FUSU.com - Interesting Concept
POSTED BY Rick Latona IN Web Sites

I've just been reading about FUSU.

It's certainly an interesting concept but I'm not sure I entirely understand how it works.

For example, it looks like the registrant of the domain doesn't change after a name gets listed. How do they protect the people that buy shares? Shouldn't the exchange be the registrant?

I see that they don't allow the registrant to list more than 45% of their interests. If they became the registrant that wouldn't be an issue. Someone could list as much of their shares as they wanted to list.

Doesn't it also imply that the only options would be to sell the name or park the name? What happens if the registrant wants to develop it? How do they take into account expenses and the like?

I'm confused.

  • http://www.greentaxi.com Conor Neu

    Agree completely, confusing concept., especially the future use of the domain. I blogged about this here:

    http://www.greentaxi.com/?p=545

    To answer the registrar question; they put the domains into an escrow account at the registrar. The registrar therefore has control of the domain so that it is not able to be secretly moved/sold. However, only one registrar is currently on board with this plan (EuroDNS).

    There are many more issues at stake...be careful before getting involved in my opinion.

  • Lukas Bradley

    "Domains are kept at Fusu Certified Registrars; Fusu has to approve any owner change or transfer."

    "You can decide to sell the name at any point. Depending on the sale price, you will need the approval of 90% of the shareholders; if the sale price is higher than 150% of the current market value, the shareholders will be paid out automatically."

    It reads to me that IBM.com could do this, and not have to park the domain. It only comes into play if the name is transferred. If you wanted to pocket the money and hold onto the domain forever, I think you could do so.

  • http://www.ricklatona.com/ Rick Latona

    So I could sell 45% of one of my domains and never split any money with the investors if I choose not to park it? Sounds like a good deal for me.

  • http://p2pgames.com Lukas Bradley

    Agreed. The one really interesting (and possibly incredibly problematic) clause is the sale price to market value. It definitely gives the "investors" significant power, and a 150% no-vote clause may be rather large. I don't know the industry though, so I may be very wrong.

    Furthermore, please keep in mind this is a Slovakian company. While I’m certain the majority of ex-Soviet states’ businesses are legitimate, it does offer a bit of risk into the equation.

  • http://www.ricklatona.com/ Rick Latona

    It's sounding better all the time!

  • Domaineer

    What needs to be done here, is a company like sedo, or a domain parking company needs to come into the equation. If they can allocate the % ownership, and revenue earned into each persons sedo account, like parking payments are done each month, people will invest. If I am getting 5% return on income from warning.com (for example) I might buy 1000 shares and let it right, so might person X, and Y, and Z. This could be really good, seems like alot of cash strapped people own good domain names, but do not have the capital to develop them, so end up parking them, or putting them up for sale. This could really be a grow out phase for the internet, and really add some real dollar values, and make domains a proved commodity, with liqudity. If they can do it for trading cards (thepit.com) why not domains?

  • http://www.fusu.com Tobias

    Hi,

    just found this via a friend - I'm a founder of Fusu. Thanks for the post!

    I hope we will have official partnerships with parking companies announced soon. Parking revenue will then be distributed as monthly dividend.

    For non-parked domains, we did not intend to pay out dividends. Recently, a domainer brought up the idea of voluntary dividends, like on the real stock exchange, to make investments in his domains more attractive. I think it's a great idea and we will support that.

    -Tobias

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