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Converse.CO UDRP Decision Turns on Price Inference

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In general, I thought UDRP panels have gotten past the issue of pricing as it relates to generic / descriptive one word domain names. A domain registrant who owns a one word .com – or alternative extension – domain name that is descriptive in nature should be able to make their own determination about the pricing based on their own expectations.

I am sure most of you have heard of the sportswear and shoe company called Converse. My daughter has a pair of the canvas Converse Chuck Taylor shoes, as do millions of others around the world. Converse is a well-known brand.

However, converse is also a dictionary term related to being engaged in conversation. With chat technology and chatbots in the news of late due to advancements in artificial intelligence, conversation related keywords are probably worth more now than ever before. In addition, I have been seeing startups and other businesses using non .com domain names quite a bit, and they seem to be selling for more. For instance, Doron Vermaat reported the $52,000 sale of Fire.CO just 3 days ago.

Ebbs and Flows of Domain Investing

My domain investment portfolio has grown from around 500 domain names to around 2,000 domain names in the last several years. Even at that size, getting consistent domain name sales is a challenge. Using a 3% annual sell through rate as a benchmark, that would equate to around 60 domain name sales a year – or about one sale a week on average.

The two most exciting things for me in the domain space is acquiring a great domain name at a reasonable price and selling a domain name for any price. Yeah, a six figure deal feels better than a $1,000 sale, but an unexpected $1,000 deal gives a nice jolt of dopamine on an otherwise uneventful day.

Escrow.com’s 2024 Master of Domains

This afternoon during the NamesCon domain conference, Escrow.com announced the winners of its 2024 Master of Domains. The award is given to the 10 grossing domain brokers measured by the size of the deals they closed using Escrow.com during the prior year.

The top grossing domain broker for the year is Andrew Rosener of Media Options. I believe Andrew has won the award the last 6 years and been on the list every year since its inception 8 years ago. Andrew Miller of Hilco Digital was second on the list and Jeff Gabriel of Saw.com was third.

Here are the Escrow.com top 10 grossing domain brokers for 2023:

CEO: Namecheap “Most Likely” to Exit Afternic Network

I don’t always check where my Afternic-sold domain names are transferred post-sale, but I have noticed quite a few transfer to Namecheap. This is because Namecheap is a part of Afternic’s network, and Afternic-listed domain names show up in the Namecheap registration search path.

This may not be the case for much longer, according to Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall. In a reply to a conversation on X, Richard indicated that Namecheap will “most likely” exit the Afternic network, eliminating a very large source of buyer leads:

Activision Acquires Elsewhere.com

On May 16th, Activision announced a new internal studio branded as Elsewhere Entertainment. In its blog post announcing the news and launch, the company linked to the studio homepage currently located within its Activision website.

More recently, it would appear, Activision acquired the Elsewhere.com domain name. Elsewhere.com now forwards to the internal Activision.com landing page for Elsewhere.

Spaceship: Request a Feature

There have been many times I visited a domain industry website and thought of an idea that would be helpful. On occasion, I’ve taken some action and gotten in touch with a decision maker to offer a suggestion. Off the top of my head, I don’t recall seeing anything implemented (yet).

I received an email from Spaceship this morning announcing a new service called Unbox. You can read about that offering on the Spaceship website.

What caught my attention in this morning’s email is the section about growing together: