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discuss Will the Coronavirus increase demand for domain names?

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Doron Vermaat

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As some of you know I have been living and working in Hong Kong for quite a while.

Hong Kong is a so-called special administrative region with over seven million residents and sits right up against China's Guangdong Province, which has had more than 1000 cases of the virus. As schools were closing, everyone on the street started wearing surgical masks and people started to clear supermarket shelves, my wife and I decided it was time for an extended vacation and we left the city with our daughter and dog for the Netherlands a couple of weeks ago.

With the virus now spreading across the US and many European countries reporting increasing numbers of cases it has become obvious that this will become a global health crisis.

Now, personally I am not too worried about the virus itself, but more so about the impact the outbreak will have on the global economy and people's livelihood - Hong Kong's economy, for example, has been dragged down significantly by the outbreak. And a suffering economy is bad for business and what's bad for business should be bad for the demand for aftermarket domains, right?

A Skype chat with a fellow domain name nerd today got me thinking however as he mentioned that the current situation should increase domain values and drive more demand for the middle to the lower end of the market because the outbreak of the virus has given enormous rise to remote work, e-commerce and the use of remote tools to hold meetings, e-schooling and much more.

It's most likely too early to tell but personally I had a very good February with 6 end-user sales, averaging $4,100 per domain, including a .hk domain name that sold to a local entrepreneur in the midst of the crisis. I know many other investors who had a very profitable month as well.

So let's discuss, do you think the Coronavirus outbreak will increase the demand for domain names, even if the economy takes a dive?
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Coronavirus is dead. Past. All good now.
 
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If the economy takes a dive, people stop reaching into their pockets.

Maybe a certain type of domains would sell for "remote work" purposes. But in general, when people are afraid, they don't buy.

imo
 
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Absolutely agree, we may see more payment plans to limit the initial capital output because the greater economy and supply chains are being disrupted. But overall I remain positive in our industry as a whole. I hate to put it in these terms because folks are truly suffering, but we hold independent/sovereign assets that stand to profit from something like this. With China issuing such a strong stance on censorship, it may also play a dual role in maintaining individual liberty if states across the world implement speech limits.
 
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If the economy takes a dive, people stop reaching into their pockets.

Maybe a certain type of domains would sell for "remote work" purposes. But in general, when people are afraid, they don't buy.

imo



I agree. corona is killing spending in general so maybe less domain sales? People seem to spend less when the markets are down.

The good news is that the markets should be back up soon. There is a confirmed vaccine in the human testing phase and people will be over exposed to corona and it will slowly become old news, making people regain their confidence after realizing life has to go on with or without corona...

Also, I think a lot of people still don't realize it only has a 2 percent mortality rate. hundreds of thousands more people will die from the flu every year. The more people are educated about corona the less scary the virus will seem and the faster they will get back to spending and carrying on with business as usual.
 
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i admire your optimism, @Doron Vermaat

Personally, i just think it points to more buying opportunities. Markets suffered their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis — all three major indexes fell over 10%.

Then why Why Dow up 800 points today? :-P
Same with domains, buy on the dip.

Samer
 
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i admire your optimism, @Doron Vermaat

Personally, i just think it points to more buying opportunities. Markets suffered their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis — all three major indexes fell over 10%.

Then why Why Dow up 800 points today? :-P
Same with domains, buy on the dip.

Samer

I am more leaning towards your take on it and also worry domain name sales will take a hit when global market suffer. Today's conversation however forced me to look at things from a different perspective and I think it makes for an interesting discussion.
 
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Forget about domains. The greatest shorting opportunity of my lifetime hit the markets today. BUY THOSE PUTS.

Two weeks from now, you will be kicking yourself for not getting in at these high levels. DOW currently 26.155, SP 3026.

I'M CALLING A TOP RIGHT HERE.
 
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Forget about domains. The greatest shorting opportunity of my lifetime hit the markets today. BUY THOSE PUTS.

Two weeks from now, you will be kicking yourself for not getting in at these high levels. DOW currently 26.155, SP 3026.

I'M CALLING A TOP RIGHT HERE.

Mind sharing your market timing track record?
 
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I’ve had a few offers on some preparedness related domains in the last week. Hadn’t had any offers on the aforementioned domains in the past.
 
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My take.
Post Coronavirus whether it is cured or not will create a new atmosphere or paranoia. If AIDS made people think twice about who they had sex with. what more with Covid-19?

Before Coronavirus. The "move" in our economy was and has always been for EVERYTHING to go digital.

This has always been the "HOPE" of all domainers. That EVERYTHING goes online.

For the Malls to close up shop.
For mom and pops to close up shop
For Grocery stores to close up shop.

The people of the world has always wanted to live in a world where no one has to be in CONTACT with HUMANS. to stay home.

Companies are even hoping that 5G will become mainstream so that their workers can work from home and the workers will use their internet connection or 5G to do their work. instead of the company having to pay for aircon and light bills and toilet paper bills and clean crew bill to clean and vacuum their office.

there will be or there is already apps to go to grocery for you, to go shopping for you, to walk your dog, to take you anywhere around the world (virtual), to get you meds, to connect you to work.

You won't need to go to the Grocery where someone can get you sick.
You won't need cook and just order out.
You won't need to go to work and get sick on mass transit.

so if the solution to say a disease that super infectious and airborne. is to stay home. Do we just lock ourselves in "home vaults" and wait to die for lack of food and water?

or does the human race adapt? ie Go digital?

if it does all "goes digital" and we are all self quarantined in our homes working, and eating from home.

Domainers and their domain investments will be in the perfect "storm". So as they say in crypto. HODL.

Call me crazy. But I see mini work "encampments" where workers wait 1-3 months to enter to see if they are infected and have to sign up to agree to work for 6 months to 1 year and never leave from this facility they will pack our "safe" goods and send it to us maybe via drones or robots or whatever.

or remove "workers" and replace with "robots".

Bezos and Alibaba already has the perfect setup for this.

Tesla will also bring us self driving cars where we won't need to worry about our driver who is
Asian. (Chinese, Indian, Korean, Filipino etc)/

Sadly the rich who can afford all of this will survive but the rest of us are "f*cked".


@Doron Vermaat Glad to know your family go out of Hong Kong before the quarantine. I have to ask. What did they do when you entered NL? what was your experience? were you stopped? inspected? tested?

I'm sure everyone on here is curious.
 
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Best cure for any pathogenic microbe and cancer is colloidal silver, but silver is not doing great.

Ozone is a good disinfectant, toxic to lungs only temporarily. Are ozone producers doing well,.

Vitamin D is good, so why should light bulbs imitating sunlight not do well.

I think virus is not spreading from one place to another. It is installed in multiple places.

I think this virus is just like isis in many ways. it s created, and advertised, and it does bad things, but it is more an excuse for something than anything else.
 
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As some of you know I have been living and working in Hong Kong for quite a while.

Hong Kong is a so-called special administrative region with over seven million residents and sits right up against China's Guangdong Province, which has had more than 1000 cases of the virus. As schools were closing, everyone on the street started wearing surgical masks and people started to clear supermarket shelves, my wife and I decided it was time for an extended vacation and we left the city with our daughter and dog for the Netherlands a couple of weeks ago.

With the virus now spreading across the US and many European countries reporting increasing numbers of cases it has become obvious that this will become a global health crisis.

Now, personally I am not too worried about the virus itself, but more so about the impact the outbreak will have on the global economy and people's livelihood - Hong Kong's economy, for example, has been dragged down significantly by the outbreak. And a suffering economy is bad for business and what's bad for business should be bad for the demand for aftermarket domains, right?

A Skype chat with a fellow domain name nerd today got me thinking however as he mentioned that the current situation should increase domain values and drive more demand for the middle to the lower end of the market because the outbreak of the virus has given enormous rise to remote work, e-commerce and the use of remote tools to hold meetings, e-schooling and much more.

It's most likely too early to tell but personally I had a very good February with 6 end-user sales, averaging $4,100 per domain, including a .hk domain name that sold to a local entrepreneur in the midst of the crisis. I know many other investors who had a very profitable month as well.

So let's discuss, do you think the Coronavirus outbreak will increase the demand for domain names, even if the economy takes a dive?

Doran...Glad to hear you and your family are safe! At the end of the day...you and your family is what's most important.

Best - Indianad
 
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Best cure for any pathogenic microbe and cancer is colloidal silver, but silver is not doing great.

Ozone is a good disinfectant, toxic to lungs only temporarily. Are ozone producers doing well,.

Vitamin D is good, so why should light bulbs imitating sunlight not do well.

I think virus is not spreading from one place to another. It is installed in multiple places.

I think this virus is just like isis in many ways. it s created, and advertised, and it does bad things, but it is more an excuse for something than anything else.

google Jesse Ventura and his old TV show on TruTV years ago. Tried to look for it but now you can't find it no where.

The one video was of the personal physician to the queen of I think Sweden or some other country.

She said to the physician. "It's almost time for the great culling." Physician asked her. What do you mean? but the queen just smilled and stayed quiet.


It's about a global pandemic the global elites are planning to decrease the population called the "Culling".

Check the Georgia Guidestones on Google. 500 million is the "optimal" amount the Elites feel is "best" to maintain a society and that the rest are just "useless eaters".

And the FEMA has order millions of what looks like plastic black coffins that looks like those storage bins at Walmart you see for $12 each but people sized.

and that the "killing move" would be a vaccine that EVERYONE will rush to get that will either sterilize the population or just kill us outright,.

Don't you feel like we are all being herded like pigs to slaughter? with fear and panic being spread in the media?

and yes I agree that this virus is being "distributed" in places where there was no infected people from cruises or flights in the middle of no where.

This is to create more panic in the heartland of the USA.

Doubt creates fear.
Fear creates panic.
Panic creates anger.
Anger leads to hate.
Hate leads to suffering.
 
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The wonderful thing about the internet is the communication methods with content, apps, chat, recreation, remote work, payment exchanges, etc., etc. Internet domains are the gateway to the internet. Domains are the gateway to information. Information continues to be the most valuable asset known. As long as domains are the gateway to information their value will increase, regardless of changing economic conditions.....IMO
 
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@Doron Vermaat Glad to know your family go out of Hong Kong before the quarantine. I have to ask. What did they do when you entered NL? what was your experience? were you stopped? inspected? tested?

The major headache was getting the paperwork in order for the dog as the government department responsible for signing off on that was operating at very limited capacity due to the virus outbreak. As for our family entering the Netherlands, there were no questions or even a flu check (like they regularly do on airports across the world, especially in Asia, even before the virus). It's important to understand however that Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China and just like Macau, we have our own currency, passports, country code, tax system, and government. Hong Kong even closed the border with China to keep the virus at bay. For that reason, many countries don't have any travel restrictions to and from Hong Kong.

it is more an excuse for something than anything else.

I also believe that the virus outbreak will very likely be used as an excuse for a much-needed market correction.
 
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I don't think it has anything to do with the virus itself, but February was the single strongest month when it comes to offers/inquiries since 2018 for both my .com and ccTLD portfolio. But again, I don't think it's about the virus. At least the ccTLD is .sk, and Slovakia has 0 confirmed cases so far I think - people do not seem too worried there.
 
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Coronavirus affect on many business , flight , tourism and many more. Today we have no confirmd data wether covid-19 change on domaining demand or not. Generally we only know that there are many people reg a domain with coronavirus on some extension , but we could evaluate and compare with new other fact nexth month
 
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The major headache was getting the paperwork in order for the dog as the government department responsible for signing off on that was operating at very limited capacity due to the virus outbreak. As for our family entering the Netherlands, there were no questions or even a flu check (like they regularly do on airports across the world, especially in Asia, even before the virus). It's important to understand however that Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China and just like Macau, we have our own currency, passports, country code, tax system, and government. Hong Kong even closed the border with China to keep the virus at bay. For that reason, many countries don't have any travel restrictions to and from Hong Kong.



I also believe that the virus outbreak will very likely be used as an excuse for a much-needed market correction.

I'm a conspiracy theory kook. So I have to ask. Many conspiracy geeks have said that it's too much of a coincidence that this virus came out of Wuhan after the protests in Hong Kong. I don't know what relation it would have though. Since mainland China got affected too.

Any thoughts?

Sadly when stuff like this happens the conspiracies just all comes out
 
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I'm a conspiracy theory kook. So I have to ask. Many conspiracy geeks have said that it's too much of a coincidence that this virus came out of Wuhan after the protests in Hong Kong. I don't know what relation it would have though. Since mainland China got affected too.

I think that is extremely far-fetched.
 
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So far, the coronavirus has killed more than 2800+ and infected nearly 90,000+ globally, this week as virus fears deepen the global stock loss extended, it reflects people's lack of confidence under the threat of fast-spreading coronavirus.

China remains in crisis mode after the epidemic exploded and the government promotes people's work-from-home options to prevent people from gathering together, working at home, studying at home, selling at home.

The Coronavirus is forcing many companies to make changes to the way they work.For many other countries, it's not a time to panic, it is a time to prepare your company and rethink how to work remotely,

I agree.

Here is in King County WA the restaurants and theaters are relatively empty. People have stopped shaking hands -- fist bumps instead. New behaviors. New opportunities.

And the people who have been working remotely are fully ahead of the trend and should not skip too many beats with adapting to working from anywhere.

As for the old school companies whose entire culture is built around supervision (surveillance), well, this is going to be a tougher transition.

Good luck, because this could get messy for those who are not nimble.
 
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Coronavirus change the way people work and connected ,
 
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Venture firm Sequoia is sounding the alarm about the economy as coronavirus spreads

Founded in 1972 and based in Menlo Park, California, Sequoia is among the world’s most successful venture capital firms, having invested in GitHub, Google, LinkedIn, Nvidia, Oracle, Square, YouTube and Zoom.

Among its recommendations:
  • Sales forecasts. Even if you don’t see any direct or immediate exposure for your company, anticipate that your customers may revise their spending habits. Deals that seemed certain may not close. The key is to not be caught flat-footed.
  • Marketing. With softening sales, you might find that your customer lifetime values have declined, in turn suggesting the need to rein in customer acquisition spending to maintain consistent returns on marketing spending. With greater economic and fundraising uncertainty, you might even want to consider raising the bar on ROI for marketing spend.
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To me, personally, there's no question that domain sales (and registrations/renewals) will generally slow down as a result of this virus running rampant around the globe. For how long, who knows. My gut feeling is that from now, 2020 will generally be a VERY slow year for end user sales & sales between domainers. Hopefully I'm wrong.

More importantly: wishing the best to all affected by the virus. Stay well everyone! Stay calm, make reasonable preparations, and WASH YOUR HANDS REGULARLY for at least 20 seconds.
 
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Unfortunately, I think regardless of how serious or not Covid-19 turns out to be, we are reaching a "panic" tipping point. For at least the next few months if not longer it will affect society.

More importantly there will likely also be a lot of layoffs in entertainment/restaurant industries.

While I don't wish harm or panic on anyone, I think Covid-19 will actually be good for domains sales as huge industry shifts means more new startups. I also think a lot of people will try to finally start that home business project they've been putting off the last xx years because they had a safe job.


Big sporting events and concerts have a LOT of spin off business for their surrounding areas .. but that's nothing compared to the economic damage if they ever start closing schools or mass transit and all of a sudden a majority of the work-force can't even go to work.


Latest info:
Apparently Covid-19 can stay alive on dry surfaces for a few days, and on wet surfaces for upwards of 6 days.
Also, apparently there's now a case in Hong Kong of Human-to-Dog transmission (Steamie's not happy about that)
Note: I am not doctor or scientist.
 
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Unfortunately, I think regardless of how serious or not Covid-19 turns out to be, we are reaching a "panic" tipping point. For at least the next few months if not longer it will affect society.

More importantly there will likely also be a lot of layoffs in entertainment/restaurant industries.

While I don't wish harm or panic on anyone, I think Covid-19 will actually be good for domains sales as huge industry shifts means more new startups. I also think a lot of people will try to finally start that home business project they've been putting off the last xx years because they had a safe job.


Big sporting events and concerts have a LOT of spin off business for their surrounding areas .. but that's nothing compared to the economic damage if they ever start closing schools or mass transit and all of a sudden a majority of the work-force can't even go to work.


Latest info:
Apparently Covid-19 can stay alive on dry surfaces for a few days, and on wet surfaces for upwards of 6 days.
Also, apparently there's now a case in Hong Kong of Human-to-Dog transmission (Steamie's not happy about that)
Note: I am not doctor or scientist.

Lots of schools closing here in King County, WA starting this week.

The talk radio jocks are all about it today.

People will be telecommuting.

The big local catholic school just canceled a field trip to Florida -- $2000 per family, no refund.

Ad hoc daycare programs coming online.

Many stories like that making the rounds today.

Welcome to your digital life version 2.0.

And the Fed is going to try to save the day. Again.
 
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