Ambrand.com

There was a time when Network Solutions was the only show in town. Things changed, but did you realise by how much? There are over 500 accredited domain registrars today.

Some of them are household names - well in my house at least - i.e. Network Solutions, GoDaddy, Bulk Register, Joker.com, but others are, well how should I put this obscure shelf companies. I mean who registers a domain at “Whiteglove Domains, Incorporated“, and where would such a hypothetical customer even find out that company existed, unless they threw a dart at their monitor while it was displaying the list?

Lets look at that list, there are just so many registrars, many are clearly owned by the same party, some are obvious…

Enom Corporate, Inc. United States (no logo available)

Enom GMP Services, Inc. United States (no logo available)

Enom1, Inc. United States (no logo available)

Enom2, Inc. United States (no logo available)

Enom3, Inc. United States (no logo available)

Enom4, Inc. United States (no logo available)

Enom5, Inc. United States (no logo available)

EnomAU, Inc. United States (no logo available)

EnomAte, Inc. United States (no logo available)

EnomEU, Inc. United States (no logo available)

EnomMX, Inc. United States (no logo available)

EnomTen, Inc. United States (no logo available)

EnomToo, Inc. United States (no logo available)

EnomV, Inc. United States (no logo available)

EnomX, Inc. United States (no logo available)

Enoma1, Inc. United States (no logo available)

Enomfor, Inc. United States (no logo available)

Enomnz, Inc. United States (no logo available)

continues…

enom371, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom373, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom375, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom377, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom379, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom381, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom383, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom385, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom387, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom389, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom391, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom393, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom395, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom397, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom399, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom403, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom405, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom407, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom409, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom411, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom413, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom415, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom417, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom419, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom421, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom423, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom425, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom427, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom429, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom431, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom433, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom435, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom437, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom439, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom441, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom443, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom445, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom447, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom449, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom451, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom453, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom455, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom457, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom459, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom461, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom463, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom465.com, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom467, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

enom469, Incorporated United States (no logo available)

and others are not as obvious.

One possible reason for one party owning multiple registrars is the backorder market. There are many domains out there today that once had websites, and traffic, but have been left expire by their registrants. Because of their pre-existing traffic these can command a high price from Pay-per-click publishers. eNom we can assume is involved in the backorder market. At the very second a domain expires, it will hammer the relevant gTLD Registry with all of its cronies hoping that one will be a split second ahead of its competitors cronies. Once the name is registered it can be auctioned, for a nice profit, a minimum USD 60 is the current market rate.

But is there another reason? I am reminded of a bar that has two liquor licences, the latter acting as insurance should the first be suspended for selling to a minor. Look at Registryfly, this was an NJ, US based domain name registrar that had their ICANN-accredited status terminated in March 2007. I imagine that had it established a few shelf companies it could have remained in business by a doing a bulk transfer of its domains.