My question to Godaddy's CEO at NamesCon: Domain Liquidity for the industry

[Rob Monster]

Earlier this morning, I wake up to seeing a lovely comment from Shane Cultra on his blog:

To my eyes, that comment from Shane is actually pretty crazy. Ironically, many people told me unsolicited, that my question was the highlight of the Q&A. This is not the first time that Shane has spoken out of school against me with trash-talk and it probably won't be the last since it shamelessly drives up his page views for his affiliate site. I don't know if anyone has a video of the Q&A section of Aman's keynote but if so, would be great if someone would upload the actual video clip. I believe anyone who objectively reviews my question will find it to be rather selfless. It was a question about domain liquidity. There were 2 parts, and I believe they were reasonable and sincere.

Part 1: Domain Liquidity via Loans

As some folks know, Epik provides interest-free loans secured by domains. This is popular but we cannot lend to everyone in the amounts that everyone might like. Compared to Godaddy, we are a relatively small company without access to the vast pool of capital that Godaddy has access to. I asked if Godaddy would consider extending domain loans to its customers. The lending model is proven. Godaddy has the ability to scale it to a much greater degree. Rather than forcing Godaddy customers to abandon domains to their expiry stream, why not allow Godaddy customers with liquid names to borrow against their portfolio? It seems reasonable to me.


Part 2: Working with US Congress to make domain names a bankable asset.

I have also been a long-time believer in the potential for domain names to be a respected asset class. The challenge there is that the banking industry does not recognize domains as a bankable asset class. People can donate domains to non-profits and can get a write-down for their investment basis, but if you go to a bank and ask to borrow against a 3N.com, they have no idea what you are talking about. The House subcommittee on banking could engage here but we would need some lobbying power to make that happen.

For anyone who has ever studied the history of the housing market, the correlation between the availability of borrowing capacity and the prices of the associated asset is indisputable. When credit is available, asset prices go up. If domain owners could more methodically borrow against their domains at conventional banking rates rather than only from hard money pawnshops that dominate the landscape today, it would be a game-changer for making the pie bigger for everyone.

I will be interested to hear what folks have to say on this very reasonable topic about domain liquidity that can greatly impact the future of the industry.

 

[alcy]

people do not let liquid names expire..

 

[bmugford]

Show attachment 143756

How is this not advertising material? This is general discussion.

Brad

 

[bmugford]

Aha, that's funny. We paid for a sponsorship. It appears on every page of NamePros after the first post. If anyone wants to buy NP ads, talk to @Brian Harbin of Grit Brokerage. He is also a NP ad sales rep.

It is not in the first post. It is halfway down the page like you manually posted it.

Brad

 

[SuperBrander]

Based on his speech, the CEO of Godaddy seems like a resourceful guy who's sincerely interested in valuing domainers as customers and listening to their feedback.

At the moment, Godaddy forces domainers to pay for a "discount club" in order to get renewal prices that any other registrar offers without having to pay a lot of money for a discount club. They also charge $4.99 to add a Reserve to auctions and make things difficult with the 60 day lock in order to restrict migration (I was just forced to renew a domain there for $18 because of that stupid imposed lock for a purchased domain Godaddy pushed into my account without waiving the lock. This isn't a win for Godaddy. It's something that antagonizes me as a customer and will impact my future decisions).

I don't think Godaddy will ever give domainers loans or help them liquidate their expiring domains. But if Godaddy really wants to help domainers and encourage them to use Godaddy as a registrar and a marketplace they can start by addressing some of the other issues I mentioned - give domainers normal renewals without having to pay for the discount club, eliminate the paid Reserve, be flexible with the lock and in general start treating domainers like partners instead of cash cows.

@Joe Styler

 

[Rob Monster]

people do not let liquid names expire..

As CEO of a top-50 registrar that sees an expiry stream before you do, I will tell you that you are wrong.

 

[equity78]

@bmugford


Oh I thought you were talking about the ad right under the first post, I did not see that. Reading it now I guess it was just to point out the empowerment point. But report it and let the mods decide.

 

[oldtimer]

Coming back to the point:

Is it not reasonable that Godaddy management could use their legal and financial resources to shepherd a long overdue process to make domains bankable?

Is it not reasonable that Godaddy could extend trade credit to customers who have non-horrible domains instead of having them drop names that they would otherwise keep?

Godaddy has very deep competency in financial engineering. This should be right in their wheelhouse.

If you want to join forces with Godaddy for the betterment of the domain Industry then why don't you just call and talk to Aman,

IMO

 

[alcy]

As a registrar that see an expiry stream before you do, I will tell you that you are wrong.

maybe there are just many definitions of liquid then

 

[kriss05]

Imho more promising model is to provide financing to domainers to pay for renewals or registrations. Say, one faces renewal of 1000 .coms or wants to register 1000 .coms but is short on funds, why not lend him $10000 to renew/register them at $10 each and give 6 months to pay back. No need for universal appraisal tools etc. Start working with trusted customers first and see if that works.

 

[Internet.Domains]

Thanks @Rob Monster for bringing the CEO of Godaddy into a topic that should be very important to all domain investors, domain liquidity.

More importantly than the topic of domain liquidity, your willingness to reach out and discuss topics with the CEO of Godaddy is a fine example of, not only "empowerment", but professional courtesy. I hope the Godaddy CEO extends to you so, together, you can both drive the industry forward, such as creating more liquidity.

 

[equity78]

Imho more promising model is to provide financing to domainers to pay for renewals or registrations. Say, one faces renewal of 1000 .coms or wants to register 1000 .coms but is short on funds, why not lend him $10000 to renew/register them at $10 each and give 6 months to pay back. No need for universal appraisal tools etc. Start working with trusted customers first and see if that works.

Good points and there will never be universal acceptance on a domain appraisal.

 

[Brands.International]

I was illustrating a point.

Godaddy apparently had put their slide deck together the night before the conference. The theme of the task was very obviously empowerment, which is the central theme of Epik as was evidenced by the back cover of the NamesCon program guide which the conference organizers were kind enough to sell to us even though Godaddy owns NamesCon.

If you understand the context, I think it makes sense. I did not run into you at NamesCon, were you there? I was actually looking for you. We had some fans there. Evidently Shane is still a critic.

You are very capable to illustrate any point verbally, so there is no need to use promotional banner of Epik in General Discussion thread, imho.

I was not in Namescon - I hope it will be moved to some european city one day, so also domain investors from EU can easily attend and enjoy this event

 

[Samer]

people do not let liquid names expire..

tell that to vdf.com, fixi.com

 

[alcy]

tell that to vdf.com, fixi.com

those probably belonged to some robots.. whose programs have malfunctioned or who went offline for a while.

surely, no human being could let such names expires.

 

[Internet.Domains]

so there is no need to use promotional banner of Epik in General Discussion thread,

What are you talking about? There is no promotion. It's a serious topic, domain liquidity. Look at the tags.

 

[oldtimer]

surely, no human being could let such names expires.

Well people pass away or companies might go out of business resulting in some good domains to drop,

 

[Brands.International]

What are you talking about? There is no promotion. It's a serious topic, domain liquidity. Look at the tags.

Ok, I will look at the tags, and you meanwhile kindly look at the post no.13, and tell me what do you see there

 

[equity78]

You are very capable to illustrate any point verbally, so there is no need to use promotional banner of Epik in General Discussion thread, imho.

I was not in Namescon - I hope it will be moved to some european city one day, so also domain investors from EU can easily attend and enjoy this event

There is NamesCon Europe https://namescon.com/news/category/namescon-europe/

 

[Brands.International]

There is NamesCon Europe https://namescon.com/news/category/namescon-europe/

Thanks a lot for the information, I was not aware of it - will study that

 

[Internet.Domains]

Ok, I will look at the tags, and you meanwhile kindly look at the post no.13, and tell me what do you see there

I have heard this "promotional" argument many times now. Its unfortunate for a large part of the domain community that anything Rob utters is falsely accused by some as "promotion".

Don't confuse engagement with promotion. Don't confuse domain conversation with promotion. Don't confuse transparency with promotion.

 

[BrandEntrance.com]

Shame on you Rob!!!

I've had a few 'dick moves' made on me in my life too. Ughhh... totally deserved and I learned not to leave myself open for those kind of things in the future if I could help it.

As you were everybody.

 

[Casey L]

If I’m not mistaken the Epik loan program will seize the domain after one year if the loan is not returned in that time. Comparing this to the housing market as you did, mortgage borrowers get 15-30 years to repay with many steps before a home is officially seized. Mortgage lenders also require some sort of proof of financial holdings before giving out loans, because they want more security than just the home as collateral knowing how long it can take to sell a house. Knowing that most high dollar domains will take more than a year to sell, how is this loan program fair for domain owners? Being interest free isn’t much of a sell for a loan only one year long. It seems to me like a long game for Epik to acquire valuable domains for less than wholesale value from domainers who are tight on money.

 

[bmugford]

I have heard this "promotional" argument many times now. Its unfortunate for a large part of the domain community that anything Rob utters is falsely accused by some as "promotion".

Don't confuse engagement with promotion. Don't confuse domain conversation with promotion. Don't confuse transparency with promotion.

There is literally an advertising banner. That is advertising. Period.

Brad

 

[Brands.International]

I have heard this "promotional" argument many times now. Its unfortunate for a large part of the domain community that anything Rob utters is falsely accused by some as "promotion".

Don't confuse engagement with promotion. Don't confuse domain conversation with promotion. Don't confuse transparency with promotion.

@Internet.Domains
- you seriously do not see that BIG PROMOTIONAL BANNER there?

 

[Internet.Domains]

There is literally an advertising banner. That is advertising. Period.

Brad

For whatever reason, I am not seeing an ad banner. Regardless, my point had nothing to do with an ad banner.