t have to rely on anybody, country, bank or government.

    Looking forward, I am hoping that we will have a YES VOTE and our Left wing party will resign.

    • btc has rallied on since Greek wheels really fell off 2-3 weeks ago.

      I think Greek people should tell the International Bankers and Money Changers to go F themselves.

      Thats just my opinion.

      I think Greek youth will have no future with YES vote and only people who want YES are those on cushy pensions.

      Greeks will be continually raped if they vote YES, imvho.

      Hope for history sake they do the right thing. Euro project is a prison and was NEVER a good idea. They are trying to stomp out democracy in Brussels.

    • I am against the international banking institutions squeezing countries dry.

      But the problem in Greece is primarily a Greek problem.

      What Greece needs more than anything is big/drastic reforms in the public sector. We have hundreds of thousands of government employees and bureaucracy is unbearable. And for decades Greeks have been getting away with early pensions – and “cushion” government jobs.

      And its the small businesses that are paying the bill, but its also small businesses that drive the economy forward. (800,000 Greeks are self employed)

      It’s unavoidable: government needs to lay off gov. employees – increase pension age – lower corporation tax – give incentives to the small and medium sized businesses – attract foreign investment + confidence

      And that’s NEVER going to happen with our Left Wing Government (if you can call that a party – more like a zoo). They are doing the exact opposite and putting the blame on the EU.

      Sorry, we need a YES and SYRISA out….

  5. Greece’s fiasco all started with hosting the 2004 Olympics Games- all because of pride, ego and ignorance and now they are paying for it.

    Greece should follow the model of financial success of the country of Singapore. We don’t have any natural resources but we have smart people, hardworking, work hard ,play hard, no corruption and very pragmatic.

    Following the news of the workbetter.com, I curiously type in worksmarter.com and guess who owns that?

    A good read on worksmarter.com and thanks to our DomainKing!!

  6. The crisis needs to be resolved as soon as possible because if domain owners, especially those who are self-employed, are not able to renew their websites, it would be a greater blow to Greece.

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