DomainReport.ca
If you have a young daughter, chances are very good that you've heard of the new boy band called One Direction. If you haven't heard of them, think of five Justin Biebers, or the New Kids on the Block if you were around in the 80's. They are a talented group of young UK singers and seem to be growing more in popularity every day.
For a quick Wikipedia background, One Direction are a British-Irish boy band consisting of members Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. They signed to Simon Cowell's record label after being formed and placing third in the seventh series of The X Factor. They later signed in North America to Columbia Records. On 21 March 2012, Up All Night debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, making One Direction the first UK group in history to debut at number one with their first album.
One Direction came into existence in 2011 and now face one problem that many others experience these days when starting a new venture. The .com domain of their band name is not available to register.
Obviously, the best domain for this band to reach their worldwide fan base would be OneDirection.com, however this domain was registered back in 1999. It is currently a travel/religious type website (and not a pretty one at that). It is serviced by Google adsense ads that have no choice but to display concert ticket ads and One Direction band ads, regardless of the site's content, because the term is now synonymous with the band. The current registrant is PIPEX Communications Hosting Limited of Nottinham England. How could they have known back in 1999 what this name would come to mean? With new ventures and businesses popping up every day of the year, you never know when one of your domains will come to have a bigger meaning than it currently does.
The .co.uk domain would be another option, since they are from the UK, but this was also registered but only in Jan 2011 - before the group was formed. Right now, it looks like some sort of fan site for the band.
The domain that the band currently uses to operate on is OneDirectionMusic.com, not too bad but you have to wonder how many of their fans first go to OneDirection.com looking for band information. If the group continues to grow in popularity, this is one domain sale we might see in the near future.
And on a separate but related topic, if anyone knows how to score tickets for a Canadian or northern US One Direction concert, let me know, it would make me a hero in my household!
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One Direction is being used by One Direction. There was another band from the states who had the name before and they're suing for millions.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update, it could become a more interesting story then.
ReplyDelete...and when you find those tickets please let me know if I can buy a few from you, as well. I have the same issue in my household.
ReplyDeleteI usually do the same If I am looking to buy something, to visit some place or just doing some research I always check the domain name, how well it ranks, what SEO is done to this website. Why they don't have exact CompanyName[.]com domain and so on.
ReplyDeleteBut no, I don't know where to find tickets :)
I'd give one direction at least 3 months before the next idol/x factor/whatever winner is the new thing.I scoored One direction tickets to see them in June… Lately the 90's bands are coming back, Aqua toured recently and S Club 7 are coming too.
ReplyDeleteone direction is so hot especially louis tomlison i want to marry him i would do anything to hang with him for one i am not that very special so i would be so happy
ReplyDelete