question Whatever happened to Emoji Domains?

[MapleDots]

When emoji domains exploded on the market a lot of namepros members thought they were the next big ticket to making money. Like a lot of new things there was the initial land rush and even a few extraordinary sales.

The question is where are they today? I cannot remember coming across even a single emoji domain advertised anywhere or even used for commercial purposes.

How many namepros members still own emoji domains and do you expect to make a profit from them?

Who has given up on them and who has lost money on them.

Will they become more useful in the future or will they just fade into oblivion?

Lets discuss and get some feedback from both sides of the coin.

 

[Kate]

 

[hawkeye]

The registries and pumpers all laughed to the bank. And the collectors (suckers?) keep looking proudly at their ‘gems’ that’ll be coveted....some day!

 

[Page Howe]

so with emoji domains, ill share some of my mindset,

to make money in domains you have to buy when something isnt popular.. unless your really good at chasing.. ie you can find a trend where domains, like 4L are all worth $2000 , and you can somehow buy for $1000.

so yes i like one word .com's better than emoji domains, will anyone sell me a dictionary .com used in everyday speech for less than $5000, im waiting waiting waiting

and again i could be wrong and have been on other sectors of domains.. but if emoji domains were slam dunk valuable right now, i couldnt buy as many as i have at the prices i have..

so yes i need something to change, i need to hold while the sentiment about emoji domains improves, maybe it will and maybe it wont

but yes im making what i consider a reasonable speculation to pay my $20 a year renewals because after my up front investment of $100-1200 thats all i can lose.

and they are a bit confusing, but so was the frickin internet at one time.... not to mention programming your VCR remote and every other new technology

so i look at it as $20 a year downside,,

and the upside is i own graphical mobile millennial emotional color domains, using the tried and tested IDN standard with a tld thats been successfully managed for 25 years and is the best tld for emoji since they are not allowed in .com. and , unlike glyphs, are on 100 billion smartphones globally and desktops, tablets and i see them being used in marketing every day on the web, TV in stores..

so im in.

Page Howe
EdnBlog.com
EmojiDomainNames.com

 

[BrandPlease]

I know lots of people using them, but not necessarily the 1 character or "premium ones". Many kids (i say kids - teens) use them for links to their social - Instagram is the one my nieces show me and their friends all do, and emoji seem to be passing the parent approval test. It's interesting as these kids are just on the verge or the target "general" spending age consumer. Their opinions matter, in marketing terms - not really spending yet.

That may say something about the future, the near future. If they catch as a social link, they will naturally follow to business. Who knows?

I know I use some of mine, and they are great on my biz card. I had some new cards made that only had the emoji.ws - nothing else, got a ton of visits after that conference (not Namescon! haha, non-domain conference). They are good marketing tools - but I think people get caught up on it having to be a primary website or email address, they are not. I see them as marketing tools.

I have a a few, that I am keeping, because I think they have real value - dont take that as a pitch to buy, it wasn't meant to be, explaining where I see value in the ones I am willing to pay the renewal for.

Just some thoughts, sorry for the ramble.

Brian

 

[HotKey]

@CJ6 @Page Howe @Jon Roig @Claim.Club @ tons of others - look at these haters, I think they need a lesson in diversity..

I know Kate 'specially has a secret untapped fondness for emoji domains.



ps. Maple, still waiting for your offer on my / ws

 

[equity78]

Look it's a big world and people make money with all kinds of names. I know some people love them and some people hate emojis. Maybe there needs to be a distinction between domain names which a lot of the public does not care about and emojis which most people know and use in their social sharing and private text communications.

I think @DnameAgame made an excellent point about they are marketing tools and that's what I always thought, they are for certain campaigns and create awareness.

The point @MapleDots made was also spot on about no universal uniformity, some emojis look so different on different operating systems that it creates confusion.

Lastly .WS hurts the whole thing, I am sorry but most people who are not in the domain bubble have no idea or ever heard of .ws. If emojis were .com I think there would be a much more vibrant market.

Like so many niches there will be those who focus on that niche, know everything, created contacts and relationships the average investor will not know or have access to.

It always come down to is the juice worth the squeeze? You can make a sale, anything can sell, there are lots of outliers, the keys are:

Can you do it consistently?
Are there better ways to spend your money and time?
Does anyone outside your little world care as half as much as you care?

 

[Haris]

Received $3000 initial offer on ☁ dot ws

https://www.namepros.com/threads/received-3000-initial-offer-on-dot-ws.1118531/

 

[BrandPlease]

do you have a smartphone, that has emojis?

Again, they are not primary sites - at least not how I use them. They are marketing tools, a compliment to my primary site, or a promo, a reason for someone to pull out their phone and check out my site. Got to look at what they are really good at vs. they are not .com. But again, was sharing my experience, not pitching you. sorry if it read that way.

 

[j.sats]

I still like emoji domains. For me they always were additional marketing tools. Not replacements for existing domains. But just like a company can have a website and a Facebook account, and a YouTube channel, and advertise in papers and on billboards...they might also want an emoji domain. Because, they have characteristics that no other domains have. They are colourful, context giving pictures- a language on all smartphones. If you add emoji to text to give context and increase engagement, why not also do that with links?

 

[Haris]

Yes, very nice offer, but that was 6 weeks ago and no update since then... interesting to know whether the deal has been finalized or not?

Check the thread I had already shared the final outcome, buyer went silent after i accepted the offer, multiple follow ups, happens with me all the time. Just accepted two low $xxxx offers after negotiation and both buyers are not replying anymore.

 

[Page Howe]

that probably becuase its in tk.

 

[Page Howe]

as an example of how the future just getting better, looks like namepros is showing off emoji better

i dont think i could have pasted these in or used the WINDOWS + "." emoji keyboard to add year ago

.ws

.ws

👁‍🗨.ws

.ws

 

[Brands.International]

as an example of how the future just getting better, looks like namepros is showing off emoji better

i dont think i could have pasted these in or used the WINDOWS + "." emoji keyboard to add year ago

.ws

.ws

👁‍🗨.ws

.ws

I see those clearly here as well

 

[BrandPlease]

Look Great to me as well! Thanks always, to @Page Howe , for keep us up on the awesome, niche, (great for marketing campaigns) domains - in .WS.

I have had a biz card for (well over a yr) that is nothing but a black card (front & back) with a big

.ws (looks a bit nicer than this pic, but you get the idea)

It's perfect at trade shows (for example) as people are interested and will pull out their phone (the Emoji Domain sweet spot) and go right to - where ever you are point your emoji.

With this way - use where mobile is very likely - is great with 2 char as well as the goal is to have the card + a captive audience + (hopefully thiers, but your in case) a mobile phone in hand.

I have had positive responses and much attention when I pull pout and explain the card.

 

[Page Howe]

thx, for the post, yes i saw the one on NL.

they wont be a thing til they are, its not guaranteed.

page

 

[Domainstore]

I believe in them and do really think they can become very big in the future.
I have still several of them. I wait for a good promotion on .WS or something.
and some income to invest again. Only some registrars support them all. And some browsers are only showing the difficult code instead of the emoji after clicking enter.

There has been a year or 2 ago on Namejet a sale of 50 .WS emoji-domains at several prices. But Namejet isn't for everybody.

The more and more browsers will sustain this and certainly if .com and .net would jump on the wagon again it could have a big influence.

 

[Brands.International]

Show attachment 103731

When emoji domains exploded on the market a lot of namepros members thought they were the next big ticket to making money. Like a lot of new things there was the initial land rush and even a few extraordinary sales.

The question is where are they today? I cannot remember coming across even a single emoji domain advertised anywhere or even used for commercial purposes.

How many namepros members still own emoji domains and do you expect to make a profit from them?

Who has given up on them and who has lost money on them.

Will they become more useful in the future or will they just fade into oblivion?

Lets discuss and get some feedback from both sides of the coin.

@MapleDots why are you so suddenly interested in emoji domains - do you want to buy them, or what?

Saying that small joke, ehm ..I am personally not into them. It is because they simply do not pass a radio test! It is very hard to describe the emoji domain verbally....and when you can not speak about it...

 

[Domains - Wanted]

...I know I use some of mine, and they are great on my biz card. I had some new cards made that only had the emoji.ws - nothing else, got a ton of visits after that conference...

Sounds real cool... so, tell me, how exactly do I visit, say, www..com, if I ever see such a web address printed on a business card?

 

[MapleDots]

do you have a smartphone, that has emojis?

The problem is that there are soooooo many different emoji packs on different phones.

www..com

If I saw that I would not know what to press on my Google Pixel phone because they have some of the strangest emoticons. I find them so stupid I actually turn them off.

There would have to be some kind of consistency across operating systems that the emoticons were always the same.

 

[MapleDots]

@MapleDots why are you so suddenly interested in emoji domains - do you want to buy them, or what?

Seriously, I would not know what to with them them if I had any.
I deal in domain addresses not smiley faces.

It would be different if i owned something like smiley.emo and if you typed it a universal smiley would come up. sad.emo would see a sad emoticon. The current system is just too convoluted to make any sense to me and 95% of the public. That is why I asked..... who is actually putting them to use?

 

[wot]

Apart from the fact that most people never knew what most of them meant the main problem in most cases was to the right of the dot.

I made enough money on a couple of glyph sales to cover my outlay but that was about it. Much like IDN/ punycode domain names in general.

Probably my best EMOJYS are in my signature.

 

[Domains - Wanted]

...But again, was sharing my experience, not pitching you. sorry if it read that way.

Ah, you misunderstood my question as sarcasm. Nothing of the sort. I read it in the spirit you posted. Found your marketing example of interest and was really curious...

I dig QR codes on business cards, in ads... point your smartphone camera at one and wow and behold... a website opens in your phone's browser! Simple, magical

Emojis... well, answering your question, I have a smartphone, have had one for many years, are technically literate and... I have no idea if I have emojis on it

 

[MapleDots]

Over 100 Single .WS Emoji Domains Expire This Week

https://www.thedomains.com/2018/12/02/over-100-single-ws-emoji-domains-expire-this-week/

 

[MapleDots]

So... imagine this...

An extension called .emo

You register the word

happy.emo and it will show like this

so you would be able to type happy.emo into the address bar or cut and paste the emoji with the same results.

additionally it would be a specific typeset so the emoticons look identical across browsers and operating systems.

Now we have real emojis and we could add thousands of emotions, even two words like headsmack.emo

There is so much potential to do this right, I cannot figure out why we are mickey mousing this in the way we are currently doing emoji domains.