DomainTools Blog

The Canadian Financial Post has an article on how many domainers there are in Vancouver which is titled, “B.C.’s masters of their domain” by Nathan Vanderklippe. It turns out that I have a few quotes in the article. After Paul Sloan’s Kevin Ham cover story in Business 2.0, it seems like everyone in Vancouver that collects domain names is getting more attention. I was asked the question, “So what brings so many domainers to Vancouver?” and I responded “I think it’s something in the water there”. But I think the real answer is the networking the leaders in the space did early on. The top domainers in Vancouver starting talking early on and this gave them a leg up on the rest of the world. Information is the key to building an empire on new technology like domain names. As everyone was figuring things out the hard way, we see those that networked and talked got an information advantage because they may have learned something from a peer before they figured it out on their own.

VANCOUVER -To those not in their tight circle or familiar with the hidden underpinnings of the online world, British Columbia’s domainers are the anonymous nouveau riche. They have none of the star power of their real-world brethren, the Donald Trumps and fellow billionaire property developers whose dealings the world follows with tabloid interest.

But over the past decade, they have quietly made Southern B.C. into the world’s Internet ownership capital, a sort of virtual Manhattan that is home to some of earth’s most valuable addresses. One, who lives in Vancouver, owns god.com, a name so lucrative one fellow domainer said “everybody on Earth” will visit it at one time or another.

A Penticton man owns virus. com, whose value to both the pharmaceutical and software worlds makes it nearly as valuable as a Park Avenue penthouse in New York. Another owns a swollen bank account, after selling his portfolio of 100,000 addresses for US$164-million.

Altogether, B.C.’s Internet owners are worth at least US$1-billion, estimates Jay Westerdal, the president and chief executive of online research firm Name Intelligence Inc.

Read the Full article at the Financial Post.