Reglikedomain industry desk

2014 in Review: ICYMI

A look back at the past year in the domain name business.

Over the past week I released a podcast and five posts covering five big themes in the domain name business in 2014.

I know a lot of people travel or unplug over the holidays, so here’s a summary:

Consolidation continued in the domain name industry in 2014, from blockbusters like .Co selling for more than $100M to smaller deals such as Agreed Escrow. Conditions for further consolidation exist, so stay tuned for more M&A activity in 2015.

Fresh TLDs came onto the scene in 2014, and the domain name industry was abuzz. Awareness among the generic public remains low and will be a key question in 2015.

Domain Theft and Phishing continued, thanks in part to unfortunate ICANN policy regarding verifying whois information.

It was a bad year for domain name stocks, save for Tucows and Endurance. Shares of 7 other firms lost value last year, and 6 of them lost at least 40%.

Short .com domain names remain some of the most popular and valuable domain names.

You can listen to the podcast here.

Also on the wire

Other reporting from the domain desk.

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