Frank Schilling
| Frank T. Schilling | |
|---|---|
 photographed in advance of Domainfest |
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| Born | Frank Taylor Schilling July 29, 1970 Tübingen, Germany |
| Occupation | Internet Investor |
| Nationality | Canadian |
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frankschilling.com |
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Frank Schilling (born in 1970) is a Cayman Islands based 'Internet Investor' whose portfolio of domain names is one of the largest privately owned, and estimated to be valued in the vicinity of $500 million dollars.[1]
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[edit] Early Years
The eldest son of German/Canadian immigrants, Schilling claims he was born at the right age to be an early Web adopter. He began registering single domain registrations at the turn of the millennium and rarely looked back. Schilling became one of the first to speak publicly about the subject of domain investing during a Tech TV interview with Matt Markovich in 2002, describing those who invest in high-value generic domain names for the purpose of future development. Today participants in this space are collectively known as domainers or 'commercial registrants'.[2]
[edit] Career
Mr. Schilling's bidding and investment activities (2004–2006) helped expand the expiring domain name auction houses; and later, other ICANN accredited registrars selling their registry connections as a drop registrar. Frank Schilling patented the "Generic Top Level Domain Rerouting System" in 2001, financed the Caribbean's first ICANN accredited domain name registrar in 2003, joined as a member of the ICANN business constituency and co-founded the non-profit Internet Commerce Association in 2006.[3] He began domain blogging on Seven Mile in 2007.
A 2008 book by WSJ reporter David Kesmodel entitled "The Domain Game" touches on the history of Schilling and the evolution of the industry in which he continues to participate.[4]
In 2011 Schilling created InternetTraffic.com, an independent traffic monetization and syndication business which quickly grew to become the largest privately owned domain traffic monetization platform on the Web.[5]
Schilling was one of the first to administer very large portfolios of domain names for third-parties and is one of the largest generic domain-name investors in the world.[6] His re-investment in the field which brought him notoriety continues to create interest inside the esoteric domain-space, and in the main-stream.[7]
