Thoughts

Andrew Miller

July 30, 2023

Understanding Ultra Premium Domain Investments

As I have worked to teach my team as much as possible about exact match, category domain assets, I have recently been thinking of the most important aspects ultra-premium domain investors and registrants need to understand. Just because it seems logical to you that a large brand or category leader should acquire your domain for 7 or 8 figures, does not mean that will actually be reality.

The #1 reason for this is utility. If a company does not know what to do with that domain name yet, or have not already identified why they want to acquire it, it is highly unlikely they will pay 7-8 figures, until they figure out the reason to do so, which may or may not ever occur. These level of deals rarely happen “just because” or defensively, and it is unlikely that even the best and most experienced domain advisors will be able to tell a senior management team why or how they should use the asset.

I cast a wide net and educate, but sometimes you need to let this play out. If there is an internal champion at the company, someone who knows exactly why they should own the domain, that is the best path to a great outcome for all. I highlighted one of the best case studies of all time in my keynote at NamesCon with Larry Fischer, where David Laz from Fairway Mortgage, came on with us to talk about our sale of Home.com to them. You can watch it here.

Exciting Week Ahead for Hilco Digital Assets

It is an exciting week ahead for us at Hilco Digital Assets, as we are closing two “significant” domain transactions where we advised on the buy/sell side, both win-win for all parties. More on those next Sunday.

As I posted here last week, I definitely sense the hard work and marinating of our domains paying off for buyers and sellers. All of our domains are at this link.

Reflections on X.com and Twitter’s Rebrand

X.com has been top of mind these days. When my friend Drew Rosener brokered this deal several years ago, I said it is one of the top domain names of all time, and I still believe that. Plus, it is an amazing brand for Elon’s company and a great case study for premium domain names as brands.

However, I do not get the rebrand of Twitter. As noted by several experts this week, re-brands are tough—but in this case, Twitter is arguably alongside Google and Amazon as one of the most known words and brands globally and on the Internet. SMH on this one. At best will take some time to get used to starting this morning.

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