Statement By Dan on Epik!!

[Ostrados]

This statement was just released by Dan:

We’ve ignored many of their actions in the past, because we’re laser focused on executing our ambitious product roadmap. However, last Friday, Epik has taken their attacks of our brand to the next level by sending a fabricated story about us to over 100,000 contacts in a mass email. As of today, we still haven’t received an apology or explanation from them. Their primary goal with this email was to hurt our brand and to gain new customers and this attempt was pre-planned and announced by them in June 2020* (See exhibit #2).

Full statement:
https://blog.undeveloped.com/statement-about-recent-events-b7c875cc6314

Have anyone received that email from Epik attacking Dan? I wonder what is the fabricated story Dan taking about?

 

[Sasan]

When we invite 46 existing Epik clients to get on a marketing train, that is just co-creating abundance. That message adds value, and can stand on its own.

As an industry participant, I would say my over-arching theme has been to co-create abundance and to make the pie bigger -- bring new capital into the market.

I would say that Epik in its highest self looks like this:

https://epik.to/miracles

If you follow our Twitter handles, you will see an overwhelmingly positive theme. Internally, our mantra is to "focus on the good".

It is regrettable that there was a public spat. Unfortunately, the groundless and non-factual accusation of sending 100,000 emails could not go unanswered. That gross errata remains un-redacted.

I will consider this matter closed when the erroneous Medium post has been removed.

I was one of the 46 that received your “marketing” email and if you guys consider the content of that email to be marketing, I really suggest you hire some outside help.

Send out a campaign that talks about how good your platform is and why I should use your landers, don’t spend 3 paragraphs disparaging a competitor.

A registrar should be a neutral platform that instils a sense of security in its customers – I wouldn’t say Epik is doing either of those things right now (and it makes you guys look more like a used car lot than a tech company).

This is one of the few industries where the best competition is collaboration. We all have domains with multiple registrars and we all sell on multiple platforms. Keep things friendly and you’ll see success. Bothered by what another company is doing? Do it better and let your product speak for itself. I feel like DAN really excels at these two points.

Also, this “greater good” nonsense is ridiculous. If Epik was concerned about the greater good of the domain industry, it wouldn’t spend its time trying to take down innovator within in.

Figure it out, guys.

 

[bmugford]

Never see the owners of these companies posting negative shit about other companies/people, sharing irrelevant personal beliefs, arguing with people on forums etc etc... could just be me missing these posts though...

Most of the other registrars and companies in the field are far more professional in my view.
They are not constantly involved in divisive politics, promoting conspiracy theories, and other crap.

Epik has an oversized voice (at least on NamePros) compared to the actual size of their company. Much of this is due to the drama, but it alienates a lot of potential serious customers.

It is nothing but constant drama with Rob and Epik. I could not imagine another registrar acting like this towards Dan.com. It is very unprofessional.

Brad

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I use both DAN and Epik, both of which are innovative companies that offer cost-effective solutions to the domain community, in my opinion.

Even though I am an Epik customer and have a number of .vc domain names without active landers, I did not receive the above email. When I first saw the DAN statement I quietly asked a few others who also had not received it.

It seems to me that the distribution of the email is greatly exaggerated in the DAN statement, and the degree of blocking is exaggerated in the Epik email posted above. Mistakes are made, but mistakes are sometimes how wars that benefit no one start.

I do a mix of DAN and Epik landers for names registered at Epik. I periodically check and to my knowledge I have never had any problem with blocking.

When DAN announced they would not transfer SAV registered names, it had a negative impact since domainers should not need to think about where a domain is registered to know if a marketplace will accept it. I don't know where that issue currently stands, or even the reasons for it really, but would hope that DAN can work effectively with all registrars.

As others have said above, I certainly hope that the companies will step back and seek solutions to perceived injustices in a spirit of cooperation, rather than ratchet up discord. This hurts our industry, hurts both companies, and hurts domainers. It also makes me sad.

Bob

"As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons." - Desiderata​

 

[Ostrados]

@Rob Monster @DAN.COM

I am total neutral about this dispute and I see that you both messed up so bad.

First thing first, the biggest mistake from both of you is that you moved your dispute from private to public! you should discuss such disputes privately and work them out. There is nothing that cannot be solved by professional constructive discussion.

Dan should cooperate with competitors rather than acting defensively! Blocking of SAV.com domains and now blocking Epik staff IPs is disturbing! and is very alien to this industry, I have never seen any other company in the domains industry doing that. Also you must listen to criticism with open minds, and actually you should be thankful for community feedback and criticism because if you do listen and act according you will be stronger and more successful. This is the only way to compete in modern business, any business that does not adopt and does not change according to community feedback will eventually fail.

Epik on the hand acted very unprofessionally (the least thing that can be said about it), you do not promote your service by attacking your competitor directly with something like "Danger of Dan.com" that is absurd!! I also have never seen any company doing that!! You may indirectly criticize competitors BUT you should not name your competitor directly in a professional marketing email! and you should not bring a private dispute into a public marketing message. Focus more on your own business and stop distracting yourself with disputes, politics, conspiracy theories and other useless unfruitful stuff.

You should both apologize to each other, delete all public posts and shake hands.
I honestly wish that you work this out between you because we need both of you to succeed. You brought many bright innovations to this industry and I see that your success will be in the benefit of all of us.

 

[johnn]

Same shit happens.
Insert Video Clip to promote the company in a discussion section.

 

[NickB]

I'm seriously considering just moving all my domains to Dynadot, Namecheap and Namesilo when there up for renewal, listing them on Sedo and Afternic with Efty landers and being done with it....

Never see the owners of these companies posting negative shit about other companies/people, sharing irrelevant personal beliefs, arguing with people on forums etc etc... could just be me missing these posts though...

 

[bmugford]

I will tell you a true story.

I just helped a guy in Louisiana close a sale for a .VC domain. The buyer is in Orange County. The seller is dealing with a hurricane tide surge. He told me it was the biggest sale he had ever gotten. Timely cash.

I have no idea whether domains parked elsewhere missed out on sales but we are selling .VC domains in 4 and 5 figures daily for the past week delivering solid ROI.

You folks that want to stir the pot are free do so,my staff will focus on helping clients close deals. Hopefully many of them will use their windfalls to empower something good. #PayItForward

You are really going to act like this is about helping others and not helping Epik? Please.
In this thread you have spammed Epik self promotion.

All your pay it forward, empowerment, grow the pie, greater good platitudes are completely transparent and self serving.

plat·i·tude
noun
a remark or statement, especially one with a moral content, that has been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful.

Your actions here were extremely unprofessional. Period.

Brad

 

[Frank1001]

I use both Dan and Epik.

I like to use both Dan and Epik.

I will continue using both Dan and Epik.

Thank you Dan and Epik.

Now make peace ok.

 

[NickB]

Before I had heard about this spat I received an email from Robert Davis at Epik which included the below. I changed my .vc nameservers to Epik will be changing them

The Danger of Dan



I wanted to first draw your attention to the blocked status of your names on DAN's marketplace. We have been getting more and more complaints of their CEO mass blocking IP ranges of individuals he has arguments with, and even in our offices we no longer have access to buy names on DAN. Given that we are legitimately some of the largest buyers in the world, this should be a cause for concern. There are many key industry people that can no longer even see your names, let alone be able to purchase them. Even today I was impacted for an introduction as the attached block page was all I was able to see.



Ironically I was originally introduced to DAN through their funder, and literally worked to help rewrite some of their sales letters due to the grammatical issues they had. Epik in fact was in the process of buying the company, until they realized the depth of problems that existed behind the scenes. While their client platform is easy to use, they have been having massive problems with fake bidders and security issues. Upon reporting it and asking several times for assistance, they literally blocked those who knew about it from ever seeing names again, out of fear they would show the rest of the industry. So now there are major buyers who can’t even see names listed on Dan, let alone have a chance of actually buying them. They have simply blocked entire IP ranges.



This screenshot attached is how all of your names on Dan now appear to myself and many other investors, and we are by far some of the most active buyers and domain investors in the world. It massively reduces effectiveness, compounded by their part-time staffing and inability to help conduct deal completion due to the unusual hours they maintain. It is part of the reason Epik maintains staffing 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We know that buyers can quickly change their minds, and we work to lock most transactions down within five hours or less including payment. While DAN complains about low value domains on their network, and encourages users to use only BIN so that their staff don’t have to engage with buyers, our team is flipping $20,000 names for $200,000, and creating surprise paydays every day for our customers. We work hard to create added value for our customers - in every way we can

 

[Ostrados]

I like both Epik & Dan and I use both, it is unfortunate to see a big clatch between them. They should cooperate rather that attacking each other!!

 

[bmugford]

@Sasan is dead on in his analysis of this.

Calling this "marketing" is absurd. I think the word I more associate with it is "sleazy".

Also, like usual Rob is using a thread to post more unrelated self promotional material.

Brad

 

[hui2000]

I have not had any issue with Dan.com for the past 3 years i have been with them as they jave handled all my transaction well. No issues for me

 

[tonyk2000]

 

[branding]

Let's not turn something that was meant for the greater good of the industry as some kind of condemnation for a good deed done by an Epik staff member on the weekend on the summer.

That's too easy Rob. He claims it's part of his personal issues with Dan yet he takes his grudge to bother your customers. It's not something done just on the weekend, it's an ongoing grudge by one of your staff members.

The claims are pathetic really. Just because some of your ips have been blocked doesn't mean this will have any impact on your sellers. I have yet to see any proof of mass blocking of ips. And if it really is a problem for you, as your personal ips are blocked , you are all tech savvy enough to use a vpn. Problem solved.

As for the supposed API issue. If there really is one, and there has been a data breach, Dan would be required to report that by law. If they don't and your employee has evidence, there are proper channels to report this to.

I cannot stress enough that bothering your customers with personal issues you have with another company and stooping to this level is absolutely not ok. No matter what the arguments are.

Still, it's a real shame that dan had blackballed sav domains.

So do they actually refuse to transfer SAV registered names? I have a hard time believing that. I can understand they don't want to work with them but you don't have to work with a company to get a domain out.

 

[Samer]

Sad that @Intelliname’s actions to reflect on @Rob Monster and Rob is loyal to a fault.

Rob, this farce. energy better conserved IMO..

Why cant @Intelliname apologize move on? Clearly this message did not hit home. Public sentiment seems to be;
Unnecessary potshot at competitor, Play nice!

 

[LaszloSchenk]

As for the operations of DAN registrar, the key issue imho is the following - will they join Afternic fast transfer? If no, then this would be unusable registrar for a lot of domainers who sell with BINs.

However, should DAN decide to join afternic fast transfer network - this would be an ideal combination. Perfect landers serving own traffic - this is what needed and expected from DAN. External distribution at the same time is a must, Afternic can not be outperformed... Maybe also Sedo as the 2nd option, would be appreciated.

@LaszloSchenk @DAN.COM - what are your plans as to Afternic / Sedo integration?

Good morning @tonyk2000,

Thank you for your inquiry.

This will not be an issue once the registrar is launched. On the contrary, we have been working for over a year on a fast transfer alternative. This alternative will be built with modern technology and will compete with the distribution network you are referring to. The difference is that our network will have more functionalities. It will be the first OPEN domain distribution network that will compete with the current networks of Afternic & Sedo.

At an earlier stage, we announced the following through this article (https://www.ibm.com/case-studies/dan-com):
'Dan.com is planning to open up access to its core technology using a simple API. Registrars and other domain marketplaces will, therefore, be able to come together to create the biggest pool of unused domains, increasing the efficiency of the entire domain market and delivering more value to end-users. “We’re bringing the back-end technology to all the storefronts where developers and businesses go to find a domain name,” says Sardeha. “So we’re not exclusively keeping all that at Dan.com, but we’re letting it spread across the entire market to deliver the biggest impact.”'

We will not design our network like Afternic and Sedo. Rather, these two networks could use our network in order to create one ultimate network which will create and deliver value to the entire market rather than one closed network on its own.

More to come soon.

 

[Rob Monster]

The letter was sent to 46 existing Epik customers who had purchased .VC registrations during our promo but were not yet using the Epik landing pages ahead of the Monday highlight reel to be distributed to VCs. You can sell full text of the letter here below.


######

Good afternoon,


I wanted to reach out on a few points that may help boost your sales performance, and also say congratulations on your great selection of .VC names. Our VC promotion is continuing over and through most of September, so if you want to see our hot lists of key names that have not yet been taken, just let me know. It has over 50,000 names in it, and we are updating it every 24 hours to help investors.



The Danger of Dan


I wanted to first draw your attention to the blocked status of your names on DAN's marketplace. We have been getting more and more complaints of their CEO mass blocking IP ranges of individuals he has arguments with, and even in our offices we no longer have access to buy names on DAN. Given that we are legitimately some of the largest buyers in the world, this should be a cause for concern. There are many key industry people that can no longer even see your names, let alone be able to purchase them. Even today I was impacted for an introduction as the attached block page was all I was able to see.


Ironically I was originally introduced to DAN through their funder, and literally worked to help rewrite some of their sales letters due to the grammatical issues they had. Epik in fact was in the process of buying the company, until they realized the depth of problems that existed behind the scenes. While their client platform is easy to use, they have been having massive problems with fake bidders and security issues. Upon reporting it and asking several times for assistance, they literally blocked those who knew about it from ever seeing names again, out of fear they would show the rest of the industry. So now there are major buyers who can’t even see names listed on Dan, let alone have a chance of actually buying them. They have simply blocked entire IP ranges.


This screenshot attached is how all of your names on Dan now appear to myself and many other investors, and we are by far some of the most active buyers and domain investors in the world. It massively reduces effectiveness, compounded by their part-time staffing and inability to help conduct deal completion due to the unusual hours they maintain. It is part of the reason Epik maintains staffing 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We know that buyers can quickly change their minds, and we work to lock most transactions down within five hours or less including payment. While DAN complains about low value domains on their network, and encourages users to use only BIN so that their staff don’t have to engage with buyers, our team is flipping $20,000 names for $200,000, and creating surprise paydays every day for our customers. We work hard to create added value for our customers - in every way we can.



Landers for the Win


Over the upcoming week, we are preparing to introduce hundreds of the best .VC names to more than 30,000 venture capitalists in our buying network, and I would love to have the ability to include some of your selections in the introductions. I’ve attached our targeting guide, so you can get an idea of how deep in detail we go for our customers to help them boost both visibility and sales.


I would share this video link on setting up custom landing pages, as it is loaded with tips, tricks, and solid insights to help maximize conversion rates. So many domain investors are dumping their traffic into marketplaces that cross-sell against them at every junction, the smartest thing that can be done is to take control of your own representation. Whether that is using one landing style, multiple themes, or setting up individual pages to customize the messaging and visuals. As a domain innovator, you may find many interesting points of value within this short video presentation, to include some key comparisons of best practices against other registrars in the market. The additional value is learning to stack keywords in the description lines that the content editor offers, so that investors can boost their sales and conversions by enhancing organic ranking value to drive new visibility. No other lander in the industry can offer a similar benefit.

We have some excellent visual backgrounds to accompany nearly four hundred subjects, and if you would like me to email over the backgrounds for the venture capital industry, just let me know and I will happily send them over. I would be thrilled to prioritize visibility of your names, as long as they are using Epik landers and we are not at risk for introducing blocked pages.



The Epik Difference


I had wanted to also share examples from our premium agency, as well other key insights that have been guiding our strategic direction. Our CEO Rob Monster has been investing heavily into the integration of a full-service ad agency and public relations firm into Epik. Our objective is to offer customers added marketing and tactical guidance to boost sales, unlike anything else in the industry. I have attached a guide we refer to as the “Epik Difference”, and it showcases the marketing strength being built off a foundation of investments into market data and consumer intelligence. Our objective when it comes to premium names is to offer a “best of both worlds” approach, merging the sophistication of selling rare domain names with real strategic guidance through our ad agency partners to help elevate value recognition. For example, where some may see a $15,000 name, we see the opportunity to pitch and present fortune brands with campaign anchors and turnkey ideas that could drive hundreds of millions of dollars in positive media spend. This is the key difference from a highly insulated domaining sector, and the real and open world of leading brand agencies and major advertising firms. While the name alone may only have a contained value, when combined as an integral part of a critical strategy, anything is possible on the revenue side.



The Value of Accessibility


Lastly I would reaffirm the value of using Epik over every other marketplace and registrar in my experience. One of the most important attributes of Epik, is that our 24/7 support team for securing sales, validating buyers, and authenticating payment, is light years ahead of everyone else. Domaining can be a tough business, as buyers can easily change their minds if a transaction is not closed quickly at the initial point of interest. It is why networks like DAN, Sedo, and even GoDaddy can have payment failures as high as 80%, as the choice to not service sales in the evenings, or to put off transactions attempted over a weekend, ultimately compounds the chance that the buyer may change their mind. It is why Epik focuses on legendary service, provides sales support 7 days a week and 24 hours a day, and ultimately sees most transactions closed and paid out often within less than five hours start to finish. There is no better solution, and as someone who has held 25,000 names personally, the difference is unquestionably night and day. I would also add the incredible added value that Rob and our team can offer daily by providing overwatch on all the lead generation flows. Even in this past couple weeks I’ve watched Rob help convert a $20,000 listing to a $200,000 payday as a client favor, and just this past week we were able to elevate a name that should have been $65,000 tops into a sale of more than $300k. This is part of the reason that dozens of people are active on social media at any time, singing the praises of both Rob Monster and Epik, as most companies have forgotten the value of real hands-on service and care for their customers. We pride ourselves on accessibility, positive action, and never turn domain names into impersonal widgets. We truly love our job, the people we get to help, and the products we sell.



With this in mind, I hope that you will consider fuller use of the Epik landing system, our legendary marketplace, and our great team to add additional value for high level sales negotiations. Whether you start with just your VC names, or would like to consider migration of all your landers to Epik, we are more than happy to assist. For the VC names in the short-term, if you point your DNS to NS3.Epik.com and NS4.Epik.com, my team can also help quickly build landers for you, in the event you are pressed for time for our upcoming Venture Capital promotions.


I am very thankful for your time and consideration, and hope you have a brilliant weekend. Thank you again for choosing Epik as your registrar!



Kind regards,

Robert Davis | SVP Strategy & Communications

a: Epik Premium Services | WA | United States
e: [email protected] | w: www.epik.com
p: +1.815.429.3254 | c: +1.815.780.0189

Twitter: EpikDotCom | Facebook: EpikDotCom

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Last Saturday I moved to Sedo one of my domains from Dan (it was parked there a few months in Make Offer mode without any bids)... And it was sold on Monday's morning at BIN, German buyer.
Luck or not - it is hard to say... but definitely for consideration.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

"No one ever wins a war."​

A friend of mine said this often, and he was wise indeed, in my opinion.

 

[uzver]

@Sasan put it nicely.

 

[Frank1001]

Mr. Monster, you are making this personal. Not very professional. What's next, you're going to talk about the domains i have registered with Epik ?

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

If your portfolio is mainly 2word .COMs - use Afternic/GoDaddy...
Sedo doesn't help in this niche.

 

[jmcc]

All I understand is that DAN is 10 times bigger than epik.

It seems that DAN is also active in the ccTLDs. The daily stats from Domaintools tend to focus on gTLD transactions. DAN is not a registrar and Epik is a registrar. That means that they are fundamentally different businesses in that DAN is a sales/auction platform and Epik is selling domain name registration services but also has an element of domain name sales. There is a hidden depth to sales sites in that domain names may be listed for sale but not hosted on the nameservers for the sales site. This is also a major difference between a sales site and a registrar. The registrar has already made money from the sale of domain names as a registrar. Sales site either charge a fee for listing or, more commonly, take a percentage of the eventual sale.

And DAN is not yet a public registrar, about to become one in q4 2020.

That should be interesting.

Until then, epik's in trouble.

Until then, DAN is a sales/auction site and Epik is a registrar with a sales element. Unless the domain names on Epik that are on sale can be separated from the ordinary registrations, it is not a simple numerical comparison between DAN and Epik.

Regards...jmcc

 

[equity78]

I saw on Twitter Reza mentioning they started moving the domains under payment plans to their own registar like 6 months ago.

The registrar is there. Just not yet public

5) Will DAN become a registrar one day?

Reza) We’ve mentioned wanting to become a consumer facing registrar for a while now. Even though we operate our own registrar for domain transactions for a while now, our team has started working on our consumer-facing registrar a couple of weeks ago and in 2020 we’ll start offering registrar services at DAN.COM.

It’s a crucial part of our mission to create the most liquid and frictionless domain market where we can provide buyers instant access to domains purchased and more.

https://tldinvestors.com/2020/07/dan-interview-reza-sardeha.html