The latest product update at Dan.com (product update 8) carries several improvements that emphasize the great expandability of the platform designed by Dan.com, already a superb platform prior to GoDaddy acquiring it last summer.
Global domain description edits, for example, minimize the task load of domain portfolio holders.
Lease to own (LTO) transactions are now importable, meaning that you can bring in such a lead at a 10% fee cost. There’s no doubt that GoDaddy mandated this change to capture leads that are leaking out to other platforms, such as Escrow.com, at a much lower cost. The dashboard and stats also get a series of UX improvements.
But there is one change that should cause a lot of concern to domain investors operating their portfolios with a BIN price setting: Automatic opt-in to Afternic listings.
According to the release:
Domain names that hold a Buy Now price will be automatically integrated in to the Afternic distribution network, providing better exposure for your domain names. Prices on the Afternic network will be shown in USD, with Afternic prices being inherited from your Dan.com BIN price.
The Dan.com settings already include a switch that turns ON and OFF the Afternic distribution network. It seems that regardless of that setting, domains that carry a BIN only price are now “opted-in” to Afternic, with no clear indication of how this setting can be overruled. Dan.com should clarify all this.
Bottom line: Apparently, it doesn’t matter what your personal choices are, GoDaddy finds a way to bypass them. Perhaps the next update will automatically force all Dan.com listings to become Afternic listings, much like the infamous incident with the Uni Market.
Update: So far the global switch for turning on/off the Afternic network integration appears to remain unchanged. However, a new data column marked “Afternic price” was added, displaying domains with BIN prices; these prices are grayed out if the domains aren’t listed on Afternic. According to the Dan.com product update release:
It also will no longer be possible to maintain a different price across platforms.
With the Uni Market becoming obsolete on April 18th, this leaves Dan.com as the only GoDaddy-owned alternative to using Afternic. In the future, GoDaddy might decide to increase its Afternic pricing, a service they claim it’s valued at 25% as far as commission fees go. That exorbitant fee is currently imposed on any domain sales taking place on GoDaddy marketplaces, all while the domains use nameservers not on an approved list.
