How should one view and how to infer GoDaddy's closing Afternic first and now the Dan marketplace?

[Finest Domainer]

GoDaddy bought two marketplaces- Afternic and the Dan a few years ago. Both had to be good thus warranting takeover, is an easy premise.
GD first closed the Afternic marketplace (meant to be a place whereby premium domain options can be seen by buyers on keyword search feeds) leaving it to be a weak selling platform for domainers, with just one page lander display and no promotion thus in the absence of marketplace.
And now, GD has announced the closure of much popular DAN too. Under this, Domain listings at DAN are being migrated to AN, a less effective way to generate sales through just the landers and no exposure through the search based marketplace. These two quick and major decisions have shaken the aftermarket of domains considerably. This coupled with simultaneous sales of majority stakes of shares by the CEO, raised questions and speculations, if there is turmoil in GoDaddy. How should Domainers view this and infer this double whammy, in the absence of any clarity and truth coming from GoDaddy, is what the discussion must hover around. One might give suggestions as to what optional platforms must young and small domainers might look at, while GoDaddy tinkers with their well set and organized aftermarket platforms in quick succession, leaving the domainers community in lurch, uncertainty and an apparent gloom.

 

[DomainRecap]

I think the endgame is that GoDaddy gets out of the domain aftermarket entirely and just takes MLS feeds from other sellers.

This plan is quite obvious from the closure of Dan and the constant retrofitting of Afternic. Dan is a new and forward-thinking platform that a smart company would want to keep if aftermarket domain sales was to be a major, ongoing focus, while Afternic is old with limited functionality and features, and would be simple to close down a few years from now as it has no real future as as a sales platform and domain investors hate it anyway.

So yes, I think this is the beginning of the end for GoDaddy actually hosting, brokering and selling non-GD aftermarket domains. I think they want to be a partner and not a driver.

That's why I am currently formulating an alternate plan for November, as I do not see any long-term future with Afternic.

 

[Dane]

That's why I am currently formulating an alternate plan for November, as I do not see any long-term future with Afternic.

I'm starting to feel the same way. What sort of alternate plans have you come up with?

 

[DomainRecap]

I'm starting to feel the same way. What sort of alternate plans have you come up with?

Not much so far, as I have an issue with a large portion of my portfolio being .CA. It would be no problem finding a new home for my .COM, .ORG, etc. domains, but I really need a marketplace hooked to a registrar to make it work for me.

SlowDaddy/Afternic has that but without self-brokerage and seller negotiation tools, Afternic is a non-starter as it's virtually unusable in its current form. I really can't wait a month just to get a "Buyer indicated the domain was priced outside of what they wanted to spend" notification.

The immediate option for me once Dan shuts down, is to just use Bodis landers for the time being and keep working on setting up a business site to take care of sales. At some point, you need to take full control of your domain sales, and that day is coming soon for me.

It's also kinda sad, as I would have been happy using Dan and paying the 15% for decades, but GD had to go and gum up the works. This is why I can't have nice things.

 

[biggie]

leaving the domainers community in lurch, uncertainty and an apparent gloom.

Hi

i don't care much what gd does.
only those who are dependent on them, will feel same as you expressed.

other platforms benefit when like this hits the fan

imo....

 

[m4jor101]

It's sad that such a good platform is being shutdown by godaddy. Wish they continued it and keep both the platform in the long run and see which one is more profitable and sustainable and they could then have shutdown whichever the consumers don't like.

I like to build such platform and have already started working on this. However, I don't have the distribution that Afternic/GoDaddy registry path offers, so planning to just focus only on premium domains as it's easier to grow and sustain.

So, what features do you think I should focus on?

 

[domaindevil]

It's sad that such a good platform is being shutdown by godaddy. Wish they continued it and keep both the platform in the long run and see which one is more profitable and sustainable and they could then have shutdown whichever the consumers don't like.

I like to build such platform and have already started working on this. However, I don't have the distribution that Afternic/GoDaddy registry path offers, so planning to just focus only on premium domains as it's easier to grow and sustain.

So, what features do you think I should focus on?

What will set your version of DAN apart from all the others that have popped up recently?

 

[m4jor101]

I wanted to focus only on premium domains similar to brandbucket, atom, brandpa and similar other platforms, but don't charge a huge commission that discourages a lot of sellers. Probably charge a flat fee something like 6% from sellers (payout fee too but will be charged by escrow.com).
Escrow fee and their payment processing fee to be paid by buyers.

Integrate with escrow only as a payment option which instils trust for both buyers and sellers. Which ensure a lot of payment related stuff to be done by escrow.com and I can focus more on customer support, building marketplace and improving the platform.
While I can't really guarantee DAN like experience that many sellers appreciate as handling payment is a lot of hassle, legal headache and troublesome that's why I want to allow payments through escrow only for now.

Custom themed/colored landers that looks good and can create better impression for buyers. (something like this: https://auctiondomainers.vercel.app/domain/test.io and also try /test.com so you can see what I meant by custom colored lander)


Offer live chat support within dashboard so we could be quick to respond to user queries. Ensure to listen to user feedback and suggestions but also to make sure that we don't make the site bloated with unnecessary features that very few users want.

At first, it's better to build the inventory so I plan to launch it as lander platform then open the marketplace as the inventory grows.

Other than that, I still haven't figured out what more I could offer but will definitely take users feedback and suggestion into considered as I continue to grow it.