Kieren Mc Carthy wrote an article on TheRegister.co.uk relating to Donuts winning the rights to .reise. Now .reise is already live, so Donuts picked up a registry with existing registrations and websites. Mc Carthy ponders what these types of deals could mean in the future ? One registry buying another and then raising prices.
I think that is the important question moving forward, will this shake up the future of the namespace ? Will Donuts eventually buy out a string in a niche they otherwise control, like sports related strings.
From the article:
The first new top-level domain name to be sold with live websites attached to it has been picked up by registry giant Donuts at auction.
The rights to sell domains under the name “.reise” – which is German for “travel” – represents a sea-change in the way the domain-name system will run in future, with generic top-level domains (gTLDs) becoming tradable assets rather than the core focus of a business.
Donuts paid an undisclosed sum for the gTLD, but bidding started at $400,000 and there were four bidders in the process. Donuts already runs the “.reisen” registry, and according to a report in Heise it was the main reason why the owner of “.reise” decided to sell up.
“[Owner Axel] Schwiersch had unexpectedly bad luck: the US TLD giant Donuts had secured almost the same suffix: dot-reisen,” Heise reports. “The US competitor was under better conditions at the start: due to a more favorable place at the draw, ‘.reisen’ could launch two weeks earlier. In addition, Donuts offered ‘.reisen’ domains much cheaper.”
As things stand today, there are 4,130 dot-reisen domains but just 1,320 dot-reise domains. In many respects the two extensions are equivalent in German.
Read the full article on The Register
The game does not seem worthy of the cost, but then:
“….. represents a sea-change in the way the domain-name system will run in future, with generic top-level domains (gTLDs) becoming tradable assets …..”
This is why I expected Amazon and Google to stockpile these things with no intention of allowing the public in. A ‘clean’ extension, with no outside-owned second level domains, would seem more valuable.
I wonder, though, if Donuts will have the resources to ride out the crash that may be coming. There were 4 bidders at $400,000 for an extension with 1320 registrations???
If it looks like a bubble and acts like a bubble …..
Hello MHB,
The Internal Demand figures for GTLD Global demand are flagging. You need Global demand for adoption of the Google based (Google Top Level Domains) = GTLD experiment.
There are no signs of increasing demand and many more signs of total Global apathy towards GTLDs. The sharks continue to circle and the GTLD participants will start to Bail more and more.
Our Internals suggest GTLD participants practice damage control immediately, or suffer huge future capitulation sales. You have been warned.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
judging GTLD success in this economy is like judging a new Katy Pperry cd at a funeral. We are barely past the trailer of this feature length movie. Record breaking spending activity by key players tells me the GTLD story is just beginning. The same quagmire faces todays domain investors as the early .com and post 2001 crash investors. The only questions any domain investors should ask are What if I act? and What if I don’t? IMO
this economy is only going to get worse…
Hello CMAC,
We beg to differ with your analysis of our world leading Economy.
Make no mistake about it we are in the throws of an enormous SECULAR BULL MARKET.
Buy RUT Index single plays or just by the RUT Index. This pull back no matter how long is an extreme equity buying opportunity. JAS 3/6/15
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Hello Ketmo ?
I have 45 years + in analyzing Markets, just because you don’t have a handle on Market Analysis means very little to my followers, they know my track record.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
congratulations now have a chill pill I was making an opinion not a personal attack on you or anyone.