Reglikedomain industry desk

Jothan Frakes to lead Moniker

Frakes to the rescue?

Domain name industry veteran Jothan Frakes is set to take over the helm of Moniker as interim CEO later this month.

Frakes will have a tough challenge ahead of him. Moniker has been in a tailspin ever since it switched from its legacy system to a reseller platform under the ownership of KeyDrive.

The fresh system was confusing to users. Worse, migration errors led to domain names missing from accounts and incorrect account balances. Support and communication during the transition breakdown were abysmal.

At the end of May 2014, just ahead of the switch, Moniker had 1.089 million .com domain names under management. At the end of May 2015, Moniker had just 0.687 million .com domains under management. (It’s total with other extensions is obviously higher.)

I imagine the first goal for Moniker and Frakes at this point is to just stem the losses. Moniker still has a sizable number of domains under management, and it might be able to convince clients to not move them when they come up for renewal. It might also be able to convince some remaining clients to increase business with them once the ship is righted.

As for people that have by now moved out, I don’t think there’s much the firm can do to win them back, assuming the defectors have found another registrar they’re happy with.

There’s no word yet on how Frakes role will affect his involvement with NamesCon/DomainFest.

News of Frakes’ hiring was first noted by Domain Incite.

Also on the wire

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