eNom Announces Growing Momentum and Interest in New TLDs

04/24/13

More Than Two Million Expressions of Interest and 400 Resellers Ready to Capitalize on New TLD Initiative

eNom Readies Tools for Businesses and Consumers to Participate in Internet History

KIRKLAND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--eNom, the world’s largest ICANN accredited wholesale registrar, today revealed two key touchstones achieved in its ongoing commitment to ready customers for the upcoming launch of new Top Level Domains (TLDs). Following the ICANN 46 Conference in Beijing earlier this month, the registrar reports that more than 400 of their resellers have signed up for the initiative for new TLDs, with modules specifically tailored for partners and end-users to seamlessly participate in all phases of this historic launch.

Additionally, the eNom New TLD Watchlist module has collected more than two million expressions of interest for domains to be registered with the new TLDs. Together, these benchmarks signify consumer anticipation for new TLDs such as .NINJA, set to become available later this year.

“eNom will be supporting many of the new TLDs coming to market through the Sunrise, Landrush and General Availability phases, so preparing our customers for this landmark evolution has been a top priority for our team,” stated Taryn Naidu, executive vice president of Domain Services for Demand Media, parent company of eNom. “We see the strong adoption by our partners and the increased activity on Watchlist as an excellent indicator of the excitement in the months to come.”

With more than 1,000 new TLDs coming to market beginning this fall, eNom has prepared all areas of its business to deliver the best platform for its resellers to attract new customers and increase sales. The initiative for New TLDs, launched last year, has been strongly received and implemented by eNom partners, with the plug-and-play embedded new TLD widget quickly becoming the most popular.

“eNom is way ahead of the game in supporting the rollout of new global top level domains. The eNom team built an intuitive Watchlist application that we quickly and simply integrated into our Panel - enabling our 360,000 global customers to get up to speed on the new TLDs and track domain names they might want to purchase once released,” said Simon Anderson, CEO of DreamHost. “We love when strategic partners apply their expertise to simplify our customers’ experience, and eNom has been an ideal partner for this reason.”

“The eNom New TLD Watchlist is such a great feature,” said John Martis, president of Hostway and Domainpeople.com. “It gives our customers the chance to mark their interest and be kept up to date on when the domain name they care about becomes available – it is anticipating the need – and that is smart.”

In the more than two million Watchlist submissions received over the course of nine months, the three new domain extensions of greatest interest are:

1) .Web
2) .Shop
3) .Hotel

From a category viewpoint, the most expressions of interest have been in the areas of:

1) Services (for example: .Attorney, .Expert, .Law, .Design, .Engineer)
2) Identity and Lifestyle (for example: .Family, .Love, .VIP, .Mom, .Health)
3) Internationalized Domain Name/IDN (for example: .Com in Russian, .Sale in Japanese, .Charity in Chinese)
4) Geography (for example: .Vegas, .Melbourne, .Stockholm, .City)
5) Novelty (for example: .Wow, .Ninja, .Today, .WTF, .Zone)

Since eNom launched the Watchlist, Services, Identity & Lifestyle and Geography have consistently ranked in the top five categories. IDN and Novelty have recently joined the top five, replacing the Shopping (now 6th) and Technology (now 7th) categories.

Additional insights culled from Watchlist data include:

  • .Ninja is one of the fastest growing in interest; moving up from 27th place in December to 14th today and is the most popular in the Novelty category.
  • In the Sports category, .Fan, .Football and .Soccer all scored as the three fastest-growing rates of interest.
  • .Shop is the #1 ranked TLD being watched in Canada.

More information on eNom’s new TLD program is available at http://www.enom.com/resellers/benefits-newtlds.aspx

About eNom

eNom is the world’s largest ICANN accredited wholesale domain name registrar. A part of the Demand Media (DMD) family of companies, eNom makes it easy for individuals and organizations to buy and sell Internet domains and related services. For more information about eNom, please visit www.enom.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties regarding the Company's future financial performance, and are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry, financial condition, operating performance and results of operations, including certain assumptions related thereto. Statements containing words such as guidance, may, believe, anticipate, expect, intend, plan, project, projections, business outlook, and estimate or similar expressions constitute forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered an indication of future performance. Potential risks and uncertainties include, among others ; our ability to complete a separation of our business as previously announced and unanticipated developments that may delay or negatively impact such a transaction; the possibility that we may decide not to proceed with the separation of our business as previously announced if we determine that alternative opportunities are more favorable to our stockholders; the possibility that we decide to separate our business in a manner different from that previously disclosed; the impact and possible disruption to our operations from pursuing a previously announced separation transaction; the high costs we will likely incur in connection with such the previously announced separation transaction, which we would not be able to recoup if such a transaction is not consummated; the expectation that the previously announced transaction will be tax-free; revenue and growth expectations for the two independent companies following the separation of our business; the ability of each business to operate as an independent entity upon completion of such previously announced transaction; our ability to attract and retain key personnel; changes in the methodologies of internet search engines, including ongoing algorithmic changes made by Google as well as possible future changes, and the impact such changes may have on page view growth and driving search related traffic to our owned and operated websites and the websites of our network customers; changes in our content creation and distribution platform, including the possible repurposing of content to alternate distribution channels, reduced investments in intangible assets or the sale or removal of content; our ability to successfully launch, produce and monetize new content formats; our ability to diversify into new initiatives such as paid content; the inherent challenges of estimating the overall impact on page views and search driven traffic to our owned and operated websites based on the data available to us as internet search engines continue to make adjustments to their search algorithms; our ability to compete with new or existing competitors; our ability to maintain or increase our advertising revenue; our ability to continue to drive and grow traffic to our owned and operated websites and the websites of our network customers; our ability to effectively monetize our portfolio of content; our dependence on material agreements with a specific business partner for a significant portion of our revenue; future internal rates of return on content investment and our decision to invest in different types of content in the future, including premium video and other formats of text content; our ability to attract and retain freelance creative professionals; changes in our level of investment in media content intangibles; the effects of changes or shifts in internet marketing expenditures, including from text to video content as well as from desktop to mobile content; the effects of shifting consumption of media content from desktop to mobile; the effects of seasonality on traffic to our owned and operated websites and the websites of our network customers; our ability to continue to add partners to our registrar platform on competitive terms; our ability to successfully pursue and implement our gTLD initiative, and the actual impact of that initiative even if successfully implemented; changes in stock-based compensation; changes in amortization or depreciation expense due to a variety of factors; potential write downs, reserves against or impairment of assets including receivables, goodwill, intangibles (including media content) or other assets; changes in tax laws, our business or other factors that would impact anticipated tax benefits or expenses; our ability to successfully identify, consummate and integrate acquisitions; our ability to retain key customers and key personnel; risks associated with litigation; the impact of governmental regulation; and the effects of discontinuing or discontinued business operations. From time to time, we may consider acquisitions or divestitures that, if consummated, could be material. Any forward-looking statements regarding financial metrics are based upon the assumption that no such acquisition or divestiture is consummated during the relevant periods. If an acquisition or divestiture were consummated, actual results could differ materially from any forward-looking statements. More information about potential risk factors that could affect our operating and financial results are contained in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2012 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (http://www.sec.gov) on March 5, 2013, and as such risk factors may be updated in our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, information under the captions Risk Factors and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

Furthermore, as discussed above, the Company does not intend to revise or update the information set forth in this press release, except as required by law, and may not provide this type of information in the future.

Contact:
for eNom
Ashley Gillen
[email protected]
212.730.7277