Internet address owners get payday`Dot-ca brand' finally in demand
May 24, 2006 (Press Release) --
In a little-noticed market where Internet addresses are routinely bought and sold, Peter Maxymych has been dubbed The Registration Machine.
Maxymych and business partner Harold Simpkins have spent the past decade registering more than 1,000 Canadian or "dot-ca" Web addresses in hopes that the properties — mostly generic addresses such as taxis.ca, doctors.ca and drugs-.ca — would pay off down the line.
Last week, after more than six years of persistence, the two online speculators finally got their payday.
Phone directory giant Yellow Pages Group surprised the Canadian Internet industry by announcing it had spent $2.5 million for 389 "domain names" owned by Maxymych's Montreal-based firm, Emall.ca. The prize list includes maps.ca, autos.ca and attorneys.ca, all specific categories that Yellow Pages will use to expand the reach of its online directory business.
Maxymych calls the deal a watershed for Canada's dot-ca market, which has been overshadowed over the years by the vastly more popular and higher-priced dot-com addresses, many having sold for millions of dollars apiece before the market collapsed in 2000.
"This is old hat in the United States," said the 50-something businessman whose background is in real estate. "What's happening now is people are starting to see the dot-ca extension as a very valuable one."
It's not like registration of dot-ca addresses hasn't been growing. The number of Canadian domain names has jumped to more than 600,000 from about 100,000 six years ago, when the newly created Canadian Internet Registration Authority, or CIRA, took over management of the address database.
Source: www.thestar.com
Maxymych and business partner Harold Simpkins have spent the past decade registering more than 1,000 Canadian or "dot-ca" Web addresses in hopes that the properties — mostly generic addresses such as taxis.ca, doctors.ca and drugs-.ca — would pay off down the line.
Last week, after more than six years of persistence, the two online speculators finally got their payday.
Phone directory giant Yellow Pages Group surprised the Canadian Internet industry by announcing it had spent $2.5 million for 389 "domain names" owned by Maxymych's Montreal-based firm, Emall.ca. The prize list includes maps.ca, autos.ca and attorneys.ca, all specific categories that Yellow Pages will use to expand the reach of its online directory business.
Maxymych calls the deal a watershed for Canada's dot-ca market, which has been overshadowed over the years by the vastly more popular and higher-priced dot-com addresses, many having sold for millions of dollars apiece before the market collapsed in 2000.
"This is old hat in the United States," said the 50-something businessman whose background is in real estate. "What's happening now is people are starting to see the dot-ca extension as a very valuable one."
It's not like registration of dot-ca addresses hasn't been growing. The number of Canadian domain names has jumped to more than 600,000 from about 100,000 six years ago, when the newly created Canadian Internet Registration Authority, or CIRA, took over management of the address database.
Source: www.thestar.com
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