Registrar gets even figure sum to promote .online for three years.
Tucows’ withdraw from a partnership to run the .Online registry has resulted in a $1.5 million gain for the company in return for lending marketing support to the new TLD for three years.
The domain name registrar had formed a partnership with Radix and NameCheap to go after the .online top level domain name. The parties ended the partnership earlier this year, allowing Radix to own the top level domain name by itself.
Tucows and NameCheap got their capital contributions back from the partnership and also entered into a marketing agreement.
Using Intelligize’s filing comparison tool, I found that Tucows revealed the financial consideration it is receiving for the marketing efforts in its most recent 10-Q filed with the SEC:
In February 2015, the Company waived its rights under the formerly proposed joint venture to operate the .online registry and instead entered into a Joint Marketing agreement with its venture partners under which its original capital contributions have been returned and a set of go-forward marketing arrangements have been created instead. These marketing arrangements have resulted in the Company receiving a gain of $1.5 million, which will be recognized evenly over the three-year term of the marketing agreement once .online is generally available.
The filing discloses that the marketing agreement requires it to launch marketing programs with incentives and obligations to ensure the success of the .online registry. I imagine this includes prominent placement within domain search results on Tucows’ domain name platforms.
SOfreedomains says
Good one for Tucows! In the business world, when you lose one, you gain another.