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Crazy Domains acquires Enetica

DomainNames

Top Contributor
Crazy Domains has acquired Enetica and WebCity for $4.45M.

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/629010/dreamscape-buys-entica-group-4-45m/

Another registrar folds under the Big 3.

Will Enetica come under any offshore holding company? How does this affect Australian .au registrant consumers?

_____________
https://www.auda.org.au/news/breach-of-registrar-agreement-by-crazy-domains/

"Breach of Registrar Agreement by Crazy Domains
Posted by on 11 June 2013

auDA has found that accredited registrar Crazy Domains Pty Ltd has breached its obligations under the Registrar Agreement to comply with the .au Domain Name Suppliers’ Code of Practice and all applicable laws.

It has recently come to auDA’s attention that since late October 2012:
  • the business conducted at the Crazy Domains-branded website at www.crazydomains.com.au has been owned and operated by or on behalf of Dreamscape Networks FZ LLC, a foreign company registered and resident in Dubai; and
  • customers who have registered a .au domain name through the Crazy Domains-branded website at www.crazydomains.com.au have entered into a contract with Dreamscape Networks FZ LLC and not Crazy Domains Pty Ltd, and have been issued with invoices which are not proper Tax Invoices for the purposes of GST legislation.
After auDA advised Crazy Domains Pty Ltd of its concerns and investigation, Crazy Domains Pty Ltd advised auDA in late April that Dreamscape Networks FZ LLC is one of its appointed resellers.

In auDA’s view, Crazy Domains Pty Ltd has permitted Dreamscape Networks FZ LLC to trade as a reseller using the domain name crazydomains.com.au and the website www.crazydomains.com.au in a way which would lead a reasonable member of the public seeking to register a .au domain name to believe that they are dealing with the accredited registrar Crazy Domains Pty Ltd and not the reseller Dreamscape Networks FZ LLC.

auDA considers that Crazy Domains Pty Ltd’s and Dreamscape Networks FZ LLC's conduct in this regard is likely to mislead consumers and contravenes the Australian Consumer Law and that Crazy Domains Pty Ltd is involved in the contraventions by Dreamscape Networks FZ LLC.

auDA also considers that both Crazy Domains Pty Ltd and Dreamscape Networks FZ LLC have breached clause 7.2 of the .au Domain Name Suppliers’ Code of Practice (2004-04), by not supplying information about products that is clear, accurate, complete and not confusing, misleading or deceptive. Under the terms of the Registrar Agreement, accredited registrars are responsible for the conduct of their appointed resellers.

auDA has issued a formal Notice of Breach to Crazy Domains Pty Ltd requiring it to ensure that its reseller Dreamscape Networks FZ LLC takes action to correct the misleading nature of the Crazy Domains-branded website at www.crazydomains.com.au.

auDA is continuing its investigation of a number of other possible breaches by Crazy Domains Pty Ltd of its Registrar Agreement."
 

Cheyne

Top Contributor
Will Enetica come under any offshore holding company? How does this affect Australian .au registrant consumers?

To my knowledge, Enetica was already owned by an offshore holding company based in Singapore.

Due to the Big 3 dominating 75% of the .au market share this will have little to no impact on punters but continues the decline of the competitive retail environment locally.
 

DomainNames

Top Contributor
To my knowledge, Enetica was already owned by an offshore holding company based in Singapore.

Due to the Big 3 dominating 75% of the .au market share this will have little to no impact on punters but continues the decline of the competitive retail environment locally.

So what do you suggest, what are your points?

1. Do you want to see a lower wholesale .au price from auDA and Golden Gate Capital / Neustar Ausregistry so you can make more money out of the .au money pie?
2. Should foreign owned companies be banned from running the wholesale registry and as registars/ reellers?
3. Should you also sell up as others have and take the $$$?

I'm not having a go at you what do you have as an issue and what are you asking for as a solution to your concerns? Some people have done very well..

https://www.crn.com.au/news/118m-payday-for-melbourne-domain-name-firm-407350
http://www.afr.com/technology/there...nologies-sold-for-1185-million-20150731-k9zvg
http://m.asx.com.au/m/company-info.xhtml?issuerCode=MLB
 

Scott.L

Top Contributor
I'll say it again....Issue a capital raising 100m @ $0.20c or 50M @ $0.50c - you could do allot with $20+ Million.
 

Cheyne

Top Contributor
So what do you suggest?
There is literally nothing I can do expect to encourage people to back local registrars whose interests are solely based here.

That doesn't have to be my company as there are many smaller registrars that are solely based here, but people avoid them due to cost and then wonder why all of these registrars are being sold out to overseas interests.

So support local registrars and pay a little more, or expect more of the same to keep happening.
 

Cheyne

Top Contributor
I'll say it again....Issue a capital raising 100m @ $0.20c or 50M @ $0.50c - you could do allot with $20+ Million.

You're right, I could do a lot with $20M, but that would also signal the beginning of the end for us being a wholly Australian owned registrar.

Shareholders demand returns and that means cutting costs which means outsourcing support and deploying tax minimisation strategies which is usually done through offshore subsidiaries.

I know a lot of people find it hard to believe (especially on these forums), but Angelo and I both have a genuine passion for this industry and even though we are invested financially its not the driver behind what we do and why we do it because if it was we would have sold up years ago when we were offered $15M+ for a business that was only turning over $4M.
 

Scott.L

Top Contributor
Your Aussie model is expansive enough to give investors a return. Don't undercut yourself over nationalistic narratives (its just business) - raising significant capital to compete and acquire dominant market share is going to depend on you expanding your ability to source capital, it wont be from organic growth within this au market.

heads up, I'll be the first to buy into the prospectus. ;)
 

DomainNames

Top Contributor
You're right, I could do a lot with $20M, but that would also signal the beginning of the end for us being a wholly Australian owned registrar.

Shareholders demand returns and that means cutting costs which means outsourcing support and deploying tax minimisation strategies which is usually done through offshore subsidiaries.

I know a lot of people find it hard to believe (especially on these forums), but Angelo and I both have a genuine passion for this industry and even though we are invested financially its not the driver behind what we do and why we do it because if it was we would have sold up years ago when we were offered $15M+ for a business that was only turning over $4M.

What is your 5 - 10 year plan? Will you sell out eventually and will it be to foreign owners? The result could be people paying you now for the exact same .au registration they can buy at a lower price now. Your profit building the company plus you then sell out anyway? Do the people who support you by paying more win?

You advertise a lot of other domain extensions on your website which are lower priced than your .com.au pricing. Why? Why are they cheaper than the .com.au pricing you offer?

Where is the real loyalty from any registrar who actively sells other extension name options against the .au namespace options?

The fact is there are now over 1000 domain name extensions in the world the .au competes against PLUS APPS which do not even need domains. This is where the Supply side is pushing an agenda for another .au extension due to the $$$ of defensive registrations they think they can push in.

Look at the demand class candidates who really represent demand... Ned and Tim plus ACCAN who represents consumers and existing businesses and registrants
https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/5...ern-over-proposed-domain-name-system-changes/

$6.95 per year .Sydney
$6.95 per year .Melbourne
$8.67 .Org.au
$10.33 .Net.au

https://ventraip.com.au/domain-names/register/
 

DomainNames

Top Contributor
Even the 90% discount won't sell that junk.

But what is caused was a mess globally.... who makes the money Icann, Admin bodies, Registars... they keep bringing out new extensions.. most will fail....

Do we need more domain name extensions? No. We need less of the crap and less of the B.S claims they will be better for SEO and google results etc

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-new-tld-myth-14878.html
https://domainnamewire.com/2012/03/14/matt-cutts-new-tlds/
http://terrapinmarketing.com/tel-domains-recipe-for-success/

"Matt Cutts, Google’s search quality demi God, just shot this down on Google+:

I read a post by someone offering new top-level domain (TLDs). They made this claim: “Will a new TLD web address automatically be favoured by Google over a .com equivalent? Quite simply, yes it will.”
Sorry, but that’s just not true, and as an engineer in the search quality team at Google, I feel the need to debunk this misconception. Google has a lot of experience in returning relevant web pages, regardless of the top-level domain (TLD). Google will attempt to rank new TLDs appropriately, but I don’t expect a new TLD to get any kind of initial preference over .com, and I wouldn’t bet on that happening in the long-term either. If you want to register an entirely new TLD for other reasons, that’s your choice, but you shouldn’t register a TLD in the mistaken belief that you’ll get some sort of boost in search engine rankings.
” Matt was responding to “”Adrian Kinderis of ARI Registry Services”.
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
Do we need more domain name extensions? No. We need less of the crap and less of the B.S claims they will be better for SEO and google results etc

This is why AUDA shouldn't listen to supply side personalities if they want to know what is really going on.

AUDA has spent too much time time at Icann meetings listening to nonsense about "Competition from ntlds" and "The need to keep up with New Zealand & Nominet".

AUDA has taken advice from salesmen, the same salesmen selling new tlds!
 

DomainNames

Top Contributor
This is why AUDA shouldn't listen to supply side personalities if they want to know what is really going on.

AUDA has spent too much time time at Icann meetings listening to nonsense about "Competition from ntlds" and "The need to keep up with New Zealand & Nominet".

AUDA has taken advice from salesmen, the same salesmen selling new tlds!

As it happens I spoke to some Australians going to the Icann "junket" this week. They said they will ask Nominet and https://nzrs.net.nz/ about their success for the .uk and .nz... What will they expect them to say?
 

Horshack

Top Contributor
I just noticed the latest BigW catalogue has arrived on my doorstep and has a big BigW.com on the front. The big end of town look like they are heading down the .com track now
 

DomainNames

Top Contributor
I just noticed the latest BigW catalogue has arrived on my doorstep and has a big BigW.com on the front. The big end of town look like they are heading down the .com track now

The big end of town has always tried to buy the .com equivalent of their .com.au name. Sometimes it takes them years to negotiate to buy it if they missed it at the start of the .com registration era.

The fact is most Australian will still visit the .com.au and not the .com for Australian based businesses

www.BigW.com is just url forwarded to www.BigW.com.au to prove this.

If they thought the .com was better they would url forward the .com.au to the .com

Same goes for www.Carsales.com it is still url forwarded to www.CarSales.com.au and not the other way around.

The .com.au is solid, well known trusted and respected globally. For Australians the .com.au is the key domain name extension to register, If you can also get the .com version also it should be bought where possible within available budgets.
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
I just noticed the latest BigW catalogue has arrived on my doorstep and has a big BigW.com on the front. The big end of town look like they are heading down the .com track now

Interesting, definitely becoming more of a trend.

Part of this lies at the foot of AUDA in my view because they have allowed the .com brand to get more popular in this country by doing nothing about red tape around .com.au. The unrestricted .com continues to take market share (even though Tim & probably all of AUDA are in a state of denial on the issue).

https://www.dntrade.com.au/threads/the-rising-popularity-of-com-in-australia.11583/

The .AU proposal is likely to speed up this process because now confusion will be added to the mix, yet another reason to use a .com rather than the country code.
 

DomainNames

Top Contributor
Interesting, definitely becoming more of a trend.

Part of this lies at the foot of AUDA in my view because they have allowed the .com brand to get more popular in this country by doing nothing about red tape around .com.au. The unrestricted .com continues to take market share (even though Tim & probably all of AUDA are in a state of denial on the issue).

https://www.dntrade.com.au/threads/the-rising-popularity-of-com-in-australia.11583/

The .AU proposal is likely to speed up this process because now confusion will be added to the mix, yet another reason to use a .com rather than the country code.

I think what it shows is people will get the country code for their name such as .com.au and the .com if they can also.

Businesses would be crazy in Australia to just use the .com and not get the .com.au also.

Yes there has been too much auDA red tape over the years and this hurt the .au namespace and cost .au registrants more money.
 

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