The man owns the internet

[goodkarmaco]

Worship him or not, he is garnering a big portion of the net traffic. How he got there is not by handing out rosaries either.

Enjoy,

Roderick

http://money.aol.com/b20/investing/canvas3/_a/the-man-who-owns-the-internet/20070523114109990001

 

[goodkarmaco]

I see no reason to police anything about this slight of hand. The owner of the country code is Cameroon government and if they see fit to sell the rights to use of the extension to a domainer, that seems legit to me. Yes, he is a smart cookie.

The knowledge of the general public is domainers are a small group that have a knack for making money. The public likes that, good old American spirit. In this case the net makes it a world wide understanding that the domain business is speculative, but can be highly profitable.

That to me is what the public thinks of domainers. I don't think what stands out to them is we are a bunch of low lifs, unethical business people. No need to focus on the few who make a bad name.

We have a good image, not a bad image in the eyes of the general public, no need to focus on cleaning up our image as we are already viewed as movers and shakers. Highlighting a few bad apples as a reason to focus on policing ourselves only brings bad attention to the industry.

We are respected.

The few who do not repsect the domain business will have issues with any free enterprize system and we will not want to please those types anyway.

 

[psalzmann]

These:


IMHO he should've kept that low profile like Yun Ye rather than be interviewed
or something. Now he's a bit more known to the online public eye.

Dave, I'm sure he did that for a good reason. He's done. He's made his investment. He knows there aren't any good names left because he's bought them all :hehe: , the market is now saturated, everyone and their brothers are buying domains these days. No secret. But it was. All this is just coming out now. He's not stupid. The money is already in the bank. Secured.

It does seem that he was involved in many gray areas that are frowned upon today. Like I said, he's been there done that. Why do you feel he should have kept a low profile? would you? if so .. why?

 

[gazzip]

Maybe because no one foresaw a Registry would wildcard its DNS.

So technically he does'nt own them, but I wonder should anyone try to register them could they? or are they blocked from public registration ?

And if you can, why have'nt they been snapped up by other domainers?

Anyone know ?

Thanks



.

 

[Dave_Z]

Dave, I'm sure he did that for a good reason.

I'm sure he's got his reasons. It's his choice, after all.

While it's nice to have a little attention for something, that depends on what
exactly I don't mind letting people know about. I will have a cause for concern
if I get a piece of kaka in the mail, isolated as it can be.

 

[accent]

.... The public likes that, good old American spirit. ....
We have a good image, not a bad image in the eyes of the general public, no need to focus on cleaning up our image as we are already viewed as movers and shakers. Highlighting a few bad apples as a reason to focus on policing ourselves only brings bad attention to the industry.

We are respected. .....

Read the comments on the blogs that posted this article. While some writers do "like that good old American spirit", far more hate us. When they think of a domain for their new idea they find a parking page and a $$$$ price. That is what they see, and the huge profits that folks like Ham have made.

There were many calls for the elimination of "squatting" - defined as not "using" a domain, one guy on Digg suggested the registration price of domains be raised to $250/year, another thought that no-one should be able to have more than 50 domains. No, domainers have a very bad rep with much of the public, perhaps they are jealous of the money, perhaps they are being idealistic ("the internet is not for profit").

What they don't realize is that consolidation is only beginning, that individual domainers are in fact standing in the way of monopoly control of all better domains, slowing down what will be huge price rises.

 

[gazzip]

What they don't realize is that consolidation is only beginning, that individual domainers are in fact standing in the way of monopoly control of all better domains, slowing down what will be huge price rises.

Very true but when these massive advertising companies buy them all up they won't ever be for sale again and the interenet will be one big billboard !

Not a good thing when taken to extremes :td:


.

 

[goodkarmaco]

domainers have a good image

Most people who I tell I am a domain person have high regards for the business. I don't hear people upset that domainers sell a name for profit or that they tie up the name when they do a search and they land on a parked page.

What I hear is " domainers are smart, they make a lot of money, wish I could do that".

The blogs are always going to have a few who bad mouth domainers for owning domains. Remember we have a lot of altruistic people in every country of the world and they are not folks who want free enterprize.

Most people know that domainers work hard registering names and that they are intitiled to profit. People respect that because they work hard too and they earn profits for doing so.

Over and over talking about how domainers are viewed in poor light is not fair to this respectable business that is now gaining the attention of Wall St, the banking industry and the large media companies whose advertising departments are seeing domains names as great investments and marketing tools.

 

[IAmAllanShore]

Update:
http://blogs.business2.com/sloan/2007/06/cameroon_domain.html

-Allan :gl: