Domaining
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Domaining is the business of buying, selling, developing and monetizing Internet domain names not for primary use as a website, but with the goal of profit generation with the intent of resale, like real estate. The noun form is domainer. A domainer is a person who engages in domaining. A person engaging in "domaining" is alternatively referred to as a "domaineer" and the activity is labelled "domaineering".
Domaining often involves building up of domain name portfolios, or collections of domain names, according to a variety of criteria. Such domain name portfolios often include marketable generic dictionary-word domain names, or domains whose registrations had lapsed yet still retain reasonable traffic. Domain names are the addresses of the web and come in a wide variety of extensions with .com being the most popular in part due to web browsers filling in .com as the default extension when none is given. Although domain reselling may involve a domain used for a website or mail system or else a domainer may generate advertising revenue through domain parking.
Domain appraisal services emerged as a result of increasing practice of domaining and cybersquatting.
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[edit] Domaining versus cybersquatting
The official term cybersquatting only applies to trademark infringement using domain names. Domainers are legitimate domain owners and avoid trademark issues. While an illegal cybersquatter will register names of intellectual property, a domainer will do other things such as automated domain sniping of expired domains, registration of known words, and registering of all domains that are short such as up to four letters.Some domainers even watch for trademarks, register them if they can and turn them over to the trademark holder in an effort to purge cybersquatter opportunities. Legal domainers avoid domain names that infringe on intellectual property and they avoid typosquatting domain names that are similar to intellectual property.[1] Domainers compare themselves to real estate developers selling Internet real estate.[2][3] Following is a brief history.
In the early days of the Internet the large trademark holders were not paying attention to the Internet and their trademarks were being used liberally on the World Wide Web. Many owners of the trademark based domains had discovered the direct traffic due to the brand name and either became legitimate dealers for the brand holder or used the name to sell competitors products or other similar misuse. Cybersquatters hid in the ranks of legitimate domainers for several years in the 1990s and early 2000s.
There are two other versions of cybersquatting not related to trademarks. Some registrars have been accused of domain tasting abuse (see Network Solutions[4]) where once someone searches for a domain's availability in a registrar, if they do not register it right away, the domain is registered by a domainer owned by the registrar.[4]. Then it is resold to the original seeker for much more than the registration fee. Yet another domain tasting scheme is for a registrar to test domain traffic on a dropping name and have a sister company register it if it has any traffic that pays of by parking the name. Many names do very well parked and bring in hundreds of dollars a month for their owners. If the name is doing well the registrar registers it at drop with their own domainer compamy and it does not drop to the public. In tasting schemes legitimate domainer's can not "tatse" domains since they are not registrars. Domainers use automated system of registering domains that were registered previously and are being dropped due to non payment. All domainers have access to this process in a legitimate domain drop.
In 2008 the had Internet matured to the point where cybersquatting is much more difficult and easier to resolve. Due to an effort by legitimate domainers they founded their own trade organization, the Internet Commerce Association [1] with ethics standards [2]. They are well financed and organized. Cybersquatters do not hide among their ranks in this organization.
ICANN [3] has a process called Uniform Domain Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP)[4] This process cost $2000.00 and allows a trademark owner or someone with a similar claim to request arbitration to determine who should own the domain name. This process, while relatively new, is working well with a few growing pains. It has the effect of removing names from cybersquatters. This process has become relatively easy since those who have clear trademarks usually get their claim through default since the cybersquatter will not waste money defending the claim.
[edit] Domainers
Domainer is a term for referring to individuals, companies, or organizations whose business model includes accumulating a portfolio of generic internet domain names. They consider their conduct in buying, selling, and developing domain names to be in the same spirit as real estate investing. Domainers generate revenue via domain parking as well as through the resale of domain names and by developing domain names into fully functioning websites.[1] The large domainers are also sometimes referred to as domain investors and commercial registrants and bulk registrants.
The large investors buy for resell and park the name while they own it to generate revenue. Most smaller domainers buy their domains for development. Both groups buy unregistered names from registrars and from drop sources like auctions. Some large domainers are able to purchase domains more cheaply from Domain name resellers than the average consumer due to purchases in bulk. They are saving about 3-4 dollars per name. However most domainers own relatively small portfolios and pay the same price as the public.
As of December 2006, there are an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 individuals globally who make buying and selling domain names a part of their business. USA Today reported that many Domainers prefer to remain anonymous due to the competitive and controversial nature of their business. In the same report, it was stated that known sales of 5,851 domain names generated $29 million in 2005, compared with known sales of 3,813 names for $15 million in 2004.[3]
Due to the cybersquatters that used to inhabit the ranks of domainers the marketing industry tries to separate themselves from the domainers by coining a different term to refer to the practice of buying domains, building out content upon them and monetizing them: domaineering. Most domainers and domaineers buy names to develop them. The domainers trade organization, the Internet Commerce Association [5] is open to anyone that owns domains.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Typo.com - Forbes.com
- ^ Perspective: ICANN needs to clamp down on domain name abuse By Doug Isenberg Published: June 21, 2006 4:00 AM PDT
- ^ a b Domain names become premium Web real estate - USATODAY.com
- ^ a b ICANN. "SAC 022 SSAC Advisory on Domain Name Front Running" (Page 10). October, 2007.
[edit] External links
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