Dotster
 | |
| Type: | Privately Held |
| Industry: | Domain name registration |
| Founded: | Vancouver, WA, 1999 |
| Founder(s): | George DeCarlo |
| Headquarters: | 8100 NE Parkway Drive Vancouver, WA 98682 United States |
| Country: | USA |
| Products: | Dotster Connect |
| Employees: | 51-200 |
| Website: | Dotster.com |
| Twitter: |  @Dotster
|
| Key People | |
| Clint Page, CEO Brian Unruh, CFO | |
Dotster is a domain name provider also offering web hosting and design, email packages, online marketing and security solutions. Founded in 1999, this ICANN accredited registrar is headquartered in Vancouver, Washington, USA[1] and is held held by the Baker Capital, a private equity firm from New York, USA.[2]
As of November, 2010, Dotster has over 1,154,000 domain names under its management with a global market share of approximately 0.985%.[3]
History
- George DeCarlo, an IT entrepreneur and a graduate of the University of Portland, founded Dotster in 1999.[4]
- In January 2000, Dotster was launched as a project of CAS (Columbia Analytical Services), Holdings Inc, headquartered in Kelso, Washington.[5] Dotster acted as subsidiary of CAS Holdings, Inc until late 2004 when Baker Capital purchased Dotster from CAS.[6]
- In 2000, Clint Page, then the president of a private development organization, CEDC, joined Dotster as the President and CEO and has been running the company since.[7]
- In August 2001, Dotster announced the launch of NameWinner, a service to register expiring domain names from the Verisign Global Registry.[8] According to Clint Page, "Dotster was the first company to offer the auction service in the expired domain market and one of the first to promote expiring domains to the customers."[9]
- In March 2005, Dotster announced the launch of new domain technology, the second generation version of Domain Discovery System, which provided relevant search results based on domains or keywords entered by its users.[10]
- In June 2006, a lawsuit was filed by high-end retailers Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman charging Dotster of unlawfully participation in a massive cybersquatting campaign.[11] In 2007, Dotster Settled with Neiman Marcus over the alleged typosquatting.[12]
- Dotster announced the launch of Dotster Connect, a social networking solution for business and people in June 2008.[13] According to the company description, Dotster Connect is a tool for social networking and media sharing with community forums, blogs, polls, real-time communications, and other functions.[14]
- In July 2008, Dotster announced e-mail marketing solution for small and medium sized businesses when the company bought EmailBrain[15], a company originally founded by Aurelio F. Rodriguez in 2003. [16]
- In February, 2009, Dotster sold RevenueDirect, domain parking service solution to Sedo.[17]
- In November, 2009, Dotster announced an agreement with Open-Xchange, a leading full-service to deploy Open-Xchange solution for Dotster e-mail users.[18]
- In November, 2010, Dotster announced partnership with Bonneville Environmental Foundation, a renewable energy suppliers company, to offset more than 150% of the energy used by its web hosting servers.[19]
Products and Services
According to Dotster's website, products and services provided by Dotster includes domain services like domain registration, domain renewal, domain transfer, and hosting services like Windows and Linux hosting, email hosting, vps hosting, etc. Dotster also provides security solutions like SSL certificates, website designing services, email marketing, social networking, and SEO services.
Dotster is known for its different promotional offers like "Happy Hour Promotion" (2008),[20] "eBiz in a Box" (2008),[21] and "Whois Privacy Protection Give-Away" (2005)[22] etc.
Awards
In May, 2010, Dotster won "Domain Pioneer Award from Verisign which was presented at the "25 Years of .com Gala" in San Francisco.[23]
In 2009, Dotster was named one of Washington’s Top 100 privately-held businesses by DiversityBusiness.com.
On May 26th 2008, Verisign presented Dotster with the Domain Pioneer award, meaning that dotster has played a vital role in the expansion of .com domains.[24]
In both 2005 and 2006, Dotster was awarded the "Users' Choice Award" by Name Intelligence. In 2005, Dotster was also awarded the "Privately Held Company of the Year" by the Tech Awards; and in 2004 Dotster was a finalist for the Oregon Entrepreneurial Company of the Year award.[25]
References
- ↑ Sales Fuel, Company Intelligence Report
- ↑ Baker Capital
- ↑ Webhosting.info
- ↑ Crunch Base
- ↑ ISP Planet
- ↑ Forbes.com
- ↑ Spoke.com
- ↑ The Free Library.com
- ↑ ICANN.org
- ↑ Web Host Industry Review
- ↑ CNET.com
- ↑ Domain Name Wire
- ↑ Mashable
- ↑ PR Newswire
- ↑ Press Release Point
- ↑ Email Brain Corporate Website
- ↑ Sociable Blog
- ↑ SYS-CON.tv
- ↑ Top Hosts
- ↑ Website Magazine
- ↑ Linux Magazine
- ↑ W3 reports
- ↑ PR Web
- ↑ Top Hosts
- ↑ Spoke.com