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TheDomains.com

Is it still too early for emoji domains?

March 20, 2019 by Raymond Hackney

Page Howe was mentioned in an article on ieee.org. The article took a look at emoji domains and why they do or don’t make sense.

Page has been outspoken about his belief in emoji domains and gets a couple paragraphs.

From the article:

People like Page Howe, a domain and digital asset investor, are bullish on URL emojis. “If I said to you, ‘you can be the teddy bear emoji dot double-u ess,’ it’s almost longer for me to say it and it takes seven words to say it,” says Howe. He has sold domain names like Seniors.com and Guy.com for millions of dollars.

Howe’s company owns around 450 emoji domain names. The most expensive is ?.ws (aka Smiling Face With Smiling Eyes, or Blush Emoji), which goes for US$9,500 and the cheapest is ?️?️?️ (aka Triple Snow Emoji) which goes for US$95.

Another site for emoji domain name sellers, Efty, has users selling emoji domain names for $59,000.

“I think [interest in emoji domains] has diminished in the sense that the reality for people is that this is new and most people are hesitant when they run into the first pain point of not being able to speak an emoji domain name,” Howe says.

Speaking of inconvenience, these characters also aren’t always fully compatible with screen readers, an assistive technology for people who are blind or visually impaired. Although they can be read by Non-Visual Desktop Access, an open-source screen reader for Windows, as well as the built-in Apple screen reader, the built-in screen readers for iPhone and Android won’t read out the emoji’s meaning. So, “I ❤️you” will be read as “I red heart you,” on iPhone, and “I heart you” on Android, rather than “I love you.”

Full article here

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Filed Under: Domain Names, Domain Trends, emoji

About Raymond Hackney

Raymond is a writer, domain trader and consultant based in Pennsylvania. Raymond is the founder of 3Character.com and TLDInvestors.com.

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Comments

  1. Jared says

    March 20, 2019 at 1:20 pm

    How would one even type an emoji from their computer?

    • Paul Apanowicz says

      March 20, 2019 at 2:08 pm

      http://www.?domaininfo.ws forwards to http://www.emojidomaininfo.ws

      How To Type Emoji Domains On A Mac
      Follow these simple steps:

      Position the cursor where you’d like the emoji to appear
      Use the following keyboard shortcut: Command Control Space bar
      Click on the emoji you’d like to insert
      Add ‘.ws’ and press GO!
      It’s as simple as that
      How To Type Emoji Domains On A PC
      Follow these simple steps for use on Windows 10:

      Position the cursor where you’d like the emoji to appear
      Use the following keyboard shortcut: WIN + .
      Click the smiley icon next to the left of the space bar
      Click on the emoji you’d like to insert
      Add ‘.ws’ and press GO!
      If All Else Fails…
      Follow these simple steps if the emoji keyboards do not work for you:

      Open emojipedia.org
      Type the name of the emoji into the search bar
      Choose from the list
      Click the ‘copy’ button to the right of the emoji
      Paste the emoji
      Add ‘.ws’ and press GO!

      • Ben says

        March 21, 2019 at 11:43 am

        hi . you are saying something interesting… i would resume it to 1 word ; education.

    • john harrison says

      March 20, 2019 at 5:25 pm

      there are shortcuts for emoji keyboards but frankly, my guess is you wouldn’t. They are native to mobile and best used as links on social media. Twitter is a good example. Why link out with a random bitly link when a colourful, contextual image can do the same? Emoji domains should be used as part of a marketing strategy, they shouldn’t define it.

    • page howe says

      March 20, 2019 at 5:51 pm

      so on windows click the WINDOWS key ( to the left of alt) and then the period “.” then puck from yoyr recent list or type in what u want..smiling.rabbit..fist etc…page

  2. Ben says

    March 20, 2019 at 2:49 pm

    Let me quote Page ; ” the reality for people is that this is new ” .. Could this could also apply to gTLDs ( new extensions). I think Emoji as no future. It’s like a slot machine… imagine thousands of combinaison.. an image ain’t writing. It’s complicating things more than it is already on internet. Sorry Page, but emoji is scrap.

  3. steve brady says

    March 20, 2019 at 4:35 pm

    What are the odds Emoji Cereal would be all sugar with zero literacy.

    Is it OK for your Doctor to substitute plain English answers to Patients with cartoons?

    • john harrison says

      March 20, 2019 at 5:27 pm

      You don’t think an image can communicate too? Why can’t emoji be in ‘addition to’ rather than ‘replace’?

      • steve brady says

        March 20, 2019 at 5:58 pm

        You go first by changing your pic from a pink octagon with one tooth to live smoke signals.

    • page howe says

      March 20, 2019 at 6:19 pm

      steve..actually they are.

      -words-emojis-convey-health-just-fine-mayo-finds/464063023/

      page

      • steve brady says

        March 20, 2019 at 7:15 pm

        Mayo is a non-profit based in Minnesota with networked referral physicians in Wisconsin, Iowa, Arizona, and Florida. Depending on your medical condition, Urology, Endoscopy, Oncology, Throat Cancer, Neurology, most of their doctors are in Minnesota. The Internet projects Mayo Clinic as being something bigger than it is.

        Mayo isn’t proof. They’ve done nothing for you.

        Mayo Clinic is ranked number 1 in the United States on the 2018–2019 U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals. Yet there isn’t a Mayo Hospital in existence! Only Doctors in fragmented locations of Minnesota.

        Proof.

        • steve brady says

          March 20, 2019 at 8:17 pm

          I found three locations with building signage Mayo Hospital. 6 or 7 more Mayos are in Wisconsin and Minnesota:

          4500 San Pablo Rd S
          Jacksonville, FL 32224

          5777 E Mayo Blvd
          Phoenix, AZ 85054

          901 Montgomery St
          Decorah, IA 52101

          So we’re talkin ten REMOTE hospitals agree emojis are just fine

  4. Michael Anthony Castello says

    March 20, 2019 at 5:31 pm

    Cavemen used graphics to express themselves. We have evolved to using language. Many of us spent lots of money on IDN in the early 2000s. This is similar. It’s a novelty IMO but maybe a few can make a quick buck. Good luck.

    • page howe says

      March 20, 2019 at 6:23 pm

      thats a fair take..emoji do have some street cred with younger tech…

      again more young than older folk
      more women than men
      more global than us
      more mobile.less desktop
      more pictures than words
      more emotiion than keyword

      thanks for the post.

      ph

  5. page howe says

    March 20, 2019 at 5:55 pm

    we all play our chips differently, not for everyone ive sold 3 in 7 days. i wish u luck sir.

    page howe

    if your reading this and need to sell your emoji..its a terrible domainer market but i can offer you a small price. ping me at emojidomainnames.com

    • Snoopy says

      March 20, 2019 at 6:39 pm

      Yeah, they are selling well for you but you can only offer a “small price” lol

      Pretty obvious these are not selling well, if they were there would be a proper aftermarket for them.

    • Mike says

      March 21, 2019 at 4:05 am

      They are selling as well as .la, come on who are we fooling here .ws is not a bankable extension

  6. Mike says

    March 20, 2019 at 6:46 pm

    if you think this has any future, go buy some bitconnect

  7. Dan says

    March 20, 2019 at 7:28 pm

    If a domain could consist of only an emoji, then I think they would have value.

    The .ws at the end ruins it, IMO.

  8. mike says

    March 20, 2019 at 7:59 pm

    stop it Page, ws means we sucks

  9. Arpit Agrawal says

    March 22, 2019 at 1:17 am

    It is always debatable whether Emoji domains will ever take off or not! Considering that we do NOT have characters corresponding to these on the keyword, I have serious doubts with it!

    however, an emoji name selling for $59,000 is news to me and definitely will make me research more!
    In fact I recently created a thread on NamePros asking about this thing only:

    https://www.namepros.com/threads/will-the-emoji-domain-ever-take-off.1128989/

    Looks like I should research this market. If people are investing $9,500 on a single emoji domain, there is definitely something which we might be missing on!

  10. Bruce says

    March 23, 2019 at 12:24 pm

    Emoji and other single-character domain names (especially in .com) have personal branding potential. Remember the somewhat daft effort by musician Prince Rogers Nelson, who became Prince, who became … “Love Symbol #2″… Gordon Sumner became Sting, maybe next ✫ xn--3ci.com

    Very few domains are universally attractive. But surely emoji and symbols, IDN, etc. attract SOME people. Potential YES, remembering domains are not a straightforward investment.


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