Steve Banfield is the SVP and GM of Registrar Services at Rightside, and in that role, he works closely with eNom and Name.com, as well as resellers such as Namecheap. Although Rightside is a new company, it was created with the domain name services arm of Demand Media, and it is in the process of being completely spun off from DMD.
Steve Banfield is in a fairly unique position within the domain industry, as he is intimately familiar with new gTLD registry operations as well as registrar operations. Rightside has applied for and will be managing several new gTLD extensions via its Rightside Registry arm, and it owns domain name registrars and manages domain name resellers. Off the top of my head, I can only think of one other person (Frank Schilling) that is as intimately involved with both registry and registrar operations.
With all that said, I think an interview with Steve Banfield that was posted today on SocalTECH.com is well worth a read, specifically for people who are involved in the business of domain investing. Some of the topics Banfield discusses in the interview include:
- Key goals for Rightside
- Domain industry challenges as a result of mobile traffic
- Decision to spin Rightside brands off from Demand Media
- Current business conditions at Rightside and its brands
Although I have not done much investing in the new domain names, I enjoy reading about the business and strategy behind them (although this article is primarily about the domain name business in general). I think we are in a fascinating time in the domain name business, and it’s interesting to get the perspective of someone like Banfield.
Take a few moments when you have a chance a check out the interview that was posted. I assume you are welcome to pose your own follow up questions, and perhaps they will be answered.