Tag Archives: new tlds

Wed 18th November 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Booking.com buys .Hotels domain name for $2.2 million - Booking.yeah! Hotel booking company Booking.com has won exclusive rights to run the .hotels top level domain name for $2.2 million. The company was the only applicant for the .hotels domain name. However, .hotels and .hoteis were one of two sets of domains to be considered “too similar” in ICANN’s first pass of string similarity. (Other domain names were trapped through individual string similarity objections.) Therefore, there was a public auction today between Booking.com and Despegar Online ... read more ...
Mon 16th November 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
This new tip turn domain name costs $30,000 per year to register - $30,000 a year for a domain name registration? We’ve seen some sky-high prices for domain name registrations in new top level domain names. .Rich for about $2,500 a year comes to mind. But that’s nothing compared to the price for .Spreadbetting. IG subsidiary Boston Ivy wanted to keep this domain name for its own use. But ICANN cracked down on “single registrant generics”, and the company was forced to offer .spreadbetting domain names to its competitors. There’s a bit of a loophole in ... read more ...
Fri 13th November 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Renewal rates for new TLDs so far - Renewal rates seem to be in line with previous TLD launches. Dot London revealed its initial renewal rates today, reporting that 75.4% of the domain names registered during sunrise, landrush and day one of general availability were renewed. That means just shy of 29,000 of the 38,389 registrations were renewed. Renewal rates for domain names registered during sunrise and landrush are generally higher than other registrations. The same can usually be said for domain names registered on the first day ... read more ...
Tue 10th November 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign's .IDN priority duration identical to .Porn - Domains will be available during a limited matching period. Verisign has released more information about its IDN transliteration launches. As expected, the launches will include a Priority Access Program that allows existing registrants of second level domain names to buy matching domain names in the new IDN-as-.com extensions. This is similar to what ICM Registry did for .Porn, .Adult and .Sex. Verisign and ICM Registry had originally hoped to continually reserve matching domain names at the second ... read more ...
Tue 3rd November 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sony uses .Sony domain name instead of .Com for microsite - Company puts .brand to work. Last week I wrote about the .Brand challenge to .Com, and how it doesn’t come in the form of big companies giving up their .com domains. For example, Sony is never going to let Sony.com expire. Instead, challenge is the thousands of additional domain names companies register to promote contest, microsites, etc. Which is why a site recently launched by Sony is noteworthy. To promote some of its technology in the new Bond film Spectre, the company set up a site at AssistMoneyPenny.sony. This ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Club is batting 1.000 on 2 minute domain name auctions - .Club is setting a new standard for two letter domain name values in new TLDs. .Club’s two letter domain name auctions are off to a good start, with all 15 of the domain names that have closed so far reaching their reserves. The 15 domain names each had reserves of at least $5,000. Two of the five domain names ending tonight have also met their $5,000 reserves. These are impressive prices for two letter domains in new extensions. There’s a huge supply of two letter domain names available now, ... read more ...
Mon 2nd November 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
This week's new domain name: Let's speak about .Sex - .Sex domain names become available on Wednesday. There’s only one new domain name entering general availability this week according to Calzone.org, but it’s a big one: .Sex. ICM Registry launches the domain name on Wednesday, November 4. You will be able to register .Sex domain names at registrars for about $75 per year. The domain name option will join ICM Registry’s existing line of similarly-themed domain names, including .XXX, .Adult and .Porn. Already, the .sex zone file has nearly 4,000 ... read more ...
Fri 30th October 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Web.com: New TLDs are not relocating a needle - Contribution from new top level domain names isn’t significant, CEO says. Web.com CEO David Brown was asked about new top level domain names on yesterday’s investor conference call. Brown said the company isn’t doing “back flips” over the results, and says it’s not moving the needle for the firm. He suspects new domains aren’t moving the needle for competitors, as well. Here’s what he said: So in the gTLD space, that continues to be positive, but we’re not doing back flips here. ... read more ...
Wed 28th October 2015
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Verisign: new TLDs are inspiring .Com growth - Company makes admission for first time in latest SEC filing. Verisign made a subtle, but important, change in its risk language in its third quarter 10-Q report filed with the SEC. I picked up on this change using the Intelligize SEC document comparison tool. Here’s the relevant content from the Q2 report: We do not yet know the impact, if any, that these new gTLDs may have on our business, including if or how the introduction of these new gTLDs will affect registrations for .com and .net and therefore ... read more ...
Tue 27th October 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Law Early Access Grosses Over $1 million - Minds + Machines releases Q3 update including early .Law results. The .Law top level domain name is off to a solid start, generating $1.18 million of orders during the first week of the Early Access Program combined with .abogado (Spanish for attorney). Similar to other registry’s Early Access phases, the phase was structured like a dutch auction in which prices started high and dropped over time. This was Minds + Machines’ first foray into Early Access. To date, there have been over 3,135 applications ... read more ...
Mon 26th October 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
This week: .SRL, .Studio, .Live and a $2,675/year IDN - A new corporate identifier domain and a very expensive IDN debut this week. Four top level domain names make their general availability debuts this week. InterNetX launches .SRL, a corporate identifier for “Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada”, on Tuesday. SRL is similar to Limited Liability Companies in many Spanish and Italian speaking countries. This is the second corporate identifier domain released by InterNetX. It previously released .LTDA (similar to LLC in Brazil), which now has about ... read more ...
Thu 22nd October 2015
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Verisign considers Early Access for "IDN .Coms" - Popular model for landrush phase of new TLDs might find its way to Verisign. Verisign is considering some sort of “Early Access” period when it launches IDN .com transliterations, company executives explained today on the company’s 3rd quarter conference call. In response to an analyst’s question, CEO James Bidzos said the rollouts will begin with the mandated sunrise period. After that, the company might have “Early Access” opportunities for those that want to “get in the door early”, ... read more ...
Wed 21st October 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Does something siphon about This.Sucks? - Vox Populi helped This.sucks get off the ground. Is there more to it than that? Site design brought to you by Vox Populi.A couple weeks ago, a new company popped up on the scene called This.Sucks. The business model is remarkably similar to one that .Sucks registry Vox Populi hoped would be created, offering .sucks domain names to users at a reduced annual price (many for free) in return for using a specialized platform. It’s so similar, in fact, that some have questioned if Vox Populi is behind ... read more ...
Mon 19th October 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
This week's new TLDs: .Law, .Abogado - Two restricted legal top level domain names become available today. Minds + Machines releases the highly-anticipated .law and .abogado (Spanish for lawyer) domain names today. There’s no room for speculation in these domain names unless you are a lawyer. You have to be a licensed lawyer to register the domain names. The domains aren’t cheap, either. At NamesCon last year, Minds + Machines CEO Antony Van Couvering said the wholesale price of .law domains would be about $150. It’s possible that’s ... read more ...
Thu 15th October 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Board to rethink .Hospital preference subsequent week - .Hospital has been on life support since bad objection decision. .Hospital is on life support.ICANN’s Board of Directors will consider the fate of a .Hospital top level domain name when it meets on Sunday. It’s a chance for the board to right a wrong. .Hospital was killed off after two of three panelists agreed with a Limited Public Interest Objection filed by the Independent Objector. The panelists disregarded the guidelines and essentially created their own standard for if .hospital should ... read more ...
Tue 13th October 2015
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.Radio field plead Independent Review Process - Companies ask for independent review in .radio decision. Three applicants for the .radio top level domain name have filed for the Independent Review Process (IRP) after losing out to a community applicant. Donuts, Afilias and BRS Media all lost their bids for the .radio domain name after European Broadcasting Union (EBU) prevailed in the Community Priority Evaluation. EBU scored 14 of 16 points, the minimum required to gain community status. The three losing applicants subsequently filed a Request ... read more ...
Mon 12th October 2015
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Antony Van Couvering of Minds + Machines – DNW Podcast #54 - Minds + Machines’ CEO returns to the podcast to talk about new domain names. New top level domain name company Minds + Machines CEO Antony Van Couvering is back on the podcast this week. He discusses what’s happening with new top level domain names and how his company is responding. He also explains how people can partner with Minds + Machines, either to help sell domain names to communities or to develop a premium domain name into a web destination. Also: Scooping corporate plans, Frank Schilling ... read more ...
Fri 9th October 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Gay fails village test, again - Queue the complaints about ICANN again…even though it’s not its fault. dotgay LLC, an applicant for the .Gay top level domain name that was seeking community status, has once again failed (pdf) to convince an independent panel that it qualifies. The company lost its Community Priority Evaluation last year, with the panel ruling in part: “The applied-for string neither matches the name of the community as defined by the application nor does it identify the defined community without over-reaching ... read more ...
Wed 7th October 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Here are reward domain names .Club sole final month - Soho.club sells for $5k, leading .Club’s premium sales last month. The .Club domain name registry continues to release details of its premium domain name sales. It’s also including data on expired domain name sales from its unique relationship with SnapNames. Last month the company sold $53,742 of domain names through the registrar/premium channel. It also sold $10,682 of domain names through SnapNames auctions, and another 84 domains at $69 each through individual backorders at Snapnames. The ... read more ...
Mon 5th October 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
This week: .Film tip turn domain name launches - It’s more restricted than the already-available .movie. array of registrars. In order to register .film domain names, you must be a member of one of these organizations. You also have to have a close tie to the name(s) you register at the second level. In other words, no speculating in .Film. .Film will compete with Donuts’ .Movie, which has about 650 registrations so far without registration restrictions (but at a hefty $300 retail price). ... read more ...
Fri 2nd October 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Miami domain names go on sale today - Miami gets its own domain name today. I didn’t get around to my usual weekly roundup of domain name launches, but there’s a big one happening today at noon ET: .Miami. .Miami joins .NYC and .Vegas as the only .city domain names in the United States. Unlike many of the other geo domain name launches, it’s also quite cheap. 11 is offering first year registrations for $11.99 ($22.99 renewal) and GoDaddy has a first year price of $14.99 ($24.99 renewal). 101Domain has an everyday price of $18.99. All ... read more ...
Tue 29th September 2015
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16,000+ .NYC domains will be expelled subsequent week - Some good .nyc domain names will be released next week. .NYC will release 16,674 previously blocked .NYC domain names on October 8. The domain names were all blocked as name collisions. Not all name collision names will be released, however. Names like Broadway.nyc, Brooklyn.nyc, Bike.nyc and Brewery.nyc are still being held back, presumably as premium domain names or for the city. You can see a list of the names that will become available on Hexonet’s website. Here are some I found interesting: ATMs.nyc Bartender.nyc Bistro.nyc Chow.nyc Democrats.nyc Forecast.nyc GrassRoots.nyc Lobster.nyc Park.nyc Showcase.nyc Showtimes.nyc Smoke.nyc Remember, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New TLD foe news is worthless - Getting answers to the wrong questions… ICANN released a report yesterday called “Phase I Assessment of the Competitive Effects Associated with the New gTLD Program”, undertaken by an outside research firm. I found the report mostly worthless. This is partly because the new TLD program’s focus on increasing choice and competition is based on the wrong premise. That premise is that there is a lack of good available second level domain names to register. The reality is there are plenty of good ... read more ...
Mon 28th September 2015
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Minds + Machines starts share buybacks - Company bought its own shares on Friday. On Friday, Minds + Machines made the first purchase under its share buyback program. The company plans to acquire up to £15 million worth of shares over the next 12 months. The first purchase was just £21,875 for 250,000 ordinary shares. Companies do share buybacks as a way to return capital to shareholders. Generally speaking, the company will cancel the shares it bought back, thus boosting earnings per share and other metrics for the remaining shares. ... read more ...
Tue 22nd September 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Minds + Machines posts earnings, skeleton £15 million share buyback - Company continues its shift to sales and marketing organization. Minds + Machines released unaudited first half results this morning. The company reported $1.974 in billings for the quarter — this is essentially a revenue number if it didn’t have to recognize domain registration revenue over time. Its adjusted EBITDA using the billings number was -$1.216 million. Using traditional accounting principles, the company had earnings of -$3.695. The company’s board has approved a plan to return ... read more ...