- Joined
- Dec 5, 2005
- Messages
- 2,337
- Reaction score
- 35
The 'industry' (if one can call it that) is definately becoming pyramid shaped.
At the moment I would imagine many if not all of the main players are evaluating every single week where they stand in relation to one another, each will be looking to make the move on the other in a take-over bid. NameDrive, as one of these players, will want to keep its assets fairly liquid as will the others, so as to be able to pounce when they consider the time correct on one of their competitors. (This is all basic stuff.) The problem though for any of the major players at the moment is that if their assets are not kept in a liquid state they will find themselves out on a limb when a purchasing opportunity arrives, and of course find themselves vulnerable to a take over bid.
I would actually expect mergers to occur fairly soon, not buy-outs or take overs, but the joining of two (maybe three at the outside) major players together. This would vastly increase the purchasing power of the new joint company as the assets would be merged. This is the stage of the 'game' I think we are at now. In the meantime every smaller company is liable to an approach from the big guys.
Having said the above, and using the mining industry as an historic model, it may well be that a second teir player in the industry manipulates the take over of one of the top players. This would be possible only with backing on a huge scale but may occur if the financial world (most probably led by venture capitalists) realises the potential growth in the industry.
Is this a good thing? As always the answer has to be 'yes' and 'no'.
A more structured industry will lead to the possibility of increased profits, whilst on the downside names are likely to be registered literally by the 10,000 or 100,000 and just held, irrespective of quality, because of the power of a monopoly. (An extreme example would be this. Say a domain costs $10 to register - nice round figure - then to register 1,000,000 domains annually only costs $10,000,000 - now advertising income by 2011 is expected to reach $30 - $40 billion dollars on the internet, it is not rocket science to see that mass domain ownership is like a license to print money. Obviously prime domains will cost a lot more to buy on the aftermarket but these will be valued as such and when bought by the major players are unlikely to see the light of day ever again.)
As a domainer with no hope of being a 'main player' I am lucky to already be established in the industry, I feel that those that are not part of it within the next year or two (at maximum) will have missed the boat so to speak. It is like any gold rush, the first in generally make the claims on the best sites, then people like me who join late can find 'some' good finds but have to work to mine them out, those that come in the third wave find that the big companies have bought up everything around and there is nothing left apart from the odd piece of gold dust.
So on balance my vote would be it is good for us already in the industry but not for those who come aboard late on the stories of easy money to be made.
At the moment I would imagine many if not all of the main players are evaluating every single week where they stand in relation to one another, each will be looking to make the move on the other in a take-over bid. NameDrive, as one of these players, will want to keep its assets fairly liquid as will the others, so as to be able to pounce when they consider the time correct on one of their competitors. (This is all basic stuff.) The problem though for any of the major players at the moment is that if their assets are not kept in a liquid state they will find themselves out on a limb when a purchasing opportunity arrives, and of course find themselves vulnerable to a take over bid.
I would actually expect mergers to occur fairly soon, not buy-outs or take overs, but the joining of two (maybe three at the outside) major players together. This would vastly increase the purchasing power of the new joint company as the assets would be merged. This is the stage of the 'game' I think we are at now. In the meantime every smaller company is liable to an approach from the big guys.
Having said the above, and using the mining industry as an historic model, it may well be that a second teir player in the industry manipulates the take over of one of the top players. This would be possible only with backing on a huge scale but may occur if the financial world (most probably led by venture capitalists) realises the potential growth in the industry.
Is this a good thing? As always the answer has to be 'yes' and 'no'.
A more structured industry will lead to the possibility of increased profits, whilst on the downside names are likely to be registered literally by the 10,000 or 100,000 and just held, irrespective of quality, because of the power of a monopoly. (An extreme example would be this. Say a domain costs $10 to register - nice round figure - then to register 1,000,000 domains annually only costs $10,000,000 - now advertising income by 2011 is expected to reach $30 - $40 billion dollars on the internet, it is not rocket science to see that mass domain ownership is like a license to print money. Obviously prime domains will cost a lot more to buy on the aftermarket but these will be valued as such and when bought by the major players are unlikely to see the light of day ever again.)
As a domainer with no hope of being a 'main player' I am lucky to already be established in the industry, I feel that those that are not part of it within the next year or two (at maximum) will have missed the boat so to speak. It is like any gold rush, the first in generally make the claims on the best sites, then people like me who join late can find 'some' good finds but have to work to mine them out, those that come in the third wave find that the big companies have bought up everything around and there is nothing left apart from the odd piece of gold dust.
So on balance my vote would be it is good for us already in the industry but not for those who come aboard late on the stories of easy money to be made.
