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

 

[F.E.]

Incorrect Not yet acquired, but price is way higher than $100k

 

[BRANDERX]

Sounds exciting. Hope it won't be a one-man show.

Please announce it in a new thread once all is done. I'll check it out..

 

[postscripter]

Maybe you can post notices from other companies (sent to you via email, prior to their termination) that have ceased operations so we may compare.

somehow we ended up asking each other of examples to compare. Which is a bit funny.
But for now, you got two likes I got nothing, so it seems majority agree with you that it was a specially nice email.

 

[Mister Funsky]

sounds like the process for several bidders was already pretty far along

It would be an awesome asset for the right company/group. I'm aware of one of those looking at the property...it would not surprise me if things aren't decided in the next several days.

I hope whoever ends up with it tries to keep it as a 'stand alone' rather than simply absorb it.

 

[eternaldomains]

Incorrect Not yet acquired, but price is way higher than $100k

Just in case that you DO end up acquiring it, all I hope that you'll implement are these few things:-

1) a proper partnership with Pa/yo/ne/er (cause I still don't believe Alter.com is a real partner of Pa/yo/ne/er based on how it's [not] "connected" compared to real partners such as BB & SH), and

2) include user-made logos as part of the items on the seller side invoices/receipts so that when Pa/yo/ne/er or some crazy bank decides to question sellers regarding incoming payments, sellers can then declare something like "BRAND/ING PACK/AGE sales" instead of "domain name sales" and shut the mouths of those domainer-hating b'tards. I'm just sick of financial institutions trying to murder domainers just because some rich guy like Kill Gates refuse to pay names for more than $10 and decided to brainwash the whole world by marking us all as "cybersquatting gangster criminals"

If you implement just these 2 things you already have at least 2 major USPs (for attracting sellers) on your side. Some people might say DAN is a Pa/yo/ne/er partner, but their implementation of Pa/yo/ne/er is just too fishy to me, because every other Pa/yo/ne/er partner never asked for additional bank details while selecting Pa/yo/ne/er payouts.

Wishing you success on your bid.

 

[F.E.]

Godaddy: More than $25,000
Estibot: ~$5,000
FreeValuator: $645
PCdomains: $3,140
DomainIndex: $1,960

So I'm not sure what would you expect from appraisal tool?

Plus consider that real domain valuation is based on multiple factors, and we're talking about brandable domain marketplace, so people who are coming to Alter appraising are mostly appraising unique/brandable ones. Will certainly consider updating that tool to follow trending words/phrases as well in future, but that would happen once/if the transition is completed and major changes regarding operations are set.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

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... Sincerely, Deven Patel Founder & CEO

A special thanks deserves to be given to the NamePros Member, Market Sales Lead. This Namepro member had the foresight to post Patel's email at the beginning of this thread. To think that a company might survive thanks to this individual's actions!

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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

 

[koolishman]

They lacked deep pockets to sustain for many years.

 

[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.]

@DotKing Yes if you're entrepreneur focused purely on profit purely. If I get a chance to buy Alter.com Inc (business), I'm going to keep things as is (focus on market growth short-term).

 

[Reallybigidea.com]

I just visited this website, I like the brand Alter. com but a website doesn't looks good as brandbucket.

 

[F.E.]

For something that started only 4 years ago, this is very quick closure, especially when Alter already has 34k domains hosted (according to DomainTools).

There are several issues with Alter's market execution, but I'm certain that this business would be a long-term success with proper strategy and proper execution.

 

[Mkt Sales Leads]

There is so much influence in a few large players, and inertia in our industry. A new player breaking in is tough.

I wish @Deven Patel the very best going forward.

Bob

Also, when a new entrant comes along and does succeed, they get swallowed up by the bigger competitor, e.g. just like when BB bought Brandroot.

Until there's a successful, disruptive competitor in the brandable space, BB and SH will continue taking huge chunks of commission, plus paid listing /booster / token fees.

 

[King]

Meh, they were never able to simply make their logo an SVG which would make the website look a lot more professional even after I told them. Says a lot about their capabilities.

 

[Alex Solomon]

So painful to me as my last sale last month was from Alter lander... I hope things get better soon..

 

[MadAboutDomains]

hopefully, I am.

Actually, it's beneficial for me (sellers leaving) as I'll have to decide on whether Alter will be general domain marketplace or just brandable. At this current state it's marketed as brandable, but execution is general marketplace, which doesn't help at all because:
- if I decide to stay on brandable domain marketplace, I'll have to review and probably remove bunch of existing listings, or
- if I decide it's going to be general domain marketplace, I'll have to change front-end (search results, recommendations, marketing side etc) completely.

Once I review everything from a business perspective and start the process, Namepros will be first to know Alter's future roadmap.

Nice one. Are the software devs and designers on retainer going to get a pay rise?

 

[F.E.]

One step at a time, but I could tell that I'm in a business of making all partners happy, so I'm sure there'll be room for new opportunities to designers.

 

[Arch]

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.

The whole point of buying the company would be for the revenue. If a domain investor is trying to buy Alter for their own portfolio, it wouldn't make any sense, since they may as well just run their own site because it would be a lot cheaper.

Anyway, if your purchase is successful, I wish you the best of luck with the new vision.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

You could rename it Falter.com

Ouch!

 

[koolishman]

LOI sent to Deven, hopefully transition will start early next week, once Definitive Agreement is signed and Escrow transaction processed. Let's shake things up in brandable domain marketplace

Good luck!