Makes Finding and Buying a Great Domain Name Easier
TORONTO, June 19 /CNW/- Tucows Inc. (AMEX:TCX, TSX:TC), a leading provider of Internet services to web hosting companies and ISPs worldwide, has unveiled its Premium Domains service - the first such offering at the wholesale level.
Partnering with Domain Distribution Network (Fabulous.com) and NameMedia's Afternic Domain Listing Service (DLS), Tucows now offers over 600,000 premium domains for sale through its network of over 7,000 service providers worldwide.
Domain names are extremely important to businesses and individuals looking to establish an Internet presence. They provide a crucial part of corporate identities and create memorable online brands that are easy to market and remember.
With the explosion of interest and profitability of Internet marketing, high quality descriptive domains have become a rare commodity, and as with anything rare, a market has developed to offer these assets for resale in a secondary exchange.
"The domain name market is about to undergo its greatest change since Tucows entered as the first true wholesaler in 1999," said Elliot Noss, President and Chief Executive Officer, Tucows Inc. "The addition of Premium Domains will be important for our service provider customers who excel at servicing small and medium-sized businesses, those most likely to benefit from Premium Domains. By redefining the domain search process to include names from the aftermarket, it makes it possible for people to find that perfect domain name."
Premium names are not a new idea. They have been bought and sold for the last decade. However, what has been missing until now was a simple way to connect buyers with sellers in a seamless exchange that manages the transaction in real time. Tucows has changed the market by facilitating near-instant transfers via its wholesale network. This is the start of a new era for the domain name market.
"In the past, when you wanted to transfer a domain from one registrant to another, the whole process could take days," said Adam Eisner, Product Manager for Domains, Tucows. "The real beauty of our Premium Domains service is that it gives our network of service providers a way to sell a large range of high-quality domains to their customers nearly instantly, as if they were new registrations."
Tucows is partnering with AfternicDLS and Domain Distribution Network to enable a one-stop-shopping approach giving business users purchase access to over 600,000 premium names in a single search. Premium Domains from Tucows will also include selections from the Tucows domain portfolio.
"As the world leader in secondary market domain names sales, NameMedia looks forward to providing Tucows customers with an unmatched breadth of domain quality and choice," said Peter Lamson, senior vice president and general manager of NameMedia's domain name marketplace. "AfternicDLS members will also benefit as we continue to expand the distribution channels for our Domain Listing Service, giving domain sellers an easy choice for where to list their names to get the best exposure to potential buyers."
The Domain Distribution Network believes partnering with Tucows is a winning proposition. “We’re very excited to be working with Tucows,” said Dan Warner, Chief Strategy Officer of Fabulous.com. “Their extensive network of resellers provides domain owners access to an untapped market of people who traditionally didn’t have the capability to buy many domains which had been ‘off the market.'”
Visit http://services.tucows.com/services/domains/ for more information.
Elliot Noss will be discussing the domain name economy as part of panel discussion, “Dark Matter: Are We Missing the Real Internet Economy?” on Thursday June 21, 2007 at Supernova 2007 in San Francisco, CA.
About Domain Distribution Network (DDN)
The Domain Distribution Network is an essential aftermarket domain distribution service. It acts as the centralized source of domain “stock” for high quality registrars and other high profile resellers. The domain stock consists of high quality generic domains that are highly suited for small to medium enterprise businesses. DDN doesn’t compete with registrars. It acts as a technology partner to allow registrars a clean and efficient means to monitor, maintain, and transact in the complex aftermarket channel of the domain space.
Through the Domain Distribution Technology, registrars enable users to purchase and control a domain within a matter of seconds by utilizing a safe and efficient streamlined sales and transfer process. DDN offers registrars a means to authenticate ownership of domains; allows open communication with a wide community of domain owners and other registrars in real time; and prevents fraud and trademark abuse. DDN has become the stock exchange technology servicing the aftermarket domain channel.
About NameMedia
NameMedia is the industry leader in Direct Search and the marketplace for premium domain names. The company leverages the power of Direct Search through a proprietary publishing platform that creates revenue-generating search destinations, including the company’s network of vertical online properties. NameMedia also has the industry’s largest marketplace for buying and selling premium domain names. NameMedia is a privately-held, venture-backed company headquartered outside Boston in Waltham, Massachusetts. For more information, visit http://www.namemedia.com.
About Tucows
Tucows is the largest Internet services provider for hosting companies and ISPs. Through our network of over 7,000 service providers around the world we provide millions of email boxes and manage over seven million domains. Tucows is an accredited registrar with ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Tucows remains one of the most popular software download sites on the Internet. For more information please visit: http://tucowsinc.com.
For further information, contact: Leona Hobbs, Director of Communications
Tucows, (416) 538-5450, lhobbs@tucows.com