It’s been eight years since that Pamela Anderson ad campaign went viral, making domain name registrar Crazy Domains a household brand around the world.

Crazy Domains is still the biggest contributor to owner Dreamscape’s (ASX:DN8) revenue — the registrar now sells an astonishing 497 different domain names such as .sydney and .menu.

But the domain business is maturing — and these days Dreamscape is broadening into higher-margin Web hosting and online solutions services.

Domains accounted for 46.5 per cent of Dreamscape’s $53.1 million revenue last year, hosting was 41.8 per cent and solutions were 11.7 per cent.

“Globally [the new domain names] haven’t gone as well as people would expect,” Dreamscape chief Mark Evans told Stockhead.

“There has been some hesitance to move to new domains — but companies are now starting to see the benefit.

“The best so far have been location-based websites such as .sydney or .melbourne but we’re increasingly seeing business specific targets such as .club or .menu.”

Dreamscape will present at the TechKnow Invest Roadshow in Sydney October 26 at the Radisson Blu Hotel and in  Melbourne October 24 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.  Details:  www.techknowinvestroadshow.com.au

Mr Evans admits the “shock and awe” Pamela Anderson strategy wouldn’t work the same in 2017.

But he is now more focused expanding Dreamscape’s presence in web hosting and associated services — especially via acquisition.

Earlier this year Dreamscape acquired hosting services Net Logistics in Sydney and Vodien Group in Singapore.

Last week the company announced a $20 million funding facility to make further moves into Asia. The company also had $17 million in the bank at the end of June.

“South-east Asia is now seeing the same level of growth that Australia peaked at,” Mr Evans said.

“We have matured since the early days and so has the domain market so we are constantly adding products to the suite.”


Dreamscapes has moved on from the famous Crazy Domains Pam Anderson ad
 

“Internet usage still continues to grow year on year and our greatest focus has been on those small and medium businesses who don’t have a website at all,” he said.

“More than 3.3 million .com.au domains have been registered but there are still plenty available, and we’re seeing an increase in more targeted domain names which are useful for search engine optimisation.”

Dreamscape shares closed at 21.5c on Friday. They have traded between 17c and 25c in the past year.