ND Weekly #73
Hey everybody,
Here’s hoping that 2009 has started with a bang for you. Mr Blogs’s did, as he strapped all his fireworks together into one mega-firework - the resultant shock-wave caused an unseasonal snow-storm in his native Tahiti, and killed two birds.
In other news, there has been news since the Blog was put on hold back in the distant past of 2008. The Microsoft/Yahoo deal, the Frankenstein’s monster of deals, lurches back into semi-life once again; January’s big event is of course DomainFest in LA - NameDrive will be attending in force and hopes to see you there too. Interesting but conflicting reports on the state of the industry continue to trickle in as well, and they are faithfully reproduced for your reading pleasure below.
Have a great weekend,
Mister B.
Nd Weekly - Word
ND Weekly #73
PubMatic: Remnant Ad Prices Are Half What They Were A Year Ago
Fourth quarter data is starting to trickle in on how bad the online advertising downturn is turning out to be. The latest data comes from Pubmatic, an online ad optimization service used by more than 5,000 sites large and small. PubMatic’s fourth quarter AdPrice Index, which I have obtained, shows the average rates paid to these sites for remnant display ad inventory (i.e., inventory they couldn’t sell themselves at a higher price).
In the fourth quarter of 2008, the average price for remnant ads across all sites was $0.26 per thousand impressions (CPM), down 48 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 and a penny down from the third quarter. Normally, there is a huge jump between the third and fourth quarters because of the holiday season, so this is not a good sign.
More…
Oversee.net Reduces Staff
Oversee.net, a Los Angeles-based Internet company, announced Thursday that it has laid off 38 employees – nearly a fifth of its workforce – in anticipation of what it says will be a difficult economic environment this year.
The cuts hit employees in Oversee’s offices in Los Angeles, Florida and Oregon. The company did not break out the layoffs for each office, but said the bulk occurred in Los Angeles where most of Oversee’s workforce is located. Oversee had previously cut 10 percent of its workforce in August.
President Jeff Kupietzky said most of the cuts occurred in new ventures and business units that had become less profitable, such as Web sites built around mortgages and ring tones. He said Oversee had started to see “weaknesses” in advertising but that its core business of buying and registering Internet domain names remained strong.
More…
.FR tender published
French authorities have published the long-awaited (in France at least) tender for .FR. Incumbent registry AFNIC is widely expected to retain the position when the winner is announced, probably in April this year.
This is the final episode in a drawn-out saga that saw the French government launch a public consultation almost a year ago to ascertain how .FR should be run. That the government would even consider replacing AFNIC surprised many in France, especially as it has a cast iron majority on the AFNIC board, of which I have been an elected member since 2004.
Time limit for the tender has been set at 16:00 French time on March 8, 2009. During the first 25 days of the process, candidates will be able to send questions to the government. These, and the answers given to them, will be posted on the government’s website for public access.
More…
Chinese squatter told to give up ICICI domain name
Following a complaint by ICICI Bank Ltd, the Delhi high court has directed a Chinese resident to
give up www.icicigroup.com, in an order that could set a precedent for cybersquatting regulation in India.
The order comes after a world body for regulating intellectual property rights rejected a complaint from India’s second largest bank. And while the Chinese entity has complied with the order, Indian experts question the enforceability of similar orders across geographical borders.
Cybersquatting is the act of registering website domain names of popular firms or brands and then selling them to the same firms or brands at exorbitant and often extortionate prices.
In December, justice Sanjiv Khanna passed an order restraining a resident of Beijing, Chuandong Xu, and a Chinese website registrar, HiChina Web Solutions Ltd, from using or selling the site Icicigroup.com.
More…
The Google Squeeze: How Google’s Black Box Affects Partners’ Revenue
When Google offered a “direct to consumer” domain parking option last month, many cheered. “Finally, we can cut out the middleman!” they exclaimed. But others worried about potential downsides. Specifically, domain owners realized that they have little bargaining power with Google compared to parking companies that aggregate significant traffic.
To better understand how Google can squeeze its partners, it’s important to understand the deals Google has in place with partners such as DomainSponsor , NameMedia, and Sedo. These contracts are confidential. But thanks to NameMedia’s (since aborted) attempt to go public, we can peek inside a Google Adsense contract. Here are some things to note…
More…
MAP Research Releases Groundbreaking Global Domain Registration Industry Report
Melbourne-based research company MAP Research has released the world’s first report on the size, state and future of the global domain registration industry.
MAP Research’s results show that by the end of 2008, the overall industry will have a market value of $3.6 billion (all figures in $US), forecast to increase to $5.3 billion by 2011.
According to the report, whilst the overall market size of the global domain industry is expected to increase over the next three years, growth will be at a slower rate than previous years and a drop in average revenue per domain is forecast.
More…
Microsoft, Google, And Yahoo: One Doesn’t Belong
Yikes! Yahoo is bleeding advertisers. A lot of advertisers. Yahoo’s newly named CEO, Carol Bartz, will be tasked with pulling back the stick of a company in a steep nosedive.
As the most recent data shows, advertisers are just not into Yahoo anymore. At the same time, Google and Microsoft are grabbing a larger share of advertisers. As the article notes, this is advertiser share and not dollars; given the miserable state of the economy it’s likely that all three are making less money nowadays. But losing advertisers at a pace like Yahoo is doing makes it even harder to eke out revenue.
There is some data that points to Yahoo having a harder time during this recession (or whatever you’d like to call the economic malaise we’re in). Data from early in 2008 showed that Yahoo tended to attract lower-income users. Those users are already taking the worst of the economic downturn.
More…
ParkingJudge: Rate and Review Domain Parking Companies
I’ve met one of my New Years Resolutions thanks to the launch of ParkingJudge, where you can rate and review domain parking companies. The site works just like RegistrarJudge.com, which now has nearly 200 reviews of domain name registrars.
Currently, there are very few quantified resources to figure out which domain parking services to use. There are forums, where people complain or pump up their favorite parking services, but you have to scroll through dozens of meaningless posts to get an idea if a parking company is good. Then there are some excellent review sites written by individuals, but they only give you one persons’ opinion.
With ParkingJudge, you’ll not only get to read qualitative comments, but also see quantified scores…
More…
Bartz Eases Some Hurdles to Yahoo-Microsoft Deal
Yahoo Inc.’s appointment of Carol Bartz as chief executive removes several obstacles to a search deal with Microsoft Corp. But other hurdles have emerged and a deal is unlikely to be imminent, said people close to both companies.
Ms. Bartz said in a company-wide Yahoo meeting Wednesday that she plans to spend a lot of time investigating whether to sell Yahoo’s search business but that her “gut” was not to do that, according to people familiar with the meeting. She added that she had spoken casually with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer since accepting her new job, these people said. They added that she didn’t go into details of the conversation, which she said was informal.
More…
Microsoft Bid to Beat Google Builds on a History of Misses
Now that Yahoo Inc. has named a new chief executive, Microsoft Corp.’s Chief Executive Steve Ballmer may finally be in a position to gain ground on Internet juggernaut Google Inc. — and to reverse one of his biggest mistakes.
Mr. Ballmer is expected in the coming months to renew his yearlong pursuit of a multibillion-dollar deal for Yahoo’s Web-search unit. But behind his push to capture a bigger piece of Google’s lucrative business lies an untold story: Nearly a decade ago, early in Mr. Ballmer’s tenure as CEO, Microsoft had its own inner Google and killed it.
In 2000, before Google married Web search with advertising, Microsoft had a rudimentary system that did the same, called Keywords, running on the Web. Advertisers began signing up. But Microsoft executives, in part fearing the company would cannibalize other revenue streams, shut it down after two months.
More…
The Digital TV Switch
Will your television set fade to black next month? If it does, should you care — or instead celebrate an event that could usher in new and compelling developments for online advertising?
Congress has set February 17 as the date that broadcasters in the United States must switch from analog to digital signals. Viewers who aren’t cable or satellite subscribers (in other words, those still using rabbit ears), must either buy and install DTV converter boxes, or accept the fact that their sets will be consigned to the dustbin of technology history.
Millions of TVs aren’t yet ready to jump the digital divide. In the middle of the deepest recession of most American’s lifetimes, shelling out extra money for the box isn’t a priority or even a possibility for many right now.
More…
Top Five Reasons Why YOU Should Attend DOMAINfest Global
Many great minds will be attending DOMAINfest Global 2009 to share insights, identify emerging trends, and discuss the changing business practices needed to be successful. If that isn’t enough to convince you to attend, here are five more top reasons:
1.Unmatched networking opportunities.
2.Deals happen here, make no mistake about it.
3.Visit with leading vendors and service providers.
4.The Moniker Live Auction will provide a great chance to buy, sell, and gauge the value of your own domains.
5.The DomainSponsor party will rock your world.
DOMAINfest Global also offers tons of value at an affordable price. And if you are a DomainSponsor client, you might be eligible to qualify for a full registration fee rebate if you meet certain revenue requirements and register for DOMAINfest Global before January 1, 2009. See details on how to qualify for this rebate on the Registration page.
More…
Thanks to the following sources:
http://www.stephanevangelder.com
http://www.techcrunch.com
http://www.labusinessjournal.com
http://www.livemint.com
http://domainnamewire.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com
http://www.informationweek.com
http://online.wsj.com
http://www.domainfest.com
