Monopoly isn’t just a boardgame for kids, its a great business to be in! ICANN, the international regulator of domain names gave Verisign complete control over all .com names. In addition, ICANN continues to introduce new domain name extensions, that all companies are essentially forced to purchase so they can maintain their brand.
New extensions including .me, .co and .xxx have been released and have only caused confusion in the marketplace. The consumer needs less distraction, not more, and introducing new TLD’s is just confusing.
Any registrar such as godaddy.com, enom.com or registerfly.com has to buy their names from Verisign at whatever cost Verisign sets. There is no other provider. They increased the price 7% instantly booking $27 million in new revenue.
Fun! (for the domain name monopoly)
Anyone want to bet on another 7% increase next year? Enom is already raising prices for domain name resellers, and increasing prices for their namejet.com domain name aftermarket service.
Read more at TechCrunch.
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Domaineering is the web-based marketing concept of acquiring and monetizing Internet domain names focusing on their use specifically as an advertising medium. In essence, the domain names function as virtual Internet billboards with generic domain names being highly valued for their revenue generating potential derived from their ability as super meta tags to attract Internet traffic hits.
Revenue is earned as potential customers view pay per click ads or the Internet traffic attracted may be redirected to another website. Hence, the domain name itself is a revenue generating asset conveying information far beyond just functioning as a typical web address.
As the value here is intrinsically in the domain name as an information carrying vehicle and not in a website’s products or services, these domains are developed for advertising, and not into conventional websites. As with traditional advertising, domaineering is part art and part science. Domaineering relys on the fact that many browsers use direct navigation in order to get to their Internet destination.
Aw, this was an incredibly good post about the domain name monopoly headed by network Solutions, more extensions is a money grab.
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Such a treat to bash verisign.
*applauds*