Pool.com
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| Type: | Corporation |
| Industry: | Domain Marketplace |
| Founded: | 2003 |
| Founder(s): | Robert Hall, J. Michael Arrington |
| Headquarters: | 26 Auriga Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2E 8B7 |
| Businesses: | Sale of Domain Names, including backorders. |
| Website: | Pool.com |
The business model of Pool.com is one in which domains are auctioned when they are put up for sale. Customers can also back order domains that they need.
The site also contains a marketplace where sales and purchase of domains can occur. Pool.com has domains for sale numbering in the thousands. The site functions by tracking domains that are deleted that thus become available for sale, and it tracks tens of thousands of these every day.
As with most sites, there are also a number of other services offered that are related to the main business. They offer featured domain lists and key word alerts. The fact that the site functions via auction provides another useful market for those with domains to sell. At the same time, since the site tracks so many domains that are deleted, it is an excellent place for a person dealing with domains to do business, allowing for a rapid purchase as well as auctioning off of domains in one's portfolio.
Pool.com has quite an extensive network of registrars that powers both the auction service as well as the back order listings. This network allows a buyer to reach out for a vast amount of the domains on the market. These back order listings can be used free of charge, and allow the acquisition of a deleted domain at an entirely nominal cost.
Pool.com's interface is extremely well designed and provides easy viewing of domains going under auction, and of course enables you to put domains from your portfolio up for auction as well. There are adequate domain searches, as well as categorized listings to make purchases easier. [1]
Business
Pool.com's vast network of domain registrar's means that the amount of domains available to you on the site at any one time is always vast.
As for their back order listings, Pool.com actually introduced the concept of auctioning off domains that came to the market and charging a customer fees only if they actually acquired a domain.
This made them very competitive as other sites in the same industry charged a customer whether they won a similar auction or not, which was really a losing preposition. Of course, now a lot of sites in the industry have imitated this feature, but the fact is that Pool.com instituted it. [2]
Products and Services
As you can imagine, the entire service sector of this company is situated around the acquisition and auction of domain names, and various supporting infrastructure for the same.
The site's interface is considered rather bare, but on the other hand this is hardly an industry that requires a graphics intensive site. The interface is easy to use, and provides affective access to the site's vast domain marketing infrastructure.
Pool.com's domain market is both innovative and effective, and their auction system of selling available domains allows for cost effective sales and purchase of domains. [3]
Recent news
During the year 2010 Pool.com began to auction IDN names that had Hebrew characters. With the considerable customer base, especially in Israel, this auction is expected to open a considerable market in Hebrew IDNs. [4]