Frank wrote a post called Lobster! (yeah, really!) in which he announced the advancement of the Domain Name Sales platform.
I’m not going to discuss the DNS advancement here, though I do hope that when Frank says “What if that platform completely decentralized the industry and allowed anyone to act as a broker and sell anyone else’s names.” he will also open up the platform for those of us who don’t qualify for Internet Traffic.
I have been in this business a long time and none of the existing sales platforms offers the tools and services I want or need. I know I’m not the only one who sees this problem. Whether your platform is “email” and “excel sheets” or something more sophisticated; the existing patchwork of marketplaces is an inefficient set of walled gardens, ripe for reinvention.
I think a shakeup of the sales industry is required and necessary, not just in terms of lower commissions or easier process but mostly because the current systems don’t address end users. Afternic, Sedo & GoDaddy do advertise direct to consumers, but buying a domain is still not mainstream, even if it is getting more relevant.
The important takeaway for me from this post is:
My friend Rick Schwartz is right that domain names have gone up faster than any other commodity known to man, but past performance is not indicative of future potential. Markets are maturing and times are a changing. I am not advocating that newTLDs will cause a crash in .com prices. I do NOT believe that is going to happen. But new TLDs could put a cap on future growth in present SLD values.
I think this only refers to domains in the $20k+ spectrum that DNS sells domains at. Most of our sales are in the $500-$5k range and this is the range in which expansion is also possible for DNS, given that a lot of smaller investors would target this price range. Also keep in mind, this is the price range that most domains sell for on Afternic, Sedo & GoDaddy.
I’m looking forward to this new ‘revolution’ in the sales space and crossing my fingers and toes hoping that they accept a lot more people in than are currently members of InternetTraffic. Do you think this service will be disruptive and allow for more sales?
Sam I don’t think DNS is even geared to handle sales in the range you’re hoping they grow…
You might just be right Mark. But how else would they change the game? By linking all your accounts?
Tons of companies like Protrada etc already do this.
A truly open system would be open to all, not just a select few… just saying.
Well, it is open to a select few in any case!