Domain Tasting - Overview

Overview

In April 2006, out of 35 million registrations, about 2 million were permanent or actually purchased. By February 2007, the CEO of Go Daddy reported that of 55.1 million domain names registered, 51.5 million were canceled and refunded just before the 5 day grace period expired and only 3.6 million domain names were actually kept.

Domain tasting is lucrative in a number of ways:

1. The registrant conducts a cost-benefit analysis on the viability of deriving income from potential advertising on the domain's website. Domain names that are deemed potentially lucrative and retained in a registrant's portfolio often represent domains that were previously used and have since expired, misspellings of other popular sites, or generic terms that may receive type-in traffic.
2. Domains are usually still active in search engines and other hyperlinks and therefore receive enough traffic such that advertising revenue exceeds the cost of the registration.
3. The registrant may also derive revenue from eventual sale of the domain, at a premium, to a third party or the previous owner.