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No one knows for sure how much Web traffic comes from type-ins, and Google and Yahoo execs won't discuss it. But privately, during one of the late-night parties at the Traffic conference, one Yahoo official estimates that type-ins could make up 15 percent of its search business. Marchex, a Seattle-based public startup whose strategy rests largely on type-in traffic, estimates that it accounts for nearly 10 percent of the global paid search market, which is projected to soar from $9 billion this year to $23 billion in 2009. That's why some domain names are commanding six- and seven-figure price tags and attracting big-money players. Private money manager Stuart Rabin is cutting those sorts of checks to domainers two to three times a week. In November 2004, Marchex shelled out $164 million for a single domainer's portfolio. Even a few venture capital firms are now placing bets. Earlier this year, Boston-based Highland Capital paid $80 million to acquire BuyDomains, a company with 500,000 names, according to people familiar with the deal. Says Highland principal Richard de Silva, who wouldn't confirm the price, "These are profit machines." Domainers have their heroes, and one of the most mysterious is a man named Yun Ye, a Chinese citizen living in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is credited with boosting the entire market when he sold his portfolio of more than 100,000 domains to Marchex. His names were bringing in more than $20 million a year in revenues--and $19 million in profits--when Marchex paid the equivalent of 8.6 times annual earnings, based on figures provided in SEC documents. "He is our god," says domainer Michael Bahlitzanakis the moment he hears Ye's name uttered at a Delray Beach party. Every domainer knows of Ye, but few have ever met him. He's the domainers' Keyser Soze. "My attorney happens to be his attorney, but that's as close to him as I can get," says Bahlitzanakis, 29. A onetime hotshot programmer, Ye used his software chops to build the bulk of his domain empire in the late '90s and early 2000s. He became a master at what's known as "catching," or buying up domains that were dropping because people gave up on them or forgot to pay the annual registration fee. At the time, the system was secretive, and domainers were trying to figure out what names were expiring and when. In the dark of night, Ye would sit before a bank of computers and, like a conductor, launch programs he wrote to shoot rapid-fire requests to purchase names. His prowess quickly became clear. Chad Folkening, a domainer in Indianapolis, was disorganized in those years and sometimes missed renewal deadlines. He noticed that Ye was grabbing his expired names with lightning speed. After Ye had snapped up 100 of them, Folkening decided he needed to talk to Ye. "I was eating, sleeping, and drinking Yun Ye," he says. E-mail drew no response. Nor did phone calls. So in late 2001, Folkening traveled to an address near San Jose listed on Ye's domain registrations. "I figured I was going to walk up to his front door, knock, and say, 'Yun Ye, I just had to meet you,'" says Folkening, who now owns 7,000 names. Instead, the address led him to a Mail Boxes Etc. outlet. Folkening stuck Post-It notes on Ye's box asking him to call. Ye sent Folkening an e-mail a couple of days later, but the two never met up. Two years later, some acquaintances of Folkening's set up a get-together with Ye in a Los Angeles bar. "I did most of the talking, then he left," Folkening recalls. It wasn't until the next day that it dawned on Folkening that the man he'd had drinks with was probably an entirely different Yun Ye, which the real Ye confirmed to him in an e-mail. (Ye's attorney, John Barryhill, says Ye won't talk to the press, and he adds, "I don't answer questions about him.") -------------------------------- 当叶云建立他的域名投资组合时，只有一种方式来通过域名挣钱——那就是转售它们。直到2003年付费搜索市场开始腾飞的时候，情况才开始有所改变。当时Overture公司开发和推动了付费搜索市场的发展，现在这家公司已经成为Yahoo公司的一部分，而目前的市场领头羊是Google 公司。推动着事情发展的技术是复杂的, 但基本的商业模式并不复杂: 只有当某人点击他们的广告后，广告业主才予以支付。同时为了他们的链接能排在搜索结果的前面，或列在浏览器里键入域名能登陆到的域名投资者的网页上面，他们纷纷为关键词竞价掏荷包。 普通单词的域名对于域名投资者是金子，针对具体受众的域名也有较高价值。例如，人们在搜索关于厌食症或易饿症的信息时，他们会在Yahoo网站的搜索引擎里键入词组“饮食失调”。这时，一个位于亚利桑那州威肯勃格的Remuda Ranch治疗中心的广告，就会横跨出现搜索结果的上面。为了赢得这个位置，Remuda Ranch治疗中心会为每次点击支付给Yahoo网站3.06美元，这是《Business 2.0》杂志在上旬11月查询到的报价。但许多人寻找同样信息的方式是将www.eatingdisorders.com 键入他们的浏览器，那会将他们导向对有着5个各种治疗中心链接的网页上面，并且Remuda Ranch治疗中心也会出现在网页的顶部。其中的区别在于: 点击这个网页的Remuda Ranch治疗中心广告时，治疗中心会支付3.06美元给Yahoo网站和拥有这个域名的域名投资者分享。 责任编辑：米尊 |