GoDaddy to end its Sedo domain sales partnership

Sedo to lose key domain distribution partner next year.

GoDaddy is ending its domain listing syndication partnership with Sedo as of March 31, 2014.

The partnership enabled domain names listed with Sedo to show up on GoDaddy Auctions as well as in the registration path on GoDaddy.com when a customer searched for a domain listed for sale with Sedo.

The decision comes in the wake of GoDaddy’s acquisition of Sedo’s competitor Afternic in September.

“We’re all in with our vision of the aftermarket, which is Afternic as the single hub of all domains and the registrars just tie in,” said Paul Nicks, GoDaddy Director of Product Development – Aftermarket.

“We believe that a fast transfer system through all the registrars provides the security, the customer experience, and the ease of purchase that’s really necessary to grow the aftermarket,” he said.

Fast transfer refers to the ability of customers to buy aftermarket domain names and have them instantly transferred into their account, regardless of where the domain is registered.

Both Sedo and Afternic have fast transfer services, but GoDaddy never integrated the option. That will change for Afternic now that GoDaddy owns it. The current implementation of Sedo and Afternic on GoDaddy.com involves syndicating sales listings, but the actual domain transfer is a manual process.

When it comes to fast transfer, Afternic has partnerships with more large registrars than Sedo does. According to the company, 18 of the top 20 registrars have agreements with Afternic.

Nicks encouraged customers that want distribution on GoDaddy to list their domain names with Afternic.

Although the decision might drive domain name owners to GoDaddy’s own company to list domain names, removing Sedo inventory will result in a short term aftermarket sales hit for GoDaddy. Nicks said domain sales through the Sedo partnership are “meaningful.”

At this point, GoDaddy does not plan to change its relationship with DomainNameSales.com (DNS). DNS also has a syndication agreement with GoDaddy, but Nicks views the arrangement differently. The average sales price of DNS domains through GoDaddy is above $15,000.

“We’re lining those up to be the high touch point, lead gen and brokerage [model],” he said.

That compares to sales through Afternic and its fast transfer system, which typically have fixed prices under $2,000.