Sedo 1 and 2 Character .De Domain Name Auction Ends Today

.De auction ends today.

Sedo’s one and two character .de domain name “pre-auction” ends at noon Eastern today. .De is the country code for Germany, and is arguably the most successful country code domain name on the web.

.De registry DENIC is releasing one and two character domains, as well as other domains that previously were not allowed to be registered (such as those containing only digits). It announced the change on October 15, leaving just a week for organizations to work on plans to acquire the domains as they become available on October 23.

Instead of auctioning the domains off, DENIC is releasing them on a first-come, first-served basis. That’s where Sedo comes in. The company, which is based in Germany, is holding an auction before the release of the domains. It has then teamed up with a number of registrars to try to grab the names that receive bids as they become available. If Sedo’s partner registrars are unsuccessful during the “drop”, Sedo will attempt to acquire the domain name in the secondary market on the high bidder’s behalf.

As of late last night, many domains had already crossed into the five figure (EUR) range in the auction.

Bidding is available here.