New plan gives rights to existing domain registrants and offers lower pricing.
Nominet, the registry behind the .uk namespace for the United Kingdom, has put forth a new plan to offer second level domains to the public. Currently, registrations are only available at the third level.
The group’s previous proposal to offer domains such as example.uk instead of example.co.uk was shelved in February after a number of stakeholders lodged complaints about the program.
The earlier proposal wouldn’t have given priority to existing third level .uk domain holders. It also had a planned wholesale cost of £20 per domain per year, which is about ten times the cost of a third level registration.
The new plan, now open to community feedback, would give priority to the owner of a third level domain. If you own example.co.uk, .org.uk, etc. you’d get first dibs on example.uk. In the event that more than one of the same third level domains are registered (example.co.uk and example.org.uk), the holder of the oldest registered domain of the string would have senior rights.
Also, the price will be about £5.
This still places a burden on existing domain registrants, especially those with large portfolios. But it may strengthen the overall value of the .uk namespace, which will help domain investors that own .uk domains.
I don’t own any .uk domains, so I’m curious to hear from those that will be affected if this proposal becomes reality.
Adam says
I’m a UK domainer/businessman.
Combining the thoughts of others with my own opinions, overall it’s good for UK domainers. The domain registration age priority still seems unfair (for example a big company on .co.uk would lose rights to an individual who registered .org.uk or .me.uk earlier) however I don’t think enough complaints will change Nominet’s policy this time round.
Personally, the new .uk gives me a change to start projects over again on penalised websites on .co.uk, which I guess gives UK domainers/website owners a slight advantage over the rest of the global competition.
I also think .uk will probably have more global value and reputation than compared to .co.uk.
Mike says
With one stroke (months ago) Nominet put the .co.uk webspace into stagnation by raising the possibility of .uk being available. Of course companies who are/were aware of that will prefer to wait for .uk than buy .co.uk . Look at .co.in and .in and how that has gone. Now everyone registers .in and leaves .co.in as after thought or be necessity only.
Personally I think that what NOminet should do is GIVE .uk to all existing .co.uk domain owners and then let new clients register any that are left.
Adam says
Agreed Mike.
That is how it should be, but I don’t think enough people will be putting up a fight this time around.
It’ll hurt the dropped market for .co.uk domains the most (making them near worthless), and I”m sure domainers will be hunting around for premium .org.uk domains with an earlier registration then .co.uk so that they can snipe .uk when it’ released.
Aron says
I only own one premium UK name:
Jets.co.uk
I’ve noticed, as well, that the level of offers have slowed since the .UK possibilities have been announced.
I’d be ok with .uk if I were able to receive first right at purchasing Jets.uk.
Aron
Mike says
@Adam, one other major question is, by earlier date will Nominet count from the date a new owner took over a .co.uk domain OR from the initial registration date ?. One would think the former but not sure.
Perry says
Nominet has said they will go by the earliest registration date no matter how many owners, unless it dropped and then it goes by the last drop date.
I just checked and one word wonder .co.uk that I purchased for around 5,000.00 has a .org.uk registered earlier.
I guess I am SOL, what a waste of money, I am sure the .co.uk versions will be almost worthless in a year.
Joe says
I think choosing the oldest among the 3 second-level extensions is fairer than blindly assigning the .uk to the .co.uk owner. Why shouldn’t .org.uk and .me.uk owners be entitled to the new extension?
Adam says
Apparantly it’s based on the initial registration or since dropped date.
Brad Mugford says
“The new plan, now open to community feedback, would give priority to the owner of a third level domain. If you own example.co.uk, .org.uk, etc. you’d get first dibs on example.uk. In the event that more than one of the same third level domains are registered (example.co.uk and example.org.uk), the holder of the oldest registered domain of the string would have senior rights.”
That is going to be an extremely easy system to game.
Brad
Michael Marcovici says
this way of grandfathering will be especially funny for those that bought one and two letter domains in the auctions from nominet two years ago.
First they auctioned off .org.uk, me.org.uk and net.org.uk, then the last batch was .co.uk which accounted for about 99% of the total revenue of 3.7 Mio GBP.
this would mean something like a jackpot for those that registered the .org.uk names and means that all one and two letter .co.uk names would be lost to the .org.uk owners.
I can hardly imagine this will be the way Nominet will handle this.
Snoopy says
I think all this is bad for domineers and the main beneficiary will be nominet. The namespace is going to be split into two and it will mean a doubling of holding costs. That is going to be a huge disadvantage for those trying t make a profit in .uk/.co.uk.
I don’t think the idea that .uk will eventually take over is right, looking at co.in/.in, com.cn, .cn, it ends up with a mix of extensions being used. It weakens the country code in my view.
Adam says
@Joe
Nominet clearly says on its website that .co.uk is for commercial use and 4/5 people searching on the internet prefer visiting a .co.uk website.
They also say that .me.uk is for personal use, and org.uk is for non-commercial organisations.
In the .uk proposal, they said it provides a new domain for businesses.
In other words, it’s a direct replacement of the .co.uk domain and thus should be given directly to the owners.
It’s hardly fair if a business on .co.uk spends millions branding their website yet an individual with an undeveloped site on .me.uk receives first rights.
Of course charities and .org.uk owners should have rights too, but I think .uk is essentially replacing the .co.uk product and services, thus the release rights should be weighted more towards .co.uk.
Domo Sapiens says
On re: to Snoopy’s comment, exact same thing happened in Mexico after the launch of .mx a few years back ..today there is no clear leader between .com .com.mx and .mx, in Colombia for what I understand the .co is virtually unknown vs the old and established .com.co
“Too Little Too Late”
Patterns are already well established specially in market with such a a high penetration.
Nic says
“Nominet has said they will go by the earliest registration date no matter how many owners”
When, where, did Nominet say that??????????
I am nervous.
Gordon says
As owner of livingston.org.uk I assume livingston.uk will go to the owner of livingston.co.uk.
That is a whole kettle of fish they need to deal with!
Nic says
@Gordon
“As owner of livingston.org.uk I assume livingston.uk will go to the owner of livingston.co.uk”
Yes.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Nic – not if livingston.org.uk or another third level was registered first.
Andrew Allemann says
Here is the press release: http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/press-releases/evolving-uk-domain-name-space
Nic says
Thanks Andrew. I checked the whois before I commented as to livingston.org.uk.
As to the reg date, what had me concerned, is that the press release you refer to does not say whether registration will be considered as per the reg date or, in the alternative, like a UDRP where a new owner = new reg date.
However, I see that Domainincite claims to quote Nominet COO Eleanor Bradley:
“The clock on registration period is reset to the date of the current registration if the domain has ever dropped before, but not if it’s been transferred between registrants, she said.”
Andrew Allemann says
Got it, Nic. Although some registrants of single letter domains could be in for a surprise:
https://domainnamewire.com/2013/06/21/people-who-paid-a-lot-for-one-letter-uk-domains-could-lose-out-under-new-plan/