ALL 3-Letter .Biz Gone: Elequa Registers Over 4,600 Domains in One Day!

[Ron Jackson]

On Monday the last available 3-letter .info was registered by Elequa. Today he turned his attention to 3-letter .biz and took over 4,600 of them in one day to wipe out that category! There is more in an item we just posted in the Lowdown at Domain Name Journal:

The Lowdown at DNJournal.com

We will follow up with a front page article tomorrow afternoon with quotes from Elequa and an executive from .biz registrar Neulevel. Then on March 1 we will expand our coverage of these landmark events with a new Cover Story on .info and .biz with state of the extension comments from registry officials, plus more from Elequa and other key new extension investors and developers.

 

[armstrong]

:bingo: Nothing like scarcity to drive up domain values. Makes me feel better about the 15 3-letter .biz I regged last week.

 

[jane118]

what do u guys think?

good move?
i dont think so

 

[Ron Jackson]

Originally posted by jane118
what do u guys think?

good move?
i dont think so

Though many people may not think so now, I think it will prove to be a good move in the long run. Look at some simple math. Here we are in the very earliest days of .biz - the prehistoric era really. I personally have already sold a 3-letter .biz for $1,000. So let's say after two more years of development, only 1% of his 4600 .biz threes would sell for $1000 (which I think would be very conservative). That would be $46,000, almost doubling his total investment in just 24 months Try getting a 50% annual return at your local bank (this is just for illustration since he doesn't sell his domains). Of course the real masterstroke is that he creates his own market by eliminating supply from the supply and demand equation. Even the relatively low demand today will put some upward pressure on prices. That move probably doubled the value of his holdings as soon as he registered the last domain.

I have been involved in media all my life and I have repeatedly seen all forms of media outgrow their space (radio, TV, even cell phones and microwaves) and expand into new space. New room was created or utilized (FM radio, UHF TV, new cell & microwave frequencies) and it was all populated. The internet is growing like gangbusters. With biz and info there are only 5 mainstream global TLD's. I think that new space in the biz and info suburbs will get absorbed because the com/net inner city is just too crowded (no more decent names left at a reasonable price for most businesses). Ever since I entered this business I have felt like I am watching a rerun of an old movie and I already know how it is going to end.

 

[aww]

By the way DNJournal did an excellent article on him almost a year ago.

IMHO, three letters will always have limited cap value because every time a new TLD opens up there is easy new real estate created. (3 letter .com's are a different matter as novices inherently try the .com first.)

Correct me if I am wrong, but since Thunayan Khalid AL-Ghanim (aka Elequa) is a native citizen of Kuwait, he can never (legally) own or dominate the .US or .CA markets. These are examples of three letter prices he can never manipulate. If he was ever found to be buying mass quantities of them through holding companies, I suspect they would be taken from him.

Just out of personal curiousity, does anyone know if his wealth is self-made or did he inherit it all? I can only assume that "comes from a respected Kuwaiti family" means that it's inherited old wealth, perhaps oil money?

It is important to mention that Elequa owns his own private registrar, i.net. This probably is very necessary as he now owns over 15,000 domains easily, with a renewal price tag of almost $100k a year (he supposedly "doesn't sell them" either ala Rick Schwartz).

 

[.edu]

omg. You think .us is his next target?

 

[Anthony]

I think this guy is crazy for registering the remaining three-letter .biz domains, but it may payoff in the end. But not for awhile.

 

[Ron Jackson]

Originally posted by aww
Correct me if I am wrong, but since Thunayan Khalid AL-Ghanim (aka Elequa) is a native citizen of Kuwait, he can never (legally) own or dominate the .US or .CA markets.

Elequa can own all of the .US he wants as he maintains a permanent U.S. residence (more than meeting the nexus requirement for U.S. presence). However he tells me he has no plans to register .US threes in quantity as his interest is in global TLDs rather than country codes.

Originally posted by Anthony
I think this guy is crazy for registering the remaining three-letter .biz domains, but it may payoff in the end. But not for awhile.

Ever heard the term "crazy like a fox"?

Originally posted by aww
IMHO, three letters will always have limited cap value because every time a new TLD opens up there is easy new real estate created. (3 letter .com's are a different matter as novices inherently try the .com first.)

Not just .com. 3-letter .net and .org also sold out long ago. If one drops in any of those extensions it is instantly snapped up. I have seen both nets and orgs go for five figures. There are only 17,576 available in each extension and since those short, memorable acronyms make perfect web addresses they will always be in demand, even in country code extensions (FKK.de just sold for $51,000 last week). In every extension, the threes have always been the first category to sell out (even before one word dictionary names are exhausted).

 

[aww]

Well my point is he has said (at least last year) that he not doing this to resell them. So if he is grabbing all the global TLDs he can, he's either aiming for a very strange typein market or he really is trying to inflate the price for future sales.

Figuring that he will easily top over 20,000 domains this year (if not already) the question is now if this is intelligence in action, greed, or insanity. Maybe he just has alot of money to burn and this is fun entertainment for him, I've seen stranger things?

Here's something else to think about. If three letter domains become too hard to obtain (ie. too high priced) wouldn't the market just move on to something else?

I realize this is capitalism in action and I am part of it so there is some hypocrisy, but I see a time soon because of what he is doing where only the uber rich can have a three letter domain. The two character market is already there. Is this a good thing?

 

[Ron Jackson]

Originally posted by aww
If three letter domains become too hard to obtain (ie. too high priced) wouldn't the market just move on to something else?

The same question could be asked about .com. Since it has become too expensive for most small to medium sized businesses maybe he is betting that a large part of the market will move on to something else - like biz and info. There is no doubt that sales in those two extensions are already picking up (especially in .info) and we are just at the beginning of the growth curve. Large business will probably stick with the tried and true because they can afford it. Mom & Pop businesses are having to look elsewhere if they want a domain that isn't made up of six words and three hyphens.

I have felt from day one in this business that there are very few people with forward vision in it. Every one seems to think that the way things are today is how they will always be. Just look at what has happened over the last year or two (Pool didn't even exist before last summer, yet they already dominate their market). The only thing that you can count on is constant change.

 

[aww]

I have felt from day one in this business that there are very few people with forward vision in it.

I can agree to that belief as long as you add the qualification that they need some money to play with to start. Cornering a three letter market and maintaining those registrations can easily cost a million dollars every few years.

I hope we will see a "rebirth" in domain development rather than the "grab-all-you-can" approach after this year. I look forward to it as it's a playing field at least I can play on. Can't compete with millionares

 

[Ron Jackson]

Originally posted by aww
I can agree to that belief as long as you add the qualification that they need some money to play with to start. Cornering a three letter market and maintaining those registrations can easily cost a million dollars every few years.

I hope we will see a "rebirth" in domain development rather than the "grab-all-you-can" approach after this year. I look forward to it as it's a playing field at least I can play on. Can't compete with millionares

You would certainly need some money to corner a particular market but you don't need much in this business to start and still make a fortune. Rick Schwartz started with $1800 and turned that into $20 million in 8 years. I entered the business just 21 months ago and put less than $500 into my first purchases. Since then I have accumulated 3,000 domains (all paid for with profits from sales) plus a 5-figure cash surplus beyond the domains. Common sense, an eye on emerging opportunities, hard work and the grace of God can easily make up for a lack of cash for those determined to succeed in this business.

 

[.edu]

For those of you questioning his sanity just think back to 1998 Were those big purchases crazy? They are extremely wealthy right now living in some tropical island.

 

[NameTower]

he told me over 40k

 

[Matt]

Interesting read. Here's a thought.

Lets say he's assuming the market does turn to 3 letter .biz...and he has 4600 of them. Now, insted of selling 1% at $1000, what if he sold 50% @ $200 each (a respectable amount for almost any company to spend). That would generate $460,000

and then allow for the "special" ones that he keeps.

Interesting....I would do it ... where did I put that 100k

 

[aww]

After a bit of research and processing I believe I have registered the last remaining .BIZ as well as their .US counterparts when available.

So 3 letter .BIZ was not completely gone until today (feb-27) noon eastern. He missed a bunch.

 

[Ron Jackson]

Originally posted by aww
After a bit of research and processing I believe I have registered the last remaining .BIZ as well as their .US counterparts when available.

So 3 letter .BIZ was not completely gone until today (feb-27) noon eastern. He missed a bunch, trust me.

I am now offering a list of the 2700 remaining .US three letters

He didn't miss any. A fair number of expired threes drop each day. In fact there might be a small number available right now from today's drop. He ran through every possible unregistered combination Wed. and bought them all. He owns a registry, i.net, so it was not difficult to do.

 

[aww]

It's possible they were drops but I don't think so. I think they never had been registered. In fact whois.sc still shows that.

By the way this info you reported is incorrect:

Today Chris Zouzas registered 1,400 .US threes, leaving only combinations with Q X or Z in them

He left hundreds without those that had Y in them, so he ignored Q X Z and Y (and I know those were not drops )

 

[Ron Jackson]

Thanks for the tip. I'll ask Chris about that - the info came directly from him.

Originally posted by aww
By the way this info you reported is incorrect:


He left hundreds without those that had Y in them, so he ignored Q X Z and Y (and I know those were not drops )

Just got a note back from Chris. He said he took every Y domain he could find available unless it had a q x or z in the string - and if that is the case what we reported was correct:

"One of the top .US investor/developers, Christian Zouzas, registered over 1,400 of them today (Feb. 26). The only combinations left have the letters Q, X or Z in them (generally considered to be less desirable since few words start with those letters)"

If you know of some that are still available with Y that do not have a q x or z as well then he would like to know about those. I'll PM you his email address if there are any like that left.

As for the biz threes in addition to Elequa's registrar running the available list another investor who knew Elequa was buying them up, ran all available combinations as well to see if he could find any to take. Both told me Wed. night the registry was reporting no available biz threes. It is not at all uncommon for the registry to report available domains are unavailable or that unavailable domains are available (in fact there is a thread on NamePros right now complaining about that). If any threes showed up later they were either drops or domains that had been incorrectly listed as taken Wed when those two guys were searching for available names to register.

 

[NameTower]

duke who else bought other than ele?

 

[g0ldy]

lucky i got a 3 letter .biz/info/us lol

 

[Ron Jackson]

Originally posted by NameTower
duke who else bought other than ele?

No one in any significant quantity. The other guy already knew Ele had swept most of the inventory but wanted to see if there were any crumbs left so he started running his own scripts through the 17,000+ combos. He got just a handful but by Wed. night he and Ele both confirmed the regsitry was reporting nothing left.

 

[Anthony]

Originally posted by aww
Here's something else to think about. If three letter domains become too hard to obtain (ie. too high priced) wouldn't the market just move on to something else?

Yes. 4-letter domains!