A month after Australia's domain name regulator started to allow domains ending in .au to be on-sold, companies are attempting to auction Australian domains for as much as AU$1 million. However, buyers have remained reluctant to pay top-dollar for the internet addresses.
The deregulation has let sites such as Netfleet.com.au to attempt to auction sites like "mail.com.au" for amounts up to AU$1 million, along with other high profile domains such as "parramatta.com.au" for AU$75,000, and "ringwood.com.au" for AU$20,000. Despite the high prices, Netfleet.com.au has only registered two sales, the largest being "photographers.com.au" for AU$5,000. The largest bid at the time of writing on "paramatta.com.au" was AU$100. While the regulator, .au Domain Administration, started allowing the sale of domain names from 1 June this year, the regulator specifically stated that companies would not be allowed "to register a domain name for the sole purpose of resale or transfer to a third party" — a practice commonly known as cybersquatting. Netregistry CEO Larry Bloch Larry Bloch, CEO of Netregistry, one of Australia's largest domain name registers said that the system was bound to fail. "Compared to the '.com' domain name space there isn't the economics to support ... the domain name after-market, which is largely driven by domain name monetisers," Bloch said. According to Bloch this is because the number of visitors to ".com.au" domain names was smaller than for ".com" names, while the cost of registering them was higher. This left what Bloch termed "cyber-speculators", who registered common names in the hope that they would be worth more in future. "These are the people who tend to think that domain names are worth a hell of a lot more than they actually are," Bloch said.
(Credit: Netregistry)
Aussie domain aftermarket stalls
By Alex Serpo, ZDNet.com.au | 2008/07/24 11:32:01
Tags: domain name, netregistry, registration
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13
Andrew - 14/06/09
Sorry, I got the extensions intermingled in the earlier posts. Here's the correct list of dot com dor au's I own ... more
12
Andrew - 14/06/09
Hello domain buyer from August 08. I have some fine dot com.au's as well as somecabsolutely top shelf - dot ... more
11
Andrew - 14/06/09
Hello domain buyer from August 08. I have some fine .com.au's as well as someabsolutely top shelf - .au.coms Here's a ... more
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1
ruth - 25/07/08
the prices people are asking are a bit much. nameseek.com.au has some good domains but people are asking to high of a price. the market won't start unless people lower their expectations
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2
James Wester - 25/07/08
Pacific Octane is conducting a case study based upon what Mr. Bloch has stated prematurely in my opinion. With all due respect to Mr. Bloch, I would like to believe that one could speculate that with any new market there will be growing pains until things are running properly. I ask this question of the statement "the system was bound to fail": Do you look at a 3 month old child and say "Ewwww that's one ugly baby! They're so ugly, they'll never amount to anything!" and then 20 years later you see that ugly baby on the cover of a magazine.
I will say this in the very early stages of any new market brought into an existing industry; "We need to network strongly, establish a very durable core existence within the framework of the Australian market and keep what is ours for the greater good of our future in virtual real estate." How much is ANYTHING worth? It's only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. People and companies have different reasons for purchasing domains just as we do buying clothing for example. I can go shopping and come home estatic over my new purchase. I can whip my new shirt out of the bag and say 'How nice is this! AND you'll appreciate that I got it on SALE for HALF PRICE!' and whilst my wife is cringing holding her tummy from boisterous laughter, she says 'That has got to be the ugliest thing that I've ever seen you buy. Please tell me that half price was $1.' when in fact I had paid $100 for it.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and people have reasons for buying things at certain prices and feeling good about it. When we bought our daughter her first car 3 months ago, it was purchased for $6,000.00. The wholesale market and traders were telling me to purchase it for $3,500.00 to $4,000.00 and caryard ads were advertising the same car for $11,990.00. Asking price and paying price is relevant in the scope of use for the domain name just like every other good that is traded around the World.
What will ruin this market quicker than anything is negativity and statements such as the one that the CEO of Netregistry has made above. He is a CEO of one of the most recognised companies in the domain industry and yet, he has just made a statement of personal assumption of a new market not officially 60 days old yet. Shame on you Mr. Bloch.
James Wester
COO Pacific Octane Pty Ltd
www.pacificoctane.com
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3
John Favatini - 28/07/08
I recently sold a .com.au name for $27,000 aud. NO i chose not to report the sale to AUDA as its really none of their business anyway.
I bought the name 3 years ago for $69 .
How many investers or super funds can offer you this return?
My job is also now to look after our companies internet strategy. We have invested over $100,000 recently buying up generic terms for use with our product range. Its the best money we have ever spent as for example now whenever people search for these items they seem to be getting to our websites and not our competitors or retailers who sell all brands.
AS a Marketing Executive its my job to keep on track of the best thing to do to get added market share, increase profits and shut out competitors. WE wil gladly look at ANY generic .com.au name to buy and until now its been hard to find the owners etc and do this easily.
Thank god now there are websites we can easily go and find what we want. AUDA was 10 years behind the rest of the world and this hurt our business as before it was near impossible for us to easily buy names we wanted.
I work for a multinational company and oversease we have been buying generic names for years and have seen massive growth from this important online area.
There is NO faster way to make a good profit than buying and selling GOOD generic .com.au names.
Forget .net.au names they are waste of time but for say $35 now to buy and a sale of even $200. Go ahead and calculate the returns.
they must be good investments looks at who has bought these names recently.
www.happybanking.com.au BANKWEST www.bankwest.com.au
www.bestbank.com.au St.George Bank Limited www.stgeorge.com.au,
www.smartbanking.com.au National Australia Bank Limited www.nab.com.au,
www.mortgage.com.au ING Bank (Australia) Limited www.ing.com.au,
www.businessbank.com.au Macquarie Bank Limited www.macquarie.com.au,
www.privatebanking.com.au Commonwealth Bank of Australia www.cba.com.au,
www.photocopier.com.au Fuji Xerox Australia Pty Ltd, www.fx.com.au
www.milk.com.au National Foods Milk Limited www.natfoods.com.au
www.vodka.com.au CARLTON AND UNITED BEVERAGES LIMITED, www.fosters.com.au
www.rum.com.au Guinness United Distillers and Vintners Australia Ltd, www.guinness.com.au
www.beer.com.au CARLTON AND UNITED BEVERAGES LIMITED ,w ww.fosters.com.au
www.scotch.com.au 3M Australia Pty Ltd. www.mmm.com.au
www.tennis.com.au Tennis Australia www.tennisaustralia.com.au
www.honey.com.au Honey Corp of Australia Ltd, www.capilano.com.au
www.cows.com.au George Weston Foods, www.georgewestonfoods.com.au
www.pigs.com.au George Weston Foods Ltd, www.georgewestonfoods.com.au
www.ham.com.au GEORGE WESTON FOODS LIMITED, www.georgewestonfoods.com.au
www.itjobs.com.au FAIRFAX DIGITAL AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND PTY LIMITED, www.fxj.com.au
www.eggs.com.au WESTERN AUSTRALIAN EGG MARKETING BOARD,
www.bikini.com.au Tiger Lily Swimwear Pty Ltd, www.tigerlily.com.au
www.kettles.com.au Sunbeam, www.sunbeam.com.au
www.oil.com.au Valvoline Australia Pty Ltd, www.valvoline.com.au
www.documentsmanagement HDIS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD www.claromentis.com.au
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4
Michael COCKINOS - 29/07/08
Buying and Selling domains names is a no brainer!
It's like any other item for sale. It has a price tag and if you really want it, you pay the price or hagle withthe vendor to get a better price. You know, "Less for Cash" type incentives.
C'mon Australia! Is it really worth all the hype?
I advertised one of my domains for a ridiculously high price and got what I deserved. But then, no one knew what price to put on a .com.au domain name.
Some people have had success with initial sales. I think the market will grow and possibly auDA will review policy again and remove the requirement to have an ABN.
GO HARD OR GO HOME!!!!
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5
Joseph Campion - 29/07/08
Use your brains before you write about the .com.au aftermarket people. Why trust a registrar or even AUDA on this issue. They all have their owb hidden agendas
The biggest companies in australia including banks are buying domain names for large sums. Why have they been secretly doing this for years??
Why did AUDA not allow people to buy generic names then change their own rules to auction off generic .com.au years ago starting at $1000 each to make large proficts for themselves?
Photocopier.com.au was bought for over $137,000 in a secret deal years ago.
Mortgage.com.au was bought for over $235,000 by ING bank in a secret deal years ago
They wil not disclose what they have been buying or paying as legally it might not have been proper to do so before the rules change
THEY ALL STILL DID IT. LOOK AT THAT LIST ABOVE OF JUST SOME OF THE MAJOR COMPANIES BUYING GENERICS
go to www.sedo.com www.moniker.com
The only people saying .com.au's are not worth money dont own any and dont see the benefits of using them.
do you really think these companies are stupid?
www.happybanking.com.au BANKWEST www.bankwest.com.au
www.bestbank.com.au St.George Bank Limited www.stgeorge.com.au,
www.smartbanking.com.au National Australia Bank Limited www.nab.com.au,
www.mortgage.com.au ING Bank (Australia) Limited www.ing.com.au,
www.businessbank.com.au Macquarie Bank Limited www.macquarie.com.au,
www.privatebanking.com.au Commonwealth Bank of Australia www.cba.com.au,
www.photocopier.com.au Fuji Xerox Australia Pty Ltd, www.fx.com.au
www.milk.com.au National Foods Milk Limited www.natfoods.com.au
www.vodka.com.au CARLTON AND UNITED BEVERAGES LIMITED, www.fosters.com.au
www.rum.com.au Guinness United Distillers and Vintners Australia Ltd, www.guinness.com.au
www.beer.com.au CARLTON AND UNITED BEVERAGES LIMITED ,w ww.fosters.com.au
www.scotch.com.au 3M Australia Pty Ltd. www.mmm.com.au
www.tennis.com.au Tennis Australia www.tennisaustralia.com.au
www.honey.com.au Honey Corp of Australia Ltd, www.capilano.com.au
www.cows.com.au George Weston Foods, www.georgewestonfoods.com.au
www.pigs.com.au George Weston Foods Ltd, www.georgewestonfoods.com.au
www.ham.com.au GEORGE WESTON FOODS LIMITED, www.georgewestonfoods.com.au
www.itjobs.com.au FAIRFAX DIGITAL AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND PTY LIMITED, www.fxj.com.au
www.eggs.com.au WESTERN AUSTRALIAN EGG MARKETING BOARD,
www.bikini.com.au Tiger Lily Swimwear Pty Ltd, www.tigerlily.com.au
www.kettles.com.au Sunbeam, www.sunbeam.com.au
www.oil.com.au Valvoline Australia Pty Ltd, www.valvoline.com.au
www.documentsmanagement HDIS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD www.claromentis.com.au
The fact is also some regitrars such as this one has been BUYING THEM ALL FOR THEMSELVES in breach of policy
http://www.dotau.org:80/archive/2002-10/0073.html
Australian Style Pty Ltd has over 1000 generic names they got for themslves and are now trying to flog off for high premium prices REGISTRAR - Bottle Domains
acrobat.com.au
aquatic.com.au
archaeology.com.au
autoclaves.com.au
banker.com.au
barrier.com.au
bathers.com.au
billiards.com.au
biology.com.au
bricklayers.com.au
calligraphy.com.au
celebrants.com.au
cellulite.com.au
center.com.au
clay.com.au
comic.com.au
crop.com.au
curios.com.au
decorator.com.au
department.com.au
dermatology.com.au
diabetic.com.au
dressmaker.com.au
duck.com.au
elements.com.au
exhaust.com.au
eyesight.com.au
federation.com.au
furnitures.com.au
gears.com.au
gluten.com.au
goggles.com.au
hammer.com.au
hammock.com.au
handymans.com.au
harvesting.com.au
livestock.com.au
lodges.com.au
maid.com.au
mats.com.au
mops.com.au
nachos.com.au
natives.com.au
neurology.com.au
oak.com.au
orchard.com.au
packer.com.au
pastry.com.au
pawpaws.com.au
photographers.com.au
renovators.com.au
rifles.com.au
snooker.com.au
society.com.au
spanner.com.au
sticker.com.au
syrup.com.au
vascular.com.au
verandah.com.au
wallet.com.au
wraps.com.au
http://www.dnjournal.com/ytd-sales-charts.htm
1. Fund.com $9,999,950 Pvt Sale 3/11/08
2. DataRecovery.com $1,659,000 Pvt Sale 3/4/08
3. Cruises.co.uk £560,000 = $1,099,798 Pvt Sale 2/5/08
4. SkiResorts.com $850,000 Moniker 4/8/08
5. iReport.com $750,000 Pvt Sale 1/29/08
6. Casino.de €400,000 = $625,060 Pvt Sale 3/18/08
7. Jobs.ca $600,000 Pvt Sale 5/6/08
8.Tell.com $400,000 Sedo 7/1/08
Systematic.com $400,000 Pvt Sale 4/1/08
Porn.net $400,000 SnapNames 2/12/08
FORGET SHARES, FORGET SUPER, FORGET REALESTATE. .COM.AU GENERICS ARE MAKING SOME PEOPLE LOTS OF MONEY FROM BUYING THEM, RESELLING THEM AND ALSO FOR BUSINESS TO USE VIA DEVELOPED SITES.
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6
Jeff Geaney - 30/07/08
It still amazes us how a company can ad anything they like at the front or end of their dot com address. For example IBM promotes ibm.com/au, netregistry.com promotes .au.com and a lot of companies who are expanding into foreign markets are inserting anything they please at the front of the domain. For example; us.example.com, au.example.com, china.example.com, uk.example.com, nz.example.com
We own quite a few generic domains that are dot com and receive emails that should be going to the .com.au domains and any other country that has a .com.whatever for their domain system. Are we committing a crime for receiving these emails? We know after speaking to the owner of tabcorp.com that he had to turn off his email servers in America because of the amount of email he was receiving that should have been sent to executives and staff of the tabcorp.com.au domain. Did TABCORP care that information was being leaked to third parties? We are glad we don’t have TABCORP, National Australia Bank, Westpac or any other Australian company shares that don’t own their company name in the dot com domain. That’s why we bank with ANZ.com, read the AFR.com as well as NineMSN.com and fly with Qantas.com. These Australian companies see into the future of the Internet and have covered their bases if the tide shifts in the future of the Internet domain system in Australia.
We believe the Australian domain name system is flawed allowing others to pry into our business worlds if an .au is left off an email, or a web address is incorrectly typed. What is going to happen to all these .com.au addresses in the future of the World Internet when all you will need to type into your web browser is Google, Microsoft or IBM and it automatically forwards that name to the domain of the dot com?
Quite frankly we agree with you Mr. Larry Bloch, the .com.au is about to be fail big time on the World Internet stage along with many countries who have placed all their eggs in their country domain system.
There are also other flaws we see in the overall running of the Internet domain system as well as contentious World Intellectual property matters relating to domain names, though that is another story for another thread.
Thanks for your valuable time.
Best regards,
Jeff Geaney
W.I.N.N.A
World Internet Names Numbers Authority
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7
Jeff Geaney - 31/07/08
Here is a couple more.
au.youtube.com
au.yahoo.com
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8
rob - 05/08/08
I thought you had to be related to the product when you bought a .com.au domain name.
Your ABN business had to relate to the name...
Example if your registered aussie business is Joe's Chicken Shop, then you can't go ahead and register www.porn.com.au, as it has nothing to do with chickens, although some kinky people might think otherwise.
Can anybody confirm how people are registering all these aussie domains when they have nothing to do with their names
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9
Domain buyer - 05/08/08
I am interested in buying ANYONES generic .com.au names.
Please list them on these so I can find you and make an offer
Its good to see some people think domain names are a waste of money. This is why I bought mylast house for Cash! Thanks fools. Keep complaining and winging that life has no opportunities and we are set for a recession !
Some people make money and others just wonder how and say the funniest things like its not possible.... why buy waterfront property etc :)
Funny how registrars are buying up all the generic domains names for themselves and trying to sell them now? what do they know you people dont??
look at this mail.com.au currently for sale for $1 million and owned by an Official AUDA registrar??
How can registrars be allowed to buy the names and resell themselves??
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10
Tony Batlow - 06/08/08
I just sold one of my generic .com.au names for $89,000 to a multinational. No more mortgage.
I only wish I bought more as investments. My supermoney is going backwardsand having mney in the bank or realestate is no where near as good.
I bought the name 8 years ago when I had to register the business name and pay $149 to register. Oer the years I spent about $700 in renewals etc etc to keep it
so basically I turned $1000 uad into $89,000 in 8 years. Tell me another way you can do this?
I dont think too many people will tell you their successes but. If you find a goldmine will you tell everyone?? are you stupid??
I will go start to look for some good ones now as investments also. I think its the start of a major boom here for generics by the way all the large companies are bidding for them now. I had 7 bidders and 5 where HUGE companies. In the end I took it and was happy but I reckon if i waited 2 months I could have gone over $100,000 with any luck
A bird in the hand but :)
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11
Andrew - 14/06/09
Hello domain buyer from August 08. I have some fine .com.au's as well as someabsolutely top shelf - .au.coms
Here's a list for sale
infoabout.com.au
privatesalepromotion.com.au
privatesalepromotions.com.au
websitenow.com.au
directoryofsunshinecoast.com.au
directoryofwollongong.com.au
directoryofgeelong.com.au
directoryoflaunceston.com.au
directoryofhobart.com.au
directoryofcoffsharbour.com.au
learnforexcurrencytrading.com.au
australianrealestate.au.com
realestateinaustralia.au.com
realestatecom.au.com
houseforsale.au.com
realestateagent.au.com
realestaterentals.au.com
realestatelistings.au.com
realestatesa.au.com
realestates.au.com
lawyerrealestate.com.au
solicitorsrealestate.com.au
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12
Andrew - 14/06/09
Hello domain buyer from August 08. I have some fine dot com.au's as well as somecabsolutely top shelf - dot au.coms
Here's a list for sale
infoabout.com.au
privatesalepromotion.com.au
privatesalepromotions.com.au
websitenow.com.au
directoryofsunshinecoast.com.au
directoryofwollongong.com.au
directoryofgeelong.com.au
directoryoflaunceston.com.au
directoryofhobart.com.au
directoryofcoffsharbour.com.au
learnforexcurrencytrading.com.au
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13
Andrew - 14/06/09
Sorry, I got the extensions intermingled in the earlier posts. Here's the correct list of dot com dor au's I own and can sell
My email is seo@propertynow.com.au or phone 0408 000 552.
infoabout.com.au
privatesalepromotion.com.au
privatesalepromotions.com.au
websitenow.com.au
directoryofsunshinecoast.com.au
directoryofwollongong.com.au
directoryofgeelong.com.au
directoryoflaunceston.com.au
directoryofhobart.com.au
directoryofcoffsharbour.com.au
learnforexcurrencytrading.com.au
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