The gatekeeper to the entire industry
By Andy Denton on Thursday, November 9, 2006 - 9:02 am
The battle lines are drawn. The domain portfolio companies are here to stay, and they brought friends. Companies like Marchex, Oversee.net, Demand Media, and Internet REIT are all backed by millions of dollars from investors and incoming revenues. And on the other side of this battle field is corporate America. Companies refusing to see the value in generic domain names as prime real estate along the information super-highway are simply missing out.
The Domain Name Journal couldn’t have said it any better…
…Schwartz asked the panel “How is it that Hilton and Marriott and Westin and all of the rest couldn’t figure out how many leads they would get from a domain like hotels.com? Instead of paying a million or two for a domain they now have to pay tens of millions (for leads) for the rest of their lives. So they flunked – they failed – and their advertising agencies failed them too!”
Regarding corporate America’s opportunity…
What we think they fail to understand is that a generic domain name reaches the consumer when they are thinking about buying something in a category, like an automobile, before they zero in on brands. Owning the generic domains, like cars.com, could effectively make them the gatekeeper for the entire industry, allowing them to intercept the customer and send them to the brand they want before they go to a competitor.
I wouldn’t say that we here at Realty.com are close to being the gatekeepers of our industry…yet. But, I would say that we’re getting closer to figuring out the combination!
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Comment from Robert Melton
Posted on Thursday, 9 November 2006 at 8:41 pm
You’ve probably got one or two gatekeepers ahead of you at Realty.com, but it still must be nice to have 
If I were a rich corporate executive for Hilton or Marriott, my response would be: “I’d rather spend money on leads and advertising to get consumers to our hotels than spend that money on development of a website that one day might dominate the industry. I know how to run a hotel. I don’t really know how to run a successful website.”
I’m not sure that’s a winning argument in this case, though. But it’s one that corporate america uses alot: whenever it purchases a component from a supplier rather than develop it in house.
Comment from Andy
Posted on Thursday, 9 November 2006 at 10:34 pm
Hi Robert,
You’re definitely right about us not being the primary ‘gatekeeper’. I think RE.com and Homes.com have that market cornered (as for generic realty terms). But, given time, I think our name is poised to be a contender.
The term “MLS” is already a dirty word. The new, online real estate trends are nearly making “realtor” a dirty word - evident as Realtor.com & Homestore rebrand themselves as Move.com.
The onus is now on us (Realty.com) to develop our services to make that move.
Comment from Robert Melton
Posted on Friday, 10 November 2006 at 9:05 am
I wish you the best of luck!
