discuss Happy New Years - What is your 2020 Forecast?

[Rob Monster]

This is post # 3,000 at NamePros. So I thought to make it a meaty one.

First of all, I extend a warm Happy New Year blessing to all. May your domaining efforts be fruitful, and may your use of sale proceeds be wisely aligned to the things you feel called to do in 2020!

In the meantime, some folks have asked me for my 2020 predictions. Well, I am no prophet, but I will share some scenarios that I think would be not unreasonable to see unfold:

• Namepros' Alexa rank clears 10,000: After a steep incline in 2019, the NP growth engine keeps humming and clears Alexa rank of 10,000 like a hot knife through butter.

• Emerging markets set the outbound pace: The industry onboards 100,000 new domain investors in 2020 alone. Many find their way to NamePros and learn how to outbound from industry pros.

• PIR acquisition: Despite flag-waving by industry pundits, the deal goes through. The price increase does not happen as the dust settles. After all, the .ORG deal was not about price anyway.

• Godaddy restructuring: During Q1 2020, Godaddy announces housecleaning -- takes out $2 billion of intangible trash. Stock gets rocked. Private equity players directed by Fadi Chehade are in the mix

• Industry consolidation: Look for DAN, Efty, Escrow.com and Uniregistry all to be acquired in 2020. Godaddy will be a buyer of innovation as they throw in the towel on building great tech internally.

• Hidden hands exposed: Thanks to high impact forensic work by a network of truthseekers in the domain community, the hidden hands behind Cloudflare and LetsEncrypt begin to come to light.

• WHOIS makes a comeback: After 18 months of emasculation, WHOIS makes a triumphant return with the launch of GDPR-compliant WHOIS.

• Cloud hosting goes mainstream: An explosion of cPanel sites will move into the cloud thanks to technologies which will bring cloud migration tools for non-technical people.

• 3N.com domain market moonshots: 3N.com domains clear 7 figures as the industry consolidates into very strong hands.

• Digital brands not domains: I believe during 2020, we'll see a big pivot from selling naked domains to selling integrated brands. Squadhelp and Flippa were only the appetizer there.

• WIPO UDRP thuggery thwarted: After a year of boundary testing by WIPO, the industry calls bullshit on the overreach and fights back. Sunlight proves to be a potent detergent in 2020.

• Super-broker Andrew Rosener sells Clear.com for mind blowing $10 million: Sure, it sounds like a crazy moonshot, but Andrew does crazy deals like few others!

So, that's it for my 2020 predictions. Let's see what happens.

In the meantime, curious to hear what folks think will happen in the next 12 months that impacts our industry and community.

 

[manpreet]

Maybe but:

Show attachment 144369

Obviously it would show growth as lots of new TLDs have been launched overtime but judging from what I can see there's not many people leaving yet.

Should probably check hosterstats to be sure.

Recently shifted some to NameSilo, thanks for sharing.

 

[7363824]

So is it too late for me to predict Godaddy will buy Uni? Lol. Ok fine...but I do think unis registry business will be sold here soon to. Probably by someone other than Donuts trying to aquire more tlds to catch up to them.

 

[Samer]

NameSilo next. surprised more dont think so;

$0.35 lower than escrow.com @Rob Monster

 

[7363824]

NameSilo next. surprised more dont think so;

Show attachment 144372

$0.35 lower than Escrow @Rob Monster

I would love to see Epik be a buyer.

 

[Rob Monster]

Maybe but:

Show attachment 144369

Obviously it would show growth as lots of new TLDs have been launched overtime but judging from what I can see there's not many people leaving yet.

Should probably check hosterstats to be sure.

There is a lot of Chinese adult and gaming landers in that mix. The day of reckoning is coming when those domains go into auto-renewal and the registrants don't renew them which they mostly won't.

We generally avoid that business. We do get a Verisign rebate but we use it to empower people to buy domains that will try to sell to end-users.

Admittedly, the optics are a bit less impressive but the result is value creation rather than smoke and mirrors. The stock trades by appointment:

Obviously, institutions are not in that deal.

I do see a change of control event happening around the time when the pig in the auto-renewal python comes due but let's see.

Possible scenario is that the stock goes to zero and the talented co-founders resume operational control after a sabbatical. There is actually plenty to like there.

 

[branding]

Possible scenario is that the stock goes to zero and the talented co-founders resume operational control after a sabbatical. There is actually plenty to like there.

Thanks for that info. That would be pretty cool actually. I've always loved their no BS approach. Their focus lies on providing registrar services, exactly what I'm looking for in a registrar. No BS, no upselling.

 

[Mister Funsky]

GoDaddy might buy them next.

I just returned from a sales call and acquiring more coffee beans...ground a bunch and waiting on the machine. I fully expected a response but did not get one...the silence is deafening (and saddening).

 

[mAd MaX]

No shocker here.

Yeah.

Long Epik Short Daddy