.Green gets edge on .eco in new TLD priority draw

.Green draws are better overall, but that doesn’t mean it will come to market first.

When ICANN planned “digital archery” to determine the order in which it would review top level domain applications, there was a benefit to applying for a domain other people were applying for: all applications would be moved up in the queue to the top spot in the contention set.

You could say the opposite for the prioritization draw that happened yesterday. Basically a draw number is only as good as the worst draw in the contention set assuming the applicants don’t “settle” with each other early on.

By that measure, .green took a slight edge on .eco yesterday.

This is important because if one of these extensions gets a good headstart on the other, it could have a significant competitive advantage.

Here are the draw numbers for .green applications:

DotGreen Community, Inc. #159
Top Level Domain Holdings #640
Afilias #791
United TLD Holdco (Demand Media) #893

And for .eco:

Little Birch, LLC (donuts) #156
Big Room Inc #424
TLDH #1475
Planet Dot Eco #1798

Two of the .eco applications drew poor numbers, which could in theory set .eco back about a year in the process depending on who walks away with it.

But it’s more complicated than that. Both of these contention sets have been, well, contentious. .Eco could be held back by lawsuits, and .eco applicant TLDH might try to stall resolving the .green contention set as long as it can if it really has its sights on .eco.

This one will be interesting to watch.