I am surprised by the disdain for profitable business in the techcrunch article:
I’m not even sure I’ll remember to check in on them. The domain business is a cash cow but isn’t exactly exciting stuff.
I would have put it the other way around: the business isn't exactly exciting but it's a cash cow. Except I wouldn't say that at all. A profitable online business sounds more exciting to me than 90% of what I've seen on techcrunch.
I think domains like these were important in web1.0 era. But who has ever gone to business.com. Who cares about it? It sounds old and boring. I'd be surprised if the number of people going to domains like perfume.com is increasing...
If you look at alexa rank over 5 years it seems to have hit it's peak a while ago. Same with business.com.
I think techcrunch was simply meaning the domain business is likely a shrinking market, and not a new and exciting growing market.
Having said that, there's plenty of money to be made.
Congrats on the sale :)
Goodness no! Internet usage is rising, and since browsers are helpful enough to add "www." and ".com" if you type a word in the address bar, common word domains like perfume.com, candy.com, etc are extremely valuable because people find them on their own. Most people aren't that savvy and they don't know the difference between the search bar, the address bar, or the bajillion toolbars they have installed.
The supply/demand equation you need to look at is: supply of common english words is fixed while internet usage is increasing. People aren't looking for business.com, they think they're searching for business.
Wouldn't there be an argument to say that in the past people used to put 'perfume' in their browser address bar, and perfume.com etc,
whereas now most people seem to think google is where you 'put stuff', and so aren't the google results for 'perfume' more important than the domain perfume.com?
Not sure if you are allowed to disclose it, but I was curious what share of the $5 million was cash and what share was stock, and how much (percentage-wise) did the founders themselves end up with?
Congrats :) Slick idea... I remember pg saying he considers EBay ready for a startup competitor, but this seems a better strategy, even though it doesn't solve all problems.
True, it doesn't solve all the problems, but taking on EBay one vertical at a time using a great domain for each field might be a very powerful strategy.
EBays greatest moat is the sheer number of sellers and buyers it has, instead of trying to fight the entire EBay network, you take them on one vertical at a time. And maybe later after you've captured enough verticals try to consolidate all the vertical sites into a single property.
I had a hunch you'd do well. It's a field ripe for the picking. Ebay has a lot of customers, and their interface leaves a little to be desired, and their API really looks pretty decent. Good job.
I apologize if I'm putting a damper on the congratulations, but it sounds exactly backwards: it seems like the reason to start a shopping site in a vertical should be because you have insight or value-add in that vertical, not because you own a domain name.
No question. But ultimately the underlying value of the service is what determines whether it matters or not.
If you wanted to win a significant share of the search engine market, which would help you more, owning search.com, or designing a search engine that was actually better than Google in a way that users can perceive?
No - ecommerce is about connecting buyers with sellers. The domains capture the intent, auctomatic provides the inventory to take advantage of that intent.
Powersellers used to be tied to eBay, now they can connect to huge vertical audiences that are tied to their intent to purchase hence increasing their sales. Makes a LOT of sense this.
I suppose this means the Auctomatics aren't aiming for eBay anymore? Acquisition is nice, but repositioning for domain trade isn't that slick of a score for the hackers.
I’m not even sure I’ll remember to check in on them. The domain business is a cash cow but isn’t exactly exciting stuff.
I would have put it the other way around: the business isn't exactly exciting but it's a cash cow. Except I wouldn't say that at all. A profitable online business sounds more exciting to me than 90% of what I've seen on techcrunch.