The DDF is the first and only open-ended Investment Fund available to the public that invests into Domains: The Internet´s Real Estates. After twenty years of WorldWideWeb, there still are many opportunities only waiting to be taken. Some locations in the address topology of the Web might be very expensive nowadays. Toys.com went for 5,5 million USD, sex.com for as much as 12 million USD. But think about it: there is only one sex.com, and there will never be another one. Even in real estate, markets are prone to change, with specific objects continually developing in one direction or another, for the better or the worse. Online however, a Premium Domain name will remain a Premium Domain name forever. Hence domain names may rightly be called the real estate of the Web. With an ever growing online market and the consumers' increasing tendency towards buying goods online, there is yet another feature of domain names one might consider: a prospective buyer will, rather than search for a specific brand, look for a certain product or service in general terms first, which means that all domains relevant in the respective markets will be in high demand and extremely valuable for the various enterprises keen to gain the clients for their products at the earliest moment possible once they have entered the Web. The situation on the Web is constantly changing, but with online businesses having turned into the main source of consumer information, the fight for traffic has become harder than ever. In the past years, spendings on online advertising have risen up to 40% a year (Goldmann Sachs and Piper Jaffray study), and, according to various studies, this increase in expenditure is here to stay. Also on that score, domain names have become a decisive factor: the right name will eventually save thousands or even millions over the years when it comes to online advertising expenditure, and along with rising costs in this field, also the value of domain names is going to rise considerably, as does the value of top locations in real estate. To stress this point we shall take a look at some of the best generic domain names worldwide and their current owners: Bank of America bought loans.com, CNN owns money.com, Barnes & Noble acquired books.com, Nestle meals.com, and weather.com, as well as jobs.com have become huge businesses due to the domain names themselves. With the accelerating shift of business from on-land to on-line, the importance of these generic names is unquestionably growing. One very common assumption people make when it comes to domain marketing is that the great names in the field are already taken and that the good ones still available are too expensive to acquire. This observation is false. First, there are still many great names to be registered, especially if one does not confine oneself to ".com"- domains exclusively but also considers other TLDs, say that of India. With India's English speaking population being the second largest in the world, the country's fast growing markets are without doubt among the most promising ones, which is, of course, also true for the domain name market. Also, many great names can still be bought at reasonable rates and since prices don't but reflect a momentary situation, one must, especially given the rate at which the internet is growing and advertising expenditure is rising, acknowledge that the future of domains is going to be a bright one. The DDF offers you a great opportunity to participate in the growing domain monetization business. The roots of the DDF go back to 2006 when the core team of the Fund first met and joined forces in order to optimize the return of their portfolios. Finally, in early 2008, the team decided to merge their portfolios into a single one, allowing for every one of the three founders to concentrate on one part of the business. In early 2009, the team decided to open up their operation to investors in a Friends and Family program. The invested sums grew by 124% in 2009 and by another 7% in the first 9 weeks of 2010 . In February 2010 the Fund incorporated in the Cayman Islands, which proved to be the best location for the first and only fund in domains open to investors. FACTS Type: Open-Ended Administered* Investment Fund regulated under the Mutual Funds Law Location: Cayman Islands Assets: Domains Minimum investment: 5000 USD Lockup period: 6 months ISIN nr: to be announced Directors: Michael Marcovici, Alberto Sanz de Lama Advisory board: Marco Rodzinek, Stefan Piech , Philipp Schindler Management Fee: 2% Hurdle Rate: 5% Incentive Fee: 20% Administrator: JP Fund Administartions Auditors: BDO NAV: monthly Bank: Deutsche Bank Web: ddf.lu *The Domain Developrs Fund is an administered Fund in the Cayman Islands, this means that the Fund is under the strict control of an Administrator appointed by the Government of the Cayman Islands, no Funds can be taken out or in without the permission of the Administrator. |
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