SWITCH Gets .CH Registry Contract Extension To 2017
On 20 March 2015, the SWITCH foundation and the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) signed an extension of the existing registry contract to 30 June 2017. But a public tender will be called in 2016 for the operation of the registry from July 2017 onwards.
The contract extension means that SWITCH will retain responsibility for the administration of .ch domain names and support for customers in transferring their .ch domain names to the registrars.
Commenting on the contract extension, the SWITCH foundation said as it has more than 27 years’ experience in operating the registry it offers the best possible protection for the Swiss internet thanks to its dedicated team of security experts. SWITCH is therefore confident that it will continue to be the best choice to operate this critical infrastructure for Switzerland going forward.
There has also been a significant policy change that came into effect on 1 January 2015 that saw the registry stopping selling .ch domain names directly to registrants, and since then it has been handing over the related client support to registrars. At present, some 500,000 .ch domain names are still registered directly with SWITCH by 270,000 clients. SWITCH will in future focus on operating the .ch domain name directory and on ensuring that the Swiss internet remains secure and stable.
Domaining Europe Starts in One Month in Valencia, Spain
Domaining Europe 2015 conference starts in one month in Valencia, Spain. The conference will be held at the Sorolla Palace Hotel.
The conference will be held April 23-25, 2015 at the Sorolla Palace Hotel, in Valencia, SPain. The organizers have added many new speakers lately, including Nuno Soares, CEO of Quinv, Jeffrey Sass , .CLUB’S Chief Marketing Officer and Duane Bailey , Senior Product Manager at Verisign.
Amy Repp, Donuts’ Director of TLD Partnership will be an important speaker at the Domaining Europe, while Michael Marcovici from Domain Developers Fund speak about selling domain names by email , will be also very important for every domainer present at the conference.
Registrations for the conference is 600 Euro and rooms at the Sorolla Palace are 70 Euro per night.
More information about the conferece here.
SnapNames Spring Premium Auction is Underway and Only Four Bids So Far
SnapNames is hosting these days the 2015 Spring Premium domain name auction. The auction features 128 domain names, out of which only four received bids.
The auction will end April 16,2015 at 12: 15 pm PT.
At the time of writing this article, only four domain names received bids and two of them met their reserve prices :
StereoHeadphones.com Current Bid : $1,000
Xanet.com Current Bi : $00
FacialSoaps.com Current Bid : $300 (Reserve met)
Humility.org Current Bid : $300 (Reserve met)
Other interesting domain names included in the auction are :
AlternativeEnergy.com
FinancialManagement.com
BusinessAdministration.com
Meet.ca
Nationally.com
NightClub.vegas
SEOService.com
Slogan.com
TrafficTicket.ca
TY.ca
You can see the entire inventory and place your bids here.
ICM Registry Cuts Fee For .XXX During April
[news release] ICM Registry today announced a price cut for .xxx domain names created in April.
Domain purchasers, from April 1-30, can purchase new, one-year .xxx registrations for $12.99.
The .xxx names purchasers buy during the promotional period are eligible for participation in the upcoming .porn and .adult Domain Matching Program.
The Domain Matching Program starts on May 6 and runs through May 31. It is a special program designed specifically for .xxx domain holders. The Domain Matching Program gives .xxx domain owners a priority registration opportunity to register available, exact match names in .porn and .adult before those names are offered to the general public. .xxx domain holders as of April 30 are eligible to participate in the .porn and .adult Domain Matching Program.
ICM Registry Director Steve Winyard said that the price of its .porn and .adult names will be substantially reduced during the Domain Matching Program and that .xxx registrants can buy .porn and .adult names for $12.99. “Check with your registrar directly about pricing as some are offering irresistible package deals for .xxx, .porn and .adult names,” he said. The word ‘porn’ has always been one of the most searched terms on the Internet and it is now a TLD, Winyard said.
“There are amazing opportunities for SEO and exact match domain phrases in these new TLDs. .porn and .adult can easily be as successful as, if not more successful than, .xxx,” he said. “With our promotional, low-price offers, adult site owners have plenty of time to test these new extensions and build profitable sites.” ICM Registry is launching .sex later this year and plans to offer similar domain matching opportunities for the .sex launch, he said. “With so many new TLDs on the market, it’s refreshing to know that all four of our TLDs are powerhouses that clearly identify the content, products and services available,” he said. “Consumers are becoming more aware of the significance of the words to the right of the dot and for site owners, the innovation, ROI and SEO opportunities in our new TLDs bring next level excitement.”
This ICM Registry news release was sourced from:
www.icmregistry.com/media/press/?article=57
Three-Quarters Of Donuts New gTLD Domains Being Renewed
It is now time to look at the renewal rates for the first of the new gTLDs to hit General Availability back in March 2014. Donuts have been publishing updates on their first gTLDs to hit GA each day and on the third day of renewals for the first of their gTLDs, the renewal rate is sitting at an impressive 74 percent.
This compares to a .com and .net renewal rate for the third quarter of 2014 of 72.0 percent compared with 72.7 percent for the same quarter in 2013.
Speaking to this writer back in November, Donuts co-founder and Executive Vice President Dan Schindler said he always expected the renewal rates for domains registered in gTLDs operated by Donuts to be high.
Back then Schindler said he was confident there will be high rates of renewals and continuing success. For starters, Schindler stressed every one of the one million plus domains registered in their gTLDs has been paid for. And most were registered and paid for by early adopters, so Schindler says Donuts is confident they will have high renewal rates.
“They were registered for longer term investments. There is not enormous type in traffic so speculators haven’t entered the market on a large scale – they were bought for longer term investments,” Schindler believes.
And twelve percent of domains registered across Donuts’ gTLDs back then were “already living breathing sites. That is really encouraging. With more being used, use begets use.”
In a blog posting on the Donuts website on 23 March, Donuts’ COO Richard Tindal wrote that “up to and including Sunday March 22 2015, 29,262 Donuts domains have passed through the auto-renew grace period and hence their final renewal status is definitively known. Most of these names are from the .BIKE, .CLOTHING, .GURU, .HOLDINGS, .PLUMBING, .SINGLES and .VENTURES TLDs, but some are Sunrise names from .CAMERA, .EQUIPMENT,.ESTATE, .GALLERY,.GRAPHICS, .LIGHTING, and .PHOTOGRAPHY.”
“27,214 of the 29,262 names were registered after the Sunrise period. The renewal rate on the 29,262 names is 74%. Tomorrow an additional 8,595 names will join the cumulative total.”
It appears the renewal rate for domains registered in the Sunrise period is higher than for those registered during General Availability.
Commenting on the day one renewals on the blog, Tindal wrote Donuts “expect the blended renewal rate on those names to be in the mid eighties (it will drop from today’s percentage due to the declining proportion of Sunrise names in the cumulative total).”
