news Alter ceasing operations

[Mkt Sales Leads]

Email received today:

Farewell​ Hi there, First and foremost, I would like to thank each and every one of you for using Alter to sell your domain names. We couldn't have come this far without your invaluable support. Over the last couple years we've been on a mission to transform the domain industry. However, despite all our attempts we weren't able to find a sustainable business model. So it is with a heavy heart I write to you today to say farewell. On April 2nd, all third-party domain listings will be removed from our marketplace. Seller accounts will remain active for the foreseeable future so those with a positive balance or pending installments can continue to cash out. Lastly, we realize this decision wouldn't be fair to sellers who spent money to have professional logos designed on our platform. So we have refunded all relevant payments back to your account balance which can be cashed out at any time. We truly wish you all the best in your future endeavors. It’s unfortunate that this wasn’t the outcome we wanted but we’re thankful to everyone that came with us on the journey. Sincerely, Deven Patel Founder & CEO

 

[Sammy Jakes]

So painful.

 

[Mkt Sales Leads]

So painful.

It's hard running a brandable marketplace.

Look at Brandpa and Namerific. Both seem to have fallen by the wayside behind BB and SH.

 

[F.E.]

If anyone has contact of this Patel guy, could you please reach him out and ask if he is interested in possible sellout of Alter.com?


If so, please let me know.

 

[HotKey]

That's too bad. I never joined, but was impressed with the owners participation and hard work. I wish him the best in future endeavors.

The DN industry in every format is a tough gig.

 

[koolishman]

If anyone has contact of this Patel guy, could you please reach him out and ask if he is interested in possible sellout of Alter.com?


If so, please let me know.

He posts here, I think.

 

[Mkt Sales Leads]

He posts here, I think.

Yes hopefully @Deven Patel can shed more light on next steps.

 

[Armageddon]

If anyone has contact of this Patel guy, could you please reach him out and ask if he is interested in possible sellout of Alter.com?


If so, please let me know.

You are not alone

 

[AEProgram]

1. Sorry to hear it didn't work out and it's nice of you to refund people.

2. @Mkt Sales Leads SH and BB spend a fortune with Google on ads. If you ever visited a SH and BB listing you will see banners everywhere with the name you visited. They also spend money on traditional ads.

 

[Mkt Sales Leads]

1. Sorry to hear it didn't work out and it's nice of you to refund people.

2. @Mkt Sales Leads SH and BB spend a fortune with Google on ads. If you ever visited a SH and BB listing you will see banners everywhere with the name you visited. They also spend money on traditional ads.

It helps that both have had bug sales on their platform, e.g. James Booth selling Gaming.io for over $100k recently. In comparison, I'm not sure if Alter attracted the same level of big sales as BB and SH.

 

[DeniseDahmer]

Me and my husband loved their site and product. Very sad news.

 

[hawkeye]

It helps that both have had bug sales on their platform

You think them having 'bug sales' are better than them having 'bug problems'?? Asking for a friend of course.

 

[Mister Funsky]

Email received today:

I too got the email and it is helpful you posted it here in the event someone may not have seen/received it.

Mr. Patel and I do not know each other and we have never interacted in any capacity, but I just wanted to say this was a very classy thing for him and his team to do regarding notifying those using the site.

I've been self employed since being 15 years old (with a brief stint helping a friend for about 6 months) and I've seen many people make an attempt to start and operate a business with very few succeeding long term.

In all my years, I've never received a notice like this of someone terminating/canceling services. It truly made my heart heavy reading the email. I just wanted to say it was a very classy thing to do during these times when professional (an personal) courtesy has bottomed out.

May you do well in your next endeavor Mr. Patel and thank you for trying to give the industry a breath of fresh air.

 

[ddesigns]

This is indeed a sad news. Wishing @Deven Patel all the best for future.

 

[F.E.]

You are not alone

it seems I am alone who wants to buy whole business (Alter.com, Inc), not just domain and platform

 

[Armageddon]

it seems I am alone who wants to buy whole business (Alter.com, Inc), not just domain and platform

Exactly what i say ( not just the domain )
Cheers

 

[MadAboutDomains]

I wonder what the big costs were. Trying to run before they could walk? Would be interesting to know.

 

[F.E.]

1. Business model they've run was growth -> profit which drains capital quickly if you don't have a big one or if you don't have clear expense calendar.

2. Low net profit (or even net loss) - as I understood from one member, they're marketing brandable domain across multiple marketplaces. 3% payment processing leaves Alter on 7%. If the name is sold through another marketplace, deduct 5% more and that's 2% of gross profit. Now if we calculate infrastructure expenses, employee's salary, cost of marketing, that's already net loss.


To run this type of business, you'll need to be prepared for operating at margin negative for some time if you're looking for stable market share. Plus, turning this into profit would require increasing percentage on success fee or add another income streams (like BrandBucket or Brandpa pay for listing or paying to get appraisal etc). And even those are keeping high success fee % after all upfront costs they impose.

Alter has a business that could most certainly success on long term, but certain changes (pivot) should initiate that success.

 

[koolishman]

They lacked deep pockets to sustain for many years.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

The website should have been a load balancer, a nosql table, a relational database of some kind, 2 docker containers and an elasticsearch instance for the domain search. $200 USD a month tops.

It's all pretty much static data.

 

[DotKing]

Forgive me if I'm wrong but there's no statement that service/business is closing.
In a nutshell it says just "On April 2nd, all third-party domain listings will be removed from our marketplace." and "farewell".
They will probably operate as a private service with their own inventory...imo

 

[lock]

Forgive me if I'm wrong but there's no statement that service/business is closing.
In a nutshell it says just "On April 2nd, all third-party domain listings will be removed from our marketplace." and "farewell".
They will probably operate as a private service with their own inventory...imo

As a new model they lose all the content that probably brings the traffic.

 

[F.E.]

The website should have been a load balancer, a nosql table, a relational database of some kind, 2 docker containers and an elasticsearch instance for the domain search. $200 USD a month tops.

It's all pretty much static data.

there's a difference between website and business. You can start a marketplace website in no time on two Digitalocean droplets with total vowt of $10/mo, but operating a business is slightly different.

Looking at Alter's current business:
- you need a developer to build and maintain marketplace platform
- you need designers on retainer, as no sane designer would agree to design custom logo for $10
- you need support employees to answer inquiries
- you need to pay taxes, accountant, salaries to all of those plus most important

you need to make money. So if you're willing to do all that by yourself feel free to do so if you think it's that easy

 

[F.E.]

As a new model they lose all the content that probably brings the traffic.

My assumptions are that some domain investors are trying to buy Alter.com for their own portfolios, and not sure if they did already, but I just got it touch with Mr. Patel and if he's willing to sell Alter.com Inc as a whole business, I'll be acquiring it and probably leave things as is for some time, but I do have different vision for it, still in domaining industry.

 

[DotKing]

As a new model they lose all the content that probably brings the traffic.

if that traffic does not justify operating costs that's a logical move