Nils Kok

The value of sex.com? IDNX.com - the first internet domain name index

The title of this post might have caught your attention (or it may have turned you off, but, well, curiousity won...), but this blog is not about to turn nasty. However, variety is the spice of life and I'm excited to share more stories on general economic issues. Did you ever wonder what the value of a domain name is? Sex.com sold for $13mln. in November 2010. But, what would be the value of www.green.com (that domain might actually be for sale)? Or www. energyefficiency.com (under construction, so might be for sale as well)?

My friend Thies Lindenthal just launched IDNX.com, the first internet domain name index. In this true novel project, he exploits statistical techniques used to construct real estate price indexes (like those marketed by S&P Case/Shiller) and applies those techniques to a massive sample of domain names that sold since the beginning 2000. Surprisingly, the value of domain names follows the development of the NASDAQ, but is a little less volatile:

To quote Lindenthal: "...the domain name index can serve as a benchmark for domain name traders and investors looking for information on price trends, returns and fundamental risk of internet domain names. It thereby increases transparency in the market for this newly emerged asset class." Wow, domain names as a tradable asset class? Well, this index is certainly a first, very important step into determining the price of domains, and if it can be priced, it can certainly be traded...

Check out the coverage of Fox Business on IDNX.com.

Negawatts and ULI Forum (Chicago)

Earlier this week I attended the ULI Forum on "Transparency in Real Estate Investments". The Forum was a get-together of some of the main players in the real estate investment industry, and covered on-the-spot topics like mandatory disclosure and their effects on market transformation (mandatory disclosure is now phased in at places like NYC, San Francisco and Seattle), benchmarking (some more information was revealed on RREEF's Greenprint Foundation) and demand response (the "hottest investment over the years to come," according to Ross Malme from Skipping Stone).

I'm intriguiged by "DR," especially since the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced the release of the new comprehensive LEED Demand Response Pilot Credit. According to a press release "...the updated credit establishes new guidelines which will increase a facility’s LEED ratings with the award of additional points when the facility participates in an Automated Demand Response (AutoDR) program. Leading industry experts from the Demand Response Research Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) and other key industry stakeholders contributed to the development of the new standard." Watch this: every new LEED credit sets off a wave of startups aiming their share of the pie.

Oh, if you missed my talk and still want to see it, the below video was shot at the Regenerative Network earlier this year. The jokes are similar, the story is slightly different...

 

Another recent talk was for Nuon, one of the main utility companies in the Netherlands, now owned by Vattenfal. They did a special for Management Scope on energy efficiency in buildings (in Dutch... Download Management Scope), but I was slightly surprised to be invited by a company whose main existence is to sell energy (the infrastructure and sales have been separated in Europe, so utility companies have no real incentive to invest in energy efficiency - unless P goes up, given that Q will go down. Nor do they feel pressure from energy commissions, etc), so I started with this ad (this is not so much about Scheider, even though they created a slick image around energy efficiency, click on the picture for their ppt):

(I'm glad the audience existed of banks, agents and solution providers.)