With 2010 quickly coming to a close, its time for our year end poll on what you thought the biggest story coming out of the domain industry in 2010.
When choosing the stories for you to vote on I particularly looked for stories that made a lot of press outside the domain industry as well.
Here are the topics I put into the poll for your votes:
.Co.
The .Co launch got a ton of attention in the domain world in 2010 and rightly so.
The extension has already racked up over 600,000 registrations, with 500,000 coming in the first 2 months; Overstock paid $350K for O.co which they now will appear to use for all of its non-us sites in the future, held land rush auctions generating millions of dollars, Twitter and Godaddy picked .Co single letter domains as their official shortners, Godaddy replaced them for a day as the default extension for all new registrations, .CO announced they will be part of a Super Bowl ad scheduled next year and the auction for i.Co is set for February 2011.
Domain Name Seizures.
Not only the domain world but the online world took notice of the Feds seizing what totaled over 80 domain names by Homeland Security for violation of US laws by going directly to the registry without notice to the registrants or even the registrars. Congress attempted to pass a bill that would have allowed even more domain seizures but the bill looks like its dead for 2010.
By the way, 2 years later the Kentucky domain name seizure is still kicking around in the courts with hearing as recent as this month.
Sex.com Sells for $13 Million
Few thought the domain name Sex.com would sell for as much as it did back in 2006, including myself but wound up setting a record again in a all cash, pure domain sale it sold for $13 Million dollars. We also found out that the exact sales price back in 2006 for $11.5 Million showing you can still go bankrupt but make money at least on paper.
Xbiz.com has already listed this sale on its list of the top Adult industry News makers of 2010 list
Insurance Domains
It certainly was a great year for those holding insurance related domains.
Publicly traded, Quin Street bought the trifecta of insurance domains this year, when they acquired CarInsurance.com for $49.5 Million (thanks Sean), Insurance.com for $36.5 Million just months after it bought Insure.com for $16 million (that purchase actually happened in last 2009) and their shares after starting to trade at $15, went as low as $11 and yesterday was above $20.
HomeOwnersInsurance.com sold for $570K
There is also a rumor floating around of a insurance .net domain that sold for $1 Million but is under an NDA,
Even in the Uk there was a multimillion dollar sale involving some great insurance domains.
Quotes.com sold for over $1 million
The Raid On National A-1
The raid by federal agents on National A-1 offices over Hotmovies.com and/or Escorts.com still has not resulted in any charges being brought or any arrests, however anytime a lot of federal agents spend some quality time at your office it certainly made for big news in the domain and adult community.
Stolen Domain Names
2010 was the 1st year that stolen domain names got some serious discussion not only on the blogs and boards but had a special session at TRAFFIC.
At least one domainer had identity stolen with the thief using it to steal his domains
A UDRP was filed to recover one, Prince.com, and we found out that venue cannot deal with such a case.
This weeks news that someone who had stolen a domain years ago, p2p.com, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison for up to 5 years, brought even more light to the subject.
.TV Drops Premium Renewal Fees
Many older .TV domains still carry an annual premium but many of those continue to drop and get the new pricing policy.
ICM Wins The Judicial Review
This judicial review, should force ICANN into granting final approval of the .XXX by March 2011 and going live shortly thereafter.
Having started seeking approval this time around in 2003, its a 7 year battle over what appears to be the most controversial extension of all time, with thousands of stories written about it from all over the world in mainstream publications.
3D & New Technology Domains
3D domains certainly caught the eye and interest of the domain world.
Back in July we made a post about what we called the next big thing and since; well as of time of publication, we are pretty close to hitting 1,000 comments on the subject with no end in site.
By the way 3D also made the Xbiz top story list out of the adult world.
So those are my choices for the biggest stories in the domain world for 2010.
If You think you have a better choice, or just want to comment feel free to do so below.
You can place your votes on the right and we will keep the poll opened through the end of the year.
.co
dot CO
.Co and the lesson of WikiLeaks are two that will make the history.
Then, I would mention FB rapid expansion and its growing dominance in the online world.
These few maps nicely summarise it all:
http://brief.ly/20y/statistic
Hmmmm….. Its a toss up between .CO and 3D.
.CO still has something to prove but has made a strong showing for a new extension.
3D is nearing its peak in popularity and many here are just circling the wagons waiting to unload the great domains that they have purchased.
Both will be fun to see how they play out.
So my vote is for a tie between .CO and 3D
Either which way, I am excited to sit and watch on the out comes to both subjects.
That is just my 2 cents.
Cheers
introduction of the .co
The .co marketing team really put this name on the map. Domain Conferences, #1 godaddy promoted extention (Superbowl ad annouced), bloggers, tech news, etc.
It didn’t matter where you went online, you saw the .CO.
What is the status of restaurant.com ? Did it fetch $5M?
Sorry that was meant to be restaurants.com?
Although not listed above I think Verisign releasing premium .TV domains to a one-time upfront premium back in March 2010 was a major news.
Restaurants.com did not sell, however it think the reserve was over $6M not $5
Sex.com selling for 13mm is a big deal, but domain theft and particularly, the first successful prosecution of a domain thief is, IMO, the most relevant out of all this in terms of stuff that will resonate going forward.
The nut has been cracked, the path has been blazed. From here on, there is preceded in terms of prosecuting these shitheads. Still huge jurisdictional issues when some turd in Mongolia steals your domain and you’re in the UK, or whatever, but for n’er-do-wells in the US who plan on doing this, there’s now a fast, easy reference point that can be presented to prosecutors as far as locking them away. Prior to this ground being broken, it was up in the air. Thrilled to see this happen- hope governments around the world get on board. Huge thanks to the persistent people who saw this through.
As far as the other stuff, there are some things on that list which will be looked at in hindsight and laughed at.
* preceded = precedent… Damn speed-clicking the red lines in firefox. LOL.
.co
If you got a .co at a good price its like the gift that keeps on giving.
As more money/effort is put into marketing, awareness and development worldwide is increasing….all while risk is going down over time.
Most will say .co; however the real story is in .tv not only becoming more reasonably priced, but becoming utilized by large companies (playboy, bmw, plus many, many more) and rumors of MANY other large companies planning to launch their own “.tv”.
Fact is, one day, we’ll all get our cable-tv, movies, and video-system games streamed to us right over the web. The only thing hindering this from happening now is the last mile bandwidth question, which WILL be taken care of…just a matter of by whom and how much($). Within five years, every television sold will have direct web connection capabilities and billions of people around the world will eventually be hooked to web via their mobile device (phone, car devices, etc., etc., etc.). EVERY company will be vying to get a piece of video-streaming pie…advertisers will pay BIG money to get THEIR ads in front of YOUR face.
With .com’s already being used by companies for general corporate purposes and apps being very limited beyond basic gimmickry, the question is, how do they stream the aforementioned content to YOU? The answer is so simple that most people are failing to see the forest for the trees…the answer is .TV.
Good luck.
– TBC
Your poll should perhaps be retitled: “Biggest story out of the ASCII domain world”.
The billions of people who don’t use the latin alphabet are probably more interested in the new internationalized country-code TLDs that first started appearing in 2010, such as .中国 (China, which has more internet users than there are people in the US) and .рф (Russia; this TLD has 600,000 registrations and climbing).
Avtal
Avtal
Point taken
The launch of the Russian .рф has been a huge hit and probably should have been included as a choice.
Sex.com. Almost no one thought it would sell for that much in this economy.
the Facebook movie?
@David,
$13 million is nothing in the big scheme of things. I’m surprised it didn’t sell for $20 million+
– TBC
and $13M isn’t the record price
None of the above but I guess I will have to go with the sale of Sex.com 😉
For me the biggest news for 2010 was that Halvarez was NOT going to be prosecuted in the courts …shocking.
No-brainer.
.co
The others did not garner enough headlines during the year to warrant a vote.
.CO
is the real deal
Every month there is something special happening in the .CO domain space.
dot co is a big deal but
2011 brings dot co to the RIP stage.
maybe, the (soon aborted) selling of GoDaddy?
.tv was big news
.co will fail to ever be a huge attraction.
I would also say the second collapse of parking on Bing / Yahoo merger.
Mike Mann is a good candidate for the Biggest story in 2010. 🙂
1. For Sex.com
2. For being a King if not The King of .CO
3. For all his other achievements.
but, if, before the end of 2010, WikiLeaks will reveal something “hot” about the domaining world, this will probably become the #1 story 🙂
MHB,
You’re leaving CarInsurance.com being bought by QuinStreet for $49.5M off the list. Time will tell (based on future filings by QS since they’re public) but if I had to estimate how much was paid, I’d say it was 5.5X revenue. That’s pretty significant for essentially what is a category killer with one of the best examples of an SEO plan that I’ve ever seen.
I’m not sure when it happened exactly but it looks as if AutoInsurance.com was rolled into OnlineAutoInsurance.com as well.
The .CO extension is the biggest story and it is something that will have a positive impact on our business, the internet and e-commerce moving forward. Juan and his team have done well and no doubt will continue to do so by an even greater magnitude.
Next year’s headlines:
“GoDaddy.com Sold For $15B!”
“Groupon cancels IPO, sells to Microsoft for $2B”
“- – – – – – – -.org voted best domain development story of the year!”
The domain snow job of the year: .co(n)
Given all those power packed buzzwords you mentioned in this post I’d say that soon this post will be #1
3D would be a distant last.
Relevant -> .TV drop in price and positioning for the future. Insurance domains and Quin Street. Sex.com due to size of sale.
.co = distraction of the year. Also a litmus test for “true market demand” with domainer fever (98% of all registrations) vs. real end user acquisition (maybe 2% of .co registrations)
Not mentioned, but highly significant -> new gtld orgy put off further … due to ticking time bomb status.
@ Gazzap
For me the biggest news for 2010 was that Halvarez was NOT going to be prosecuted in the courts …shocking.
Yeah, and his Teammate Buddy Jeff E gets a promotion out of it ….
Peeps are still getting reamed over there.
.CO
“Yeah, and his Teammate Buddy Jeff E gets a promotion out of it ….
Peeps are still getting reamed over there.”
@ Trung
Like this one perhaps ? ..or maybe its just a strange “Halvarez” like .coincidence ? 😉
Pre-release / partner domain
18-Dec-2010
Bidder Date Bid Amount Comment
BIDDER 1 15-Dec-2010 13:33 PST $525.00 Completed
BIDDER 1 15-Dec-2010 07:48 PST $525.00 Bid Placed
BIDDER 7 (just joined in) 15-Dec-2010 07:48 PST $500.00 Bid Placed <<<<<<
BIDDER 1 12-Dec-2010 03:32 PST $79.00 Initial Bid
BIDDER 2 12-Dec-2010 03:32 PST $79.00 Initial Bid
BIDDER 3 12-Dec-2010 03:32 PST $79.00 Initial Bid
BIDDER 4 12-Dec-2010 03:32 PST $79.00 Initial Bid
BIDDER 5 12-Dec-2010 03:32 PST $79.00 Initial Bid
BIDDER 6 12-Dec-2010 03:32 PST $79.00 Initial Bid
I might be biased here *cough*, but who cares about .co domain when .com domains aren’t selling to the point where the best prodservs are owned by the enduser?
So, what about a real new direction, buying domains that future trends are daring you to bet on? 3D and Future Trend domains, by far, is your biggest story.
It’s a no brainer. Count the comments on your blog (and mine and anyone elses’) and count the stories others have written about it.
Just because lots of domainers haven’t any 3D or Future Trend domains doesn’t make the story weaker by their comments of other “topics” as being important. For past reference, just go back and read all the hype about every new extension, including .mobi and at least 10 others, and where those domains are today.
Clearly, what’s important is where the Future Trend domains are going to be tomorrow, and I’m talking ONLY about DOT COMS. So no change in the top extension, just a change in trend thinking.
Em-Bee, go through your whole blog list of your articles, from the start of your blog… and count the comments on whatever subject you were writing about. To be fair, limit it to 2010, and you know what the answer will be.
cheers!
Sean
Added Carinsurance.com to the story.
I don’t know how I forgot about that one, I even did a post on it.
Thanks
GAZZIP
What domain was that at auction that you gave the results for?
I’m sorry, that post was supposed to have been in the other thread about 2010 news, I was replying to someone’s statement…but I boobed and put it in here by mistake 😉
@ Gazzip
So had you boobed or had you “just joined in” cough. :-0
3D ? LOL…… only a fool would chase those !
Hello Mike,
One only need take the ear plugs of denial out and tune into Ricks blog where the real deal answer to this post can be found. All the other stuff is background noise. Tune into the noise and sell your names to spec buyers or wake up and realize its better to be patient. Ricks record keeps playing loud and clear.
Gratefully, Jeff
Jeff
So what is your nomination for the biggest story of the year in domains, ricksblog?
Ho Ho Ho,
Tis the season to be folly ?
Love, Joy, Light Jeff
The thing that gets me is lessons that go UNlearned from one technology jump to the next.
For those supporters of .CO, you will have to learn that there has been a general condemnation toward any new TLDs that have come down the pike .COM is the number 1 extension choice. CO will have a lot of work to do before it can be considered a great extension. Now with that said…
For those who deny .CO is an extension at least worthy of speculative registrations, then you are fooling yourselves. Granted each of the previous extensions have been poor to mediocre extensions at best but most have have held SOME value. I will also grant that the general trend does not vote well for .CO, BUT you have to consider that technology and change always comes.
Every new technology or change is always met with resistance. Look at Albert Einstein and the ridicule that he faced when trying to present his ideas to the world. The same can be said about Bill Gates and the founding of Microsoft.
Many of the people he invited to hear his proposal walked out. Only a select few had the fore site to believe in what he had to offer even though for the time it was way out there. They are Billionaires now…
What I am getting at is that things change and no ‘ONE’ entity can stay on top for all times. Only people who are willing to put their “Pee Pee out there” (so to speak) will either reap the reward or get it smacked. .CO has a lot (a whole lot) to prove before it can ever be considered nearly as good as .COM BUT is still worth the time to invest speculatively into it. Who knows… it just might one day be that once in a life time investment that everyone is looking for.
Now, bird poop is still bird poop no matter what extension and those who spend a years salary buying bird poop should be criticized for their naivety.
As far as 3D is concerned. If you cant see how 3D is gaining in popularity big time with in the last few months… then you have your head buried in the sand. Do your self a favor and look up the latest news for 3D. You will see that 3D extends well beyond Movies and TVs.
The first fully 3D website has just been launched. It requires a 3D monitor and Glasses to view it properly.
The first fully 3D camcorder has just been launched for purchase.
Apple is only months a way from the creating no glasses 3D display.
Gucci, Oakley, and CK have made designer 3D glasses.
DishNetwork has made 3D on demand.
ESPN has a 3D channel.
Pro Soccer, Baseball, Football, and Basketball have all been shown in 3D.
Almost everything you can think of is in 3D in the medical field… That list is HUGE.
New technology (RAM, CPU, ect) are being developed to support the up coming 3D sites.
All the driving factors are there to make 3D websites popular.
3D of the 70’s and 80’s is the passing phase… this new onslaught of 3D will be around for years to come.
This is why I hold firm that .CO and 3D both are this years biggest stories.
Just my thoughts.
Cheers
.co for great marketing efforts
.tv long term taking it to a higher level
@Jeff Schneider – If you suck hard enough, you might get somewhere near what the DomKing’s portfolio is, and why he’s so confident. His start was magnificent, and you’ll never even get close. But keep sucking.
@Slate – Spot on, dude. Play dumb like that 21 year old on “Survivor” who just won a million $$$$ because he made friends with everyone, and when the time was right, won three immunity necklaces JUST WHEN HE NEEDED IT.
Old style doesn’t work. It seems that your opinions rightfully point this out. Old style means big names, huge money, except — 99% of the domain investors don’t own them, including myself. I only have about 10 single word dictionary domains in my 3000 domain inventory that could sell for MAYBE $10,000 – $25,000. I knew this in 2005. So, I drank some really nice Islay Scotch that a good friend from Oversee turned me on to… and that very night, when I couldn’t sleep, I thought –
“Wait, what about FUTURE TRENDS?” Who will own the domains that clearly identify major products and services of technology that is is steamrolling into our world?”
Then it took me about 15 seconds to get to my computer and start buying the largest portfolio of renewable energy, solar, robotics, 3D, holograms, alternative energy (including ocean, wind, thermal) domains in the world. That started almost six years ago, and I’ve kept it up but had a harder time with finding those domains after my Moniker “Domainmaster” web radio interview with Monte Cahn.
Now, it seems all I’m doing is hosting my blog site for FT domains (mainly 3D and hologram) investors, who can see the value in their domains by SIMPLY READING THE FCKING NEWS.
Europe and Asia are always on top of these new trends, and today I found this great article:
http://www.digitalspy.com/broadcasting/news/a294106/sky-time-is-right-for-3d-investment.html
Anyone going to argue with this? Are you going to bring up the old time domainers (that would be me too) who have a few of the single current trend domains worth millions, which are domains YOU WILL NEVER GET? Or are you going to forge a new path to find revenue with domains that spell out the future?
Even Rickie will say he is inspired by the thought of nabbing a new domain that is clearly a consumer trend expectation in the next 2-5 years or sooner.
Me… I’m just floating on air! I have 20 domains that will earn me around $5mill by 2015. And I know of NOOBIES who read Michael Berkens blog and my own posts and blog who have domains, if they held on to them and marketed them correctly, will make them five to six to seven figures in the same amount of time. These are NOOBIES.
So, the game never stops, but it changes. Riding the coattails of those domain pioneers from 2000 and following their investment plans for domains does NOT work anymore. No, you’re NOT going to get that magical domain on the drop lists. Never going to happen. You might get some 3 figure domains from them, and that’s good if you have a well-known seller site, but if not, good luck!
Nice comment, Slate.
.CO, without a doubt. A revolution in domain name branding.
@Stephen Douglas,
You hit the nail on the head, dude. Going forward, unless you already have a category killer domain that you registered 10+ years ago, the way to get that domain-lottery payday is by hand-reg’ing domains that will be relevant in the future…the information is out there, we just need to dig.
Get out your crystall balls, boys and girls…
“.CO, without a doubt. A revolution in domain name branding.”
call it a “revolution” sounds a bit excessive
however, some .co domain has been a success… like (e.g.) the x.co short-URL service that I’m using very often from the day it’s online
Holy crap….
This is kind of off the subject (kind of not because it pertains to .CO)
BUT has anyone else noticed that your vanity X.CO can now be changed to what ever domain name you want it to be?
Maybe its just me and the way I see it when I log in but I can edit my information and change my domains that the vanity x.co is attached to.
Please check it out and let me know if I am out to lunch. I could just be looking at this all wrong but if not… that could be sweet if you happen to pick up some nice vanity names.
Cheers
Guys, I’m all for spirited debate. I realize .CO isn’t everyone’s cup of tea – and that’s perfectly fine. Not everyone likes chocolate either. (As absolutely strange as that may sound to many of us!) Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
This said, when giving an opinion, it would probably be a good idea not to cite to completely “made up” statistics (like “98% of all .CO registrations are domainers” versus “real end user acquisitions”) — as it muddies the water between fact and opinion and adds lots of noise and confusion to the topic at hand.
Here are the “actual” facts, based on real registration data, as of today. (Strangely, the real facts are nearly the exact opposite of the hypothesis referenced above!)
Fact: 88% of registrants of .CO domains have purchased only 1-2 .CO domain names each.
Fact: 98.6% of registrants have purchased 10 or less .CO domains each.
Fact: Only a little over 1% of all current registrants of .CO domain names have purchased 11 or more names.
And when we examine this percentage more carefully, it becomes clear that this one plus percent is comprised of many different types of registrants — not solely domainers. Many registrants who bought more than 11 .CO domain names represent networks buying domain names for lead gen sites, marketing and/or advertising agencies buying domains for their clients, and web developers and SEO experts buying for their own use and development.
Everything about the .CO extension was designed with the end user in mind. From our registration policies and protections for brand owners, to our marketing and outreach initiatives — .CO is intended to inspire broad based development by individuals, organizations and businesses — and considered investment by domain investors (as opposed to mass speculation).
Not your cup of tea? That’s great. Please continue to share your opposing opinions with the world. Variety is the spice of life, after all. And it would be quite a bore if we all agreed on everything!
Just please, don’t state opinions as though they are facts. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But the facts are the facts.
Lori Anne Wardi
Director | .CO Internet SAS
The Biggest Story Out Of The Domain World In 2010?
====
Uncle Sam – Seizes control of ICANN & IANA via NTI .COMmerce
2010 is not over yet…FCC wants their piece of the action
New York Times – Brian Stelter
“The Federal Communications Commission appears poised to pass a controversial set of rules that broadly create two classes of Internet access, one for fixed-line providers and the other for the wireless Net.”
“The Federal Communications Commission appears poised to pass a controversial set of rules that broadly create two classes of Internet access, one for fixed-line providers and the other for the wireless Net.”
===
Domainers will get to register their Domains AGAIN in the new DNS Chaos Class
“create two classes”
There are actually FOUR common classes of DNS most easily available.
Uncle Sam and the FCC appear willing to take the safe route of TWO.
Clueless comedians and politicians like Al Franken are already raging.
Maybe FOUR would be better? Divide based on Adult & Teen ?
Well put Lori Anne Wardi
I believe that you have touched on part of the problem and that is transparency of information. What I mean by that is that we do NOT have a concrete source on which to base information (pro or con) in regards to .CO.
I am very much “PRO” .CO but I still would like to be able to clearly see statistics in which to direct someone who may not have all the information.
Is there any chance that we can have those stats (in some fashion) listed on your site as a general source of information in regards to .CO?
It would be very handy to have a place of reference when siting statistics.
Just my opinion.
Cheers
“we do NOT have a concrete source on which to base information (pro or con) in regards to .CO.”
===
Now that the U.S. FCC has formally declared that they are in the Internet Regulation BIZness, people will be able to Petition the FCC for relief.
The U.S. FCC may decide to pass the hot potato over the the U.S. Department
of .COMmerce or .COmmerce or to the State of .COlorado.
In the past (before the FCC jumped in), people would get the ISOC-ICANN run around, with no relief and no results. That was a system born in academic circles with mostly large private Universities facilitating the charades.
Now the U.S. FCC, with real offices in Washington D.C. has stepped forward and said, “The Buck (and BS) stops here…”. Knock on the FCC door. They want people to make them relevant, and they are not drawing million dollar salaries.
I guess I have to read up on the FCC thing because I really dont know what it means to the average person. Mind you, I do NOT consider myself a domainer. This is just a hobby to me brought on though websites.
Cheers
“This is just a hobby to me”
===
That is VERY Supported by the U.S. FCC
If you happen to review any of the video hearings of the FCC, you may note the Chairman Julius Genachowski’s comments about how the Internet has evolved
away from support for hobbies and experiments. He refers to kids building their
first crystal radios, and HAM radio operators, etc.
He notes the concern that the Internet has become a Cyber Goose-Stepping Brigade out of some Orwell novel. People flock to I* meetings around the world
to learn all the secret hand-shakes. The U.S. FCC wants to help people see
thru that nonsense and return to a more diverse netscape.
It can not hurt to send Julius a holiday greeting card wishing him and the FCC
staff best wishes and best of luck helping to return the Internet to America.
://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/genachowski/
“Although Go Daddy and its competitors continue to offer .com first, two large retail domain registrars are making a significant push to get customers to register .co.
Both Network Solutions and Register.com are promoting .com as a second choice to .co, with Network Solutions even promoting .co above other domain extensions you’ve selected.
If the .com is available, Network Solutions still slots .co as number two but doesn’t auto select it.
At Register.com .co is called out as an alternative whenever your .com isn’t available. The site pitches the domain as an alternative to .com, saying .co is short for “company”. Alternative TLDs are far down the page:”
Just posting this as an FYI .
I thought it was interesting and goes along with the whole .CO as being one of the main stories for 2010.
Cheers