When you hear the name UShip, I would imagine you probably think the company is called “You Ship” or maybe “YouShip” without the space. It’s actually called UShip, and it can be found at UShip.com.
The company appears to be doing very well. So well, in fact, that TechCrunch just reported that UShip “raised $18 million in Series C funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.”
One problem for UShip is its confusing name and the fact that it does not own the correctly spelled YouShip.com. That domain name is owned by Maersk, one of the largest shipping companies in the world. The YouShip.com domain name forwards to one of Maersk’s websites, and as a result, tracking typo traffic would be difficult unless that information was provided by the domain owner.
Luckily for UShip, it seems that although these two companies both are in the shipping business, they have different business models and operate in different areas of the shipping industry.
I would assume UShip has already tried to acquire the YouShip.com domain name, but if it hasn’t, it probably should make an attempt as it seems to be on an upward trajectory. The downside is that Maersk now knows about its huge funding round, and if anything, the price would go up.
It’s always great when a company sees significant growth, but it can be a problem if the brand its building may confuse customers into thinking it’s operated by a different company.
If Maersk is a shipping company why would they sell the domain? They may have a division that competes with Uship in the future, if not now. Great name for a shipping company, and they will get free traffic from it.
Perhaps, but as it stands right now they are simply using YouShip.com as a forwarder rather than for branding. Perhaps they’d value cash over the domain name.
Not needed, no way the container shipping company would sell a domain to anyone in the same industry, future expansion into the same industry could cause issues. Uship is commonly referred to in the shipping wars tv reality show, ubid, was very popular back in the day.
If someone wants to use uship and go to youship. Might take them some time but they will figure it out.
Another new shipping model is ebays phone to door service, which will pick up your oversized online purchase and deliver it for 5 dollars, using their new beta system, only working in sf, and nyc right now, check it out.
As, i am from Copenhagen.. I will definitely say Maersk will not sell it any price and i dont think they are in need of money.. as its One of the biggest and richest company here in Danmark.
But, having said that… The difference between the successful and general company is the Art of negotiation… The same way coca cola and carlsberg has done here… They will not compete with each other in some line of products …
You never know… they might not need the money or the domain name, but they might think it’s better to have money than an unused domain name 🙂
Guess it depends how much money is on the table.
Just speaking freely I know Maserk is huge in global shipping with a market cap exceeding $300B USD, there is nothing uship could offer in terms of dollars to swaypart with a direct SHIPPING type domain.
This is a steady business, with great cash flow, would take a very big oversight to let a direct industry name like that go.
Market cap should read $30B
I agree that it’s unlikely, but there’s always a chance.
Yahoo has a $23B+ market cap and the company sold Contests.com at auction in 2009 for $380k: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/yahoo-selling-off-domain-names-unloads-contestscom-for-380k/11129/
That wasn’t even an inbound sale – that was them looking to sell it.
I guess, it wont be wise to conclude in that way… Comparison with Yahoo which was founded in 1994 and the 2009 has no doubt been the most tumultuous year for yahoo, the stock price was all the way down … they needed to cash on …Whereas Maersk has a long history and its not a internet bubble ….
For them they play safe and have a great strategy…
All true, but on the other hand, $380k didn’t do much for their balance sheet. In addition, Yahoo is an internet company while Maersk isn’t. If they are offered $250k for a domain name they don’t think has value to them, and the buyer isn’t a competitor, they might take it because $250k is $250k.
I agree … But i should say Maersk is a bit traditional …
Container shipping wasn’t a steady business back in late 2008 and 2009, when the economic downturn started. Lots of ships and containers sat empty. Container shipping is a good economic barometer, when they are full and moving the economy is in swing, like with trains.
Uship should roll the dice and do a UDRP!! I bet it happens in the next 6 months.
I think they would lose all three tenets of the UDRP and would be sued for reverse domain name hijacking (well, should be sued).