Downsizing at Oversee.net - Sign of times or something else?
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You probably already read many headlines at various domain blog sites about lay-offs at Oversee.net which is the parent company of DomainSponsor.com, SnapNames.com, and Moniker.com
Apart from its famous domain parking monetization division DomainSponsor.com, Oversee.net is a diversified full service company in the domain industry.
Here are some of the headlines from various domaining blogs and other sites:
Oversee.net cuts staff, blames economy:
Oversee.net cuts 10% of Employees:
Economy hits domainer Oversee.net, Lays Off 10 percent of Staff:
Analysis: Oversee.net cutbacks a sign of the times:
I think Domain-Name-Wire has done nice analysis of why the downsize happened.
Apart from what has already been said at the above sites about what happened and why it happened, I think one other important reason could be the emergence of new players in the domain monetization business. No doubt domain parking companies are still the bread and butter of many domainers, but we have seen new companies launched in last year or so that has different monetization models than pure domain parking. Some of these new players are:
- Website development companies: EvoLanding.com, WhyPark.com
- Direct Traffic sellers to advertisers: Sendori.com, LeaseThis.com,
- Domain Parking hybrids: Parked.com, Bodis.com who offer a combination of parking plus you can add photos/content etc.
- Domain Traffic Aggregator: Bido.com
Now its hard to argue that these new players with different domain monetization models had no effect on traditional parking model.
I think impact of these new players on the domain parking industry is going to get bigger and bigger.
Its not only the natural transition and progression in the right direction, but also being forced by the two mega parking feed providers. Development is the name of the game these days.
The advertising revenues are at an all time record highs, but domainers share is going down every month.
Something has to happen: Parking companies will get lean, and probably diversify the pure parking business model in to better monetization methods.
I won’t be surprised to see the parking companies buy out some of the above players or implement similar systems themselves.
It may take some time but it is bound to happen.
I will be interested to hear your thoughts!
2 Comments on this post
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Damir said:
The main reason Oversee.net has to lay off 10 percent of Staff is that the company has overextended itself financially and the profits have decreased.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:10 am -
DNBlogger said:
I think its more like being proactive in this bad economy in addition to the factors I mentioned in the post above.
Oversee is a major play with a solid track record of accomplishments. I have no doubt that not only are they going to survive but they will continue to thrive.
This just appears to be a temporary cost-cutting action to me.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
