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?

 

[dirk]

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.

Illusion indeed there's not many independent registrars left. Ultimately that will hurt the consumer although at the moment I notice each of the brands is targeting a different kind of user. Smart play and an old marketing trick. Staying in competition with one of your own brands.

By the way, what about Endurance? They're a big player. Not the size of GD but one to be taken into account. They've accumulated quite the portfolio containing very well known brands. Where GD is consolidation they seem to keep their brands running separately, on the surface at least. They may focus more on add-ons (hosting, etc) but do own some renown registrars as well.

 

[jmcc]

Illusion indeed there's not many independent registrars left. Ultimately that will hurt the consumer although at the moment I notice each of the brands is targeting a different kind of user. Smart play and an old marketing trick. Staying in competition with one of your own brands.

At the top of some of the markets, there is a lot of false competition but some of the registrars and hosters are more complimentary than competitive. There's retail hosting (think of it as small sites on shared hosting with less than a hundred webpages and a ccTLD/COM domain name combined with domain names that are only ever used for e-mail or not at all), dedicated/managed servers and Cloud hosting and others that offer DNS as a service (Dyn, NSone etc). The mix of options offered by some hosters is often focused so a portfolio operator could end up with some of its hosters targeting the retail market, some targeting the dedicated market and one or two targeting the Cloud market. Some of the portfolio operators are careful about the hosters that they acquire and how they are perceived in the market. With Cloud hosting, the big players are Amazon, Microsoft and Google. It is difficult for smaller operations to compete against these players.

By the way, what about Endurance? They're a big player.

Excluding the mess of the Chinese market where it is difficult to connect registrars and hosters, they are the second largest portfolio operator with 5.32% of the AMBIONIC market. (Acronym for .COM/NET/ORG/BIZ/INFO/MOBI/ASIA). Godaddy's main portfolio has 25.91% with its HEG and others portfolio at 0.91%. It also has PPC, brand protection and auction/sales operations. Endurance is at 5.32%.

Not the size of GD but one to be taken into account. They've accumulated quite the portfolio containing very well known brands. Where GD is consolidation they seem to keep their brands running separately, on the surface at least. They may focus more on add-ons (hosting, etc) but do own some renown registrars as well.

Godaddy seems to be careful about what it acquires in that it is already the biggest and often buys to acquire market share.It is a clever strategy in that it allows others to build up the business rather than having to invest time in building it. The HEG operation is heavily ccTLD focused as most European hosters have more than 50% ccTLD registrations and the gTLDs are less important. Endurance seems to be quite different. Many of the hosters it has acquired are small or medium sized hosters rather than market leaders and it is very focused on the US and Canadian markets.

The number of active registrars is only a fraction of the 2,500 or so. As a model it was great for the 1990s when the gTLD market was just .COM/NET/ORG. Over the last ten years or so, the weaknesses of the model have become apparent and large regions have very few ICANN registrars or none at all. Africa only has a few registrars.Brazil, one of the biggest ccTLD markets, has none. Outside the US/Canada, the market has shifted to ccTLDs and the incompetence of ICANN in dealing with Domain Tasting in the mid 2000s kickstarted that shift to ccTLDs. Thousands of hosters that would have grown to become ICANN registrars now outsource their gTLD registrations to registration as a service players rather than making the jump to become an ICANN accredited registrar. A hoster needs to have the registration volume to financially justify becoming an ICANN registrar.DAN's idea of having the registrar serve a function other than simple retail sales is a good one. But if it becomes successful, others will try to copy the model or integrate ideas into their own operation.

Regards...jmcc

 

[tonyk2000]

Thousands of hosters that would have grown to become ICANN registrars now outsource their gTLD registrations to registration as a service players rather than making the jump to become an ICANN accredited registrar.

... and, in many cases, they still can (and do) become cctld registrars with no major issues. In .uk (.co.uk) for example, I've seen fellow domainers operating as their own "registrars" (TAG = "John Doe" in nominet terms). Such hosters preference alone affects global market.

As a side note, this thread is no more about dan-vs-epik. I cannot imagine how the mods will fix it...

 

[DAN.COM]

They went a little soft on you but be very careful about voicing out your opinion/feedback about their service in near future bud

Hi Soofi,

You are well aware of the true reason why we decided to terminate your account with us.

You first brought an imported transaction to DAN where the buyer (Ankit which was hiding under a stolen identity) used a stolen US-based credit card to purchase a domain you sold in your auction.

When we canceled and refunded the transaction, you shortly after started to spread false information about payment processing issues at DAN and are still continuing to do so.

Both incidents but mostly the first resulted in us deciding to not work with you anymore. As a service provider, we choose who we work with. When a user engages in malicious attacks of our brand, we are within our right to not add value to you anymore.

The same happened with Robert. He started harassing our investors after he received some offers on a domain of his called GetMyCheck.com. Some US citizens thought they could collect their $1000 coronavirus stimulus cash from the Trump administration on that domain. When he started complaining about leads not converting into sales, we literally only told him to stop using the make offer option for that name and to set a BIN price to avoid getting new offers from people that want to get their check.

From this moment on, for no good reason, Robert starts emailing our investors & support staff accusatory messages and we decide to block his access to DAN directly in response of his continuous attacks.

Fun fact, all the time Robert was communicating with us, he had a management function at Epik as SVP Strategy & Communications.

We blocked Robert and Soofi to safeguard the integrity of our marketplace. We now observe that Robert Davis and Rob Monster are doubling down on spreading a new false narrative about a so called data leak at DAN.

This is again false and fabricated. We haven't had a data leak, do not have one at the moment and none of the Robs have reported such a leak to us privately or via our support team while they spread these new claims vocally.

After our announcement, a plethora of industry leaders have contacted us sharing with us that they also have experienced the same issues as us with these rogue and unstable actors.

We do not expect the actors involved to change their behavior but will continue to build our case against them which might turn into a lawsuit in the future if they continue their attacks and above all the spread of fully fabricated stories about us for personal gain. Others from the industry have forwarded their experiences with these actors involved to us so the case is growing with the day.

Kind regards,

Dan

 

[Soofi]

Reza & Dan team, please stop cracking me up with your lamest ever excuses and reasoning of your wrongdoing!

This thread has over dozen or more people complaining about having issues with Dan’s payment processing and you still saying I WAS THE ONLY ONE??! Also, at this instance you deleted my account. So stop Cooken’ up Excuses with a random buyer named Ankit using stolen card or whatever is the reason.

Learn basics of business etiquette’s and you’ll probably figure out how to save the reputation/integrity of Dan. Grow up!

Hi Soofi,

You are well aware of the true reason why we decided to terminate your account with us.

You first brought an imported transaction to DAN where the buyer (Ankit which was hiding under a stolen identity) used a stolen US-based credit card to purchase a domain you sold in your auction.

When we canceled and refunded the transaction, you shortly after started to spread false information about payment processing issues at DAN and are still continuing to do so.

Both incidents but mostly the first resulted in us deciding to not work with you anymore. As a service provider, we choose who we work with. When a user engages in malicious attacks of our brand, we are within our right to not add value to you anymore.

Dan

 

[tonyk2000]

Why is this thread in free resources-reviews now? Or was it always here? Indeed, @Ostrados posted a link how @DAN.COM reviewed Epik (wanted to add a tag here, but there are too many options). Epik reviewed Dan. All members who participated reviewed both marketplaces as well as related activities of various registrars. So, shouldn't the thread be located in marketplaces at least?

 

[johnn]

What is the topic of this thread again? I am lost.

Sorry I am new.

 

[Ostrados]

Why is this thread in free resources-reviews now? Or was it always here? Indeed, @Ostrados posted a link how @DAN.COM reviewed Epik (wanted to add a tag here, but there are too many options). Epik reviewed Dan. All members who participated reviewed both marketplaces as well as related activities of various registrars. So, shouldn't the thread be located in marketplaces at least?

I originally posted this thread at Domain Industry News section but it got moved my mods.

 

[NickB]

Was watching YouTube this morning with my daughter and the below clip came up......

Reminded me of the Epik & Dan threads on here.....

 

[Lox]

Why let a few Individuals and Companies who don't want to play by the rules ruin a good thing for everyone else.
IMO

Individuals (Spotted so far): 2311
Companies (mostly fake or reg. for a short period and re-reg. again using dif. City/Chamber/Name): 173 (+ ...?)
Disruption bots (make offer sniffing, bin down, etc): 97
Networks (organizational effort): 23
Well-known brains (promoting the ideas): 27 (spotted)
etc

But there are certain things that you can do to protect yourself as an individual or a business. Extensive Due Diligence, before and after.

Regards