New top level domain applicant commits more strings to private auction model.
Donuts, the largest applicant for new top level domains, has committed up to 68 strings to the next new TLD “private” auction held by Applicant Auction next month.
In the first auction held in May, Donuts committed 63 domains.
In order to go to auction, all applicants for the string must agree. Only six of the 63 went to auction, and Donuts won just one of the domains.
The average bidding price was $1.5 million in that auction.
I checked the first 10 strings on the new list. Six of them are in contention sets with just one other party, although some are more likely to go to auctions than others. I don’t expect MLB to go to a private auction for .baseball, for example.
Given the unsure state of GAC advice and closed generics, I suspect many applicants will sit on the sidelines a bit longer before trying to resolve contention sets.
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