[NA-Discuss] Under COVID pressure, info providers choose QR codes over domain names

[Evan Leibovitch]

https://www.campaignlive.com/article/why-humble-qr-code-enjoying-marketing-revival/1690673

No surprise to some of us.

BTW, is anyone in ALAC -- or the broader community -- checking whether the
average price of resale domains is going up or down? Hard to believe it's
going up. With all the new gTLDs onboard, is domaining still seen as a
worthwhile investment? Was it ever?

Over the last few years I've been involved with numerous domain name
acquisitions by companies and individuals. A number of patterns have
emerged.

In almost every case:

   - The dozen most logical names were taken by squatters and otherwise
   unused.

   - The would-be registrant did not buy any of the squatted names.

   - In some cases they enquired about the price, which was often more than
   an order of magnitude beyond what they were willing to pay, and they had a
   good laugh.

   - In some cases their choice to bypass the squatted name would ensure
   that the name would forever stay unsold. They had registrations and/or
   trademarks that would immediately have any subsequent buyer subject to a
   UDRP complaint.

   - Nobody even made an effort to negotiate the price down, determined to
   be not worth the bother

   - There's no fear anymore using hyphens within domain names. The
   introduction of hyphens always yields a usable registry-fresh domain. This
   discovery usually increases the entertainment value of the original
   squatter's price.

I've always had the opinion that domain resale was a massive scam, and that
the practise was long-term harmful to ICANN and broader use of domains as
identification. Indeed the practise of one of the few that extracts value
from (rather than add value to) the Internet. Furthermore, it has led to
many of the most potentially-useful names being unused. As a result,
"memorable" Internet domains have slipped from "need to have" to "nice to
have" to "I'll take anything moderately close because it's not a primary
source of identification".

I look forward to the day when domainer portfolios inevitably achieve the
same value as postage-stamp collections have now.

Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada
@evanleibovitch / @el56
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