[governance] What's in a domain name? Serious money

[Phil Regnauld]

yehudakatz at mailinator.com (yehudakatz) writes:
> What's in a domain name? Serious money
> By Brad Stone, January 31, 2008
> iht.com / International Herald Tribune
> 
> Art. Ref.: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/31/technology/domain.php
> 
> Print: http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=9648956
> 

> "The world is only now beginning to discover how important
> it is to have these assets."
> For the first time, people outside the traditionally insular and sometimes
> underground world of domainers, as they call themselves, might agree with him.

	Hmm, I think speculation on domain names started some 11-12 years ago,
	and it's pretty much general knowledge that you can squeeze cash out
	of particular names.


> As a result, over the past few months, private equity and venture capital firms
> have poured money into the largest companies in the industry. Last year, Demand
> Media and Oversee.net, two companies based in Los Angeles that own hundreds of
> thousands of domain names each and offer hosting and advertising services to
> other domainers, raised nearly $400 million from investors.

	Gee, sound like 1999.

> "We think this is definitely a legitimate industry and a legitimate business,"
> said Robert Morse Jr., a partner at Oak Hill Capital Partners, which invested
> in both companies and is backed by the oil-rich Bass family of Texas. "As with
> many early-stage markets, it is going through a transformation to
> professionalism."

	Right.  The vultures are wearing suits now.

> Investors are so confident in the growth of online advertising - and the
> ability of domainers to capitalize on that trend - that they plan to soon start
> selling shares of domain-name companies to the public, even in today's volatile
> market.
	
	Would be fun to allow illimited TLDs in the root at this point and watch a
	market vaporize.

	Note: building castles on sand with this kind of money involved is
	exactly why it will be difficult to ever expand the root to allow
	for more TLDs.  Too many vested business interests.

> "Big changes are coming, and for the little guy it's getting challenging," he
> said. "The bigger companies can do things, and I can't. We just have to work
> harder."

	UDRP certainly doesn't favor the small guy in these cases:

	http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/10/04/what_the_hell_is_udrp/
	http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/07/11/why_icanns_domain_dispute_rules/

	(good series of articles from Kieren McCarthy's previous life).


	Phil
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