Launch of Brandable: A Premium UK Domain Marketplace

atlas · 2024-07-02T18:56:38+0100

We're thrilled to announce that Brandable.uk has officially launched!

After dedicating countless hours to building this platform from the ground up, we're excited to bring you a premium marketplace exclusively featuring UK domains. We've crafted this with the UK market in mind, especially considering its suppressed state over the last couple of years.

Why Brandable?

Exclusive UK Domains: Only .uk and .co.uk domains.
Innovative Pair Matching: Our system permits one to automatically pair BIN .uk and .co.uk domains, displaying them on a single landing page for seamless browsing.
Simplified VAT Handling: All VAT considerations are managed within the platform.
Streamlined Negotiation Workflow: Enjoy a super simple negotiation process.
Complete Checkout & Transfer Tools: A full suite to ensure smooth transactions and domain transfers.

This is just the beginning. We're committed to continuous updates and improvements, aiming to inject fresh energy into the UK domain marketplace. If you're curious about the future of UK domain trading and want to see us in action, you can sign up at: https://www.brandable.uk/register

atlas · 2024-07-02T18:58:33+0100

Here are some basics about the marketplace.

Once you create an account, go to the Account Section to fill in your personal or company details and payment information.

In the account section, you'll find the ‘Pair Matching’ option at the bottom. Here’s how it works:

Pair Matching On: One landing page for both .uk and .co.uk domains.
Pair Matching Across Accounts: If you have one part of a pair set to BIN (Buy It Now) and another user has the other part set to BIN, they will be matched and displayed on a single landing page. Both users need Pair Matching enabled.
Pair Matching Off: Each domain variant will have its own landing page, and no cross-account pairing will occur.

Adding your domains is a breeze:

Add them individually.
Use bulk upload.
Upload via CSV/XLS files.

Make sure to change your nameservers to:

ns1.brandable.uk
ns2.brandable.uk

Our current fee is set at 15%. You are free to use other marketplaces, and there are no binding contracts. Just remember, for our automation to work, your nameservers need to be pointed at Brandable

invincible · 2024-07-02T19:10:01+0100

Referring to https://www.brandable.uk/about are you able to confirm whether the comments printed and purported to be written by Sarah Thompson, Michael Ramirez and Emily Johnson were genuinely written by three people with those names and about Brandable.uk?

atlas · 2024-07-02T19:20:32+0100

@invincible - thank you for catching that! The comments are placeholders. We appreciate your keen eye and will get these updated right away to reflect genuine testimonials about Brandable.uk. Your feedback helps us improve, and we're grateful for your assistance in making our platform better.

DJ · 2024-07-02T19:25:05+0100

Hi @atlas congrats on the launch, I wish you all the success.

Ryan emailed me last week and advised that using brandable's nameservers were a pre-requisite to listing on the marketplace. Is this still the case as your message suggests that they are only required for automation to work?

Cheers,

DJ

real · 2024-07-02T19:33:33+0100

Best of luck with the site.

atlas · 2024-07-02T19:36:24+0100

@DJ - yes, it is still a requirement for sellers to point their domains to our nameservers at all times. By doing so, your domains become searchable within our platform, which significantly increases their visibility to potential buyers. Additionally, it enables the full functionality of our features.

atlas · 2024-07-02T19:36:43+0100

Thanks @real !

real · 2024-07-02T19:42:38+0100

Will you be offering the ability to import leads at a lower %, in a similar way Dan does for example? Could be handy for quick and easy GBP sales.

Would it also be possible to ask who owns the site and where client funds will be held during the domain sales process? Will they be ring fenced for example from company funds and fully protected?

Greg · 2024-07-02T19:43:21+0100

Best of luck with the launch @atlas

One question I had was the sales pages references a ‘Buyers protection guarantee’, a couple of times, but I can’t find any reference to that in the terms of service? Assume it’s effectively an escrow service as the domain is moved to your tag (like Dan.com)?

invincible · 2024-07-02T19:48:00+0100

atlas said:
@invincible - thank you for catching that! The comments are placeholders. We appreciate your keen eye and will get these updated right away to reflect genuine testimonials about Brandable.uk. Your feedback helps us improve, and we're grateful for your assistance in making our platform better.

No problem. I thought they might be placeholders.

atlas · 2024-07-02T19:59:32+0100

@real - Yes, the ability to import leads is on our short list of upcoming features, and we are likely to offer this at a 5% commission.

Brandable is owned by Dot UK Group. You can find more information about us on our basic website at:

Dot UK Group - Nominet Registrars & UK Domain Specialists

DOT UK Group are UK domain specialists operating from its base in London, UK.

www.dotukgroup.com

Client funds will be held in our company account.

At this stage, we are simply focused on the successful launch and growth of Brandable.

atlas · 2024-07-02T20:16:30+0100

Thanks @Greg !

We have a registrar set up just for Brandable. So we take possession of a purchased domain before releasing the buyer's funds to the seller. I agree that this could be made clearer and will make that change.

CM · 2024-07-02T20:20:09+0100

atlas said:
@real - Yes, the ability to import leads is on our short list of upcoming features, and we are likely to offer this at a 5% commission.

Brandable is owned by Dot UK Group. You can find more information about us on our basic website at:

Dot UK Group - Nominet Registrars & UK Domain Specialists

DOT UK Group are UK domain specialists operating from its base in London, UK.

www.dotukgroup.com

Client funds will be held in our company account.

At this stage, we are simply focused on the successful launch and growth of Brandable.

Copyright © Brandable dot uk. All rights reserved.
Brandable dot UK Limited. Registered company number 14657229 Registered office: 21 Bonny Street, London, NW1 9PE

That Ltd has 1 director and no refrence to "Dot UK Group". Does the footer need an update too?

DJ · 2024-07-02T20:57:02+0100

atlas said:
@DJ - yes, it is still a requirement for sellers to point their domains to our nameservers at all times. By doing so, your domains become searchable within our platform, which significantly increases their visibility to potential buyers. Additionally, it enables the full functionality of our features.

Thanks for clarifying Jeff.

atlas · 2024-07-02T21:02:58+0100

@CM - If you check out Brandble Dot UK Ltd at Companies House, under "persons with significant control" -

BRANDABLE DOT UK LTD persons with significant control - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

BRANDABLE DOT UK LTD - Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity

find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk

It shows Dot UK Group Ltd.

Greg · 2024-07-02T21:39:28+0100

atlas said:
We have a registrar set up just for Brandable.

Ah ha, I know, I gave Ryan the BRANDABLE tag

atlas said:
So we take possession of a purchased domain before releasing the buyer's funds to the seller. I agree that this could be made clearer and will make that change.

Sounds good, perhaps some tooltips or a link to extra info to explain the guarantee could be useful. Also might be worth including the word escrow somewhere to explain Brandable is the third party managing the transaction for both sides.

atlas · 2024-07-02T22:03:57+0100

@Greg - yes, thanks

Yes, we are putting together an FAQ and those kind of things will go in it.

Wayne · 2024-07-02T22:20:16+0100

I think I pretty much gave the name Brandable.uk away a few years ago, nice to see it being used now.

QuantumDomains · 2024-07-02T22:26:24+0100

Thanks for the heads up Jeff will check it out, the landing pages look great

atlas · Tuesday at 10:29 PM

@Wayne - Thank you for your kind words! We're thrilled to be putting the name Brandable.uk to good use and bringing it to life

atlas · Tuesday at 10:30 PM

@QuantumDomains - glad to hear that you like the landing pages. We’ve put a lot of effort into creating a seamless and visually appealing experience.

Aaron · 2024-07-03T01:01:08+0100

Just a quick Q from me, what will be the process for publishing sales? If the product delivers and sales are made promotion of the sales prices seems beneficial to push the UK market forward. Will there be something in place to accommodate this or will it depend on the deal/agreement per domain?

atlas · 2024-07-03T01:13:06+0100

@Aaron - that is a good question that we discussed a lot.

I believe that publishing sales will significantly benefit the UK domain market by increasing transparency and fostering trust among buyers and sellers. Therefore, our preference is to publish sales to help push the market forward.

In the admin panel, we provide a setting that allows users to choose whether to keep their sales private or to allow us to publish them. We offer this option to respect the privacy and preferences of our users, understanding that some may prefer to keep their transactions confidential for various reasons.

We encourage users to enable the publication of their sales to contribute to a more vibrant and informed marketplace.

real · 2024-07-03T09:31:33+0100

atlas said:
Client funds will be held in our company account.

Thanks for taking the time to answer questions.

Dan offer the following "By using Dan.com's “Transaction Assurance” process, you authorize Dan.com to perform tasks on your behalf in order to complete the transaction. In these transactions, Dan.com acts as a transaction facilitator to help you buy and sell domain names. Dan.com will not use your funds for its operating expenses or any other corporate purposes, and will not voluntarily make funds available to its creditors in the event of bankruptcy or for any other purpose. You acknowledge Dan.com is not a bank and the service is a payment processing service rather than a banking service. You further acknowledge Dan.com is not acting as a trustee, fiduciary or escrow with respect to your funds."

Does Brandable offer the same assurances, namely "will not use your funds for its operating expenses or any other corporate purposes".

I think this will become important as transaction values grow and you attract more portfolio holders to the platform.

I am assuming running a platform will be a volume game to satisfy the burn rate, so attracting portfolio holders to the platform will be a key part of its future success? I am sure they will want to see these types of guarantees.

Best of luck and I wish you every success!

rb5 · 2024-07-03T10:24:01+0100

From memory this was touched upon on an old thread on Acorn, the Nominet logo, shouldn't this be the Nominet Member logo?

https://www.nominet.uk/corporate-governance/members/ has a section around logo usage. Linking to https://www.nominet.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/RG01001_MembersHub_Logo_TCs.pdf and https://www.nominet.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/RG01001_MembersHub_Logo_Guidelines.pdf

With the terms document containing:

3.2. You are not granted any form of licence or permission to use any other Nominet logo or trade marks.

diablo · 2024-07-03T10:33:46+0100

Best of luck with Brandable. There is certainly space for a UK focused domain name market place.

When it was first being developed, I mentioned to Ryan that the homepage could imply that it was a Nominet initiative because of the placement of the Nominet logo. Ryan said it was to give the site credibility, but trust and credibility are earned not borrowed.

I see you have stuck to that design which to me is misleading. Did Nominet authorise your use of its logo?

Cav · 2024-07-03T10:41:03+0100

diablo said:
Best of luck with Brandable. There is certainly space for a UK focused domain name market place.

When it was first being developed, I mentioned to Ryan that the homepage could imply that it was a Nominet initiative because of the placement of the Nominet logo. Ryan said it was to give the site credibility, but trust and credibility are earned not borrowed.

I see you have stuck to that design which to me is misleading. Did Nominet authorise your use of its logo?

View attachment 263

You can use “ Nominet Member” logo but not sure on the plain Nominet logo, cannot recall permissions for that, but I’m old and stupid

Cav · 2024-07-03T10:55:26+0100

Cav said:
You can use “ Nominet Member” logo but not sure on the plain Nominet logo, cannot recall permissions for that, but I’m old and stupid

In fact I seem to recall a visit from the Nominet police who kindly forgave my early website faux pas in using their logo and pointed me to the allowable logos

DJ · 2024-07-03T12:23:08+0100

diablo said:
Best of luck with Brandable. There is certainly space for a UK focused domain name market place.

When it was first being developed, I mentioned to Ryan that the homepage could imply that it was a Nominet initiative because of the placement of the Nominet logo. Ryan said it was to give the site credibility, but trust and credibility are earned not borrowed.

I see you have stuck to that design which to me is misleading. Did Nominet authorise your use of its logo?

View attachment 263

I think Nominet Member would be more appropriate.

Aaron · 2024-07-03T13:03:14+0100

atlas said:
@Aaron - that is a good question that we discussed a lot.

I believe that publishing sales will significantly benefit the UK domain market by increasing transparency and fostering trust among buyers and sellers. Therefore, our preference is to publish sales to help push the market forward.

In the admin panel, we provide a setting that allows users to choose whether to keep their sales private or to allow us to publish them. We offer this option to respect the privacy and preferences of our users, understanding that some may prefer to keep their transactions confidential for various reasons.

We encourage users to enable the publication of their sales to contribute to a more vibrant and informed marketplace.

Thanks for the thorough response, I think it makes sense, hopefully people will be happy to share sales.

mc · 2024-07-03T20:55:32+0100

https://www.brandable.uk/privacy-policy:

CM · 2024-07-03T21:11:10+0100

mc said:
sorry to spoil the launch, but seems like a not well-thought design with some serious issues.. all seller's personal details are getting published on the domain landing pages in a clear text.

for instance - looking at page source of https://www.brandable.uk/buy-a-domain/carma.uk
(I replaced full name/email address with ***)

```
{\"domains\":[{\"id\":\"651e9874a4f55ba6127941d3\",\"domain\":\"Carma.uk\",\"domainLength\":8,\"tld\":\"uk\",\"slug\":\"carma.uk\",\"secondLevelDomain\":\"carma\",\"secondLevelLength\":5,\"buyOption\":[\"buyNow\",\"makeOffer\"],\"category\":{\"id\":\"65030bd1f8f788204c32e0db\",\"title\":\"Popular\",\"parent\":\"65030bbaf8f788204c32e0be\",\"breadcrumbs\":[{\"doc\":\"65030bbaf8f788204c32e0be\",\"label\":\"Domain Categories\",\"id\":\"651ae3030704fe00576a9fa0\"},{\"doc\":\"65030bd1f8f788204c32e0db\",\"label\":\"Popular\",\"id\":\"651ae3030704fe00576a9fa1\"}],\"createdAt\":\"2023-09-14T13:34:09.605Z\",\"updatedAt\":\"2023-10-02T15:34:27.147Z\"},\"layout\":\"standard\",\"publishedDate\":\"2024-06-30T23:57:03.714Z\",\"seller\":{\"id\":\"651e939ba4f55ba612791d88\",\"name\":\"Jeff Beh***dt\",\"roles\":[\"customer\"],\"enableAPIKey\":false,\"email\":\"jeff@***.ca\",\"createdAt\":\"2023-10-05T10:44:43.813Z\",\"updatedAt\":\"2024-07-03T00:09:10.325Z\",\"country\":\"GB\",\"lastLoggedIn\":\"2024-07-03T00:09:10.309Z\",\"lastName\":\"Beh***dt\",\"firstName\":\"Jeff\",\"excludePairs\":false,\"userType\":[\"seller\",\"seller\",\"seller\"],\"apiKey\":null,\"defaults\":{\"minOfferDefault\":\"\",\"excludePairs\":\"on\"},\"address\":\"1\",\"city\":\"Ottawa\",\"companyName\":\"\",\"isCompany\":false,\"phone\":\"1\",\"postCode\":\"1\",\"vatRegistered\":false,\"loginAttempts\":0},\"sellingPrice\":2250,\"makeOfferPrice\":1910,\"leasePrice\":188,\"leasePeriods\":12,\"leasePeriod\":\"MONTHLY\",\"sold\":false,\"technicalStatus\":true,\"onCloudflare\":true,\"onNameServers\":true,\"onDNS\":true,\"technicalDetails\":{\"nsCheckCount\":0,\"digNameservers\":[],\"rdapCheckCount\":0,\"rdapNameservers\":[{\"nameserver\":\"ns1.brandable.uk.\",\"id\":\"661071ca25fd1a609edba16d\"},{\"nameserver\":\"ns2.brandable.uk.\",\"id\":\"661071ca25fd1a609edba16e\"}],\"rdapResponse\":{\"events\":[{\"eventAction\":\"registration\",\"eventActor\":\"BPC-CA\",\"eventDate\":\"2019-07-07T09:07:35Z\"},{\"eventAction\":\"last changed\",\"eventDate\":\"2023-10-15T14:37:28.600582Z\"},{\"eventAction\":\"expiration\",\"eventDate\":\"2024-07-07T09:07:35Z\"},{\"eventAction\":\"last update of RDAP database\",\"eventDate\":\"2024-04-05T21:48:58.619Z\"}],\"status\":[\"active\"],\"nameservers\":[\"ns1.brandable.uk.\",\"ns2.brandable.uk.\"]},\"pendingCheckCount\":0,\"cloudflareZoneId\":\"e6595d9409131af43590fd428d612b94\",\"cloudflareZoneStatus\":\"active\",\"cloudflareZoneRedirectRulesetId\":\"4bca332aa1054e449f1a40495826e2b8\",\"cloudflareZoneRedirectRulesetRuleId\":\"4334d351f70444e58e6059d56d3a7075\",\"nameServer1\":\"josephine.ns.cloudflare.com\",\"nameServer2\":\"quincy.ns.cloudflare.com\",\"dnsRoot\":\"192.0.2.1\",\"dnsWWW\":\"brandable.uk\",\"onCloudflareResponse\":{\"result\":{\"id\":\"e6595d9409131af43590fd428d612b94\",\"name\":\"carma.uk\",\"status\":\"pending\",\"paused\""])
```
This seller hasn't provided his mobile number and so it's not published, but other sellers have.

https://www.brandable.uk/privacy-policy:
Welcome to the Brandable Dot UK Ltd (Brandable) privacy policy.
Brandable respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data.
Not that "committed", it seems..

How do they plan to earn 15% sales commission, when seller's contact email/mobile number are there in a plain text?

There's also bank account information and sortcodes displayed in plain text on some listings.

rb5 · 2024-07-03T21:11:53+0100

mc said:
\"payoutPreference\":\"ukBank\",\"ukBank\":{\"accountName\":\"D***** Ltd\",\"bankName\":\"Wise\",\"accountNumber\":\"9******\",\"sortCode\":\"2****0\"},

Click to expand...

Cav · 2024-07-03T21:17:46+0100

GDPR breach. Serious issue.

atlas · 2024-07-03T21:26:06+0100

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We take privacy and security very seriously. We are currently investigating the issue and have taken all landing pages offline in the meantime to deal with this issue.

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to resolve this matter promptly and thoroughly.

CM · 2024-07-03T21:33:48+0100

Looks like this has been an issue for a while now. Yikes. Wayback Archive shows sensitive financial information cached from the pages.

FILE ARCHIVED ON 09:35:49 May 30, 2024 AND RETRIEVED FROM THE
INTERNET ARCHIVE ON 20:31:06 Jul 03, 2024.

thunder · 2024-07-03T21:35:28+0100

Sam · 2024-07-03T21:48:04+0100

rb5 said:
Just had a look for myself too, and also found:

Thats shocking...

DJ · 2024-07-03T21:54:06+0100

It's hard to work out why or how this happened, as the users info needed to be nowhere near the frontend code, considering the buyer is effectively buying the domain from brandable and then brandable are releasing the funds.

I'm sorry this has happened, but seems very amateurish to me.

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