Last Friday we asked the Australian domain name and business communities to show their endorsement for a new Registrar and Drop Catcher to be approved by auDA. The responses so far, in only a couple of days, have been overwhelming.
A Registrar like Synergy Wholesale is seen as professional today, but started off very small and I’m not sure they had any industry endorsements at all to begin with? Still, they were given a chance to succeed and have thrived giving great customer support. The same fair go now needs to be given to Cameron, as the months and hurdles continue to drag on for his Registrar Application.
Here’s just a taste of the appetite professional Australians have for Cameron Bell‘s new Registrar and DropCatcher.com.au platform (under review at auDA as we speak)…
Erhan Karabardak (Former auDA Interim Chairman, Former auDA Board Member, Director and Vice Chairman of Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Association, Cooper Mills), “Cameron is an Australian domain industry veteran with extensive experience in running a domain name registrar. I had the pleasure of working with Cameron in his various registrar roles as a legal adviser. He is a great guy and I have no hesitation in recommending him to run another domain name registrar business.”
Shaun McGowan (Money Pty Ltd), “Cameron has been involved and an active member of the domain community for as long as I have known – at least 10 years. Cameron has always acted with great professionalism and an individual I highly trust because of this. I am excited for Cameron to run a registrar.”
Rick Schwartz (US Domain King who has sold tens of millions of dollars of domain names), and thinks Cameron’s plan to start a Registrar and Drop Catcher is “honourable”.
Don Rankin, “I’ve known Cameron Bell when he was working for Dark Blue Sea and he is very honest, well liked and a respected person. I have no doubt he should be running a register and drop catcher as the industry needs more competition.”
Mike Robertson (Formally Dark Blue Sea), “I worked alongside Cameron at Dark Blue Sea (parent company of Fabulous.com.au and Drop.com.au) and have complete faith in him running a registrar.”
Luke Smorgon (Activate Ventures), “The industry is deprived of competition, which always results in worse outcomes for Australian domain registrants. Having another licensed registrar and drop catcher will increase the options of how one can register or acquire a domain, and encourage investment in user experience and reduction of prices.”
Robert Kaay (DBR, Assets Australia), I have always found Cam professional to deal with, especially when he ran previous Registrars and Drop Catchers. I feel the amount of road blocks auDA have put up against him over the past 18 months are discriminatory. Why have no other Registrars in history had to go through these never-ending hurdles? Why has auDA not approved any new Registrars since 2016? Why has auDA been happy with only one privately-owned drop catcher since November 2020?”
Greg Brown (Acheeva), “Cameron has always conducted himself in a professional and competent manner”
Ed Keay-Smith (Online Impact, DBR, Assets Australia), “We need another drop catcher in Australia. Competition in good for the end user and one company having a monopoly is not!”
Bill Vanderent (Former CTO of Dark Blue Sea, Online Brand Management), “I have known Cameron for close to 20 years, and worked with him for 10 of them. His character, honesty and integrity is unmatched. He is a highly skilled and experienced individual in the domain space, and is well respected and highly regarded by his peers. His drive to bring an Australian business to the forefront of the Australian drop catching market is unwavering, and I see no reason why someone of his stature and experience should be denied this opportunity.”
Grant Dawson (BHP, Principle Technology Operations), “I feel it’s important for there to be options and competition in this space”.
Luke Summers (auDA 2017 Policy Review Panel Member & The Lucky Country), “Cameron Bell has extensive experience in the Australian domain name industry and is eminently qualified to lead an Australian Registrar.”
Ian Halson (Lemonstone Group), “I fully support greater competition in the market which can only benefit the Australian public.”
Scott Long (Cybermedia), “Good, increases competition which helps to increase consumer protections. It becomes a fair fight and the consumers benefit from it.”
Brian White (CSLT Asset Management), “It is about time we had another player in this arena, Hopefully we can see a better Management system on its way, which hopefully will disrupt the current status quo.”
Evan Davies (Manager, Strategy Policy & Intergovernmental Relations at Department of Health (WA Health), “I support Cameron Bell”.
Matthew Shier (IronMerge Group), “I endorse and support this for the benefit of the industry.”
Anthony Sexton (Fluent Partners), “Happy to support another option for registering dropped domains in Australia”
Kyle Tully (Nerdify), “A good thing for the market – we need more competition.”
Kathryn Taylor (GenusPlus Group Limited), “I endorse Cameron Bell”.
George Stapleton (Tech Central), “We endorse Cameron Bell and DropCatcher.com.au“.
Jayden Lawson (Sidekick Creative), “More competition is good for the market”.
Gary Craft (Sports and Entertainment Limited), “Free markets require competition”.
Michael Carter (Mirecart Limited), “I support Cameron and anyone else looking to become a Registrar and Domain Drop Catcher”
Nathan Brown (My Aussie Hosting), “I support Cameron Bell”.
Peter Adamini (Independent Metallurgical Operations), I endorse Cameron Bell”.
Mark Stewart (Nuts and Bolts Computing), “I endorse Cameron Bell”.
Paul Gruber (Logical Machinery), “I’ve never heard of Cameron Bell, but I do think competition is needed”.
Benjamin Henson, “It would be a much needed improvement to the Australian domain industry.”
Phillip Ebrall (Asia-Pacific Chiropractic Journal), “Society benefits from competition and choices.”.
Jeremy Dawes (Jezweb), “More competition is a good thing, only one drop catcher is not ideal.”
James Brown (852 Media Holdings), “Cameron Bell is a knowledgeable and dedicated domain name industry professional for many years. We strongly endorse and recommend his application to become a domain name registrar.”
Mandeep Singh (BlueShield), “I endorse Cameron Bell”.
William Salmons (Keendhow Pty Ltd), “I think it is a good idea”.
Stefan Angheli (Fit IT), “Great idea. The more competition the better. US has multiple back ordering companies”.
Gary Weis (SBIM), “All for competition”.
David Thomas (Ozeweb Website Solutions), “Australia needs this competition”.
David Law (Redwood Entertainment), “I think this would be good for Australian businesses”.
William Traychevski (Tookak Fine Watches), “We need to complete in this market because we are behind and godaddy is offering the services for auctions.”
Gabrielle Lucas (Daiquiri Isle), “I think it is good to have competition to keep prices reasonable.”
Gregory Dutton, “Go for it Cameron!”.
Kevin Gilbee, “Competition is good”.
Magnus Wynberg, “Competition is a good idea”.
Rick Schwartz (US Domain King who has sold tens of millions of dollars of domain names) has just been added to the list and thinks Cameron’s plan to start a Registrar and Drop Catcher is “honourable”.
Ned O’Meara clearly supports DropCatcher becoming a Registrar too with his LinkedIn post today, good on you Ned!