So what are the domain industry’s really big issues? What should we be driving innovatively to solve and what issues are way beyond the scope of short term solutions?
When I think about the really big issues in the domain industry I find that I’m forced to reflect on the four primary business models associated with domains:
1. Selling domains like stock items
2. Selling high value domains
3. Traffic monetisation
4. Development
Selling domains as stock items is all about increasing the sales turnover of low value domains (sub $2K) in your portfolio. This is similar to a supermarket which operates on low margins wanting to increase the throughput of products being sold.
When you look at the incumbents in this market they have all been trying to increase the demand. This has largely been achieved through increasing the breadth of their distribution networks (ie. Registrars) so their inventory is exposed to a larger audience.
I see a number of innovations that centre on pricing that can be explored in this market and I will discuss two of them in this article. To date, the feedback from domain marketplaces has been that if a domain is priced it’s more likely to sell. This seems to make sense as buyers like to know what they are about to pay for domain rather than “make and enquiry”.
