January 15, 2008
Domain Squatters From Another Angle
I have always subscribed to the notion that domain squatters are not doing the industry a favour. And while this belief still holds, I’m starting to look at the issue from a different angle: many decent domain names remain available to lucky upstarts (it is becoming much harder to come up with decent domain names).
And while squatters may often sell these domains at much inflated prices, it’s likely to be the cheaper option compared to acquiring an existing business name (the business would have to completely rebrand afterwards). Needless to say, this mainly benefits larger organisations (those with enough funds to acquire the squatted names).
Where things start to get somewhat nasty is when squatters hold on to .org names (reserved for not-for-profit-organisations). One of my clients made inquiries into purchasing one such squatted domain only to be told it was available for a considerable sum indeed—no exceptions.
All in all I’m no fan of this practice and certainly will not endorse it, but it just goes to show: there’s always two sides to a coin.