Comments on: Oversee.net Gets a $150 Million Injection of Private Equity

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:14:36 +0000

Re Oversee.net not owning Oversee.com: It is a bit ironic, but in this case it’s not a big deal. Oversee.net is really just the holding company; buyers visit the holdings including DomainSponsor (and now Moniker).

By: Domain Name Wire

Domain Name Wire — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:13:12 +0000

Will Recession Hit Domains?…

Will a recession hit domain values and underlying pay-per-click revenue?

When TechCrunch covered Oversee.net’s $150M investment (see Domain Name Wire story), the popular blog suggested that a recession could hurt the domain…

By: Technicle

Technicle — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:18:37 +0000

Recession will leave more people to stay online; when ads revenue dry up, revert to fee-based models. Economy comes and goes in cycles. Internet economy and/or biz models not much different.

By: will

will — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:13:21 +0000

you guys are forgetting that recession will drive down consumer demand which means search volumn for services/prodcucts will drop (mortgage search terms have dropped)

so even if marketers want to spend more money, they will not be able to. . . matter of supply and demand

By: Technicle

Technicle — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:03:05 +0000

>why don’t they own (or use) oversee.com? Spend the bucks guys and get the real TLD.

While topix.net spent $1M to get topix.com, there’s really no need to, for real companies having real business models.

Eg., daum.net (korea biggie), gmx.net (germany biggie) or boingboing.net, or box.net, eg., are on .net’s. Craigslist and Slashdot and PaidContent etc highly successful with .org’s. Dotcom, while standard, is not a must.

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:54:00 +0000

I was asked this question about 6 months ago when the credit crunch was first starting to make big waves. I totally agree with the statement. When marketers start to see reduced budgets while having increased pressure for results, that superbowl ad is going to look less and less attractive next to an online campaign, especially when looking at direct navigation traffic that tends to convert multiples better than even traditional search.

As well, the domain development evolution is what sparked our business model. Syndicating our user-generated content provides large swaths of product related domain properties a way to create memorable brands while increasing return visits and overall revenue. IMO, the partial or complete development of even a small portion of their domains will see Oversee progress into an online media empire in no time.

By: Andy Schweig

Andy Schweig — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:55:52 +0000

completely agreed with #1, in a recession, direct response marketers like Oversee.net should thrive, while companies that rely heavily on brand advertising (like Yahoo) will suffer.

By: Martin Edic

Martin Edic — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:32:50 +0000

Disagree on the recession point. In a recession marketing dollars will move into measurable, transactional media buys, i.e. online advertising. The efficiency of ROI is the thing. Traditional media gets killed, online suffers from a lack of inventory. In this scenario domain owners who develop (as opposed to simply holding or parking) will profit. Those who are in for quick trading of domains will get hurt.
The question is what does Oversee do with the capital? I suspect development of a media empire is an option.
Next question- why don’t they own (or use) oversee.com? Spend the bucks guys and get the real TLD.