The article, titled “Millions of Addresses and Thousands of Sites, All Leading to One“, features NameMedia, the parent company of BuyDomains and Afternic. There has been some bad press about the domain industry lately, so it is nice to see that the New York Times article makes a clear difference between cybersquatting and the business of monetizing generic domain names:
The business is a far cry from the days of cybersquatting, where speculators bought up names of businesses to which they had no legitimate claim, but it does represent a vindication of sorts for many who bought hundreds or thousands of random Web address names on the hope that one day they would be worth something.
The article also does a good job explaining the value of direct navigation traffic:
Behind this suddenly active business category - which includes companies like iREIT in Houston, Marchex in Seattle, and Demand Media in Santa Monica, Calif. - is the recognition that not all Internet users turn to a search engine when they are confused about where to find something online.
(…)
The direct navigation market attracted more than $800 million in ads last year, which publishers largely shared with Google and Yahoo. That figure could reach $1.1 billion in 2007, said Jordan Rohan, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets.
Related posts:
0 Responses to “New York Times article on NameMedia”