Sedo

Organization
Type	public
Focus	Domain Trading, Parking
City	London
Founded	2001
Founders	Ulrich Priesner Ulrich Essmann Tim Schumacher Marius Würzner
Ownership	United Internet AG
Website	sedo.com

Sedo, which stands for Search Engine for Domain Offers, is a domain name marketplace and domain parking provider. Sedo was founded in Germany in 2001, and is headquartered in Cologne, Germany with an office in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company has 150 employees from more than 25 countries and 2 million customers with over 19 million domain names for sale. Five million domains are parked via Sedo's parking program

Sedo is a subsidiary company of the InterNetX Holding under the German company United Internet AG. The company is registered in the United States as Sedo.com LLC.

Products and Services

Sedo provides domain name buying and selling services through search, auction, catalog, brokerage, etc. It also provides domain parking, domain appraisal, domain transfer, and partner programs, etc.

New gTLD Services

Sedo has a number of services for the registries created through ICANN's New gTLD Program:

• Premium List Identification and Pricing Assistance - Sedo will help applicants identify which domains are going to be the most attractive to the target audience and price them appropriately. Sedo uses more than 20 years of sales data covering all traded TLDs, as well as multiple external sources, to create a premium reserve list of domains likely to command the highest sales values.
• Premium Domain Auctions - a neutral, safe platform for multiple applicants with marketing support and promotion to attract buyers and revenue for your premium domains.
• Sunrise, Landrush and Premium Auctions - Sedo provides multiple-language auction services for both premium auctions and those related to the Sunrise Periods and Landrush Periods.
• Exclusive Premium Name Distribution in the SedoMLS Network
• Custom sales and marketing solutions tailored to individual extensions

SedoMLS

• As the world's largest domain distribution network, SedoMLS multiplies a single domain listing and places it in front of millions of potential buyers worldwide

• Registrar customers are able to purchase domains from Sedo’s premium inventory of over 19 million domains – including the most exclusive new gTLD names – directly from the Registar's website

• With Sedo's easy registrar listing service, customers can listing their names to be syndicated across SedoMLS

• Outstanding technical support with its SedoMLS testbed and dedicated tech support team making SedoMLS implementation simple and user-friendly

Domain Parking

• Users earn revenue on more than five million domains while simultaneously promoting those domains for sale
• Domain owners and advertisers are matched to generate profit for both sides
• Domain owners gain access to the advertising industry, while advertisers appreciate the controllable and quantifiable return on investment

Brokerage Services

• Domain acquisition assistance for both buyers and brokerage representation for sellers
• On average we assist more than 32,000 businesses and individuals annually to acquire their desired domains
• Premium domain names brokered through Sedo include Vodka.com, Fly.com, Body.com, Values.com, Jets.com, and Dudu.com, as well as Sex.com, the highest value domain sale to date.

Sales Figures & Prominent Sales

Sedo's top 10 highest selling public domain names are:

1. Sex.com, $13,000,000 (Guinness World Records record)
2. Vodka.com, $3,000,000
3. Shopping.de, $2,858,945
4. Gambling.com, $2,500,000
5. Pizza.com, $2,600,000
6. Fly.com, $1,800,000
7. Russia.com, $1,500,000
8. Games.co.uk, $1,300,000
9. Kredit.de, $1,169,175
10. Chinese.com, $1,120,000

History

• Sedo began in Cologne, Germany in 1999 as a student project by Tim Schumacher, Ulrich Priesner, and Marius Würzner. They had a website named offensiv.de to distribute computer games, and when the business was phased out, they started thinking about selling the domain. Thus, they founded Sedo. The company started out with 5 employees working in a small office in downtown Cologne. Sedo GmbH became an official entity in 2001.

• In his book International Entrepreneurship: Starting, Developing, and Managing a Global Venture, Robert D. Hisrich explained that, at the beginning of 2000, Sedo's founders began to advertise by purchasing banners in various websites and developing press relationships. Ulrich Essmann, a medical student working on a project similar to Sedo, joined the team and his own project helped the group significantly. Finally, the founders began negotiating with potential investors. In 2001, they found a major investor, United AG, which at the time was Germany's largest registrar for domain names. United AG initially purchased a minor stake in the newly-founded Sedo but later bought about 41% for approximately 400,000 EUR. The rest of the shares were held by the four owners. In 2004, United bought an additional 10% of Sedo's share for $575,000, making the four founders minority shareholders of the business. In 2005, 51% of shares for United AG, including Sedo, were sold to AdLink Internet Media AG, a public and majority-owned subsidiary of United Internet.

• Sedo began planning a North American subsidiary as early as 2003; in 2005, Sedo.com LLC was opened in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• In June, 2007, Sedo bought GreatDomains, its former competitor, from Verisign for approximately $2 Million.

• In 2001, CEO, Tim Schumacher, was named “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Ernst & Young Germany.

• In February, 2009, Sedo acquired RevenueDirect, a domain name parking service by run Dotster. Sedo also announced a strategic long-term partnership with Dotster through which Sedo would benefit from Dotster's inventory and registrar service, and RevenueDirect customers would be helped by Sedo’s monetization engines and its secondary market for buying and selling domain names.

• In March, 2009, Sedo invested seed funding for Bloson.com, a new social charity website.

• In February 2010, Sedo sold the domain name Poker.org for $1 million USD to PokerCompany.com, breaking the record for the highest .org domain name ever sold.

• On May 21, 2010, AdLink Internet Media AG was renamed Sedo Holding AG and the company Sedo became a subsidiary thereof.

• In December 2011, it was announced that Tim Schumacher, its co-founder and CEO, was stepping down from his position. He is still set to act on to the Board of Directors. He was the acting CEO of Sedo Holding, which was not only Sedo but also its marketing company affiliate, Affilinet. Mr. Schumacher expressed an interest in getting involved in start-ups.

Awards

• In 2010 & 2014, Sedo was a finalist for the "World Trademark Review Industry Award: Internet & Online Services Team of the Year".
• The Domain Conference: Company of the Year 2016

• Traffic Awards for:
  Best Overall Domain Solution (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013)
  Broker of the Year 2012, 2014, 2016 (Dave Evanson)
  Broker of the Year 2013 (Negar Hajikhani)
• World Domain Day: Best Aftermarket Platform 2015

• Domain Name Wire Awards for:
  Most Innovative Company for Selling Secondary Domain Names (2010, 2011, 2012)
  Best Domain Name Parking Company (2010, 2011, 2012)
  Best Online Domain Sales Venue (2010)

• Eco Internet Award: Domains & DNS (2013)

• Domainer's Choice Award: Best Industry Costumer Rep (2008)

• Domainer's Choice Award: Best Domain Marketplace (2014)
• In 2007, Sedo was selected as "Entrepreneur of the Year 2007" in Germany by Ernst & Young.

External Links and Resources

• SEDO.com
• Sedo Holding AG
• United Internet AG
• Sedo.com: Our Story
• Success Stories
• Case studies and White Papers

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