Laszlo, would the said alternative depend on another registrar(s) to join? If so, GoDaddy will not join. Registrars operating in specific local markets, available via afternic (Chinese registrars, for example) would not necessary join. So, without Afternic fast transfer - your solution would not necessary provide adequate domain distribution ;-(
Godaddy is the biggest, but with only around 15% of the total market, so out of the rest of 85%, you have lot's to choose from. Also, out of the total godaddy users, how many do you think that are using only fast transfer network( without using whois, landing pages, small marketplaces)? So, afternic fast transfer ads value, but I guess it's only around 5% of the total market...so, by counting only on them, you loose 95% of the possible buyers. If everybody( even only US buyers) will use exclusively the godaddy registrars path, than how others( like SH, BB, namecheap, efty , buydomains, hugedomains and lot's others) manage to make so many sales. Again, it adds value, but not as much as you think.
hugedomains is of different opinion:
You are talking about 2010, I'm talking about 2020, a whole different story. In 2010, namecheap, epik, dynadot, SH, efty, chinese buyers, ngtlds registries, BB, undeveloped and so on, didn't existed or they were at the very beginning. In 2010, you are one of the very few players, it's easy....when you wake up, in 2020 and there are other 50 players, it's a totally different game and you need to adapt.
Forsale domain is either available via registration path of consumer-facing registrars (GoDaddy, NameCheap etc) or it is not. Availability means more sales. Good landing page alone, be it powered by dan or anybody else, can not and should not be considered as the only source of buyers. Both in 2010 and in 2020.... In any case, we have to see what Dan will offer. Maybe they will purchase afternic from GD
Exactly the same can be said about the registrar path, considering it the only way will kill 80% of your leads. On top of that, considering only godaddy registrars path, will kill over 95% of your leads. Again, I have most of my names through afternic fast transfer, but I made less than 10% of sales through registrars path, compared to landing page. If we count whois inquiries, brandable marketplaces, small marketplaces, it's even less. Even more, if you count the cctlds sales, which, at least in Europe, they have a big share, godaddy is totally absent. Please check and let me know how many cctlds godaddy sold in the last year. I have sold tens of them and like me there are lots; of domainers and lot's of buyers. For me, godaddy is like kodak 25-30 years ago. A giant dormant who can't(don't want) keep up with the changing times. Check where Kokak was 25 years ago, what have they innovated and where they are today.Forsale domain is either available via registration path of consumer-facing registrars (GoDaddy, NameCheap etc) or it is not. Availability means more sales. Good landing page alone, be it powered by dan or anybody else, can not and should not be considered as the only source of buyers. Both in 2010 and in 2020.... In any case, we have to see what Dan will offer. Maybe they will purchase afternic from GD
Also, you should ask BB, SH, DAN and others how they manage to make thousands or in some cases tens of thousands of sales, without being in the registrars path( even less godaddy path). Again, we are in 2020, when people can( and they will, in 95% of the cases) check whois, google, landing pages and so on. I can bet that the buyers who use exclusively the registrars path to buy a domain in 2020 are a very small minority.Forsale domain is either available via registration path of consumer-facing registrars (GoDaddy, NameCheap etc) or it is not. Availability means more sales. Good landing page alone, be it powered by dan or anybody else, can not and should not be considered as the only source of buyers. Both in 2010 and in 2020.... In any case, we have to see what Dan will offer. Maybe they will purchase afternic from GD
The domain name marketplaces outside the US and Canada tend to be highly regionalised and focused on the local ccTLDs more so than gTLDs. Some of these operations, such as the ones in the UK are highly specialised and have their own registrars (tags). The only way into some of these markets is through acquiring some of the leading players.
Godaddy is like an iceberg in that only the part above the water (the retail hosting and registration) is visible. It has acquired a lot of European hosters and hosting groups and is a serious player in the ccTLD market as a result of this.
They could have bought some european companies, but I have never sold even 1 european cctld on afternic and godaddy and I've sold tens of them, mostly through whois or landing page...I've had offers through sedo, but not godaddy. The cctlds are not part of the premium network, so they don't appear in the registrars path, the area where afternic is good. Europeans are using mostly landing pages for cctlds acquisitions, at least the one's who bought from me.
I know that, what I was saying is that I can't see the advantage of buying them, regarding the sale of aftermarket european cctlds. In the local sales/auction sites, the listings are done by domainers and I don't see how godaddy/afternic could gain anything from there. Are you saying that the auction sites are owned by them? I don't think so. Even so, I know about them, but I have never used them, my inquiries for cctlds are coming from whois( a small percentage) and landing pages( most of them, like undeveloped landing page). So, I can see dan selling hundreds of cctlds a month( even thousands) but I can't see godaddy/afternic selling european cctlds( even through Host Europe Group).
The local markets tend to be dominated by the top 10 players. However some of those have been bought by Godaddy/HEG, Team Blue and United Internet. At a hosting level, the European and the Global market looks very different to the usual view of the top players.
It is the only way to build up a share of a market in a short time. The older hosters generally have a major share of the market and get most of the new registrations each month. They are also well connected with the local ccTLD registries as they are ccTLD registrars. The hosting groups generally end up with multiple ccTLD and gTLD registries. When a hoster is taken over by a portfolio operator, the gTLDs are the first to be rationalised and it is not unusual to see ICANN registrars being terminated and gTLD activity being switched to the portfolio operator's main ICANN registrar. The ccTLD registrars are quite a different matter as the new registrations in European markets are overwhelmingly ccTLD rather than gTLD so it makes more sense to maintain the illusion of competition.
Unfortunately, domain investors are only a small part of the market that a registrar needs to be commercially viable.
The portfolio operators are just interested in market share. They aren't specifically targeting domainers though some of them have their own auction/sales sites. Their main business is hosting and domain names are just a way to upsell the customers to more expensive products and services.
It might do but Godaddy/HEG's focus is not domainers. What Dan is doing is targeting a specific market rather than the wider market that Godaddy/HEG and the others target.
That's the idea, I don't think that dan was interested in the hosting and stuff. Even as registrar, they said it will do it just to gain a bigger share of aftermarket sales and the help their own system, as a registrar they just want to cover their expenses.
although my account was reinstated at DAN and remains up.Interesting. Other than posting the Truth about how my exact same domains have sold well at platforms like Afternic Sedo DomainAgents and not at all during the same time period, at UNdeveloped (DAN) I haven't been a particularly vocal critic of DAN's lately and yet is it possible that @DAN.COM , meaning REZA pulled the same childish stunt on me, closing my DAN account because I have posted criticism of his platform?
https://www.namepros.com/threads/tw...d-dan-marketplace.1141640/page-3#post-7601758
I hope I am wrong, because any company owner who would pull your account Soofi simply because you criticized his business is not worthy of running any company with a public presence.
I mean let's just close bank accounts and processing accounts anytime a client files a complaint with the Better Business Bureau or posts something negative about us online; what a mature way to run a business. Real way to ensure longevity of your business.
I am not jumping to conclusions yet but it would seem that the end of 2019 was "Reza flies off the handle month" for DAN as Reza closed the DAN accounts of anyone who criticized him. And again, if I am wrong, and there was some legitimate reason for DAN to have closed your account Soofi, I would love to hear it from Reza.
What is really interesting is that the last communication I received from DAN was one CONFIRMING that yet another bogus buyer (apparently a recurring issue at DAN according to @JudgeMind ) had bid on a domain (not that I ever got too many bids, legitimate OR bogus while at DAN, and NO closed sales whatsoever at DAN even though my same domains continue to sell like gangbusters elsewhere), and then when I got around to trying to respond to DAN about this issue, I noticed that I could not login and that my email address no longer existed as a DAN account.
I really don't want to think that the public presence for an online company would act in this manner, and would welcome the opportunity to re-post here that I was mistaken.
