domains as an investment, anyone?

[EliteRides]

Just curious if anyone purchases as investments? I have done it here and there, but for the most part I end up keeping them and turning them into projects of my own.

On a side/related note, I wish the upcoming extensions were more comparable to existing extensions (as far as price). .jobs, .xxx, etc. I would be all over them just for the purpose of investing.

[Spathiphyllum]

Do you mean acquiring the names (DNS) or an actual domain that goes with it?

Cybersquatting has its merits if one is reserving space for future projects, but it seems too speculative for me if one is hoping to acquire a name and sell it to the next DELL or Coke.

As far as a domain, I'm not sure I follow the rationale. If one acquires a name and the domain just for investment, you'd have to do some research into the current project itself. Would the current owner share your vision, investment plan, or proceeds? I guess I really don't understand your question, so contemplating this particular option is probably a waste of time until I follow your hypothesis more completely.

[lokki]

sorry... I absolutely hate the idea of cybersquatting. It can be profitable, but it pisses me off that people would turn language into a commodity at such a base level.

I can understand legitimate situations where someone has a domain registered without intent that later becomes desirable. But to speculate on domains is really sleazy in my book - it creates much more hassle and skews fair competition. What really chafes me are those who offer domain lookups then track those searches and register those domains.

[Spathiphyllum]

...What really chafes me are those who offer domain lookups then track those searches and register those domains.

Yeah, I've seen this happen but figured it was coincidental. You are my 3rd party validation of my paranoia.

What I do is browse to a domain first to see if it resolves. If it doesn't then I use a third party whois application (not a web GUI app from some "helpful" domain or registrar) to confirm availability. If that reconfirms, then I just go to my registrar and register immediately. I don't appreciate such exploitation of searches either even though it seems that some use that business model to boost margins or the potential of boosting margins.

[EliteRides]

No, no, no. Not cybersquatting. I completely disagree with cybersquatting as well. I will give an extreme example that is highly unlikely to happen of what I was referring to. If you noticed "football.com" open I would sure hope you were smart enough to buy it. Perfectly legitimate, fair domain.

[Spathiphyllum]

If you noticed "football.com" open I would sure hope you were smart enough to buy it. Perfectly legitimate, fair domain.

OK, then what? You acquire the domain either de novo or from someone who lets the name expire. Now how do you mean "invest"? Do you mean to create a new www facade to push a product? Or do you mean to hold on to the name until someone buys you out? The former is "legit" and is typical of any web domain; the latter is a form of squatting. If you hold the name with only the intent of selling the name to a higher bidder, whether the entity exists in the real, non-virtual world, then you are squatting. If you acquire the name to further some real project in the future, then that's completely legit to me despite any delay in getting the project developed. That's my ethical interpretation of the behavior and does not necessarily coincide with business saavy.

[Daiver]

Cybersquatting has its merits if one is reserving space for future projects, but it seems too speculative for me if one is hoping to acquire a name and sell it to the next DELL or Coke.

Check out Nissan.com, or more specifically http://www.nissan.com/Digest/The_Story.php

[Vin DSL]

Check out Nissan.com, or more specifically http://www.nissan.com/Digest/The_Story.php

LoL! That's the frog-eaters for you!

A lot of ppl don't realize Renault owns Nissan now. After years of trying to sell their crappy French rides to dumb Americans, they finally gave up and bought a controlling interest in Nissan. Now they're passing Renaults off as Jap cars...

[jason]

I'm quite familiar with the nissan.com story. I came across it when I was doing research on their Xterra a couple years ago.

I wouldn't call the Nissan thing cybersquatting, though, if you take what the owner of that domain has to say at face value (and I'm not sure that I do). He was using the Nissan name (his last name) for business when Nissan Motors was still marketing their cars under the Datsun name in the US. He was running a computer company when the "public" Internet started to become popular and he happened to grab nissan.com first. In that respect, he is covered by "prior use" doctrine--his business was called Nissan before the cars were and he had a legitimate use for the domain name when he registered it.

Burger King set a precedent for trademark rights in domain names a few years ago when someone in the UK registered burgerking.co.uk and then tried to sell it to Burger King. Rather than accepting their offer, BK sued claiming trademark infringement and won. ICANN policies have now been expanded to include a trademark dispute process.

A 8-10 years ago there was some change of making money on domain names. At that time it was still possible to get many dictionary words (books.com, beer.com, etc.) which were desireable to companies. Now most of those names aren't available (unless you are willing to pay as well), so anything else you register is likely to be challenged under either trademark infringement or prior use, in other words, the legal costs you might face by someone wanting that name probably outweigh the chance of making money off the name.

--Jason

[Vin DSL]

I guess they're afraid to use their real URI : http://www.renault.com/gb/groupe/alliances_p1.htm

Check it out... There's a picture of a bunch of frog-eaters checking out a Nissan Frontier chassis at the Renault Curitiba plant in Brazil. Hahahahahaha!

[gerilya]

I don't have such a strong feeling against 'cybersquatting' as you guys call it, but registering domain name solely for the purpose of reselling it for a higher price violates current ICANN rules and can be challenged via domain dispute procedure, so in my book, it's like buying a lottery ticket: you can probably make a few hundreds bucks from a good domain name, but this will not make you a millionaire

I think that the whole e-industry is still new and developing way to conduct business and as such, will probably prompt review of legal and ethical standards. May be in a few decades(years?) noone will consider reserving domain names unethical. May be it will be illegal. In any case, I am not here to judge one's ethical merits.

I though think that it is better to invest the time, knowledge and money into some other venture. Something, that puts less emphasis on 'luck' and more on a hard work and one's talent.

Just my two cents...

[tuxxer]

No, no, no. Not cybersquatting. I completely disagree with cybersquatting as well. I will give an extreme example that is highly unlikely to happen of what I was referring to. If you noticed "football.com" open I would sure hope you were smart enough to buy it. Perfectly legitimate, fair domain.

Well for an investment , you want it to pay off , so there has to be some ooomph to go with it. While Football.com makes for a nice bra nd name , adding content , forums, registered users would probably make it more prime real estate for investors who just want a turn key business.

As well, as far as I know you can't buy the name , you basically lease it for a year or more depending on your renewal plan, all you are doing is to release your rights to the name.

Bottom line for me is athat internet real estate still has a lot of legs , but anything that looks like cyber squatting is probably going to scream litigation to anyone thinking about picking up on e of those sites.

Tux