An avid connoisseur and passionate investor in premium .in domains for the Indian marketplace , Paul currently owns numerous business defining domains for India's ccTLD. Recently he has been speculating in single letter new gTLDs with names such as i.rent and e.link. Some of the lead generation names in his portfolio include Platform.in, VentureCapital.in, Price.in and Singh.in, FlashSale.in.
Paul, you are also known as “Indy” to the people from the Domain Industry, and “the guy wearing t-shirts promoting the .in extension”. For those that haven’t met you yet or haven’t heard from you, please tell us a little about yourself. How did you get into domaining?
I was working for the Los Angeles Times and in 1998 noticed that we were losing tons of subscribers to users that were migrating from physical newspapers to online versions of news/content. I started researching the internet and domains around that time, and bought my first domain in 1999 which I still own: foodandrestaurants.com.
When did you start buying/selling domains? And is there a specific industry or niches that you’ve focused?
As mentioned, I picked up my first domain in 1999 and starting acquiring a number of 'price' and 'India' related .com's. This ended up landing me as Director of Operations for Price.com and BestDeal.com for 16 years. I bought my first domain to build upon an online food directory that enables restaurants to display their menus and restaurant information online.I started looking at .in names in 2005, investing in them in 2007, and this extension is currently 90% of my portfolio.
What is your strategy when registering domains? Do you prefer generic, LLL, number domains or specific TLDs?
I prefer domains that identify a product, service or a business. Type-in words that demand immediate respect and attention from peer networks while also building instant credibility from those using your products/services. Some examples of these in my portfolio include: carpets.in, cameras.in, bootstrap.in, venture.in, giftcard.in, VPN.in, engineer.in, wholesale.in
I have also been involved with LLL and NNN names but learned quickly that India does not react to these names the same way other markets do. We are starting to see demand for LLL and LLLL names from the thousands of 3-4 word businesses looking to get the acronym of their brand or service.
What is/was the main challenge when selling domains – in the past, when people knew very little about the internet – and in the present day?
In the past, there were very few platforms available to sell your names; eBay was my go to place at one point. Now there are more avenues to sell your names, and the number of options for names (New TLDs) has also increased.
The challenge currently for my .in names is that most Indian businesses are comfortable with an average domain name. They have already created their brand using it, marketing their products with a 3-4 word .com or a sub-par .in, and are totally fine with this strategy or lack thereof. What most businesses fail to see beyond the intrinsic value a type-in domain brings, is the trust a customer puts into your company knowing that your company is backed by a powerful industry leading domain name. Only after a business owns a domain that organically delivers customers will they realize the opportunities and sales they have missed out on over the years that without this name.This will be apparent from day one of ownership.
Some businesses and even individuals are starting to understand the value of generic type-in keywords and we are witnessing this happening more often:
- officefurniture.in & homefurniture.in (Godrej)
- ghee.in & icecream.in (Amul)
- sniff.in (Droplr)
- misterindia.in (Mudit Malhotra)
What was your most impressive sale?
For my .in portfolio, most of the names were acquired because I can actually visualize a business associated with them and am not purchasing for resale, but instead for development and ideally joint ventures. That said, when a 25X offer comes your way, it is very difficult to say no.... no matter how much you like the name. I purchased a portfolio of 100 .in keywords/brandables for $30,000 USD in 2012 ($300 each). Out of the 100 I purchased, I sold 4 of those names for $32,000 ($8,000 each) in 2016 thanks to Sedo's excellent sales team.
Why did you start with .in domains?
Being Indian by birth, I have always had an affinity for my home country. But besides this bond, the numbers and statistics don't lie. India not only is the second most populous country in the world but it has a very young demographic with an average age of 29, compared to 37 and 48 for China and Japan respectively. This young English speaking generation will eventually be our CEO's, CTO's and decision makers. They will already have the knowledge of the internet and a basic understanding of the value a premium domain name delivers to a company's bottom line, whether it be for lead generation, branding or even posturing.
Is there a struggle between .co.in or .in – in the view of companies and users in India? Which extension would you recommend?
My focus has primarily on .in as it is shorter and easier to remember. I understand there is a firm following of co.in and it has also performed well, but I has just been a personal choice of mine to stick with .in names.
One of my reasonings for this is that since .co is exemplified as "company", and .io as "input output", then besides being the ccTLD for India, .in can represent 'internet', 'international', 'incorporate' and other great words starting with "in" as displayed on the now famous T-shirts. We are very fortunate to have these two letters (IN) that also make up a word and should fully take advantage of the capabilities available with this gem.
On a smaller scale, .in is also used as a hack for words ending in .in such as (dolph.in, doma.in, mannequ.in). For co.in as a hack, it is limited to 'coin' which is great for upcoming crypto's. (bit.co.in, one.co.in, fed.co.in)
What are 3 tips for people that are looking to invest into .in names?
- What works for .com, doesn't necessarily translate to .in.
- Research all old INDRP disputes and keep apprised of new cases - this is a very different world then UDRP, where in the early days GENERIC domains were being awarded to the complainant such as jobs.in, web.in, business.in, internet.in, computer.in, hotels.in
- Be patient, or you will end up as one
India is known to have a huge startup scene. What would you recommend to those within that sector regarding their domain portfolio?
Startups are in a unique situation because they don't know whether they are going to make it or not. So they don't necessarily want to spend big on a domain, instead they put more money behind the idea or technology itself. .io and some of the new gTLDs seem to be more prevalent amongst startups. Having had some interest from startups in shorter names and domain hacks, my thought is that a well-executed plan from the beginning should include owning a premium business-defining domain name relevant to the industry.
It is much more difficult to acquire a better domain after you have already started your business, and is also extremely challenging to have current users adjust/migrate to a new domain name.
What is your prediction for .in domains in the coming years? What is needed to ensure that the TLD can grow both in usage and value?
Based on my recent visits to India, where I saw billboards and newspapers showcasing advertisements with .in, proves to me that growth is happening. Also google searches for Indian products and services now show .in domains in the first page of the search results. What is needed more is education for businesses about the value of having a great domain for their business.
My conviction for the .in space gets strengthened with each incoming offer.
What is the strangest response you’ve gotten to wearing the t-shirt or promoting the .IN extension?
"What language is that in?"
About Paul Singh
Paul Singh started his professional career having worked with IBM's Prodigy Internet, assisting in developing their shopping catalog in 1999, which was then sold to SBC Communications and later co-branded as SBC Yahoo!.
Since then he has been involved with CSE's (comparison shopping engine) for the past 16 years wearing different turbans along the way including sales, marketing, programming, development and most recently Director of Operations for Price.com, which was is a newer acquisition. During his tenure with Price.com, he has delivered 8-figure total in revenues to his clients.
Paul is a regular attendee to Affiliate Summit, LeadsCon, Namescon as well as other industry specific tradeshows and has a network of 6000+ Enterprise and SMB clients that he has personally worked with such as Walmart, Target, Priceline, eBay (ECN & EPN), as well as all of the major Affiliate Networks such as CJ, LS, PPJ, SAS, IR, etc..
Paul lives in Orange County, CA with his wife and daughter. He has his California Real Estate License and is an avid basketball player. He has lived in Iran, India, USA and speaks 5 languages fluently - Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, Farsi, English, and is brushing up on his French.