CyberKing
Domain Investor

Foreword -
After the recent rant of mine via a post in the Lounge section I was surprised to see that as a mere coincidence 4-5 days later another self styled "KING" made of course very famous by an enviable record of investing in COMs and selling them for 8 figures (unless I cannot count zeros) post similar messages on his blog...I never followed him ever and as a webmaster he started out in this space a good 6-7 years after me...but made a killing and is rightfully the holder of the crown, which is even trade marked.
Background -
My education and experience led me up a corporate path with very little time flying between Fortune 50 clients managing and advising them on Enterprise Transformation, New Product Introduction (NPI) and Go to Market (GTM) strategies. Domain investing was something I stumbled upon moonlighting and building e-businesses way before Amazon.com was even registered. Domain speculation was less than 1% of my profession or income stream and my vested time was proportionate to the same.
As I exit my core portfolio and churn some others for quick profits in my sunset years I am still learning something everyday.
I will share my thoughts in a series of posts, some of my thoughts except calling a top on the entire market are shockingly similar to the other "KING" who loves to spray the phrase "pigeon shit" all over which I will avoid. Mine will be more IN specific with examples with the hope that some young/other speculators here on this forum can benefit.
Facts -
Markets and pricing are a matter of supply and demand - that is basic economics, then there is fear and greed analogy as well. Now let me start by stating that for the domain name industry there are two market segments (Domain name speculators selling to other domain name speculators and end user sales which has been my focus).
For a ccTLD like IN currently the market size (by sales dollars and quantity as well) is relatively very small, it is even lower for end user sales albeit with higher sales dollars.
Supply Demand Imbalance -
Just today I was simply able to review lists, do my own research and read posts online which are everywhere now and hand register what I perceive are quality names some with potential end user demand below. Due to some technical glitches I missed out on a few (example PrintPlus.in went late in the morning to DNRoom) however I still left quite a few good names for others to pick up on those lists.
WebTutor.in (Tuition is a India specific epidemic and Online tuition via Skype is on)
CloudMonitor.in (Emerging Trend in Tech)
PhoneTracker.in (Several apps)
iVideos.in (Videos are the future online LOL)
SalaryLoans.in (Payday loans in India is nascent and payday is not used)
HealthMark.in (Healthcare is hot)
iPayroll.in (Perfect for a service company)
AdLabs.in (Comes with risk however worth defending)
None of the above names except two might elicit an end user sales lead however there is my thinking laid bare on why these were picked with a commerce business application angle over others. These are "quality" names in my view and we can debate that and their worth money wise till cows come home.
Do note this is several hours after a drop or even days in some cases that I have hand regged great domain names. The point is these were just there in ether waiting for someone to take at less than 4 USD a year to review and assess if they can monetize it in the future. Now try the same in the COM extension - good luck. I did get my hands on DealZIG.com, Prime4K.com yesterday and a few more good COMs similarly but not in the same class. No demand squeeze no pricing power. So supply is plenty out there if you want to pick good names in dot IN is my contention.
Copycat -
Yesterday I noticed how some of the single word location based names were quickly taken up...unrelated to India whatsoever. There is this misplaced view by those that have observed too much COM based sales/investing that the same formula applied to INs will lead to huge profits perhaps or even parking revenue - who cares about knoxville.in - really in Gurugram? - IT DOES NOT is my second contention.
Trends -
Generic keyword names (MicrowaveRepair, HairTransplant), patterns, numbers, Chinese specials, some trend noise like cryptos are all worth only what one Domain Speculator will pay another in most cases "...sucker born every minute.." When it comes to these in ccTLDs and dot IN these are also worthless in my view. Of course there is the USD 10-50 market one can sell a 1000 of these and claim to be a "know all" in the industry. The future of these trades are dying because these speculators cannot hold out any longer and keep paying higher renewal fees. Several live in denial even now. This is my third contention.
Growth -
The most often referenced metrics on India's internet penetration, the billion plus population, SMEs increasing the potential market size etc. have been thrown around since the 90s in most cases and do not influence the namespace in my view. This has only driven speculators outside India to "believe" they have discovered a new growth market, as someone said over 60% of IN regs show address of the registrant outside India. Barely 10 percent of the names I speculate are developed sites. There is NO GROWTH MARKET here even if we get that 100 Gbps next year and reach every village. That is my fourth and final contention for this post.
So may a thousand flowers bloom.
After the recent rant of mine via a post in the Lounge section I was surprised to see that as a mere coincidence 4-5 days later another self styled "KING" made of course very famous by an enviable record of investing in COMs and selling them for 8 figures (unless I cannot count zeros) post similar messages on his blog...I never followed him ever and as a webmaster he started out in this space a good 6-7 years after me...but made a killing and is rightfully the holder of the crown, which is even trade marked.
Background -
My education and experience led me up a corporate path with very little time flying between Fortune 50 clients managing and advising them on Enterprise Transformation, New Product Introduction (NPI) and Go to Market (GTM) strategies. Domain investing was something I stumbled upon moonlighting and building e-businesses way before Amazon.com was even registered. Domain speculation was less than 1% of my profession or income stream and my vested time was proportionate to the same.
As I exit my core portfolio and churn some others for quick profits in my sunset years I am still learning something everyday.
I will share my thoughts in a series of posts, some of my thoughts except calling a top on the entire market are shockingly similar to the other "KING" who loves to spray the phrase "pigeon shit" all over which I will avoid. Mine will be more IN specific with examples with the hope that some young/other speculators here on this forum can benefit.
Facts -
Markets and pricing are a matter of supply and demand - that is basic economics, then there is fear and greed analogy as well. Now let me start by stating that for the domain name industry there are two market segments (Domain name speculators selling to other domain name speculators and end user sales which has been my focus).
For a ccTLD like IN currently the market size (by sales dollars and quantity as well) is relatively very small, it is even lower for end user sales albeit with higher sales dollars.
Supply Demand Imbalance -
Just today I was simply able to review lists, do my own research and read posts online which are everywhere now and hand register what I perceive are quality names some with potential end user demand below. Due to some technical glitches I missed out on a few (example PrintPlus.in went late in the morning to DNRoom) however I still left quite a few good names for others to pick up on those lists.
WebTutor.in (Tuition is a India specific epidemic and Online tuition via Skype is on)
CloudMonitor.in (Emerging Trend in Tech)
PhoneTracker.in (Several apps)
iVideos.in (Videos are the future online LOL)
SalaryLoans.in (Payday loans in India is nascent and payday is not used)
HealthMark.in (Healthcare is hot)
iPayroll.in (Perfect for a service company)
AdLabs.in (Comes with risk however worth defending)
None of the above names except two might elicit an end user sales lead however there is my thinking laid bare on why these were picked with a commerce business application angle over others. These are "quality" names in my view and we can debate that and their worth money wise till cows come home.
Do note this is several hours after a drop or even days in some cases that I have hand regged great domain names. The point is these were just there in ether waiting for someone to take at less than 4 USD a year to review and assess if they can monetize it in the future. Now try the same in the COM extension - good luck. I did get my hands on DealZIG.com, Prime4K.com yesterday and a few more good COMs similarly but not in the same class. No demand squeeze no pricing power. So supply is plenty out there if you want to pick good names in dot IN is my contention.
Copycat -
Yesterday I noticed how some of the single word location based names were quickly taken up...unrelated to India whatsoever. There is this misplaced view by those that have observed too much COM based sales/investing that the same formula applied to INs will lead to huge profits perhaps or even parking revenue - who cares about knoxville.in - really in Gurugram? - IT DOES NOT is my second contention.
Trends -
Generic keyword names (MicrowaveRepair, HairTransplant), patterns, numbers, Chinese specials, some trend noise like cryptos are all worth only what one Domain Speculator will pay another in most cases "...sucker born every minute.." When it comes to these in ccTLDs and dot IN these are also worthless in my view. Of course there is the USD 10-50 market one can sell a 1000 of these and claim to be a "know all" in the industry. The future of these trades are dying because these speculators cannot hold out any longer and keep paying higher renewal fees. Several live in denial even now. This is my third contention.
Growth -
The most often referenced metrics on India's internet penetration, the billion plus population, SMEs increasing the potential market size etc. have been thrown around since the 90s in most cases and do not influence the namespace in my view. This has only driven speculators outside India to "believe" they have discovered a new growth market, as someone said over 60% of IN regs show address of the registrant outside India. Barely 10 percent of the names I speculate are developed sites. There is NO GROWTH MARKET here even if we get that 100 Gbps next year and reach every village. That is my fourth and final contention for this post.
So may a thousand flowers bloom.
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