Expired domain deal came with portfolio acquisition last year.
In October 2017, Donuts sold about 200,000 domain names to GoDaddy. These domains were in a portfolio that Donuts inherited when it acquired Rightside.
GoDaddy was after more than just the domains. It also wanted access to Name.com’s expired domain name portfolio.
Those expired domains were flowing through NameJet. That made sense because Rightside, which owned Name.com, was a 50/50 owner in NameJet. But Rightside sold that interest to Tucows as part of the sale of Enom.
GoDaddy got the expired domain deal along with the portfolio acquisition. A Domain Name Wire reader noticed that the Name.com domains have now started to flow through GoDaddy’s expired domain auctions.
Name.com joins Endurance International Group and Tucows in sending their expired stream to GoDaddy. Yes, Tucows, despite being a 50/50 owner in NameJet, resumed sending its domain names to GoDaddy after a test with NameJet.
There’s only one explanation for that: GoDaddy auctions must have significantly outperformed NameJet.
Any idea what happens to their expired domain section on their site? Going away?
Good riddance, it was very confusing, and search unfriendly
Noticed the Tucows to GoDaddy recently too. What is weird with Tucows is that many of the names are at a reseller or an affiliate of Tucows so it might take some more digging – or at least most who are not aware of it, will think the registrar is the reseller. Their model is different – it’ll list the reseller name on the whois report, so that’s who you need to go through for support, etc.
Any idea who NameCheap and Rebel use for recently expired names that haven’t left the registrar yet?
And just noticed your post about BigRock using GoDaddy. Wish I would have saw that a month ago – that would have helped me recover a name. Ahhhh!
The cool thing with these companies sending their names to GoDaddy is they get transferred to GoDaddy automatically when you win them, so you don’t have to manage them at multiple registrars.
I believe Namecheap domains go to NameJet because that was part of their agreement with Enom. Now that they are leaving Enom and running on their own creds this could change.
BigRock is part of Endurance, which sends all domains to GoDaddy. So domains at Domain.com, FastDomain, etc. go to GoDaddy.
That is nice – having names all over is a pain!
With BigRock, when the name expired and before it moved to GoDaddy, the whois listing updated the registrant to be NameFind (NameFind wasn’t the original owner though).
I always thought NameFind was a boutique Huge Domains :). Just wondering why it would go from an owner’s name/whois record, and once it’s no longer renewable, goes into the NameFind name before it hits GoDaddy.
Below is what the record looked like – looks like Afternic is part of the process too with “Afternic Transfer Service – Transfer Pending” as the registrar name, but still puzzled at how NameFind is involved. Maybe a deal with the registrar (ie. BigRock) to look at expiring names first to get first dibs before they hit TDNAM @ GoDaddy? I still think GoDaddy’s aftermarket listings (regardless of where they come from) is an untapped market – or at least it flies under the radar. Most think a name always have to go through redemption/pending delete to be available again, and that is not necessarily true, depending on the registrar. A mega good “pending delete” name that has several bids has a lot of action of a 3 day auction, might only have a small handful looking at that same name in a TDNAM/GoDaddy auction.
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Registrar WHOIS Server: Whois.bigrock.com
Registrar URL: http://www.bigrock.com
Updated Date: 2018-02-13T10:03:26Z
Creation Date: 2015-01-06T19:33:15Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2019-01-06T19:33:15Z
Registrar: BigRock Solutions Ltd
Registrar IANA ID: 1495
Domain Status: OK https://icann.org/epp#OK
Registry Registrant ID: Not Available From Registry
Registrant Name: Afternic Transfer Service – Transfer Pending
Registrant Organization: NameFind LLC
Registrant Street: Main St. Suite 1120
Registrant City: Cambridge
Registrant State/Province: Massachusetts
Registrant Postal Code: 02142
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.7813736856
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: admin@namefind.com
Registry Admin ID: Not Available From Registry
Admin Name: Afternic Transfer Service – Transfer Pending
Admin Organization: NameFind LLC
Admin Street: Main St. Suite 1120
Admin City: Cambridge
Admin State/Province: Massachusetts
Admin Postal Code: 02142
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: +1.7813736856
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax:
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email: admin@namefind.com
NameFind is a GoDaddy subsidiary that owns and holds domain names.
Was not aware. Thanks for the heads up! Makes sense now.