Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News & Website Stuff

Domain Name Industry News and Website Stuff

Featured Domains

Matt Overman on new TLDs – DNW Podcast #253

by — Podcasts 5 Comments

Why Donuts is repricing many of its premium domains.

dnw-podcastThis week I talk with Matt Overman, the SVP of sales at Donuts, the company that offers 242 domains in new extensions such as .money and .expert. Matt explains why the company is reducing the price on over 1 million new top level domains that are marked as premium, including moving most of them to non-premium status. He also responds to some of Michael Berkens’ comments about new TLDs and gives examples of how some people are successfully using the domains.

Also: Slofies, Scratch.org settlement scratched, .Music fight, No more .Chrysler, and good news about a website held for ransom.

This week’s sponsor: NameSilo. Use coupon code DNWPod to save $1 on your next domain.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:39 — 26.2MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone or iPad, view on Google Play Music, or click play above or download to begin listening. (Listen to previous podcasts here.)

Chrysler crashes its dot-brand domain names

by — Uncategorized 7 Comments

Company pulls all but one of its dot-brands; other companies join the withdrawing party.

Picture of toy matchbox-style cars in a crash. Grey convertible and yellow coupe.

Fiat Chrysler pulls all but one of its dot-brand domain names.

Fiat Chrysler is among the companies dropping many of its dot-brand domain names.

ICANN published 13 more termination notices for top level domain names that match the brands of their owners.

The companies voluntarily decided to terminate their .brand domains. The domains include:

  • .Uconnect, .SRT, .Mopar, .Dodge, .Chrysler (Fiat Chrysler)
  • .Liasion (Liaison Technologies)
  • .Lancome (L’Oreal)
  • .Telefonica and .Movistar (Telefonica S.A.)
  • .Piaget, .Cartier (Richemont)
  • .Warman (Weir Group)
  • .Ladbrokes (Ladbrokes International PLC)

Fiat Chrysler still has .jeep, but the only .jeep domain in Google is the obligatory nic.jeep.

A new TLD update with Sandeep Ramchandani – DNW Podcast #248

by — Podcasts 8 Comments

Sandeep Ramchandani returns to the program to discuss the top level domain market.

dnw-podcastRadix CEO Sandeep Ramchandani discusses the current state of new top level domain names from his perspective. We discuss how much premium domains should cost, if domains under management is the right metric, switching costs of domains, and much more. It’s an interesting discussion.

Also: Tucows, GoDaddy expired domains, PIR’s hire, EFF fights .org contract, 8chan and more.

This week’s sponsor: NameSilo. Use coupon code DNWPod for $1 off your next domain.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:56 — 26.4MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone or iPad, view on Google Play Music, or click play above or download to begin listening. (Listen to previous podcasts here.)

Radix: $1.36M premium revenue in first half of 2019

by — Domain Sales 1 Comment

Company’s premium revenue stays on track in 2019.

Pie chart showing registrar market share for Radix premium domain sales. GoDaddy is number 1 at 41.6%, Google is 11.3% and Namecheap is 10.2%.

GoDaddy generates over 40% of Radix’s premium domain revenue.

Domain name registry Radix pulled in $1.36 million in premium revenue during the first half of 2019, almost the exact same amount it generated in the second half of last year.

$0.52 million of that was from the registration of 619 new premium domains and the rest was renewal revenue.

More than half of the new registration revenue came from .online and .tech. Looking at renewals, .store and .online are the top revenue producers.

GoDaddy leads the way for premium domains of Radix domains, but I’m a bit surprised that Google is #2. Namecheap, which is the second largest registrar for new TLD registrations overall, comes in at #3.

The average premium revenue per domain is about $1,000, but new premium registrations this year have a lower average than renewals.

54% of premium domains that came up for their first renewal this year were renewed and 78% of second-year or later premiums were renewed.

Radix operates nine new top level domain names plus the .pw namespace. I just recorded a podcast with Radix CEO Sandeep Ramchandani that will air within the next couple of weeks.

.Inc domain tops 500 registrations

by — Uncategorized 5 Comments

Expensive domain finds buyers.

.Inc top level domain logo

The .Inc top level domain name has crossed 500 registrations after getting 237 registrations in the first hour of general availability today.

While this wouldn’t be noteworthy for most top level domain launches, .Inc domains have a wholesale price of $2,000.

Over 270 domains were registered during the trademark sunrise and five additional names were picked up at a higher price during Early Access.

Among the dictionary word registrations so far are sex.inc, marijuana.inc, bitcoin.inc, offshore.inc alarm.inc, pets.inc and b.inc.

Some trademark holders appear to have waited until general availability to get their names.

To learn more about .Inc’s unique model, listen to DNW Podcast #232 with Shayan Rostam.