What do ya think of the kind words by Frank on IDNs?

[Olney]

It's nice to see on Frank Schilling's blog once a while a good kind word about IDNs.
It's good that he shows "hey I get it already". He may not be an investor but seems to see the value.

What do you guys think?

http://frankschilling.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/international_d.html

[seamo]

Many folks think IDNs are the next great domain gold rush...
Hmm...Isn't it getting a bit late for bleating about the good old 'gold rush' by now Frank?

More like 'the market matured under our radars and now we're stuffed'...unless you're a local speaker who can mine the depths of combos and colloquialisms, that is :)

[domainguru]

It's nice to see on Frank Schilling's blog once a while a good kind word about IDNs.
It's good that he shows "hey I get it already". He may not be an investor but seems to see the value.

What do you guys think?

http://frankschilling.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/international_d.html

I think his statement:

"I'm sticking with ASCII names for the time being."

says a heck of a lot. (The bolding is mine)

[Rubber Duck]

Franks may not have it right off yet, but I think he calls it as he sees it and he is beginning to see deeper. He definitely engages brain before opening mouth.

[domainguru]

Hmm...Isn't it getting a bit late for bleating about the good old 'gold rush' by now Frank?

More like 'the market matured under our radars and now we're stuffed'...unless you're a local speaker who can mine the depths of combos and colloquialisms, that is :)

Too late? Don't make me laugh. Frank could buy up most of our portfolios without even raising a sweat, and still get great long-term value. The question is, will he.

[alpha]

it's all relative.

If you lit your Cubans with $100 bills - then you will see the IDN market as very immature.

immature as in, I can drop a couple of inches down and someone will roll off a name.

thats why these big fish can sit back and watch while it all unfolds.

[seamo]

Too late?...
No - it's never too late to buy at a highly inflated premium price...
The question is, will he.
Spot on...and here's hoping!

[domainguru]

No - it's never too late to buy at a highly inflated premium price...

Spot on...and here's hoping!

Whatever seems inflated today will seem cheap in 5 years time. That's the beauty of domain names :)

[Rubber Duck]

Trick seems to be to try to jump in at the second floor once the elevator is under way.

Might look a bit crammed though when the doors open!

[yanni]

There are plenty of folk who got into the ascii market after 2000 and are millionaires today - or on the way, while some oldtimers were scratching their balls.

The same can and will happen with the idn market, especially for the likes of F.S. and company.

If you're a good businessman, opportunity is always there.

[Rubber Duck]

It is a totally different situation with IDN.

With ASCII nobody knew where it was heading or when it would get there. There were no parking or advertising models, and it was really clear what kind of names would work and what wouldn't. Even the WIPO scenario was almost completely up in the air.

Best part of a decade later we come to IDN. The blue print is more or less there, with one or two minor customisations. Edwin stepped into Japanese and used the DMOZ directories to clean up. Now most of the major languages have now been mined. "Mining" wasn't even in the domainers vocabulary back then.

In a way it is ASCII all over again, but it really isn't because it the knowledge about where this is going is so much greater. Did they even have domaining forums back then?

I am not saying some cannot come in and make a success of things, but those that are going to are going to have to move a lot faster and play a lot cuter than was actually the case with ASCII. We know that there 65K domainers at what used to be Eachnic but is now domain.cn. Those guys can move over in a instance in to IDN. The competition is going to be unbelievable. Once the balloon goes up this is going to explode with a lot more force than ASCII ever did.


There are plenty of folk who got into the ascii market after 2000 and are millionaires today - or on the way, while some oldtimers were scratching their balls.

The same can and will happen with the idn market, especially for the likes of F.S. and company.

If you're a good businessman, opportunity is always there.

[yanni]

With ASCII nobody knew where it was heading or when it would get there. There were no parking or advertising models, and it was really clear what kind of names would work and what wouldn't. Even the WIPO scenario was almost completely up in the air.

Actually they did. There was the adult advertising experience but only a few carried it over to mainstream at the time, because the rest, frankly, were too busy making easy money, or lacked the vision.
The same holds true today. Lots of people are here because they smell money/opportunity but very few have "the" vision much like the majority of domain professionals in the ascii world.

Best part of a decade later we come to IDN. The blue print is more or less there, with one or two minor customisations. Edwin stepped into Japanese and used the DMOZ directories to clean up. Now most of the major languages have now been mined. "Mining" wasn't even in the domainers vocabulary back then.

Right. We are all mining and here comes mr. domainer, drops a few mil, and someone forks over their portfolio. Win-win.

I am not saying some cannot come in and make a success of things, but those that are going to are going to have to move a lot faster and play a lot cuter than was actually the case with ASCII. We know that there 65K domainers at what used to be Eachnic but is now domain.cn. Those guys can move over in a instance in to IDN. The competition is going to be unbelievable. Once the balloon goes up this is going to explode with a lot more force than ASCII ever did.

Even though the ascii market is oversaturated, there are millions made on a consistent basis, regardless. I just feel it will be the same with idn, even more so, since there are so many laguages thus so many possibilities to acquire a decent earner cheaply.

[Rubber Duck]

Actually they did. There was the adult advertising experience but only a few carried it over to mainstream at the time, because the rest, frankly, were too busy making easy money, or lacked the vision.
The same holds true today. Lots of people are here because they smell money/opportunity but very few have "the" vision much like the majority of domain professionals in the ascii world.

Right. We are all mining and here comes mr. domainer, drops a few mil, and someone forks over their portfolio. Win-win.

Even though the ascii market is oversaturated, there are millions made on a consistent basis, regardless. I just feel it will be the same with idn, even more so, since there are so many laguages thus so many possibilities to acquire a decent earner cheaply.

Absolutely right on the vision. I would seem to me that of those that have passed this way less than 10% will make serious money. You cannot build a future on windless excuses.

Selling out to Mr Domainer should not be the primary objective, however much we might all like to see some liquidity in the market.

Well, I think you can kiss goodbye to Korean at reasonable prices after last night. Japanese, Chinese and Russia won't be far behind. You may have a few months leeway with many of the others. Yes, a lot more domains, but yes also a lot more potential players. Indeed, there are probably as many domainers in Russia and Asia as there are in the West already. Those numbers are set to grow substantially. Even if you kick around DNF, it is surprising how many domainers have associations with the places we are interested in.

[markits]

I am here to buy more idns.

Sadly, nothing for sale.....