Yesterday was a good day for Rob Sequin’s domain name portfolio.
Yesterday, President Obama announced renewed relations with the government of Cuba. The announcement has immediate ramifications for trade and travel between the two countries, and opens up the potential for much more.
Immediately, people went to domain name registrars to register Cuban domain names. According to Verisign’s DomainView tool, over 1,500 domains containing “cuba” were registered yesterday in .com and .net. Compare that to fewer than 100 that are registered on a typical day.
Additionally, close to 300 domains including “Havana” were registered. Even the term “Cigar” had a banner day, with domains like SendCubanCigars.com registered.
But one man was way ahead of these people.
Domain name investor and buyer broker Rob Sequin has collected 2,500 Cuba-related domain names dating back to 1998. He’s developed 40 of them into sites, and yesterday saw a quintupling of traffic to the sites.
Sequin was elated by yesterday’s news. But for him, Cuba isn’t just an investment. It’s a passion, and he was genuinely excited about what yesterday’s announcement means for both Americans and Cubans.
“It’s great for Americans,” he explained. “The travel restrictions will be eased so more Americans can travel under what they call a general license, which basically means that, if you have purposeful travel, you’ll be able to travel to Cuba without a specific license.”
He also said the relaxed trade restrictions and the U.S. having an embassy in Cuba will be good for Cubans.
“It should be positive for the Cuban people because they’ll have more interactions with Americans and more small business opportunities,” he said.
Sequin is actually heading to Cuba with his family after Christmas on a a humanitarian license. He made plans for the trip in August, well before the recent news.
One of Sequin’s sites that saw a jump in traffic yesterday was HavanaJournal.com, which covers all things Cuba — including relations with the United States. Sequin also runs CubaTrips.org, a site about legal travel to Cuba. One of his more popular Cuba service sites is CubaCityHall.com, where people can retrieve Cuban government documents like birth, marriage and death certificates, as well as police and school records.
You can see a full list of his Cuba domain names here. Many of the domain names aren’t directly affected by yesterday’s announcement, but they could pay off in the future. HavanaVacations.com comes to mind, as there is the potential for U.S. citizens to be able to travel to Cuba on vacation in the future.
Other domain investors also stand to profit from the Cuba news. At last check, geo domain name investor Skip Hoagland was involved with Cuba.com. The Castello Brothers are also big on Cuba.
JP says
Comgrats Rob, you’ve waiTed a long time!
Leonard Britt says
I didn’t register any names after the announcement but I already have CubanoTV.com & HabanaTV.com
Kassey says
I like investors who have a long-term view and are patient to wait for the opportunities to arrive, and Rob is definitely one of them. I particularly like the way he acquired Siboney.com, as described in details in his blog http://robsequin.com/cuba-geodomain-purchase.htm.
Domainer Extraordinaire says
Thanks Andrew. I was letting CubaPlus.com expire.
Andrea Paladini says
Congrats to Rob!
On a different note, I think the US gov should also close Guantanamo (located in Cuba), which is a huge shame for humanity … exactly like were Nazi lagers (concentration camps) …
Joseph Peterson says
It’s interesting to compare the surge in Cuba-related domain registrations following this announcement with the volume of domains purchased when a new TLD enters general availability.
1,500 newly registered .COM / .NET domains containing “Cuba” … That exceeds the total number of domains registered to date for dozens of keyword nTLDs!
According to NameStat.org, these TLDs have accumulated only between 1,000 and 1,600 domains:
.GENT, .PIZZA, .GIFTS, .FAIL, .ACTOR, .SURF, .CREDIT, .GUITARS, .SURGERY, .DESI, .VIAJES, .GAL, .FURNITURE, .LOANS, .LUXURY, .САЙТ, .OKINAWA, .ASSOCIATES, .REISE, .LEASE, .MORTGAGE, .HORSE, .DEMOCRAT, .REST, .CAREER, .COUNTRY, .COOKING, .SCHULE, .DIET, .VODKA
And these between 500 and 1,000:
.MAISON, .BEST, .FISHING, .JUEGOS, .CLAIMS, .ACCOUNTANTS, .ENGINEER, .GRIPE, .REPUBLICAN, .CREDITCARD
With these sitting below 500:
.ARMY, .QPON, .SHIKSHA, .PHYSIO, .ORGANIC, .HIV, .机构, .SARL, .RODEO, .بازار, .NAVY, .AIRFORCE, .集团, .संगठन, .WED, .LTDA, .世界, .RICH
So a news story is enough to move the needle on .COM / .NET for a single keyword by as much as 1,500 domains in a couple of days. Yet weeks or months of registry / registrar marketing for a keyword nTLD often fall short of that number.
It’s worth stressing that the new TLD will be virgin territory with most keyword combinations available (if perhaps expensively priced). In contrast, the 1,500 surge in “Cuba” domains in the past couple of days would be ON TOP OF every Cuba domain registered during the past 2 decades.
Conclusion 1: Even when options are scarce, people are prepared to register .COM / .NET at the drop of a hat in response to a newly trending keyword.
Conclusion 2: Even when options are abundant and marketing dollars are pumped into the system, people may be reluctant to register domains based on a keyword nTLD.
That’s the status quo.
stan kiwor says
Shiptocuba. Shipcuba. Sendcuba.
Ive had them available for years . Hoping for a big return. Waiting for serious interest. Shipping. Tourism ecommerce
Jason says
I jumped on the wagon and grabbed 66 names from.com,.net,etc… I have not tried to sell any yet, but I did have on appraised by GoDaddy and it came back at a super surprising six figure amount. It is http://www.cubancellular.com. Does anyone have any idea how accurate the GoDaddy numbers may be?
Andrew Allemann says
“Does anyone have any idea how accurate the GoDaddy numbers may be?”
Not very.
🙂
Joseph Peterson says
“Not Very” is generous.
Not Any.
Whatever correlation exists, the coefficient must be tiny. At best slightly useful for looking at very large groups of domains – and still a poor indicator.
For judging individual domains, any automatic GoDaddy appraisal would be so unreliable as to have no practical value. Sorry, GoDaddy. Too much work on patents, too little work on technology.
Jason says
Just a quick follow up to my above post… I do not feel the six figure number is even close…$4-6k may be close to the right buyer, but six figures is a huge mistake or I need to go buy some lotto tickets because I’m really lucky! LOL
David Oberting says
Hi Andrew I missed this Cuba article back in December but Rob is a great guy. I also got in the game 1 1/2 years ago and have accumulated around 800 Cuba related domains like CubaVacation.com, TravelToCuba.com.GoToCuba.com, CubaTravelGuide.com, CruiseToCuba.com, CubaAirlines.com and CubaAdvisor.com to name a few. I plan on holding them for now but would partner up to develop some of them. I also own a tour company that helps Americans travel to Cuba. Cheers!
Andrew Allemann says
I imagine it will still take some time before the opportunity matures, but it’s definitely headed in the right direction!
David Oberting says
Thanks for the note and all your terrific posts.
marshalladame says
When things started opening up for Cuba-U.S. relations I bought up several .coms because I was not sure what I might want to get involved with.
On a fluke I bought .
linkcuba.com
dresscuban.com
cubansurf.com
letstourcuba.net
divecubatour.com
letstourcuba.com
dininghavana.net
dininghavana.com
palaciodevalle.com
cubatelicom.com
granhotelturismo.com
granhotelturismo.net
cubaisready.com
havanaisready.com
havanaisready.com
blaumarinavaraderoresort.com
blaumarinavaradero.com
julioantoniomella.com
Regards
MARSHALL ADAME
910-545-7597
Danny says
If you can still get Cuban domain names try going for the Spanish Versions as well they might be worth more knowing it’s a Spanish country.