Domain Parking Company Parked.com Acquires WhyPark
By Anna Johnson on April 30th, 2009Domain parking company Parked.com has acquired complementary and somewhat-competitive domain monetization company, WhyPark, for an undisclosed amount.
Parked.com allows domain name investors to ‘park’ their domains on its servers where it will display click-based advertising in return for sharing the ad revenue. WhyPark is a more elaborate offering where domain name holders can use WhyPark’s tools to build content-based websites, generate traffic and also manage their domain name portfolios and buy and sell domains.
As with Parked.com, WhyPark shares advertising revenues with its domain holders. Domainers have historically had to pay a $99 fee to set up an account on WhyPark but the company will be removing this fee and moving to a free model.
Parked.com’s acquisition of WhyPark will allow it to offer more choice to the clients of both services. No doubt, the move is also calculated to enhance its competitiveness with other parking companies, including giant Sedo.
WhyPark will continue as a stand-alone offering but will now include Parked.com’s top tier advertising feed, its twice-monthly payments and various payment options.
While Parked.com and WhyPark presumably see the advantages in coming together, this may also be a sign of further consolidation to come in the domain monetization industry…
Sources: Robin Wauters, “Domain Monetizer Parked.com Picks Up WhyPark,” TechCrunch, April 28, 2009, DomainWire, “Parked.com Acquires WhyPark”, DomainWire, April 28, 2009
