LOOKING BACK AT 1 YEAR .UK DROP CATCHING

[Murray]

Currently 85.7% of domain forum members polled do not use a domain acquisition service with a 57.18% success rate.

I used to use dropcatching services a lot 3 years ago, but they seemed to start losing their competitiveness

The effort of keeping track of drops and date you need to book them with the various catchers, trying to get there at the stroke of midnight to book them before someone else did started seeming like too much effort vs their catch success rate

There's no way CatchTiger have a 57% success rate with competitive domains

There top 5 is great no doubt, but my top 5 is competitive with that and probably a couple dozen other people have similar or better.

I'm not sure what CatchTigers bidding looks like, I've always just assumed it's fairly competitive so didn't see the point in partaking in their service

 

[RobM]

Compiling info on which tags caught which domains over the past 2 years (doesn't include .uk RoR). I don't know what I'm allowed to share but can get an idea of percentages

 

[ian]

I'm not sure what CatchTigers bidding looks like, I've always just assumed it's fairly competitive so didn't see the point in partaking in their service

Bidding is on the high side (compared with DL as a reference) imo, closer to end-user prices yet most try to flip on here immediately after, I doubt with much success.

Compiling info on which tags caught which domains over the past 2 years (doesn't include .uk RoR). I don't know what I'm allowed to share but can get an idea of percentages

I'd be interested in it, even if no one else is. You know I'm one for mountains of data!

 

[RobM]

Well really it's not much use as we don't know what is considered 'good' or not and of course we don't know what was contested. However just taking drops for 2017 the results are quite interesting. I have some logs of the thousands of domains that dropped and were reregistered for this year. It doesn't included RoR, renewals, or the tons that expired of course. Also as the system only checks every 30 mins there are a few cases of domains being caught by chasers but transferring to new owners tag within this timeframe. So the % aren't spot on - they're pretty close though. Got to say that if you combine all the people using our chasing they total more than the #1 spot
Anyway here are the top % and I have to point out for any nominet peeps reading this they are compiled from my own text log files (they are not from dac logs as I believe you're not allowed to store those). This info could be taken by every tagholder (and I'm sure some have as well),.
Just taken the top 100:
COHERENT-NZ 12.02
PDR-IN 10.42
SONEXO-NL 6.45
ACUITSYS-MT 5.52
INTERNETBOL-SE 4.98
CATCHIT 3.80
BPC-CA 3.05
DOTSENSEI 2.94
1API-DE 2.70
STACEYHART 2.68
BOWLER 2.46
WEBHOUND 2.40
TRIFEGA 2.37
STUKA-PH 2.16
DOMEINWINKEL 2.00
TUPLIN 1.99
DROPPED 1.77
LIVEDOMAINS 1.41
JSEO 1.25
AODUNET 1.12
TOOLDOMAINS 1.00
MELITAWEB 0.99
TAURUSINTERNET 0.92
NOMAD 0.90
IPT 0.86
KARMACONTENT 0.75
DOMAINSERVE 0.74
POLLER 0.74
HOSTINGFORME 0.63
ISURVEYOR 0.62
UNIREG 0.60
DC-LTD 0.60
DTDOMAINS 0.59
JSMITH 0.58
WHYTHINK 0.56
CUNNINGHAM 0.55
DOMRAIDER 0.48
WARBURTON 0.47
GREGFINDLEY 0.45
PSYCHICCATCH 0.45
CREGISP 0.43
DIGITALTV 0.41
LOWREG 0.39
ENVO 0.35
SEARCH 0.32
LEVELUPDIGITAL 0.31
IDS-BS 0.29
SEANFLYNN 0.28
TENEV 0.28
AKARA 0.28
ENTERFIRST 0.28
OSTASHKO 0.27
GODADDY 0.27
ALEXM 0.26
ACORNINTERNET 0.26
CLEANHOSTS 0.26
PFMEDIA 0.26
JHERNIK 0.26
ENTREPRENEUR 0.25
CHARLES 0.25
CHRISTIAN-AT 0.24
UNTAGGEDLTD 0.22
DROPCAUGHT-RO 0.21
BLUEROCK 0.21
BB-NOMINATE 0.21
CATCHER 0.20
BOUNCEBACK 0.20
BEANEYSDESIGN 0.20
LCN 0.19
STARWORKS 0.18
STATUO 0.18
CTRL-ALT-DEL 0.18
SHORES 0.16
ALEXJORDAN 0.16
MURRAY 0.15
RUSEEN 0.14
DOMAINTIAL 0.14
HELLCAT 0.14
CHRISVERITY 0.14
FEKETE 0.13
MORLEY 0.13
CSWEB 0.13
EDWARDPUGH 0.13
ATST 0.12
FARAWAY 0.11
VIMANTISDOO 0.11
PYRANHA 0.11
HUBBARD-MEDIA 0.11
VUCHEV 0.11
123-REG 0.11
MAYLUM 0.09
FAIRY 0.09
ICOSTEUK 0.09
GUEEK 0.08
CAMBRIDGE 0.08
GOONE 0.08
CYNTRA 0.08
LEXSYNERGY 0.07
HTPDIGITAL 0.07
DAILY 0.07

 

[ian]

Thanks Rob, really interesting exercise and has actually concluded what I expected, that the top 30 or so are mainly public catchers, or those I know take a scatter gun approach of registering a large number of domains. The more successful catchers lets say, are certainly in the bottom half, as they target less, but their percentage success rates are likely to be much higher, on the contested domains they chase.

I'm not sure whether this has all been positive to Erik and his thread, but the numbers are interesting. At least in any regard, DOMEINWINKEL have appeared fairly high in your findings, and had also in mine.

 

[RobM]

I really don't think it's been positive or negative to Erik. You only have to look through some of the top registrations to get a feel for the type of domain being registered.The fact that Erik's tag has caught domains we're after (and I'm sure other chasers) and no doubt vice versa says more to me than seeing domains in the list that we'd never have gone for and had no backorders on. Also interesting that stupendous amounts just drop - will try to find a ratio. I think it's probably the most balanced I've seen it. Apart from the occasional 'spotting' of a system which seem to be slowly getting ironed out I think drops are being more randomly spread than ever. Basically if you want to have a better chance at catching a domain backorder it everywhere.
*edit* Just processed the figures - dropped to available domains outnumber dropped to caught domains this year so far by 62 times!

 

[monaghan]

Of course, what the figures will never capture is people's decisions to prioritise a catch and not book something that you know there will be high demand for in favour of another that you think there will be less competition for.

The only real comparison is if everyone tries for the same names with no exceptions, but of course, different customers will have different catch requirements.

This advise from the post above seems to be the way to go if you are a customer

Basically if you want to have a better chance at catching a domain backorder it everywhere.

On a positive note, it is good to see a technical discussion about catching again.

 

[gimpydog]

There's no way CatchTiger have a 57% success rate with competitive domains

Your candour is appreciated Murray.

Thanks to rob / ian for your insights too. Fascinating stuff.

Given that the whois is a public record, and the uk zone files are now available, it is surprising that some people still want to keep drop-catching shrouded in secrecy. But then again...

 

[ErikL]

If you share catch data, you can expect critical questions and that's fine. But it’s interesting to see that more users want to share their data and it can look very different based on their statistics. We never claimed we had a catch percentage of 57% of all dropped domains. Below you can see some additional data of catch tags we see. Again, as most people say, these data is only based on domains we try to catch. In total we tried more than a thousand domains last year. When we compare our statistics to RobM they look very different. We are certainly not on the longtail (because of our start price of €35) but on the domain names our customers order. Below the different tags that we see with more that 4 catches:

CatchTiger 57,18%
DIGITALTV 3,19%
WARBURTON 2,32%
CREGISP 2,32%
JSMITH 2,18%
CUNNINGHAM 1,89%
DTDOMAINS 1,74%
IPT 1,74%
OSTASHKO 1,60%
POLLER 1,45%
ALEXM 1,45%
CYNTRA 1,31%
WHYTHINK 1,31%
STARWORKS 1,31%
DROPPED 1,31%
CATCHER 1,31%
CHARLES 1,16%
EDWARDPUGH 1,16%
MURRAY 1,02%
TAURUSINTERNET 1,02%
ENTERFIRST 0,87%
CUSTARDONLINE 0,87%
HUBBARD-MEDIA 0,73%
ENTREPRENEUR 0,73%
TOOLDOMAINS 0,73%
CTRL-ALT-DEL 0,73%
ALEXJORDAN 0,73%
CATCHIT 0,73%
AKARA 0,73%
HELLCAT 0,58%
REBOOT 0,58%
DC-LTD 0,58%
MELITAWEB 0,58%
STUKA-PH 0,58%
MAYLUM 0,58%
BOWLER 0,58%
FARAWAY 0,58%
FEKETE 0,58%

 

[RobM]

Not quite sure what you're driving at. No it would be impossible for us to catch 57% of domains backordered because of the sheer volume of backorders - however our software/servers used by hosted chasers are usually responsible for between 5% and 20% of all catches on any day. Anyway some people have been compiling droplists as they happen so I am now putting up a page of who gets what as it happens at http://domainview.co.uk/current-catches.html - catching is so subjective people can determine domain quality themselves. That way no slant can be put on stats. I think this also serves to show the declining interest in uk domains - if 4000 drop and only 70 are caught it's a sad state for the industry.

 

[timter51]

What is quite eye-opening to me about all of this is how many domains people are going for... I'm usually going for just one or two a day, some days nothing at all. Starting to wonder what the feck I'm missing.

 

[ian]

Thanks Rob, I'm certainly always interested in seeing what is caught on any given day and the reasoning behind it. Whilst I agree that it shows a declining interest in uk domains, it maybe also shows what rubbish had originally been registered back in the day.

What is quite eye-opening to me about all of this is how many domains people are going for... I'm usually going for just one or two a day, some days nothing at all. Starting to wonder what the feck I'm missing.

Look at Rob's list for today, not a lot, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess!

 

[timter51]

Look at Rob's list for today, not a lot, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess!

Bloody hell... only a couple of those I could see maybe selling for more than reg in time, with a bit of luck. Fair play to anyone making profit off of that way of doing things.

 

[RobM]

A lot of people hoard masses - it must pay off on the ones they sell so good luck to them. Not a business model I subscribe to anymore but people wouldn't do it year after year at a loss.

 

[Murray]

What is quite eye-opening to me about all of this is how many domains people are going for... I'm usually going for just one or two a day, some days nothing at all. Starting to wonder what the feck I'm missing.

Same, one or two a day most, a lot of time nothing at all.

 

[gimpydog]

We never claimed we had a catch percentage of 57% of all dropped domains.

Not in as many words. What you claim is...

...which to many - new or novice buyers & the man on the Clapham omnibus alike -will be seen to suggest that, if they were to win an auction with your service, they would have a 57% chance of owning the domain.

If you were to actually place an advertisement on the Clapham omnibus, you would have to substantiate your claim & probably have a few lines of small print as a footer.

I suspect that the reality is that the guy who has backordered
rolex-watch.me.uk with you has a very good chance of being in the 57%, whereas the winner of your auction for a shot at
hll.co.uk has somewhat less chance.

 

[gimpydog]

Interesting to see that Foz was top-dog in RobM's stats, but didn't feature at all in ErikL's

What would Garth's success rate be if he worked it out using ErikL's method, I wonder?

 

[Sean]

I think what Erik is saying is that, of the names his system was chasing, he had a 57% success rate. He then shows who caught the names he missed and as we can see, no one enjoyed anywhere near the same strike rate.

What is also impressive is the monetry value of those catches, with names often in the three to four figure bracket. Substantially more than the £35 fee many achieve.

 

[RobM]

@gimpydog I think that's a little bit unfair on Erik. The stats that I posted were for *all* drops that were reregistered. They weren't only stats for domains backordered. Some tags that hoard (and I know don't chase contested domains) would never appear in a list of stats from a dropcatcher's point of view as they would be unlikely to catch domains that were backordered by others.

 

[ian]

I guess if Erik wanted to, he could just add the disclaimer *of domains we chase; to effectively cover this, with a further explanation (again, if he wanted to) in the terms of use. I could however quite imagine a few with less knowledge paying a higher premium on the expectation of a 57.18% success rate; ultimately though, they only pay if successful.