Domain Shane’s Daily List of Domains at Auction for Thursday November 2nd, 2017

25 Replies to “Domain Shane’s Daily List of Domains at Auction for Thursday November 2nd, 2017”

1. Shane .. check out Domain Name Wire #92 .. kinda gives you a good idea of the vision. I have no idea if it’s working or not .. that was basically the first and last time I heard of them.

   I’ll post a link in another comment so this one doesn’t get held up for moderation …

2. https://domainnamewire.com/2016/07/11/rob-monster-dnw-podcast-92/

   1. I’ve always said Rob Monster has great ideas. He is a thinker. A registrar is a pretty defined business model. That interview is pretty much more of the same stuff in the comments. Ideas. So I guess the best thing is to watch and see how it evolves.

      1. From the interview (a year ago) .. it sounds like he’s trying to build the modern day version of the tourist “city magazines” .. similar like the mags you find in hotels with all the notices and coupons etc. I think most of these mags are owned by a small number of networks who just rehash stories. Low effort, low cost. lots of ads.
         .
         Obviously being digital, online and on-demand on phones as an app, what they can do is significantly more engaging than the magazines.
         .
         Just as interesting is the flip approach in “renting” the tech to individual cities.
         .
         As I said .. I haven’t seen anything since .. but if done right and with a bit of luck .. this is potentially absolutely “Monstrous” in size and scope.
         .
         The key is getting the critical mass .. after they get past that (if they haven’t already) .. $$$KACHING$$$
         .
         What made you bring this up today? Did something happen with them?

      2. Ategy,
         I guess I’m not judging the idea. I agree it sounds like it may work. But I think it goes against everything the Internet is trying to move away from. Plug and play sites and mass produced sites. What made me bring it up was going through OnlineDomain and seeing all the comments. It turned out just to be an argument between Bill Kara and Rob Monster. During the entire argument I didn’t see one example of something in play, working, and successful. Hopefully that will come in due time. I am merely stating I don’t believe it will. But I don’t wish anyone failure. As an investor, stock market guy, I am have seen this wordsmithing before and am always leery

3. 1- Noticed you posted another .co again today! lol .. I still like good single-terms .. still can’t believe the ones I’ve sold! 🙂
   ,
   2- HappyChartS.com is plural .. you’re missing the S in the link.
   .
   3- Domainophobia.com is at $5 closeout at GoDaddy for anyone who wants to start a therapy center for domainers scared of their portfolios! 😉

4. I only read what you posted here. Looks like they want to be the middle man between crypto and the public.
   If you can figure out how, sure it’s great. I don’t see cities, already full of potholes, paying $3-$5 per citizen to give you the privilege.

5. English is my first language and something that I excelled at in school. I feel that my english comprehension skills solid. That being said, I often run into corporate presentations that I can’t make heads or tails of. My litmus test for an investment is quite simple. Make a cup of coffee and sit down with my wife and I must be able to explain to her, what a company does and how they intend to monetize their business within five minutes. Many good companies don’t meet my criteria and Digital Town is included in that bunch. They may be onto to something and I appreciate how difficult it can be to take a corporate vision and communicate that vision into a simple and cohesive statement. I wish them the best, but in my shark tank they are not investible at this time.

6. Unfortunately cant help you. Reviewed their financial statements few months ago. Then tried shorting shares but none were available to short from my broker.

   At the end of the day companies need cash flow and profits. Ideas are great but they dont keep the lights on when the tide goes out to sea.

   Good luck to all

7. Idea sounds good like many dead ones. But i agree with what Bill said.

   “to provide a set of well define services at the lowest tax rate possible.”

   Cities are not private companies and i see no reason for them to lock their services with digitaltown this way or that.

   That said, Rob might be hundred years in front of us i dont know. I just know this. My city istanbul operates the .ist and .istanbul gtlds. At the moment they have many apps like traffic but people prefer yandex or google navi instead. Also most of the users of the extension is goverment itself.

   Finally the best thing to silence all is to give one example that is working 🙂

   I wish everyone the best with their projects.

   Note. Robs writing style reminds me of that Jeff Sneider (Metal Group Tiger etc.) guy.:) i dont understnad anything. am i the only one or my english is not good maybe.

8. Last month I let bagel.city expire. They’re going to need this domain so that everyone in digital town knows where to find breakfast.

   1. Steve,

      That was fantastic 🙂

9. I was on their website last week trying to figure out the same thing. If we can’t digest it, how on earth is Joe Bureaucrat at city hall going to pick up on this? They are not and won’t.

10. Here is a free marketplace where you can use btc. no fees. private.
    https://www.openbazaar.org/

11. Guys this is a public company and the Rob ‘the blockchain’ Monster is buying stuff largely with equity and posting comments about their valuation and how they could raise 30m but wanted to go another route. All the while their SEC filing says cash could run out !this! Month.

    At the core of this all NO ONE can actually show us their product.

    Unless their product is a vivid description of an actual product. Sorta like on eBay when some lists a rare sports car specs but the listing is actually just selling a picture of it.

    Amazon block chain altcoin city center dot city mobile app for cities?

12. Shane, you mean the singular?

    Cafeterias.com The plural would be a killer name.

    1. I beg to differ, imo the singular is more valuable. Wonder what Shane and others think?

       1. I think the singular is MUCH more valuable as a brand. Plural means its about cafeterias, singular can be anything

       2. No Shane .. you got him wrong .. it’s two separate things he was saying:
          1- That you (probably) meant (to say) the singular?
          2- This is what you actually wrote above:
          “Cafeterias.com The plural would be a killer name. This is more of a injure type name. Should make reserve”
          .
          PS .. What’s an “injure type name” .. one that makes you smack your head on the wall after you realise you got it in the wrong tense?
          .
          And yes .. Definitely the SINGULAR is by far the better brand! 🙂

13. Maybe he will explain here.

    http://www.ppcian.com/video-interview-with-rob-monster-ceo-of-digitaltown/

14. “we charge transaction fees of 8-12%” That sounds much better than a traditional credit card processor who charges less than 4%. I had never heard of Digital Town prior to reading this, but it sounds ridiculous.

15. As for seeing a sample city site, check out Nashville.city. Under the City Info tab, it has some of the civic engagement features enabled. There is a lot more to come here but it is a fine example to follow for anyone tracking DigitalTown’s progress.

    Market interest for DigitalTown has been particularly strong in Europe and Latin America where we have sales staff. The biggest trade show of the year is Smart City Expo, November 14-16. We’ll be there with a big presence.

    In the meantime, some more news on DigitalTown in case you missed it:

    https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/11/01/1172016/0/en/DigitalTown-Announces-Acquisition-of-City-Information-B-V.html

    In the near future, I expect a lot more cities will have their own mobile app — an app that you would actually find useful. The DigitalTown-integrated rewrite of the app should be in the App store in around a week, and then the rollout begins to cities concurrent with working with municipalities, chambers and visitor bureaus. City Information has 3.1 million downloads across more than 800 cities. The model of local apps is already proven. We are making it transactional.

    The other major theme that you will hear about is SmartWallet. The problem with many independent small business websites is that more and more people are not interested in creating yet another login for a website they will use once or rarely. DigitalTown’s goal is to make it convenient to register once across a network of sites. This is also why we work with existing trust networks such as municipalities, chambers of commerce and trade associations.

    As for the commission rates, 8-12% is very competitive. Expedia charges up to 40% for lodging bookings. Seamless, GrubHub and Ubereats are ~30% for dining delivery. Uber was charging a 30% commission, but now is heading even higher by simply arbitraging a spread between driver and passenger. DigitalTown intends to focus on a sustainable commission structure that maximizes long term value of the local marketplace. Also, peer to peer digital payments from Smart Wallet to Smart Wallet are actually commitssion-free.

    As for Blockchain, if anyone missed the Bitcoin wave, so be it. This is still early days for Blockchain. Blockchain is very real and our planned use of Blockchain is very real. However rather than having a Blockchain backed by nothing and targeted at everyone, our approach is to have a Blockchain backed by the operating business of a city platform, and targeted at the people who live there. We have not issued any coins yet, but folks can pre-register to get their coin for free. When their city comes fully online, they will get notified that a coin was deposited in the wallet for the city where they are a verified resident.

    As for the domain industry, there is a big mispricing for the new TLDs. If you are strategic, you can get many of these TLDs for almost free. However, instead of buying these TLDs like a sniper or on the drop, I am more interested in buying in bulk with a strategic thesis on how those new domains can improve peoples lives. Some registries get this better than others, but there is a tipping point as registries come to terms with the reality that the registrar channel will not carry the water.

    As for .ISTANBUL, we are not working with them yet, but that is precisely why they need DigitalTown. Istanbul’s Chamber of Commerce has 400,000 member businesses. I have been to Istanbul twice this year and we are making progress there. Istanbul is a funny case, with only 2% eCommerce penetration. However, with Ali Baba coming from the East and Amazon coming from the West, the Digital Silk Road is certainly up for grabs, and the operators of the Bazaars and Souks fully know it. As such, I see an interesting opportunity for not just .ISTANBUL but also .SHOP with whom we are strategic partners.

    I realize that the concept of DigitalTown may sound odd to some. The simple explanation is that any city can be its own Google, Expedia, OpenTable, AirBnB and PayPal, all branded in the identity of the city on web and mobile. The idea is really not that crazy. This survey result just came out that shows the change in mindset among civic leaders about dealing with the sharing economy through strategic partnership with the private sector:

    https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-report-finds-majority-of-cities-open-to-partnerships-with-sharing-economy-companies-300548707.html

    DigitalTown is certainly no more crazy of an idea than the likes of AirBnB, Uber and Bitcoin at the time when these ideas first surfaced. At some point there needs to be a competitive response to winner-take-all and I think this has as good a shot as any. The odds of building any significant business are plenty tough. The odds of building a business that changes the world, and leaves some significant mark on a lot of peoples lives is even tougher. We happened to set out to do this as a public company. In retrospect, I am not sure I prefer to be in the public eye during the development stage, but it is choice. Given the acquisition strategy, I think it was worth being public.

    1. There’s nothing stopping you from taking all these ideas and just doing them in your head without using other peoples money.

       Just try it, instead of paying for all of these marketing PR releases you just write down on a sheet of paper the, whatever is trending on twitter, idea of the moment.

       !!Blockchain car washes mobile drone 3rd printing on demand for cities.!!

       Now, write it down, and instead of going to all these conferences you just water your grass.

       Now with all of that money you didn’t spend, you buy MORE paper and write down even MORE ideas in your idea journal.

       !!Cryptic secure payment hyper loops for digital cities smart transportation grids.!!

       Boom, another company idea is born, you repeat this step, saving even more money, buying EVEN MORE paper and soon enough you’ll have a notebook full of companies and ideas.

       Now the only logical point at this time would be a ICO so that everyone can share in the ownership of this treasure trove of ideas. You ICO of “idea dollars” goes forward and you retire a rich man.

       Im going to present this idea at the next shareholders meeting once I figure out how to buy a share of this company for quarter.

16. Robert, bud you have to stop, or at least go forward only using your own money to attend these trade shows and travel all over the place.

    You know https://www.nashville.gov/ is a fully functioning website. Does the City of Nashville know or care you exist?

    You don’t have a functioning product that a “city” could even adopt, but you realize what the procurement process and sales lead time would be for something like this?

    You’ll have started 10 new ventures by the time this one sells its first blockchain open table uber eats DQ pizza bitcoin for cities all your can eat platform (TM)…

17. Wow I just read this festering pile of shit…

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/digital-eternity-netizens-064708752.html

    …”No more spam emails: Persons who prefer to not to receive spam message can maintain a list of authorized senders, and even have the option of even charging senders to send them messages. Proceeds are deposited to their SmartWallet upon acknowledging receipt.”…

    I almost think Rob Monster is in a creative writing class on entrepreneurship.

    …” announced today the launch of permanent digital addresses for Netizens who are legal residents concurrent with the start of the rollout of their Blockchain based Smart City Platform across more than 20,000 of the world’s largest cities.”…

    This is insanity lol