The Man Who Owns the Internet « Nate Whitehill dot Com

The Man Who Owns the Internet

Posted on May 23, 2007 by Nate Whitehill

The Man Who Owns the Internet

The man who owns the Internet When I read this story, my jaw hit the floor…several times. This is an incredible story about a domainer named Kevin Ham. Ham is probably the most powerful dotcom mogul you have never heard of.

One of the amazing things about Ham is that he worked out a special deal with the government of Cameroon to register many common one-word domains. The catch is that Cameroon uses .cm as their extension and many people mistakingly type .cm instead of .com.

Another interesting tidbit:

Ham is a devout Christian, and he spends $31,000 to add Christianrock.com to his collection, which already includes God.com and Satan.com. When it’s all over, Ham strolls to the table near the exit and writes a check for $650,000. It’s a cheap afternoon.

Given Ham’s reach on the Web, his sites receive 30 million unique visitors a month. It’s unbelievable that so few people know about him.

Read the full article here…

Tell me what you think of this guy after you have fully read the article.

Discussion: 16 Comments

16 Responses to “The Man Who Owns the Internet”

Shane

- 23rd May, 07 12:05am

The .cm play is an interesting one. It sounds like he might be infringing on a lot of trademarks with the scheme … which is why the smartest thing he did was partner up with the Cameroon government. Since they’ve got a piece of the action, they’re his best ally.

I guess his success gives you something to shoot for with your own domain business Nate!
Ankesh Kothari

- 23rd May, 07 03:05am

Thanks Nate for sharing the article.

The guy definately has some moxy! Its ingenious how he formed the .cm deal. He will still face a lot of legal troubles imo though.

One interesting thing about him is – he uses Yahoo ads. Do they pay a higher rate than Google?

My prediction: Ham will setup social web 2.0 type websites on the domains he is paying crazy money for.
http://ajaxus.net

- 23rd May, 07 07:05am

great story! thanks for the post!

my next domain name will be .com for sure

Best
AnthonyC

- 23rd May, 07 11:05am

Wicked article about a super slick business genius hitting the domain buying fad from a different angle! I love reading about entrepreneurs that have this type of out of the box thinking when it comes to making zillions.

Boo Yaaa!!

You will be hearing more and more about Mr. Kevin Ham in the upcoming months!

Thanks and keep us posted Nate!
Josh Buckley

- 23rd May, 07 12:05pm

Wow, that was a lengthy article, but well worth the read. I liked his tactics, though. It’s pretty risky having google.cm however, I would think google would take that off him.
Scot Smith

- 23rd May, 07 03:05pm

Great article, thanks for the share.
That’s a shitload of unique hits p/mo. Jesus.
Wolf Stone

- 23rd May, 07 03:05pm

I too was quite taken aback when i read the story 3 days ago….does anyone know if this guy has an official website…i read he’s hiring…maybe me??
Chicago 2016

- 24th May, 07 04:05pm

Ha, maybe he should just buy my site. It’d save me a lot of trouble…
Armen

- 30th May, 07 05:05am

WOW! Nice to see a dedicated Christian doing well in an area where people may assume him to be quite the contrary. Cool find Nate, really cool.
Angie

- 3rd Jun, 07 09:06am

I earmarked this story in my copy of Money Magazine and have been meaning to get to it. I’ll have to move it to the top of my pile. Thanks for the summary.

And I agree with the comment above. It is NICE to see an outspoken Christian living large.
Study Guides

- 4th Aug, 07 06:08am

I have to say; really cool idea. Who could of thought about the whole com/cm thing?
cheap domain

- 13th Aug, 07 07:08am

intresting idea..
MB Web Design

- 4th Oct, 07 03:10pm

Anyone who can afford to write cheques that large commands my utter, raging jealousy.
Ludovic

- 27th Oct, 07 05:10pm

Really like the cm idea, this guy is clever ! I’ve started domaining but I got a long way to go to reach his level !