I thought longtime ago for a stock exchange for domain names. As any other domainer. It is the perfect tool for the domain name market. An emerging market. Fusu did it.
Domaining, as it is defined by Wikipedia, is the business of buying, selling, developing and monetizing Internet domain names.
The domain name market is a speculative market. The investors will buy shares for a domain name for which they will have a revenue when the domain name will be sold only. Fusu just help in establishing “the right price” for every premium domain name.
From the point of view of the ethimology, Fusu (Chinese: 扶蘇; pinyin: fúsū) (died 210 BC) was the first son of the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, and hence the heir apparent. He believed that society would be impeccably run if everyone shared perfect knowledge (omniscience). Maybe this was the reason of this name for the first domain name stock exchange.
The declared mission of Fusu is to
- operate the world’s largest and most liquid domain secondary market,
- open the domain secondary market to shareholders,
- provide means to get liquidity for domain owners, without giving up control of their domain, and
- add transparency to the domain aftermarket.
February 19th marks the official launch date for Fusu, premiering at T.R.A.F.F.I.C., with a list of premium generic Domain Names that combine a value of almost $1.5 million.
There are today over 140 millions registered domains, with a 31% increase over the first quarter of 2006, and the domain name market could reach $4 billion by 2010 with a rate of purchase of approximately 90,000 domains a day.
Fusu is based on the concept of the traditional stock exchange applied to the domain name market, by providing a trading platform for owners, shareholders and investors.
The domain name owner that list their domains on Fusu retain full control, but still get liquidity from selling up to 45% of their domains.
By listing your domain with Fusu, you agree to sell pro-rated rights to future sale revenue or parking revenue from the domain.
You retain ownership, and as the owner you can decide to sell your domain. The shareholders are, however, entitled to a percentage of the sale price, according to their share ownership.
“For the first time, domainers can get immediate and significant liquidity without having to give up control over their domains”, said Xavier Buck, CEO of EuroDNS and Fusu’s strategic partner.
There are still problems that have to be solved, it is in fact still a beta, but, if Fusu will be a success, it will be a big success.
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