Who would pay over ten grand for a new second level domain name?
A lot of people were in shock last week when GoDaddy unveiled its pricing for Donuts’ Early Access Program registrations.
The Early Access Program (EAP) is Donuts’ version of the traditional landrush period. Instead of accepting applications and auctioning the domain names off the the highest bidder, EAP is sort of like a Dutch auction. The EAP goes on for five days, and the price to register a domain name drops significantly each day.
For example, here’s GoDaddy’s pricing for registrations under the .ventures top level domain name during EAP:
Day 1 $12,569.99
Day 2 $3,194.99
Day 3 $1,269.99
Day 4 $719.99
Day 5 $219.99
Amusingly, GoDaddy’s description of this service, which it dubs Priority Pre-Registration, describes the pricing as a “small premium”.
That Day 1 pricing is a pretty big premium. I can’t think of many second level strings that would be worth close to five figures. So what type of company would actually pay first day pricing for a Donuts’ TLD?
The only example I can think of is a company that wants to protect its brand in one particular top level domain, but doesn’t qualify for the sunrise period.
Here’s an example of a company that might be willing to pay over $10,000 to participate on the first day: Austin Ventures.
Austin Ventures is a venture capital/private equity group that has raised about $3.9 billion since its inception. It might want to protect the “domain hack” austin.ventures. It wouldn’t qualify for the sunrise period since it doesn’t have a trademark for “Austin”.
If it wants to protect the domain, it’s going to have to register the domain during general availability. The earliest opportunity to beat others to the domain is the EAP phase.
Still, over ten grand for austin.ventures? That’s a lot of money for a domain like this.
Which brings me to the one other reason Austin Ventures is a company that might actually plunk down this kind of cash…
It’s an investor in Donuts.
Anticareer says
On the other hand, unless someone is willing to gamble on spending the $12k to register it and try to sell it to them, would they realistically think anyone else is going to spend that money to buy it? They can wait till Day 4, Day 5, Day 101 if they want to and it will probably be free.
Andrew Allemann says
That’s the game, isn’t it? 🙂
michael berkens says
Andrew
The domain is not available.
As an investor in Donuts you would expect that Donuts would have reserved it and placed it on its premium reserved list.
Remember the only domains you can get a pre-reservation on are those not reserved by the registry.
So joint.ventures arguably the only good domain under the extension is also not available nor is i.ventures.
As Godaddy is taking multiple pre-registrations for any domain, its “not available” because its already been pre-reserved.
Also not that many other registrars will be taking pre-reservations, its not a godaddy exclusive so even if you do plunk down $12,500 for a domain today another registrar could be awarded the domain and you will get a refund in a few months
Mike says
This is good, this will definately make it much harder for the new tld’s if they all follow this mad route. Not a chance on this planet would I spend $12k for a new untested tld.
Robbie says
If they own the .com, they already have the position they need, nobody is going to invest $12k, and lose any potential traffic to the dot whatever.
Mark M says
Does GoDaddy make more profit for themselves from Donuts when they sell one @ $12,569.99 vs. a $219.99 sale? Do they earn a flat fee for each name or is it commission based?
Joseph Peterson says
Implausible though paying $12k for a risky .ventures venture is, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some brands jump on the overpriced strings. The bigger the organization, the bigger the waste. Governments are one example; but corporations — laser-focused on profit as they must be — are no exception. Budgets are often poorly spent. And fear amidst confusion is our species’s most powerful motivator.
Dean says
Instead the domains should be auctioned. Go daddy is making money out of it.
Andrew Allemann says
GoDaddy will also auction the domains is more than one person places and order for the same EAP level.
Sleepy says
.yawn
Wake me up after the retarded gtlds have all failed.