Marchex paid $10 million for Spanish domain portfolio

[hugegrowth]

I cannot imagine them developing hundreds of thousands of names.... so most of them will stay parked forever. This will hurt direct navigation and our entire industry bigtime in the long run

Not necessarily, parked pages are becoming better and looking more like websites over time. Plus it's easier to add interactive features like blogs, forums, photo, video, etc. I can see the day when it will be really easy to develop a huge number of domains and have the sites look good.

 

[NameRegistration]

The worst part is that these names will never be developed ... I cannot imagine them developing hundreds of thousands of names.... so most of them will stay parked forever. This will hurt direct navigation and our entire industry bigtime in the long run

Marchex signed an agreement with Fox Latin America to develop the names so at least we will see some development in the big ones. Anyway I agree with you that many of them will never be developed and that will hurt direct navigation in the long run.

 

[fischermx]

The worst part is that these names will never be developed ... I cannot imagine them developing hundreds of thousands of names.... so most of them will stay parked forever. This will hurt direct navigation and our entire industry bigtime in the long run

Actually, I think that if all the name services in the internet remain as they are today, I mean, with a new extension poping up every couple of years, within, say 20 or 30 years, generics will have low value.

My 5yo kids already know that if they type some random word they won't have a website on it, but a bunch of links (Luckly there are not p0rn sites in their names).
As internet users grow up and new generations are born with a PC included, people won't type generic names for searches. Not within 20 years.

 

[Seraphim]

If Marchex, iReit, and Name Administration don't start innovating with their portfolios, their consolidation efforts are going to kill the industry in my opinion. Imagine if New York city were 75% empty building lots full of picket sign advertisements, either the residents would leave and seek a better system, or the government would step in and regulate. I firmly believe that if you have a 900lbs gorilla size portfolio, it would be extremely wise to start thinking about how to innovate away from parking pages and cardboard thin ppc sites, otherwise you should at least consider the possibility of leading the industry into much darker days. Imagine if domains had development requirements, that would not be cool.

 

[companyone]

Hi,

If you put ALL your keyword domains (little battle ships) in the 1-2-3 spots in google and the rest of the SE's... for just that keyword...thats were your going to generate the most traffic to your main site (mother ship).

The days of trying to SEO for all your "keywords" from your main site with a 1000+ pages...is coming to an end. In the future your "mother ship" will really only have to rank in the number 1 spot for one or two keywords...the name of your company or service and the top keyword for that service or product.

Your Keyword domains (little battle ships) will be doing 99% of your traffic generation...

fischermx,
I don't know how you can say generic keywords will have little value in future...the guys buying these multi million generic keyword domain portfolios most likley think otherwise. Besides, if your 5yr old already knows he or she can't find what they want by typing in a generic keyword in their browser...I am sure then, they will go to a search engine and type in that same generic keyword...were they will find that "little battle ship" doing its job and driving traffic to it's "mother ship".

Peace,
Dan

 

[Seraphim]

Hi,

If you put ALL your keyword domains (little battle ships) in the 1-2-3 spots in google and the rest of the SE's... for just that keyword...thats were your going to generate the most traffic to your main site (mother ship).

The days of trying to SEO for all your "keywords" from your main site with a 1000+ pages...is coming to an end. In the future your "mother ship" will really only have to rank in the number 1 spot for one or two keywords...the name of your company or service and the top keyword for that service or product.

Your Keyword domains (little battle ships) will be doing 99% of your traffic generation...

Seraphim,
I don't know how you can say generic keywords will have little value in future...the guys buying these multi million generic keyword domain portfolios most likley think otherwise.

Peace,
Dan

I'm heavily invested in generic domains, and that is preciously why I'm concerned about consolidation efforts, and any potential fallout from it. The future of the domain industry looks very very promising, but it could still turn on a dime.

 

[companyone]

Hi,

Always risk in the domain game...LOL...but the tide is changing for generic and industry / product specific "keyword" domains.

Heres a little something related...but it mainly address the effect on what may happen to PPC adverising in the future, if a lot of these advertisers "adopt" this better traffic generation model.

____

Example of how this may look:

Say Sears is running a couple million dollar a month Google adwords campaign and hypothetically we will say its spending $50,000 a month on the keyword "tool sale".

Now say...they could just buy the domain toolsale .com and SEO a one page landing page and have the links on that page go to sears .com

Cost: domain $10,000
SEO/set up page and get backlinks: $2,000
Link toolsale .com from sears .com to get PR and to help rank in #1 spot on Goggle etc...

Total Investment: $12,000 for life...1/5 of what they are now paying PER MONTH.

Kind of a "simplistic" overview to make the point...but I think you can see the advandages of this "forward thinking" adveritsing model.

And lets not forget (hypothetically of course)...now Sears has a "real asset" (toolsale.com) who's value should increase every year. When spending money just on a PPC...theres never any "asset" retained.

Another Hypothetical Example:

Might we see Craftsman and Snap tools "battling" over the domain(s) drill.com and drills.com?

I think we will.

Now "multiply" this by the thousands of markets out there and then "divide" by the "limited amount of ".com keyword domains" per market...do you think we may see "keyword domain" values rise just a bit?

Would you rather spend 1M as an advertiser with Google for a PPC ad for the keyword drills and/or drill or would you rather just buy the domain...for a lot less money and have it permanently ranked on google in the #1 spot..driving traffic to your "mother ship" for the next 10 - 20 years?

Not to mention the highly targeted FREE "typein" traffic these domains would and are getting.

Seems like this approach makes much more sense than paying Google millions a month. Of course they would not have to cut ALL their PPC advertising out...but lets get some 'Balance".

When your spending millions and millions on advertising and all of a sudden you can find yourself saving millions in this area with much less cost(s) and still obtain the same results and most likely better results... and to "top it off" your retaining and building valuable "domain assets" for your business at the same time your "denying" your competition access to these same assets...it really is a "no brainer".

Peace,
Dan

 

[fischermx]

...I am sure then, they will go to a search engine and type in that same generic keyword...were they will find that "little battle ship" doing its job and driving traffic to it's "mother ship".

Exactly, yes. They know how to use Google and type the word in it.

The thing, as picky as Google has become each day and worst recently, do you think they will allow those "little battle shit" sites to rank on the first page?
I don't think so.

 

[GAMEFINEST]

If they dont develop these great names into sites, thats their problem, but when they finally figure out its better if they develop them and earn more revenue, they will do that themselves.

 

[companyone]

The thing, as picky as Google has become each day and worst recently, do you think they will allow those "little battle shit" sites to rank on the first page?
I don't think so.

They will be high quality sites...not crappy "adsense" sites...they will be say 1/5 or 1/10th the size of the "mother ship" thats all. Pure "white hat"... and will just have detailed information on what people are searching for. No adsense or ads on these "little battle ships", just well placed anchor text links to the "mother ship".

75%-90% of searchs are still done by people looking for quality information first...on the subject or product they are interested in.

These "little battle ships" will most likley have detail analysis of the product or service, customer recommendations, Consumer Report(s) type information, product and service(s) comparison charts, blogs, forums, coupon discount codes etc..

Peace,
Dan

 

[companyone]

I'm heavily invested in generic domains, and that is preciously why I'm concerned about consolidation efforts, and any potential fallout from it. The future of the domain industry looks very very promising, but it could still turn on a dime.

Seraphim,

I am right there with you as I am also heavily (for me) invested keyword domains. It has become like a "marriage"..."for better or for worst"...LOL.

And like any real marriage, only time will tell if it turns out to be a "great marriage"....or if she takes me for everything I have....LOL


For anyone that is interested...this blog by Frank Schilling is a nice blog to read especially if you need day to day encourgement about the future of "keyword domains". (sometimes hour to hour encourgement...lol)
http://frankschilling.typepad.com/

Peace,
Dan

 

[DNabc]

I'm not a person who parks their domains, so I really make an effort to develop all of them. Sure it takes times, but for such big companies having 2 or 3 employees doing that it's nothing.

Fortunately for me, they don't do it, so the little guys can still make a living from search engines. No permanent ranking on that world.

 

[fischermx]

These "little battle ships" will most likley have detail analysis of the product or service, customer recommendations, Consumer Report(s) type information, product and service(s) comparison charts, blogs, forums, coupon discount codes
Peace,
Dan

Well, you made it all confused. It is very simple, it is called "developed websites", plain vanilla.
Whether they are for traffic forwarding or keeping the visitors themselves that's another thing.
If they are going to develop real websites, then that's good for everybody.

 

[snicksnack]

I thought he sold juegos.com last October for something like $10 million.

 

[wrdekle]

I personally think it was a pretty cheap price as well. But we should all remember that technically, this wasn't a straight spanish portfolio because it is not IDN. It's just a portfolio of spanish typos of generic words. It's still worth its fair multiple on traffic though.

Concerning the discussion on domain name consolidation, let's face it, in the future there will be a large bidding war between google, yahoo, and msn (oops do they call it "live" now? ) once domain portfolios become sufficiently consolidated. Because of type-in traffic and the PPC revolution they are the natural owners of this asset class.

 

[fischermx]

It's just a portfolio of spanish typos of generic words.

What are you talking about, Willis? :worried:

 

[wrdekle]

I'm saying that while a word like "cocina" is the real deal, a domain like "futbol" is just a typo of "fútbol". It isn't the guys fault, that is all that was available at the time. If you are going to be forward looking you can't expect the same multiples on Spanish traffic as you do on English traffic.

Face it, in an IE7 dominated world, many people will inevitably be typing in words the way they spell it, not the way a bunch of, say, "north american", domainers would like them to type it. Respect to you fischermx, I see you are in mexico, if you say that mexicans are willing to change the way they spell words to suite the tastes of english speaking domainers, then I will listen to your argument.

It is a more extreme example but in Japan at least, I'd pay 1 million times more for アダルト.jp than adult.jp - one Japanese understand, the other is an afterthought useless for seo and useless for type-in.

 

[ColdGin]

I think they will develop most of them. Every new day without a site there its thousands of dollars gone....

 

[fischermx]

Respect to you fischermx, I see you are in mexico, if you say that mexicans are willing to change the way they spell words to suite the tastes of english speaking domainers, then I will listen to your argument.

It is a more extreme example but in Japan at least, I'd pay 1 million times more for アダルト.jp than adult.jp - one Japanese understand, the other is an afterthought useless for seo and useless for type-in.

Oh, so you're talking about the missing accents...
It's a long story. I'd like to have time to research it seriously, and share the study somewhere on the web, but sadly, I can't.
To start with, there are three stories:
- Spain
- Mexico and the 15 millions mexican living in US plus another some millions from latinamerica living in the US.
- The rest of latinamerica (excluding Brasil).

For Mexico, I'll start by telling you that my older Dell computer was shipped with a US keyboard, so, there were no accents to type. I had to buy an spanish keyword on the local computer store. The laptop I bought in McAllen, TX didn't have an spanish keyboard either.
And 20 years ago, my first computer didn't have an spanish keyboard either, again.
Most Spanish speakers just don't type the accents. And we won't type the accents till the death.
Newer generations, some day, will see accents naturally and type it on their browsers. But heck, you'll have to wait like 15 years more for that.

BTW, some millions of people say it "fútbol" (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay) and some other millions say it "futbol" (non-written accent on the "o"). In Mexico, and some other places, we say it like "fút-ból", but we type it "futbol" all over the place including the mainstream media. So there's no typo here.

For Spain, they kill for their language, that's another story. I bet you there are millions of typos a day due people actually typing the accents and finding no websites there.

For the rest of Latinamerica, well, with exception of Argentina and Chile, let's wait they have a computer first, then we can talk about the internet. No offense for those who have both, please.

So, to conclude: It is not, that we are willing to change, we just learned in the US way: no accents.

P.S. I can't talk for the japanese. But I coworked for years with Ukranians. They have special keyboards to type both Cyrillic and western characters, those were the standard computer keyboards, according to them.
They told me they have to make special efforts to type Cyrillic. The keyword default function was for typing western characters.
I remember when I asked a guy to type "Kasparov" in Cyrillic by Yahoo chat, and that's how he told me how the thing worked.

How is that in Japan? China? I know there are something like 500 "drawings" they use in common language in a day. How does that look in the keyboard?
I bet they need several strokes to type one of their native characters, even in a keyboard prepared for that, just like my Ukrainians fellows.
So, what is easier and shorter, アダルト.jp or adult.jp?
I don't know that, but I've been always curious. Since you're in Japan, I guess I will finally know.

 

[companyone]

Well, you made it all confused. It is very simple, it is called "developed websites", plain vanilla. Whether they are for traffic forwarding or keeping the visitors themselves that's another thing. If they are going to develop real websites, then that's good for everybody.

Yes, devolping websites with content... but it is bit more complacated then this...and theres going to be a lot more flavors than "plain vanilla" website develpoment.

I am sorry if I offended your sensibilities with my simple analogies...but I am so not gifted in the art of communication, that I have to use some simple analogies to help... let me say what I want to say.

Peace,
Dan