Domain gold rush tails off 

Jamie Doward
January 6, 2002

A virtual gold rush that marked the end of the 1990s now looks like coming to an end. 

Amid the heights of internet euphoria, speculators bought up domain names with abandon in the belief that they could sell them on at huge profits in the future. 

But, for only the second time in the internet's relatively short history, the number of dotcom domains on the internet fell. 

In the last three months of 2001 the number of registered domain names dropped by 130,000 as speculators failed to renew their ownership of the names. 

Typically, speculators buy the right to 'own' a domain name for two years, with the option of renewing. However, as the internet bubble burst speculators' hopes of making a tidy profit selling on the names disappeared. 

The addition of new domain name suffixes, such as .info or .biz, has reduced the pressure on what was once a crowded market. 

Details at: http://www.observer.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,628092,00.html

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