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Comment by null_ptr | Hacker News Reader

Domain squatters are no better than investment bankers. They really do the same thing, they make money without creating anything useful.

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Would you mind substantiating your generalisation that investment bankers make money without creating anything useful?

What on earth do you think Investment Bankers do? build playgrounds for the local children?

Creating nothing useful is in the definition of "Investment Banker".

Umm, yes actually? Where do you think the playground equipment manufacturer got their initial capital?

I think you are confusing "investing in" with "producing". They are in fact different activities.

I believe "creating anything useful" in this context means "doing any useful task"; I don't believe the original poster intended to put nurses, cops, or any service job in the same group as investment banker and domain squatter.

In that sense, investment banker is still a useful and necessary job, unlike domain squatter.

So in your opinion is a domain squatter worse, the same, or better than a real estate investor? That is someone who identifies something that has value that might be able to be sold at a higher value at a later date and buys it for less than they intend to sell at that later date?

IMO domain squatters are worse (and definitely more annoying). While real estate investing still seems like a parasitic activity and I'd be happy for it to disappear, at least when it comes to houses, a buyer usually doesn't care about a particular building - one can equally well live in a house next door, or next street. Whereas domains are almost never interchangable; if someone squats on my-company-name.com (and similar forms), I won't settle for company-my-name-friendshipismagic.com; I am pretty much forced to either buy from them or change the company/product name.

With respect to real estate investors provide liquidity as there is not always an end user who is willing to buy at the time you want to sell.

As far as "squatting on my company name" the majority of the vitriol on HN regarding domain names is not directed at "squatting on my company name" (to which there are clearly defined rules and procedures for recovering a domain (UDRP)) but just at the general idea of someone getting a domain and holding it to sell at a later date.

As far as "to either buy from them or change the company/product name" we are talking the year 2014 here. If you are starting a new company you should be taking into account whether the domain name you want is available. People don't, I know this for multiple reasons. One is that I get assignments to buy domains for startups that have already branded (which they shouldn't have done) and then come and say "I need this domain what can you do for me?" (in so many words).

Now if you are an established company and all the sudden woke up in 2014 and want your domain well then I guess that's to bad. Even back 10 years ago big corporations had this problem because the people they hired didn't know enough to lock up their domains. Either because they were inept or because they didn't feel it was important to have (so what can you say about that?)

From the three Fs? From a customer who wanted some playground equipment? From a crowdfunded philanthropic project that wanted to build some playgrounds? By saving up their income from previous jobs before making a go of a new company?

Basically, from the same places that the manufacturer gets their money from in order to pay dividends to the investors.

Investment banking is _a_ lubricant of industry, not _the_ lubricant, certainly not the fuel.

Wow. How much do you know about business and how long have you been around business?

Do you think that crowdfunding has replaced needing to raise capital through the legacy process of initial public offerings and also that companies that use investment bankers to not seek out a merger or acquisition of another company don't serve a purpose?

What do you think you just need millions to expand and walk into the bank or go to kickstarter?

Aren't investment bankers the ones providing money when one needs to build a new shipyard, oil rig or a power plant? It's definitely out of range of "Three Fs" or Kickstarter.

I feel like you're being unfair to domain squatters here. Yes, they're scum - but at least they're honest scum.

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