| Though shell sites named after celebrities and popular businesses such as sharukhan.mobi or www.googal.com continue to appear now and then for sale, domain names are fast rising as a separate category of products being sold and purchased on the web. |
| Sale of domain names is a thriving business in the US and other western countries. "There has been a significant surge in the sale of domain names on eBay India and at any given point in time, there are over 120 domain names for sale and we even have a dedicated category for listings of domain names," eBay India's Corporate Communications Manager Deepa Thomas said from Mumbai. |
| Paruchuri Sridhar, an eBay seller specialising in domain names with over 100 transactions to his credit, said business is improving every day while forseeing creation of a niche market in the next one year. |
| On whether cyber squatters pose a problem for genuine domain sellers, he said: "I have not faced such problems and squatting itself is no longer a big issue, as original owners of a brand or trademark have many address options like .in, .org, .net... Earlier there used to be just the .com address." |
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