ENom

eNom, is ICANN accredited and the world's second-largest domain name registrar, providing domain name registration, hosting and other online services. Paul Stahura founded the company in 1997.

Type:	Privately Held
Industry:	Internet, online domain name registration
Founded:	Bellevue, WA, 1997
Founder(s):	Paul Stahura
Ownership:	Demand Media, 2006
Headquarters:	5808 Lake Washington Blvd, Ste. 300 Kirkland, WA 98033
Country:	USA
Website:	eNom.com
Twitter:	@eNom
Key People
Taryn Naidu, General Manager Chris Sheridan, Vice President of Sales Billy Watenpaugh, Product Manager and Registry Liaison Chris Ambler, Chief Software Strategist

eNom has a portfolio of vertical web properties that reach more than 100 million monthly visitors.

Demand Media

In May 2006 eNom was acquired by Demand Media, and in 2007 eNom acquired BulkRegister. It rose to become the second largest registrar following its acquisition of BulkRegister, although it continues to be run as a separate service. Demand Media went on to acquire Name.com in January, 2013. The reasons for the acquisition were noted as adding a new outlet to sell as many new gTLDs as possible, and bolster Demand Media's line-up by adding a "retail registrar", given that its current eNom service is a "reseller registrar". Name.com frequently positions itself as a fun and safe alternative to GoDaddy, the world's largest registrar.Demand Media is itself an applicant for 26 new gTLDs, with a partnership with the largest applicant, Donuts, to partner on an additional 100.

Company History

Paul Stahura founded the company in 1997, it initially was run out of his garage using a single computer with an ISDN line.

In 2007, eNom became the second largest domain registrar in the world, with over 8 million registered domain names in 70 different domain extensions. eNom's resellers are mostly web hosting and web development companies that use eNom's application programming interface (API) to buy and sell domain names on their own web sites, or eNom's hosted reseller solution—a customer retail website branded as the reseller's but hosted by eNom.

Their back-end systems can handle about 2 billion DNS queries a day, and maintains its name server constellation across six datacenters around the world. They forward over 11 million emails and block over 28 million spam messages every day.

In October, 2007, eNom sunsetted its drop catcher website, ClubDrop.com, to partner with Network Solutions to create the aftermarket auction venue NameJet.com. NameJet became the auction venue for the expired domain inventory of Network Solutions.

The site auctions active names, dropped names, and names that are post-expiration. Much of the Network Solutions inventory is classified as "Pre-Release" names. Features include: public auctions, private auctions, ascending-price and reverse auctions, proxy bidding, reserve price auctions, buy-it-now auctions.

eNom's Reseller Model

eNom sets up resellers two ways, through its PDQ tool, a semi-customizable domain name selling kit, or through API.

eNom resellers add revenue streams to their domain name businesses by offering eNom's Value Added Services (VAS). eNom's VAS products and services include web site hosting, web site creation kits, SSL Certificates, ID protection services, email services, website monitoring and traffic-counting tools.

In August, 2012, eNom launched a new reseller service targeted at new gTLD applicants and resellers. The service is entitled Watchlistand promises to collect new TLDs and identify interested parties, both inside and outside of current reseller customers.

Affiliations

• ICANN Registrar Constituency

External Links

• eNom Corporate Website