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The Latest World Wide Web Sub-Species: "Domainers"

Professional domain owners reported sales exceeding US$700M in 2007
By Jeremy Geelan
Article Rating:
April 17, 2008 05:30 AM EDT
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 5,265

Pizza.com sold recently for $2.6M, and vodka.com for $3M. Domain names are now a global business. The explosive growth in online advertising (in the first half of 2007 alone, advertisers in the US spent more than $10 billion) has seen Internet entrepreneurs earn millions of dollars by buying, selling, developing and monetizing web addresses, or "domain names". There are now over 1,000 so-called "domainers" (as domain owners refer to themselves), as many as 100 million registered domains, and a thriving aftermarket for domain names, with reported sales exceeding US$700M in 2007.

At a recent conference aimed at domainers, Steve Forbes, CEO of Forbes, Inc and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine was enthusiastic about the industry:


"Internet traffic and domains are the prime real estate of the 21st century. This market has matured, and individuals, brands, investors and organizations who do not grasp their importance or value are missing out on numerous levels." 

Interestingly, experts say that the highest growth rates in the industry are currently being found outside the US.

Published April 17, 2008 – Reads 5,265
Copyright © 2008 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
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More Stories By Jeremy Geelan

Jeremy Geelan is Sr. Vice-President of SYS-CON Media & Events. He is Conference Chair of the all-new International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo series, of the International Virtualization Conference & Expo series, of AJAXWorld RIA Conference & Expo series, and of the long-running SOAWorld Conference & Expo series. He's founder of Cloud Computing Journal, Web 2.0 Journal, AJAX & RIA Journal and other leading SYS-CON titles. From 2000-6, as first editorial director and then group publisher of SYS-CON Media, he was responsible for the development of all new titles and i-Technology portals for the firm, and regularly represents SYS-CON at conferences and trade shows, speaking to technology audiences both in North America and overseas. He is executive producer and presenter of "Power Panels with Jeremy Geelan" on SYS-CON.TV.

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