Donuts Among Big Winners As Total New gTLD Registrations Pass 3 Million In 9 Months

There are now over three million domain names registered across the 254 new gTLDs that have entered General Availability and another 173 that have been delegated according to figures compiled by nTLDstats.com.

The three million mark was passed on 24 October and the figure stood at 3,071,575 at the end of 30 October.

The new gTLD with the most registrations continues to be .xyz with 684,256 registrations, or 22.51 percent of all the domains. But this figure is boosted by a controversial promotion run by Network Solutions where over half (376,901 or 55.08%) of all its domains are registered. One in five (142,905 – 20.88%) are registered through the Chinese registrar Xin Net Technology Corporation.

Second on the list continues to be .berlin with 152,355 registrations, which despite a promotion that went awry that saw almost 90,000 domains either given away or registered cheaply in three days, continues to do well.

For both gTLDs it will be interesting to see what their renewal rates are when domains come due for re-registration.

Coming in third is the .club gTLD that boasts all its domains registered are paid for. Meaning if paid for domains were only included it could easily be the largest of all the new gTLDs.

Coming in fourth and seventh are .realtor and .ovh with 79,571 and 53,674 registrations respectively and that appear to have given away all, or almost all, their domains.

Rounding out the top ten are two more city gTLDs – .london and .nyc that come in at eighth and ninth respectively with 48,203 and 47,497 registrations respectively. And .guru and .photography, two Donuts gTLDs, come in at sixth and tenth with 74,941 and 47,296 registrations respectively.

Donuts now have well over one million registrations across all 151 of their gTLDs that have been delegated, 140 in General Availability. The latest count is 1,029,049 according to nTLDstats.com. “All fully paid,” Dan Schindler, co-founder and Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, for Donuts told Domain News.

Donuts are particularly happy with all their gTLDs to date, but they’re even more chuffed with the success of .guru and .photography.

“.guru was an enormous surprise to us,” said Schindler. “We were really surprised and we’ve tried to analyse why.”

“It’s fun and everyone can claim to be a .guru,” Schindler thinks is the reason behind the success. “Photography has also been a very pleasant surprise. In a world of two and three letter TLDs, it is a surprise longer names do so well.” Another to surprise Donuts Schindler said was .technology, currently coming in at 26th place with 21,200 registrations. Others Schindler expects to do well for them are .company, .email and .today.

It’s not just total registration numbers for gTLDs. Renewal rates will be something to look out for a year or two down the track. But Schindler thinks Donuts will have high renewal rates for four reasons:

1. where names paid for, the early renewal rates are high for those early adopters
2. people cherish something they paid for
3. they got in early and got the pick of the bunch
4. these names don’t have enormous type in traffic so not bought by speculators, bought for longer term investments.

.OOO CEO Wants to Get Over 2 Million Registration in First Year

Igloo Unveils Unreported Domain Name Sales

Igloo.com, one of the leading brokers of ultra premium domain names and website , has recently unveiled some unreported domain name sales.

 

You can read the press release after the jump :

” Igloo.com, a leading broker of ultra premium domain names and websites, has recently shared some exciting data supporting speculations within the industry regarding the predominance of unreported sales. While many sales are recorded on well-regarded industry blogs including DN Journal and Domaining.com, it is exceedingly rare that Igloo.com reports any sale, let alone the actual sale price of a domain name transaction.

In her recent Domain Name Wire Podcast, Igloo.com’s CEO Tessa Holcomb alluded to the fact that last year’s highest public sale of IG.com at $4.7 Million is not Igloo’s biggest sale to date. And, while the Guinness World Record Holder, Sex.com may not actually be the “most expensive internet address domain name” on record, it’s probable we may never know which is. “Our clients are with us for our discretion and value their anonymity,” said Holcomb. “They appreciate that our Domain Advisors are able to work discreetly yet still achieve outstanding results.”

In total, Igloo’s Domain Advisors have closed upwards of $120 Million dollars in domain name transactions and is pleased to have been associated in the sale or acquisition of some of the world’s most valuable domain names including those such as IG.com, CARD.com, AO.com, Top.com, Quote.com, Yoga.com, Mojo.com and Dragon.com to name a few. Like many, Igloo.com experienced tremendous growth in 2013 with gross sales of Intellectual Properties totaling over US $35 Million.

While Igloo.com is honored to have had the opportunity to work with all of their clients, repeat clients are always considered a validation of one’s efforts and the satisfaction thereof. These customers report strong confidence Igloo’s ability to educate and advise brand managers on the value of domain name, as well as the team’s ability to work with a delicate combination of finesse and tenacity to get the job done.

“We were happy to offer the exclusive brokerage of the Top.com listing to Igloo.com after our previous positive experience during the sale of AO.com,” says Alex Kistenev. “Tessa was always communicative, thorough, but most importantly open and honest throughout the entire process. In the end, all parties to the sale were very pleased, and I credit that to Igloo’s market expertise.”

Ben Katz, CEO and co-founder of CARD.com has had the opportunity to work with the team at Igloo.com upon several occasions. “Our broker, Amanda reached out to me when I was working for another company. At the time she represented several great domain names and since I have long appreciated the value of a great domain, we kept in touch. The team at Igloo is not only reliable and efficient, but I also have appreciated their expertise in related legal nuances within the domain industry. I had expected professional representation to be too expensive to use for my smaller acquisitions, but I was wrong. At Igloo, I received the same professional-grade solutions and support during 4 and 5 figure domain sales as I did with a super-mega domain like CARD.com.”

Igloo.com is proud to currently be representing a stunning collection of ultra-premium, generic and brandable domains including Fashion.com, Realty.com, City.com, Cambridge.com, Temps.com, Vino.com, Visitor.com, QT.com and more! “

.EE Domain Registration Price Drops From 12 To 9 Euros

The Estonian Internet Foundation will drop the price for .EE domain names starting January, 1st,2015 from 12 to 9 Euros.

 

You can register a .EE domain name for one, two or three years. Starting January 1st,2015 everyone who wants to register a .EE domain name will pay 9,17 or 24 Euros,depending on the registration period.

 “The Estonian Internet Foundation is implementing the strategy adopted in 2013; the activity of the Foundation is increasingly cost-effective and the number of registered .ee domain names is increasing year on year, last year by even as much as 9%. These factors have allowed us to bring the price of the service down,”said Aet Rahe, chairman of the Foundation’s Supervisory Board,explaining this way how it is possible to lower the price.

9,17 or 24 Euros are the prices asked by the Estonian Internet Foundation from registrars.Every registrar will established their own price.

Check out EuroDNS here to register your .EE domain name.

General Availability For .SAARLAND Commences

As of 30 October, the .SAARLAND domain is available for open registration by all Saarland people and Saarland fans. With the so called GoLive, the start of the General Availability, the unrestricted sale of .SAARLAND web addresses starts at 11:00 UTC. So as of now .SAARLAND domains can be registered on a “first-come, first-served” basis.

With the beginning of the GoLive all .SAARLAND registrations during Sunrise and Landrush phases will be available to registrants.

“With the start of the General Availability, the launch of the .SAARLAND domain is completed. All Saarland people and Saarland fans can now move into their new home in the virtual world”, says Volker Greimann, legal advisor of the dotSaarland GmbH. “Saarland’s own top level domain (TLD) helps to highlight the technical competence and innovativeness of the region, and to present the country as a progressive business location.”

Anke Rehlinger, Minister Of Economic Affairs for Saarland, emphasised the economic value of the .SAARLAND domain: “Today is the beginning of a new normality: Step by step it will be usual to use and notice .SAARLAND domains. The domain extension .SAARLAND supports value creation, growth and employment in the region.”

The aim of .SAARLAND is to give Saarland-based companies, associations, clubs and other organisations the opportunity to draw attention to their local services and to demonstrate their own regional identity. With .SAARLAND web sites, all internet users are able to offer content tailored to the Saarland and its citizens in a targeted way; thanks to the targeting through the domain extension these web sites will also be easily found on the Internet.