Written on August 7, 2008 – 11:40 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Gent-based hosting company Combell has announced preregistration for new top-level domains like .tech or .blog. By doing this, the Belgian company tries to make some money out of the millionaire sentiment surrounding the new domains. Imagine you manage to claim the .porno domain - you’ll never have to work again. Just sell domain names for a price that seems reasonable (or not) to you. According to Belgian news site IT Professional, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) called the plans “absurd”.
After its 32nd meeting in Paris in June, ICANN announced that it approved a recommendation that could see a whole range of new names introduced to the Internet’s addressing system. Yet a final version of the implementation plan must be approved by the ICANN Board before the new process is launched. It’s intended that the final version will be published in early 2009, so yes, it would be fair to say that Combell’s plan are quite absurd.
Though the ICANN should be thankful, as this “world-premier” from Combell gives the corporation a lot of attention. A somewhat funny announcement like the one from the Belgium company makes the news easier to spread.
€100.000 for your last name
So what will it take you to register, say, your last name as a top level domain name? Business Developer at Combell Tom de Bast told IT Professional that a customer needs around a 100.000 euros of start capital to buy a top level domain. Combell also asks potential domain sellers to prove they will be technically able to sell the domain names.
Brand-owners will be the first ones to get a chance to register their own top level domain name. De Bast expects cities to claim their name, like police.gent or post.gent. After that, everybody gets a shot. Including you.
Not just Roman characters
Combell will probably be concerned with the registration of Roman characters-based domain names. But that’s not all there is to it. “One of the most exciting prospect before us is that the expanding system is also being planned to support extensions in the languages of the world,” said Peter Dengate Thrush, ICANN’s Chairman. “This is going to be very important for the future of the Internet in Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia.”
Exciting indeed, the Internet’s addressing system will change radically. Combell is ready for it.
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Written on May 21, 2008 – 12:43 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Only two weeks to go before companies can register a .me name, the domain from the country of Montenegro. As you can imagine, this is quite an attractive domain. It creates some sort of personalized approach, even when it comes to world’s largest companies. 
Apple for example has registered apple.me, ipod.me, itunes.me, reports Networkworld. Trademark holders had the opportunity to register their domain names before yesterday. Other tech companies that profited from this rule - are amongst others - Microsoft, Skype and Digg.
What struck me, are the high fees of the .me registrations. Whereas a .com domain only costs you $10 a year, a .me domain will take 110 to 200 Euros per year from your budget. And there’s a catch too: the minimum registration period is five years. I wonder whether our sponsors will run for a domain when the costs are that high. Although Wakoopa.me and Fleck.me do sound good. And what about Netlog? Imagine somebody comes up to you and asks: “Tell me all about yourself?!”. A simple reply will be enough: “just Netlog.me”.
Written on December 22, 2007 – 7:11 pm
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten,
“They take advantage of the natural flow of traffic from people who type ’software.com’ in their browsers and hope for the best”
It wasn’t Search.com that became THE search engine but Yahoo at first and Google later. Just as Amazon became the online bookstore and not Bookstore.com. Although a name is extremely important to any company you could say that online companies have historically been looking for the stranger names to build a brand on. Flickr, Del.icio.us, Digg, all names that need to be explained and aren’t very self-explanatory.
In general, companies come up with a plan or technology and then go and look for a funny and noteworthy name which, very important, is still available as a domain name. If it isn’t available they simple add ’ster’, ‘r’ or ‘le’ to the end and/or leave a few vowels out. The good news is that these domain-names can be registered for only a few dollars. The bad news is that these names then have to build into a brand which might take millions.
Venture Capitalist Mike Mann of WashingtonVC has a different approach. He invests in expensive but self-explanatory domainnames like Software.com, Phone.com, Graphics.net, RockConcerts.com and HappyBirthday.com. Once he has acquired these domains Mann, and his partners, come up with a business that takes advantage of the natural flow of traffic from people who want software and try getting it by typing ’software.com’ in their browsers and hope for the best.
Just last month WashingtonVC launched The Download Superstore (Guaranteed and Virus Free) on Software.com and a ‘Next generation full service telecommunications’ company on Phone.com. They had acquired these domains earlier for a rumored 7 million+.
“spend nothing on a good name and millions on marketing or nothing on marketing and millions on a good name”
Today DomainMarket.com and WashingtonVC announced the acquisition of VaticanCity.com, NorthernIreland.com, Angola.com, Cameroon.com, IvoryCoast.com, Mali.com, Namibia.com and Rwanda.com. They are planning on building a ‘nextgen geo specific portal with each domain we acquire focusing on the targeted region’s Business, Travel, Nonprofit, and Social opportunities’.
Some people will say that anyone willing to spend millions on a domain-name is out of his mind. But when you think about it it starts to make sense: you either spend nothing on a name and millions on marketing or nothing on marketing and millions on a name. But all that money you invest in marketing is just gone. It isn’t invested, it is spent. A good domain-name will likely only increase in value.
These entrepreneurs reversed the standard model of coming up with an idea and then a name. They focus on great domain-names and then try to build great companies based on that.
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