Sales of Liquid Domain Names (Short .COMs) Jumps 70% to $9.2m in Q3: GGRG

The total volume of disclosed liquid domain name sales for the third quarter of 2018 jumped 70% from $5.4 million to $9.2 million, according to the Liquid Domains Market Overview for the third quarter of 2018 from GGRG.com. There was also a 50% increase in the volume of escrow.com sales, which jumped from $12 to $16.7 million. According to escrow.com, the most traded category were the 3 letter (L) .com domains, with $11.4 million in sales, followed by the 4Ls ($3.2m) and the 3 numbers (N) ($1.1m). According to ShortNames.com, the disclosed volumes for these categories showed a similar pattern with $5.2 million for 3Ls, $1.7 million for the 4Ls and almost $1 million in 5Ns

The total volume of disclosed liquid domain name sales for the third quarter of 2018 jumped 70% from $5.4 million to $9.2 million, according to the Liquid Domains Market Overview for the third quarter of 2018 from GGRG.com. There was also a 50% increase in the volume of escrow.com sales, which jumped from $12 to $16.7 million. According to escrow.com, the most traded category were the 3 letter (L) .com domains, with $11.4 million in sales, followed by the 4Ls ($3.2m) and the 3 numbers (N) ($1.1m). According to ShortNames.com, the disclosed volumes for these categories showed a similar pattern with $5.2 million for 3Ls, $1.7 million for the 4Ls and almost $1 million in 5Ns.

Even in Q3, the most traded categories for the number of transactions were the 4Ls (1,713), the 5Ns (1,116) and the 3Cs (596), which registered a record turnover of 2.1%. The positive numbers in terms of volume are in stark contrast with the continued decline across the board in 5th percentile values, which recorded the worst quarter since the inception of our report. 5Ns and 3 character (Cs) lost 38%, 4Ls lost 28%. The only stable category were the 3Ls, which registered a modest loss of -2.8%.

The Liquid Domains Market Overview from GGRG covers the sale of specific types of short .com domain names that are actively traded on the major marketplaces including 2 to 4 L .com domain names, 2 to 5 N .coms and the NL/LN and 3C .com domains.

GGRG was founded by Giuseppe Graziano, who is also the CEO. They have a focus on the 614,928 short .com domain names defined as “liquid”.

The report found the overall development index, an index for domain names that have been developed into a website, increased by 1.9%, with significant gains for 2 number and 4 letter .com categories. The most developed categories remain the 2Ls at 34.6%, followed by the 3Ls and 2Cs, both around 28%.

With the exception of the 2Ns, the numeric domain categories maintain a development index under 10%. China remains the king of liquid domains, with a 26.4% market share, followed by the US (21.9%), which gained 2% in Q3. Contrary to the previous trend, we noted a negative variation in domains owned by Chinese registrants for the second consecutive quarter. The rest of the world and Europe also lost market share at 11% and 3.2%, which could be attributed to GDPR coming into further effect. As a result, private registrations now constitute over 30.7% of all liquid domains, which is nearly a 50% increase since the second quarter of 2018. The 3Ns and 5Ns are the categories with the highest percentage of domains under privacy, with 62% and 58% respectively.

The copious inventory released to the market on Q3 had a positive impact on the sales volume but quite a negative impact on the floor prices, which, with the exception of 3Ls, registered significant double-digit losses. Looking ahead, the report notes the challenge for the last quarter of the year, which is typically a strong quarter for end-user activity, will be if the Western market manages to absorb the inventory being released for sale in China. Strong end user transaction might keep afloat the most developed categories, however, a potential increase in .com registration prices, to be decided in November, might have a negative long-term impact on the market (click here for a report on the increase in registry fees Verisign will be allowed to charge). GGRG is advising caution.

The latest LXDO report is available for download for free from:
https://ggrg.com/

Nominet Suspends 33,000 .UK Domains Following Law Enforcement Notifications

Almost 33,000 .uk domain names were suspended in the 12 months to the end of October 2018 following notification from the police or other law enforcement agencies that the domain name was being used for criminal activity.

Almost 33,000 .uk domain names were suspended in the 12 months to the end of October 2018 following notification from the police or other law enforcement agencies that the domain name was being used for criminal activity. Continue reading “Nominet Suspends 33,000 .UK Domains Following Law Enforcement Notifications”

Domain.me Suspends Incels.me Due To Content Violations

The registry for .me domain names, Domain.me, has suspended the incels.me domain name “due to the content that violated the .ME registry’s anti-abuse policy.â€

The registry for .me domain names, Domain.me, has suspended the incels.me domain name “due to the content that violated the .ME registry’s anti-abuse policy.”

The registry says “the decision to suspend the domain was made after the .ME Registry exhausted all other possibilities that could assure us that the registrant of incels.me domain and the owner of incels.me forum was able to remove the subject content and prevent the same or similar content from appearing on the forum again.”

Then on 8 May the .me country code top level domain (ccTLD) registry was notified that certain members of the online community at incels.me forum might have been involved in or associated with the Toronto van attack on 23 April. Ever since, they have closely monitored the content on incels.me forum and determined that it was allowing part of its members to continuously promote violence and hate speech.

On 12 September the Registry of .ME domains asked ZhuHai NaiSiNiKe Information Technology Co Ltd., the sponsoring registrar of incels.me domain, to send an official notice to the registrant of incels.me to avoid suspension of incels.me domain by taking down the content that violated the .ME registry’s anti-abuse policy and by preventing the same or similar content from appearing on the forum again.

Upon inspecting incels.me forum for policy violations on 15 October, the .ME Registry determined that the content that encouraged acts of violence and hate speech still appeared on the forum. Having witnessed this disregard of not only .ME Registry’s policies and suspension warnings, but also of incels.me forum’s policies the domain registrant formulated themselves, the .ME Registry suspended the domain and decided that it would remain suspended.

“Incels” is short for “involuntary celibate”, a group of people who are usually white, male, heterosexual and right wing and unable to find sexual partners. Wikipedia notes “discussions in incel forums are often characterised by resentment, misanthropy, self-pity, self-loathing, misogyny, racism, a sense of entitlement to sex, and the endorsement of violence against sexually active people. The Southern Poverty Law Center described the subculture as “part of the online male supremacist ecosystem” that is included in their list of hate groups. At least four mass murders, resulting in 45 deaths, have been committed in North America by people who have either self-identified as incels or who had mentioned incel-related names and writings in their private writings or Internet postings. Incel communities have been criticised by the media and researchers for being misogynist, encouraging violence, as well as spreading extremist views and radicalising their members.”

DomainTools Webinar: 2019: No Oscars for the Bad Threat Actors

2018 isn’t over and we have already seen a massive increase in the number and types of cybersecurity threats from ransomware to phishing. So what will 2019 bring and what can be done to prevent the next wave of cyber attacks

2018 isn’t over and we have already seen a massive increase in the number and types of cybersecurity threats from ransomware to phishing. So what will 2019 bring and what can be done to prevent the next wave of cyber attacks?

Join subject matter experts from DomainTools in a lively discussion of what’s next for information security. CTO Bruce Roberts, Director of Product Management, Tim Helming, Senior Security Advisor, Corin Imai, and Senior Data Scientist, Sean McNee will conduct a round-table discussion on their information security predictions. Highlights include:

  • Let’s Get Critical (The political process is the new critical infrastructure under attack)
  • Breaches and Woes (Change in public perception of breaches)
  • The Automation Invasion (Automation will continue to create more issues than solutions if organizations)
  • Mind the (Skills) Gap

December 11, 2018 at 10 AM PT/1 PM ET

To register for this free DomainTools webinar, go to:
https://www.domaintools.com/resources/videos/webinar-2019-no-oscars-for-the-bad-threat-actors

Half Million Dollar Q.org Sale Tops Weekly Chart

Domain Name Journal logoThe sale of q.org for $500,000 topped the Domain Name Journal chart of top reported domain name sales for the week ending 21 October, sold through LegalBrandMarketing, and is now the equal twelfth on the year to date sales chart. The biggest sale of the year so far is the $3.5 million sale of ice.com in July

Domain Name Journal logoThe sale of q.org for $500,000 topped the Domain Name Journal chart of top reported domain name sales for the week ending 21 October, sold through LegalBrandMarketing, and is now the equal twelfth on the year to date sales chart. The biggest sale of the year so far is the $3.5 million sale of ice.com in July.

Coming in second on the weekly chart was deposit.com, which sold for $170,100 through Sharjil Saleem while third was xiangcun.com which sold for $82,000 through Sedo.

There were 13 sales brokered by Sedo in the top 21 sales for the week – there was a two-way tie for 20th position and 2 for DomainMarket. On the TLD side of things there were 15 .com sales, 2 .org and one each for .eu, .co, .online and .global.

To check out the Domain Name Journal of top reported sales for the week ending 21 October in more detail, see:
http://dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2018/20181031.htm

ICANN: The Eastern European DNS Forum Comes to Moscow

Today [19 Nov], ICANN announced that the third Eastern European Domain Name System Forum (EEDNSF) will take place from 4-5 December 2018, in Moscow, Russia, following the success of the first edition in Kiev, Ukraine (2016), and the second one in Minsk, Belarus (2017). The event is jointly organized by ICANN and the Coordination Center for National Domains .RU/.РФ (cctld.ru)

Today [19 Nov], ICANN announced that the third Eastern European Domain Name System Forum (EEDNSF) will take place from 4-5 December 2018, in Moscow, Russia, following the success of the first edition in Kiev, Ukraine (2016), and the second one in Minsk, Belarus (2017). The event is jointly organized by ICANN and the Coordination Center for National Domains .RU/.РФ (cctld.ru).

This event is part of ICANN‘s regional outreach efforts to raise awareness on issues related to the Domain Name System (DNS), and collaborate with stakeholders on key areas. It comes as a continuation of the earlier engagement efforts to bring global discussions on the DNS to the regional level, and uncover the contexts surrounding the regional perspectives.

Sessions on the first day will cover technical topics. The second day will be devoted to policy-related discussions. The Forum’s topics include:

  • The current state and evolution of the Root Server System
  • Universal Acceptance
  • Internationalized Domain Names
  • Artificial Intelligence and the DNS
  • DNS abuse
  • Transborder legislative issues affecting the DNS

ICANN‘s Chief Technology Officer David Conrad, and Chief Security, Stability and Resiliency Officer John Crain will be at the event participating in discussions related to the evolution and security of the DNS, and the current challenges faced. Other regional and global actors of the DNS industry will also attend the forum, contributing to the sessions with their experiences and areas of expertise.

Register here and visit the EEDNSF website for more information. You can track the event on social media with the hashtag #EEDNSF.

Remote participation will be available for those interested in participating, but unable to attend in-person.

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2018-11-19-en

.CLOUD Receives MIIT Accreditation Allowing for Registering and Hosting Domains in China

The operators of the .cloud new gTLD have received accreditation from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) that allows for the registering and hosting of domain names within the world’s most populous country

The operators of the .cloud new gTLD have received accreditation from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) that allows for the registering and hosting of domain names within the world’s most populous country.

This marks a strategic step for the Registry and parent Italian company Aruba S.p.A, in expanding its international partner network in the region. Currently .cloud is the 30th largest of the new gTLDs by registration numbers with over 156,000 registrations since general availability commenced in February 2016. Other new generic top level domains to have received this accreditation include .shop, .site, .club, .vip, .shop, .red, .kim and .ltd as well as legacy gTLDs .com, .net, .info, .pro and .mobi.

“Our success is based on our partnerships and we are eager to collaborate with Chinese registrars and technology providers,” said Mou Mukherjee, Head of Registry Services at .Cloud. “These partners play a significant role in guiding Chinese businesses into the future of the digital economy by helping them build, boost, and protect their online identity.”

China’s booming digital economy has created a hotbed of digital innovation, and the country has rapidly become a leading global force in digital innovation. This has spurred huge growth in cloud services led by government initiatives, online shopping, online payments, the sharing economy, social media, casual gaming, video streaming and other B2C services.

China’s cloud computing market has grown significantly since 2010 according to the Report of Prospects and Investment Strategy Planning on China Cloud Computing Industry (2017-2022) published by Forward Intelligence Co. Ltd., a special market research institute. Its market size reached 178.2 billion yuan in 2016, up 18.8 percent year-on-year. The industry will grow by at least 30 percent year-on-year on average in the coming five years. By 2020, China’s cloud computing market is projected to reach 686.6 billion yuan (about $103.6 billion).

With China’s future focus on cloud computing and digital transformation, the .Cloud domain will be an attractive option for any Chinese business or brand that wants to declare their technical advancement or share their modern mindset. Today, the term “cloud” has become synonymous with innovation, modern technology, and the future of business.

The .Cloud domain launched in February 2016 and has registrations in over 180 countries. From digital platforms like Rio.cloud, to startups like Food.Cloud, Fashion.Cloud, and Reward.Cloud – .Cloud is a modern domain for all businesses.

Aruba S.p.A., founded in 1994, is the leading company in Italy for data centre, cloud solutions, web hosting, email, certified email (PEC) and domain registration services. It boasts extensive experience when it comes to building and managing data centres, with an active European network, as well as the 3 data centres it owns in Italy and another one due to be ready in 2020. In the north of Italy, close to Milan, Aruba has built the biggest Italian data centre campus with a surface area of 200,000m2. The company manages over 2 million domains, 7 million email accounts, 5 million certified email (PEC) accounts, 130,000 physical and virtual servers and a total of more than 4.7 million customers.

Google-Temasek study sees $240 billion Southeast Asia internet economy by 2025

Southeast Asia’s internet economy is expected to exceed $240 billion by 2025, a joint study by Google and Temasek Holdings showed, a fifth more than previously estimated, as more consumers use their smartphones to go online.

Southeast Asia’s internet economy is expected to exceed $240 billion by 2025, a joint study by Google and Temasek Holdings showed, a fifth more than previously estimated, as more consumers use their smartphones to go online.

The study, first published in 2016, encompasses ride-hailing, e-commerce, online travel and online media. The latest report released on Monday adds new sectors such as online food delivery, as well as subscription music and video on demand.
in.reuters.com/article/southeast-asia-internet-study/google-temasek-study-sees-240-billion-southeast-asia-internet-economy-by-2025-idINKCN1NO08S
uk.reuters.com/article/us-southeast-asia-internet-study/google-temasek-study-sees-240-billion-southeast-asia-internet-economy-by-2025-idUKKCN1NO08G

Facebook says it’s better at detecting rule violations

Facebook said it’s making progress on detecting hate speech, graphic violence and other violations of its rules, even before users see and report them.

Facebook said it’s making progress on detecting hate speech, graphic violence and other violations of its rules, even before users see and report them.

Facebook said that during the April-to-September period, it doubled the amount of hate speech it detected proactively, compared with the previous six months.
https://apnews.com/1e3dbb9561734b4da9b4d3a9ec5c509a

A Perfect Target for Cybercriminals: America’s water supply is increasingly digitized, and increasingly vulnerable.

When hackers went after the Onslow Water and Sewer Authority last month, it was the second cyberattack on a North Carolina utility within a year. The hackers, who timed this attack for the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, caused “a catastrophic loss” by encrypting databases and locking out employees. Rather than pay a ransom to the hackers, the utility is rebuilding its information technology systems from scratch.

When hackers went after the Onslow Water and Sewer Authority last month, it was the second cyberattack on a North Carolina utility within a year. The hackers, who timed this attack for the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, caused “a catastrophic loss” by encrypting databases and locking out employees. Rather than pay a ransom to the hackers, the utility is rebuilding its information technology systems from scratch.

We need water for everything from cooking to manufacturing. Technological advances that make our water supply smarter — automating chemical treatment, for example, or enabling electronic billing — also make it more vulnerable to cyberattacks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/19/opinion/water-security-vulnerability-hacking.html