Contact with Sedo

[rofsjan]

We had recently contact with Aidan_from_Namedrive on IDNF.
It was a win-win situation.
It would be usefull to have similar contact with Sedo.
Does anybody has a potential contact person at Sedo in mind who we could invite to our forum?
Maybe Sedo will appreciate our feedback regarding IDN as much as Namedrive.

for example it would be an improvement if Sedo would make it possible to bring out an offer via
"for sale"-links on IDN-sites, parked at Sedo. now those links are dead and
the following error appears when clicking on such links:
"There were errors processing your request:
Invalid call
Please correct your input"

[Rubber Duck]

I have had previous extensive contact with Sedo.

It is was like talking to a ventriloquist's dummy.

We had recently contact with Aidan_from_Namedrive on IDNF.
It was a win-win situation.
It would be usefull to have similar contact with Sedo.
Does anybody has a potential contact person at Sedo in mind who we could invite to our forum?
Maybe Sedo will appreciate our feedback regarding IDN as much as Namedrive.

for example it would be an improvement if Sedo would make it possible to bring out an offer via
"for sale"-links on IDN-sites, parked at Sedo. now those links are dead and
the following error appears when clicking on such links:
"There were errors processing your request:
Invalid call
Please correct your input"

[Drewbert]

I have had previous extensive contact with Sedo.

It is was like talking to a ventriloquist's dummy.

Tell me about it.

It's like incompetence is a requirement to get a job there.

[Fka200]

zzzzzzzzzzz with Sedo.

[rofsjan]

We have a sedo-representative on the forum.

Check out the thread. (http://www.idnforums.com/forums/20935-new-sedo-contact-for-idnforums.html)

Maybe it is a coincidence, but I contacted Sedo-support with a invitation
to visit our forum a couple of weeks ago.

[Rubber Duck]

They are probably just so desperate they are actually prepared to start toying with ideas that possibly make sense. :lol:

[bwhhisc]

Looks like they are just doing fine, appears they are focused on sales so maybe IDNs will be a good part of their upcoming mix.
2008 highlights for SEDO overall:

General user data shows this increase:
-14.3 million domains, up 61% from same period last year
-6.1 million domains for sale, up 45%
-859,000 registered users, up 48%
-175 employees, up 22%

http://domainnamewire.com/2008/12/16/sedo-domain-sales-booming-as-parking-flounders/

Sedo Domain Sales Booming as Parking Flounders
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
Despite parking meltdown, Sedo ’s sales success keeps it on the right path.

AdLINK Group, parent organization of Sedo, recently released its quarterly financial report (pdf). Despite a weak environment for domain parking revenue, the company seems to be holding its own in the current downturn. Sales for the first nine months of 2008 are down 5.4% compared to the same period last year, with sales of EUR 42.4M. However, when you factor in adverse exchange rate conditions, the company grew revenue 6.25%.

Adlink blames weakness on domain parking: This was due in particular to the changes in the policy and algorithms of one of our most important partner in the search engine business during the first quarter of 2008. That partner is Google. Given that domain parking revenue is down, and domain parking is a higher margin business than domain sales (which earn Sedo at most 10% gross margin), this means that domain sales at Sedo are increasing significantly.

Although the company doesn’t break out revenue between parking and sales, we can back into a decent estimate. In 2007 the company sold EUR 49.8M worth of domains. Let’s assume an average 10% commission, meaning sales commissions generated EUR 5M for the company. Last year the company paid EUR 34.5M to parking customers. If we assume the company paid out 50% of its parking revenue, then it earned about EUR 34.5M in 2007 from parking.

This obviously doesn’t add up to the company’s total sales, but it just shows how important parking is to the company’s income. Since know parking has been hit hard this year, you can decipher that domain sales are substantially higher in 2008 for the company to maintain level revenue numbers.

General user data also shows this increase:
-14.3 million domains, up 61% from same period last year
-6.1 million domains for sale, up 45%
-859,000 registered users, up 48%
-175 employees, up 22%

[Wot]

Get a fairly high percentage of my ascii sales via Sedo but there is no doubt they are completely backwards in coming forward regarding IDN other than .de. :)

[bwhhisc]

Get a fairly high percentage of my ascii sales via Sedo but there is no doubt they are completely backwards in coming forward regarding IDN other than .de. :)

They are the best positioned company to help bring quality IDN sales into the market.
Still some waiting until ICANN puts the boots towards getting idn.idn indeed onto a fast track.

[Rubber Duck]

They are the best positioned company to help bring quality IDN sales into the market.
Still some waiting until ICANN puts the boots towards getting idn.idn indeed onto a fast track.

Is Lobotomy reversable?

[Sedo]

Hey Everyone,

We are looking to develop in the area of IDN sales and we are currently working on the technical aspects on how we could do this. I am happy to have the opportunity on this forum to collect your thoughts as IDN domainers.

This isn't a move out of desperation but there are alot of good IDN domains that we currently can't support. We want to move in the direction to support these domains and give the IDN domain owners a chance to sell their domains through our marketplace.

Best Regards,

John Jacobsen

[Miguel]

Q to SEDO:
I park a good ascii real estate name with SEDO. It gets 60+ clicks a day for $1 a pop. By the end of the month ppc falls to 10c.

I park a good idn phone name with SEDO. It gets 30+ clicks a day for $0.50 a pop. By the end of the month ppc falls to 2c.


What's going on?

[ilovedomains]

I think it would be good if sedo tried out a premium idn auction

[blastfromthepast]

:)

[Sedo]

Hi Ilovedomains,

A Premium IDN themed auction would be a great idea, however, to take full advantage of this it would probably be best until we are able to support all IDN domains including UTF8 domains that we currently can't list or transfer due to technical reasons.

Hopefully, in the future we can work out these technical issues and possibly have such an auction exclusively for IDN domain owners.

Best Regards,

John Jacobsen

John.Jacobsen@Sedo.com

[bramiozo]

Any help needed on the db conversion ? I can imagine hiring a professional db expert would be to costly so perhaps we can help since utf-8 is
the default encoding for idn developers.

Perhaps we can even set up a separate subforum for this.

This should of course be compensated by some sort of free advertisement for idnforums :) .

(ok...we need to sign a few nda's...)

[domainguru]

too costly 4 sedo? do you know how much money they make from auctions a month? money isn't the issue. but **** are they incompetent. still waffling on about not being able to list or transfer utf-8 domains. they don't seem to exist in the same century as most people on the web. its not like dealing with utf-8 is difficult in any way.

let's face it, they just can't be arsed. it will probably take one massive IDN sale elsewhere and sedo will solve all their amazing IDN technical difficulties in about 3 seconds.

[Drewbert]

Let's hold off on the IDN themed auctions idea at least until IDN ccTLD's hit the streets, shall we?

[Sedo]

Hey Domainguru,

Although it is possible to park utf-8 domains with Sedo, we are currently not able to support utf-8 domain bidding. We do see the large potential in the IDN marketplace and we hope to develop with this in the future.

It is not so much a funding issue but more a technical issue as we need to develop proper resources to support proper online negotiations and technical transfers which is currently un-supported by our marketplace database.

Best Regards,

John

John.Jacobsen@Sedo.com

[Rubber Duck]

Yes, but you were fully aware of this problem 2-3 years ago.

The fact that Sedo doesn't support IDN to many ASCII domainers suggests they are not real domains, which is of course damaging to the market place just as the discontinuation of support from Net Sol was damaging.

So what are you doing about it.
? Well, apparently nothing. You are simply talking about possibly doing something, which is precisely where where we were about 2 or 3 years ago.

Why should we get excited? If I am to get excited, it will take Schumacher to make a announcement at a mainstream venue. Until then I will just continue to be underwhelmed by your sloth.

Hey Domainguru,

Although it is possible to park utf-8 domains with Sedo, we are currently not able to support utf-8 domain bidding. We do see the large potential in the IDN marketplace and we hope to develop with this in the future.

It is not so much a funding issue but more a technical issue as we need to develop proper resources to support proper online negotiations and technical transfers which is currently un-supported by our marketplace database.

Best Regards,

John

John.Jacobsen@Sedo.com

[bramiozo]

IDN Domains are "Internationalized Domains Names", they make the use of special non-English characters possible (i.e. Umlauts like "ä", "ö" und "ü", other European Characters like "á", "é", "í"). These domains are subject to many temporary technical restrictions, for example users need an IDN compatible browser to visit them.

Perhaps remove this message or at least adapt it ?

[Rubber Duck]

IDN Domains are "Internationalized Domains Names", they make the use of special non-English characters possible (i.e. Umlauts like "ä", "ö" und "ü", other European Characters like "á", "é", "í"). These domains are subject to many temporary technical restrictions, for example users need an IDN compatible browser to visit them.

Perhaps remove this message or at least adapt it ?

Why change the Mission Statement? Nothing has changed, absolutely nothing.

And this forum is frankly not much better. We had a big discussion about short-comings here a month or so ago. What has changed? Nothing much as far as I can tell!

[Sedo]

Hey Everyone,

Just an FYI in case you didn't see the other posting in the other discussion thread:

We have been informed that due to a security problem at one of our competitors a list of their customer data including plaintext passwords is currently circulating in the domain parking industry and in relevant hacker forums.

Due to the seriousness of this matter combined with the possibility that you might be using the same login data/password at more than one parking company, we strongly advise you to change your password at Sedo.

Sedo uses cryptographically unbreakable ciphertext for password checks and does not store your password in plaintext. This, and a variety of other security measures, ensures that your Sedo account is always safe from third parties.

We generally advise you to always use different login credentials for different sites and never hand out your login credentials to any third party.

Kind Regards,

John

John.Jacobsen@Sedo.com

[domainguru]

Sedo uses cryptographically unbreakable ciphertext for password checks and does not store your password in plaintext. This, and a variety of other security measures, ensures that your Sedo account is always safe from third parties.


Ah - ye of too much faith. Even people working in cryphotgraphy realize that nothing is unhackable. "Always safe" are famous last words in the security industry, avoid at all costs, unless you want to be sued down the line. "We do everything possible to ensure our users' safety" is perhaps more appropriate.

[jose]

Sedo uses cryptographically unbreakable ciphertext for password checks and does not store your password in plaintext.John.Jacobsen@Sedo.com

Are you saying ND stored their pwds on plaintext files?! :eek:

[Rubber Duck]

Ah - ye of too much faith. Even people working in cryphotgraphy realize that nothing is unhackable. "Always safe" are famous last words in the security industry, avoid at all costs, unless you want to be sued down the line. "We do everything possible to ensure our users' safety" is perhaps more appropriate.

If the information has gone missing, then it is down to the personnel within the organization. Is is really that likely that the encryption is going to work against insiders. Ultimately, the best security in this industry is to run your own Registrar.

[Drewbert]

Are you saying ND stored their pwds on plaintext files?! :eek:

Doubtful.

If that was the case more than 1% of account would have been affected! They'd just managed to crack passwords for 1% of the user base by the time they were caught.

[jose]

Are you saying ND stored their pwds on plaintext files?! :eek:

Doubtful.

If that was the case more than 1% of account would have been affected! They'd just managed to crack passwords for 1% of the user base by the time they were caught.

Yes, RD seems right. Not a very honorable thing for SEDO to do, to hit the opponent when he is on his knees.

[Sedo]

Hey Jose,

Yes, RD seems right. Not a very honorable thing for SEDO to do, to hit the opponent when he is on his knees.

This isn't a hit against Namedrive. I would just like to inform any Sedo customers that have accounts to update their passwords, especially if they have accounts at Sedo and Namedrive using the same login details.

Kind Regards,

John Jacobsen

John.Jacobsen@Sedo.com

[jose]

Hey Jose,



This isn't a hit against Namedrive. I would just like to inform any Sedo customers that have accounts to update their passwords, especially if they have accounts at Sedo and Namedrive using the same login details.

Kind Regards,

John Jacobsen

John.Jacobsen@Sedo.com

Thanks for your reply John. My issue was just with the "plaintext pwd files". How do you know? I think it's one of the worst thing to say about the security of a web service... but that's just me.