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How Microryza Acquired the Domain Experiment.com

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Re: How Microryza Acquired the Domain Experiment.com

#31

Post by uptown »

keerthiko wrote: post #27
uptown wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a strong-enough name to be considered an asset. Worst-case ... just resell it.

I doubt anyone with a semblance of a conscience in their shoes could do that, except back to the benefactor, for cheaper (which would also be pretty lame)...the man turned down 6 figure offers and gave it to them because he believed in their mission. That they would go "whoops, it cost too much, gonna sell it to whoever offers me the most while we bail from our failed startup" would make the benefactor feel like tota…

You'd work 9-5 for a year to keep a semi-valuable domain name, currently "valued" at $54k, for some future potential pipe-dream of using that name in another startup where the name is equally relevant?

Re: How Microryza Acquired the Domain Experiment.com

#32

Post by dchuk »

avalaunch wrote: post #26
dchuk wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rank high for what? The term Ryza? It's easy to rank high for a made up word, but if you're ever in debate over whether to use a domain with ambiguous spelling or a standard word...go with the standard word.

Yes - rank high for Ryza vs Experiment. It's pretty bad if you aren't the first result when someone googles your company's name especially for a company relying on word of mouth.

Looking at the SERP for "experiment", I actually don't see them having much trouble ranking for it after a bit of time has gone by. Most of the results are informative and they're spread across different sectors (There isn't a heavy commercial influence in the SERPs).

Just look at Box.com...they rank for "box" now, for the same reasons experiment.com will eventually come to rank for "experiment" so long as they nail the basics for SEO.

Re: How Microryza Acquired the Domain Experiment.com

#33

Post by todd3834 »

primitivesuave wrote: post #14
sneak wrote: post #9

All domains should really cost $1000/year from the registrar at a minimum to stop this idiotic "I'll buy thousands of them and sit on them forever until someone offers me enough for one of them to make the whole enterprise worth it".

Expensive domain registration would make it cost prohibitive for average people to start a website. The better thing to limit is how many domains you can own, or at least how many domains you can park.

I agree that $1000/yr would be too high for your average person but I think raising it to $100/yr should be reasonable enough and would still solve a lot of the squatting issues.

Re: How Microryza Acquired the Domain Experiment.com

#34

Post by goatforce5 »

keerthiko wrote: post #27
uptown wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a strong-enough name to be considered an asset. Worst-case ... just resell it.

I doubt anyone with a semblance of a conscience in their shoes could do that, except back to the benefactor, for cheaper (which would also be pretty lame)...the man turned down 6 figure offers and gave it to them because he believed in their mission. That they would go "whoops, it cost too much, gonna sell it to whoever offers me the most while we bail from our failed startup" would make the benefactor feel like tota…

The original owner could have added the right to buy the domain back from the new owners at a fixed cost should they wish to sell it in the future (or right of first refusal, etc) if he was worried about that.

I worked for a start-up that acquired a smaller company (complete with an awesome name) for cash/shares. Smaller company supposedly had a clause in their contract saying they could buy the company back for £1 should the new owner run out of money. Fast forward 2 years: parent company failed and smaller company carried on...

Re: How Microryza Acquired the Domain Experiment.com

#35

Post by gsu »

MysticFear wrote: post #6

They have started accepting Dogecoins: https://experiment.com/dogecoin

It's actually pretty interesting to see these donations come in. No one would ever give $0.0001 to a crowdfunding campaign but we're seeing a lot of micro donations on the scale of 10-20 doges.

Re: How Microryza Acquired the Domain Experiment.com

#36

Post by kkwok »

simonw wrote: post #7

"The broker would help them find the owners of domain names, negotiate the price, and handle the transaction in exchange for a 10-15% commission of the price of the domain." The incentives there seem misaligned to me. The person negotiating the price for them gets paid a higher commission if the price ends up being higher?

Good system I've seen for domain buying is this: You set price you'll pay. Broker decides to take job. They negotiate a price that equal to or lower than your cap. They get fixed fee plus X% of difference between price paid and max price you'd be willing to pay.

Re: How Microryza Acquired the Domain Experiment.com

#37

Post by judk »

sneak wrote: post #9

All domains should really cost $1000/year from the registrar at a minimum to stop this idiotic "I'll buy thousands of them and sit on them forever until someone offers me enough for one of them to make the whole enterprise worth it".

There are much better auction systems and property tax systems than this.

Re: How Microryza Acquired the Domain Experiment.com

#38

Post by yid »

kkwok wrote: post #36
simonw wrote: post #7

"The broker would help them find the owners of domain names, negotiate the price, and handle the transaction in exchange for a 10-15% commission of the price of the domain." The incentives there seem misaligned to me. The person negotiating the price for them gets paid a higher commission if the price ends up being higher?

Good system I've seen for domain buying is this: You set price you'll pay. Broker decides to take job. They negotiate a price that equal to or lower than your cap. They get fixed fee plus X% of difference between price paid and max price you'd be willing to pay.

I've always wondered why this isn't the way real estate agents work.

Re: How Microryza Acquired the Domain Experiment.com

#39

Post by sheff »

dchuk wrote: post #29
sheff wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have bought domains from them in the past. I would start off by offering half (as a maximum, less if you can) and sticking to the offer. The thing to remember is that they may have acquired the domain for registration price so even $2000 will be a large profit, and they may not have another buyer for years. If that goes nowhere, you can always go back later and pay the full price or whatever they have come down to.…

Awesome, thanks for the reply. Do you know of any way to find out if they're brokering the domain for someone or selling it themselves?

If you make a low enough offer that they can't accept, they will tell you and they have told me in the past that its because its below the sellers reserve. Whois may also give you a clue as to who owns the domain.

They have fairly decent margins for discounts - I used to get marketing emails offering 20%+ off prices in the past.

Re: How Microryza Acquired the Domain Experiment.com

#40

Post by pyoung »

sneak wrote: post #9

All domains should really cost $1000/year from the registrar at a minimum to stop this idiotic "I'll buy thousands of them and sit on them forever until someone offers me enough for one of them to make the whole enterprise worth it".

Would it be possible to ban the re-sale of domain registrations? This way squatting would only be done for trademark protection. I could see issues where bigger companies buy up all the related domain names to their specific industry, in the hopes of hindering future competition. Without re-sellers, that tactic would be easier, but it still might be better then the current system.
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