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Will .Amazon ever see the light of day? There’s some movement.

by — Policy & Law 1 Comment

Amazon region countries reject $5 million gift card but ICANN pushes forward to help Amazon.com get .Amazon top level domain name.

Amazon.com’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) long battle to get rights to run the .Amazon top level domain name might still pay off, but countries that are part of the Amazon region continue to play hardball.

On Sunday, ICANN’s board resolved to have ICANN continue serve as a sort of mediator between countries such as Brazil and Peru and the United States’ second most valuable company.  It wants ICANN to come back with a proposal that will allow the region and company to essentially share the top level domain.

Amazon.com applied to run the .amazon domain name as part of the 2014 top level domain name expansion. It was one of 76 domains the company applied for. Some of the domains were generic in nature, and others were branded domains like .AWS.

Brazil and Peru filed an “early warning” through the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) saying that it was opposed to the application for .Amazon. It argued:

[g]ranting exclusive rights to this specific gTLD to a private company would prevent the use of this domain for the purposes of public interest related to the protection, promotion and awareness raising on issues related to the Amazon biome. It would also hinder the possibility of use of this domain to congregate web pages related to the population inhabiting that geographical region.

(No mention was made to how the region has been hurt by the ecommerce company owning Amazon.com.)

The GAC provided official advice to ICANN that it didn’t approve of the .Amazon domain application, and ICANN rejected Amazon.com’s application as a result.

Amazon.com then tried to work with the member states of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO). Its negotiations failed, and Amazon.com filed for Independent Review of the decision to reject its application. It won that review.

Since then, the company has continued to work with the ACTO to come up with a solution that makes them it comfortable. Its latest proposal includes reserving domains the ACTO would like held back, helping ACTO create a website to promote the region (and funding it), and giving a big, fat $5 million gift card to ACTO member states.

Still, no dice.

The board now wants ICANN to present it with a proposal that will let Amazon.com use the domain for its business purposes but appease ACTO members.

In a battle of hard-headed governments vs. the U.S.’s second biggest company, delay is the big winner.

 

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Breaking: Domain name company Donuts Inc. acquired by private equity firm Abry Partners

by — Services 6 Comments

PE snaps up company that manages nearly 240 top level domain names.

Abry Partners, a private equity firm that has completed $77 billion in transactions since it was founded in 1989, is acquiring new top level domain name company Donuts, Inc. Terms of the deal and the expected closing date were not disclosed.

Donuts operates top level domain names such as .guru, .software and .life. It is the largest new top level domain name operator in terms of the number of TLDs managed with about 240 TLDs. About 4 million second-level domains using Donuts’ top level domains are registered.

The company also owns retail domain name registrar Name.com.

Donuts has raised more than $150 million from investors since it was founded in 2010 by domain industry veterans Paul Stahura, Jonathon Nevett, Richard Tindal, and Daniel Schindler. Paul Stahura was CEO until the beginning of 2017, when he became executive chairman and Bruce Jaffe took over as CEO. Since then Tindal and Schindler have left the company.

The company was one of the savviest applicants for new top level domain names. It understood early on that contention sets would likely be settled in private auctions, helping it refill its coffers by losing auctions for the new domains. Its scale has enabled it to operate profitably despite only modest demand for new TLD registrations.

The acquisition of the majority of shares in the company does not include an additional cash infusion into the company. The deal will allow some of the early investors to exit an investment they made eight years ago.

It’s not surprising that a private equity company would be interested in a business like Donuts. Donuts is essentially a subscription business with a very predictable annual renewal rate and cash flow.

Abry Partners makes communications, media, information and business services investments. Former ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé is a partner.

This story has been edited to add additional information about Abry Partners.

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.Best top level domain sold to entrepreneur who wants to make it a cryptocurrency play

by — Uncategorized 8 Comments

Adding crypto to a new TLD? Why not.

PeopleBrowsr has sold the top level domain name .best to The Best SAS, a Paris based company led by Cyril Fremont.

According to a release, .best will become “a core component of a core component of a decentralized search optimized social network, where participants will be rewarded with .Best cryptocurrency for reviewing best in class products and services.:

“We are giving the consumer their own domain name, an integrated website where they own the data, and rewards for their contribution to the community. Platforms like ours continue to move negotiating power between reviewers and sellers,” said Cyril Fremont.

It seems that the goal is to have people review products on .best domain names and reward them with the company’s cryptocurrency.

The Best SAS is owned in part by PREMLEAD, an online marketing company creates leads using a network of over 50,000 websites.

I’ll give this idea points for innovation, something that has mostly been lacking when it comes to new top level domain names.

PeopleBrowsr also runs the .CEO domain name and the “dot brand” domain .kred. None of its top level domains have proven successful, with both .CEO and .Best having about 2,500 names in their zone files.

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Minds + Machines acquires .XXX top level domain operator ICM Registry

by — Uncategorized 1 Comment

New TLD portfolio company adds four domain names to its portfolio.

MMX (also known as Minds + Machines) announced today that it is acquiring ICM Registry, which operates the .xxx, .adult, .porn and .sex top level domain names.

MMX will pay $10.0 million cash plus 225,000,000 shares, which have a value today of $31.0 million. The shares are subject to lock-up periods and will not all be issued at once.

ICM Registry reported net sales of $7.27 million and net income of $3.5 million on its 2017 tax return.

.XXX is a sponsored top level domain name that was introduced in 2011. .Adult, .Porn and .Sex are part of the new top level domain program.

The acquisition concludes MMX’s strategic review, in which it was determining if it made sense to be acquired or to acquire other assets.

Here are some notable points about the deal:

  • ICM Registry founder Stuart Lawley will now be the biggest shareholder of MMX with about 15%.
  • Afilias was a large shareholder in ICM and will now become a notable shareholder of MMX. Keep in mind that MMX recently went with competitor Nominet as the backend for its TLD portfolio. Afilias will continue to be the backend provider for ICM’s four top level domains.
  • The deal will help MMX’s profitability. The company plans to begin a dividend plan within the next 18 months.
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Take a look at Google’s 11 sites built on .Google

by — Uncategorized 0 Comments

Google has developed 11 websites that use .Google domains.

Google is getting a lot of press this week thanks to its launch of .App, but .App is just one of dozens of new top level domains that Google controls.

During the 2012 round of top level domain name expansion, many companies applied for top level domains that match their brand names, e.g. .google. While applicants for these domains have been slow to build sites on them, the number of developed websites on dot-brand domains is steadily increasing.

Google has developed 11 of the 17 domains it has registered under the .Google top level domain name. Here’s a look at these 11 sites:

Google Design – Design.Google

A cooperative effort led by a group of designers, writers and developers at Google.

Click here to see more sites on .Google

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