This is not a recommendation for a trade or for you to take any financial position but I can almost guarantee that DirecTv is going to have a MASSIVE, game changing, amount of loss subscriber in 2019. They knew that they were going to lose some but I don’t think they have any idea how bad its going to be. AT&T bought Directv for $48.5 billion dollars right at the time when people started cutting the cables. AT&T decided that in 2018 that they would start trying to make Directv and Directv to go more profitable by raising prices and no longer giving specials or discounts to people that spent over $100 a month. According to some sources, 40% of ALL Directv users were on promotional pricing. It used to be common practice that someone would say they were going to cancel their sub and Directv would cave and take off $25 or more and keep the customer. This year they decided to hold their ground. Even raising the Internet only package Directv to Go $5 a month. And it hurt. They lost over 300,000 subscribers last quarter alone. Directv is saying that the people leaving are “low value customers” which isn’t true at all. There are millions like me that were happy to pay $80-100 a month but not $150. Hardly a low value customer. It forced me to starting looking at alternatives so I switched to YouTube TV. And now that I have, I can’t believe I stayed with Directv so long. I think others will follow
So how does that relate to domain investing? Promotional pricing. Any company in any today’s marketplace won’t survive long term on promotional pricing. They can have loss leading pricing that is paid for by other services but the business model of charging little and then raising the price is a slow leak to business death in my opinion. People are just too price conscious and there are too many competitors in most spaces that will offer an alternative. Take Uniregistry. They essentially killed their registry by raising their prices above Godaddy. If they would have just kept it close the whole time and added services they could have kept all the domains that are being transferred out.
Media services is a tough game right now. Nobody wants to compete against Google, Amazon, and Apple. But if you do you have to know your customer base. Why they use your service and how much you can get for those services. AT&T and Directv are about to find out the answer and I don’t think they are going to like it. Disclosure: Long Google and no position on AT&T because they still have some great assets that will overcome the bad buy
Here are today’s names. Click through to see the current price and to fund this daily list
Quote of the Day: “”Great people are those who make others feel that they, too, can become great” –Mark Twain
Domain of the Day:
Namejet, Sedo, and other Names Up for Auction
AZAC.com Pronounceable and short and that’s gold right now
FleshTube.com Not sure if tube names are in fashion but I know exactly what I’m going to get if I visit
ISPH.com H for holdings or some geo place. Met reserve and will go to a new home
IHIH.com this one is triple the price because of the pattern. And some care about that
Vulcans.com Star Trek fans are lining up for this one
Teloo.com Nice 5L with a pretty good bid
Kryos.com Being used as a name for hundreds of entities
CigarBands.com They’ve been collected for decades. Good name for a new wedding ring company
BRMedia.com People were gathering and hoarding media and capital names in 2018
Howdy.com Love the name but end user reserve
OurFood.com Met reserve. Everyone likes food. Some more than others
EuroBag.com Sounds small and trendy
PinkFeather.com Easiest logo on the board
FlatLite.com I feel like there is a Lite name on the list ever day
Godaddy Domains With Multiple Bids
Metalist.com A football or soccer club or a person that works with metal although I think I made up the second part because it sounds correct
FoodTrace.com We can really see if it goes farm to table
MyDMs.com Direct Messages for all you non hip people. People hit you up in them
TribalCare.com The big play is the upgrade for the insurance company
Birse.com A village in Scotland, A 5L.com, and a tuft of bristles
TopNinja.com Who knew that Ninja would be more known for the video game player than the warrior
Small.info Some dot info still get bids. Just like some .us do. I don’t really want to be in too many of either
XJS.net Yup. At $3K and rising just as you thought
StacyK.com As an email maybe
HTAL.com All good letters and L for league. Under $200 at press time
PopDex.com Buying history here
6e.cc Yup. Just as you thought. Biggest price on the board
TheDopeShow.com Great entertainment name but will always be a Marilyn Manson song
Twongo.com Sounds like a productivity app name
608222.com 222 keeps ’em bidding
Godaddy Domains With One or No Bids
EnrollU.com Help me enroll in something
LightBoost.com Because everything could use a little boost
SurviveToday.com Have to start with today and move on from there
FunkySauce.com Easy marketing here. “Add a little Funk”
Cycle1.com Bike share ready to go
Karbid.com 1999 domain. Makes me think of a car auction site
NameRally.com Maybe a company or blog in our space although not much new coming out lately
365Investments.com “Watching your money 365 days a year”
HighJab.com Two easy to say and spell short words. Those make good brands
Kupya.com Not a bad 5L.com for $12
The Rest of the Names With Bids
Abnom.com
AEX.org
AirVote.com
ArmLinux.org
Askuu.com
AutoPlusUsedCars.com
Ayalot.com
Bagks.com
BathroomGetaways.com
Blackdcc.net
Buboba.com
CabinGoddess.com
CampusDiaries.com
cc6666.com
ColorSublime.com
Cumbernauld-Media.com
DownloadHunt.com
E3Power.com
Falvqian.com
FemaleTalent.com
Fenkua.com
fjjinlin.com
FunkySauce.com
FXSeals.com
G899.com
Ganyums.com
GoRawCafe.com
GR365.com
GreyArmy.com
Haijin56.com
Hezhirun.com
Hzantu.com
IJustDid.org
InventorySpas.com
JUHQ.com
Khanhminh.org
M808.com
MagentoThem.com
Mairagall.com
Med-Decisions.com
MiniForum.com
MyRhea.com
NBRCOnline.com
njslr.com
o-3.com
OblivionRP.com
Open-Technology.com
OrBles.com
OrganicagInfo.org
PapermillMachineryIndia.com
ParcellPress.com
PlanAbc.net
PrivateChoices.com
QEOC.com
Restucco.com
sc-ol.com
SDBet.com
SouthernAntiques.com
SSecret.com
StandardTel.com
Sun766.com
Twaitter.com
Viettanads.info
WanZhuhai.com
WholeSolar.com
YinLing18.com
Zarben.com
zyffm.com
ZZ10.com
I agree Shane, I’ve been a huge fan of Uniregistry’s interface and design but am now one of those people looking to transfer away due to the loss of their ‘promotional pricing’ through topcoin. I would stay if they were just close to other prices, but they refuse to price match or come down even a little. It’s a shame really and I hope they’re able to keep the lights on after more of their customers leave but like you said, people are so price conscious now and it’s hard to stay loyal to a brand or service when there are similar options out there at a better price.