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A few folks have been asking about why I have recently become more bullish on .ORG. I thought the topic deserves a post, and perhaps some debate.
In short, the reason why I think .ORG will have a healthy after-market in the coming years is because of what some have called "Plutocratic Guilt". It is a term I learned from a fellow Seattleite named Nick Hanauer who probably has a bit of it -- he is really rich and he likes to talk about it, but then he also likes to philosophize about how rich people need to give back more to society. It started with his 2014 TED Talk:
The sad reality of the world is that the rich do keep getting richer and the poor are mostly staying poor and/or getting poorer, while much of the middle class gets obliterated. The GDP per capita data uses an average to mask this trend but the Gini coefficient of inequality clearly shows that income inequality is getting worse.
As for what to do about, it, my recipe is really simple: sell to rich people. We already do that at Epik, e.g. during October we sold 3 domains above $250K each. However, eventually rich people have enough stuff, and enough businesses. At some point, they start to care a lot more about their "legacy", which is one reason you see elaborate donor recognition walls in high visibility places. More examples here.
However, if you are really rich, you set up a Foundation e.g. the Gates Foundation, or more recently, the Chan Zuckerburg Initiative, etc. It is some mix of estate planning, philanthropy, tax shelter and (hidden) agenda. Most philanthropic funds are actually in the US and likely that pattern continues for the foreseeable future. Most US philanthropies choose .ORG as their extension.
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In short, the reason why I think .ORG will have a healthy after-market in the coming years is because of what some have called "Plutocratic Guilt". It is a term I learned from a fellow Seattleite named Nick Hanauer who probably has a bit of it -- he is really rich and he likes to talk about it, but then he also likes to philosophize about how rich people need to give back more to society. It started with his 2014 TED Talk:
The sad reality of the world is that the rich do keep getting richer and the poor are mostly staying poor and/or getting poorer, while much of the middle class gets obliterated. The GDP per capita data uses an average to mask this trend but the Gini coefficient of inequality clearly shows that income inequality is getting worse.
As for what to do about, it, my recipe is really simple: sell to rich people. We already do that at Epik, e.g. during October we sold 3 domains above $250K each. However, eventually rich people have enough stuff, and enough businesses. At some point, they start to care a lot more about their "legacy", which is one reason you see elaborate donor recognition walls in high visibility places. More examples here.
However, if you are really rich, you set up a Foundation e.g. the Gates Foundation, or more recently, the Chan Zuckerburg Initiative, etc. It is some mix of estate planning, philanthropy, tax shelter and (hidden) agenda. Most philanthropic funds are actually in the US and likely that pattern continues for the foreseeable future. Most US philanthropies choose .ORG as their extension.
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