|
Midano.com - Presenting Tom Barrett, EnCirca
|
 Tom Barrett, EnCirca.
"It's actually common sense."
EnCirca's Founder and
President
shares his success story and reveals some of his secrets, including company's
unique approach to a highly competitive domain registration market.
|
|
 |
Tom, EnCirca's business model is a proven success. What's your secret?
|
| T.B. |
It's actually common sense. The domain name industry is generally a commodity business. I focus on TLD's that have not yet become commodities. With a lean structure and selective outsourcing, our business is quick to adopt new extensions. We tend to be one of the first registrars offering a new extension and go after the high margin early registrations.
|
|
|
Please tell us more about yourself.
|
| T.B. |
My formal training is as a mechanical engineer. I attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After several years of doing factory automation in the Jet Engine industry, I switched to consulting and electronic publishing at Accenture, Ziff-Davis and Thomson Corp.
|
|
|
Domain industry is a fairly new phenomenon. How did you get involved?
|
| T.B. |
I first got involved about 10 years ago. I was hired by a trademark research company to build out their internet service. This involved searching very large databases of registered trademarks. Adding domain names was a natural and we were quickly spidering every active tld on the internet. I then started a second business for them focused on cctld registrations. When they decided to exit this space, I left and joined NetNames as their CEO. At NetNames, I was a founding board member of Afilias. I sold NetNames to NetBenefit and then left when the bubble crashed. After doing some consulting for Neustar for the launch of .biz, I started EnCirca late in 2001.
|
|
|
When seasoned domainers hear "dot pro", they immediately think of EnCirca. Is this just luck or a well-executed plan?
|
| T.B. |
The best way to envision the direction the internet will travel is to think of it as a publishing platform.
Other publishing platforms includes newspapers, radio and television. The internet will evolve just as these other platforms have. This means that .com will not reign forever as the only viable extension. Just as television evolved from broadcasting to narrowcasting, so too, will the internet. The question is not "if", but "who" and "when".
I believe .Pro will become one of the successful internet "channels". It has a built-in meaning that appeals to a demographic not well served by existing channels - professionals.
Some complain that .pro is too expensive, especially compared to .com or .info. However, I believe there is a place for a premium channel on the internet.
The cost of a .pro domain may seem high compared to .com but in terms of the money professionals are willing to spend to promote themselves, the registration fee for a .pro domain is insignificant.
EnCirca has more developments in store for .pro, which we will be introducing this fall.
|
|
|
|
