Afternic gets another win, and it’s more good news for domainers.
Afternic has inked a deal with Name.com that will integrate the domain name registrar into Afternic for domains listed at “premium” distribution. Much like last month’s news of deals with eNom and Moniker, this will be a win for both Name.com customers as well as Afternic sellers listing at the premium level.
Existing Name.com customers will now be able to sell their domains in the registration path as a purchase option at Network Solutions and Register.com (and soon Moniker and eNom). This is great exposure for selling domain names to small and medium sized businesses. The integration will also allow for instant transfers to the domain buyer. Instant transfers have two benefits: it’s easier for you as a seller and it makes buyers more likely to click the buy button.
This is also good news for Afternic sellers with domains at other registrars that are part of this premium program. Although not in the top 10 size-wise, Name.com is a large registrar and has a number of small and medium business customers.
The Name.com integration should be complete within a week. The previous announcement about eNom and Moniker indicated those integrations would be done before the end of the year.
Afternic is certainly winning the race to tie up registrars into its system. This sort of distribution has never before been available to smaller domainers.
SL says
Don’t these Afternic arrangements effectively lock out Sedo and other listing platforms?
For example, if you try to register widgets.com on NetSol, it would seem weird to see them display “This domain is taken but is for sale for $xxx on Afternic or $yyy on Sedo” etc.
If it was a mass produced item like cars, that makes sense. But imho it would be really confusing to the end user thinking how could this *unique* thing be available for two different prices?
Same with a Picasso or any other one-of-a-kind item. Or maybe I’m looking at it the wrong way and they’d just go ahead and automatically pick the lower price.
Andrew Allemann says
@ SL –
In a way, yes. It’s seamless to the end user — they have no idea where it’s listed. They just know they can add it to their cart and buy it.
Could Sedo also do a deal with these registrars? I’m not sure what the contracts say, but I suppose it’s technically feasible. Sellers would only select Sedo OR Afternic to list their domain, and each one could have a deal with the registrars.
But frankly I think Afternic is getting the upperhand by inking these deals and getting them first. It’s going to be tough for Sedo to make inroads with similar agreements with the top registrars.
SL says
Andres, yes, that makes sense. Competition-wise, it’s always worrisome when one company dominates a niche with the potential to raise prices/commissions later. In this case though there are plenty of “outs” as the market is pretty distributed (including the 800lb “G”orilla).
One other thing I haven’t seen mentioned. This is not only a good thing for domainers in terms of exposure. It removes the $30+ renewal lock-in to get the premium exposure.
So Netsol and Register may lose those $30 renewals for folks that move their domains out to a cheaper registrar, but more than make it up with their aftermarket commission kickback. This is a really big issue for sellers ($30 vs. $9) who keep domains with Netsol/Register solely for the premium listing.
David Hauser says
We are happy to report that we have launched Name.com as part of Afternic Domain Listing Service (DLS). With Name.com, We have added another critical distribution partner, as we further look to unify the domain aftermarket through DLS.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding Afternic. We can be reached at:
1-866-351-9586 (Toll Free)
or
+1 781-839-7990