ICANN: Annual Independent Audit RFP
ICANN is issuing today a Request for Proposals (RFP) to identify audit firms interested in performing ICANN ‘s annual independent audit.
Full information is given in the RFP which can be found here [PDF, 548 KB].
RFP activities schedule at a glance:
| Requests for Proposals issued by ICANN | 18 March 2014 |
| Written responses due | 2 April 2014 |
| Selected firm published | 31 May 2014 |
This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-18mar14-en.htm
.BERLIN Off To Flying Start With Record gTLD Registration Numbers On First Day Of GA
The new gTLD for the German capital of Berlin got off to a flying start Tuesday with 31,757 registrations on its first day of General Availability according to nTLDstats.com. This made it easily the gTLD with the most registrations on day one of General Availability since new gTLDs began hitting the market this year.
It also means that at the end of its first day of General Availability .berlin has the second highest number of registrations of the new gTLDs to hit the market behind .guru with 45,269 registrations. At the close of 16 March and the end of the Sunrise period, there were 197 .berlin domains registrations and 24 hours later 31,954.
However, as Adrian Kinderis wrote on the ARI Registry Services blog, registration numbers aren’t everything and that “many in our industry are still persisting with their old TLD ways of thinking”.
Kinderis even had to remind his staff that “there are many ways to determine success” and he wonders “which gTLD is ‘top’ by sustainable revenue.”
One of the keys here will be at the end of the initial registration periods and to see how many registrants renew their domains.
Personally, I have long thought .berlin to be one of the more likely successes of the new gTLD programme and their future assured. The .de zone has well over 15 million registrations making it more difficult than most TLDs to get a preferred domain name. Plus the company behind the gTLD, dotBERLIN Gmbh, has spent nine years working on the project, promoting the idea to local businesses, government at all levels and residents meaning there was a high level of awareness in the city. And Berlin is a dynamic city with a high level of technology awareness and has, according to the mayor, well over 500 technology start-ups.
Registration numbers not the only success measure for new TLDs, by Adrian Kinderis, ARI Registry Services
Like many, I’ve been watching the rollout of the first 150+ new Top-Level Domains (TLD) with interest.
Since the delegation of شبكة. back in October, we’ve seen all sorts of TLDs launched – from brands like .monash to generics like .build.
There has been intense scrutiny within our industry on the zone file registration numbers of these delegated TLDs to measure whether or not they are successful.
To be fair, this is not a surprise. We’ve been conditioned by past generic TLD launches to focus on registration numbers. Whether it was .mobi, .travel, .info or.co, all previous TLDs have been measured on registration volume – and more worryingly against the benchmark of .com.
Despite being the new TLD program, many in our industry are still persisting with their old TLD ways of thinking.
How will these same people measure the success of .brands and .geos? Remember, it’s a whole new ball game which requires a different way of thinking because the goal posts have moved.
Early numbers mean nothing
The fact that .guru has 40,000 domain name registrations and .graphics only has 4000 means nothing. It’s like comparing apples and oranges.
Outlandish claims like those seen by .CLUB Domains CEO Colin Campbell that .club will overtake .guru in week one are symptomatic of our industry’s naive focus on raw numbers over qualitative results.
Even my own marketing team is guilty of getting caught up in the hype of zone file number reporting. I had to remind them via Twitter recently that there are many ways of determining a top performing new TLD.
The fact of the matter is, raw numbers mean nothing and a focus on use, engagement, purpose and sustainable revenues are far better measures of success.
What is success?
New TLD operators should be judged on their whole-of-business operational performance to take account of stakeholder engagement, customer satisfaction, strategy planning and financial modeling.
Don’t get me wrong, domain name registration numbers matter. It’s just that you can’t determine the success or failure of a new TLD by comparing it to other TLDs. You can only judge a TLD against its intended purpose and strategy.
Think about .brand TLDs for a second. Registration numbers mean nothing and their entire model is based on how their TLD is integrated into the organisation’s digital strategy. Geographics and IDNs also have a very different proposition than traditional generics.
In attempting to measure success, I’d suggest onlookers focus on:
1. Use: Is the namespace being used in a meaningful way and is there evidence of usage and development with the domain names? Are registrants building businesses and content within the namespace?
2. Sustainable revenues: Who is registering domain names and what is the prospect for renewals? Will the TLD retain registrations or do registrants see it as a fad?
3. Trust: Will end users come to trust the namespace and the content hosted within it? Are these registrants helping to establish trust in the namespace?
4. Purpose: What’s the mission and purpose of the namespace (question 18) and are the registration numbers and content living up to these aspirations?
5. Audience: Is the registry operator targeting a clearly defined audience? Is that audience responsive to the product being offered?
Ask yourself, in the first month of general availability for a generic TLD, would you rather have 10,000 Parked domain names registered by domainers with little likelihood of long-term renewal, or would you opt for 100 domain name registrations by major global brands in your target audience who use your namespace to host their entire website?
A strategy reliant on defensive registrations and Parked domains is doomed to fail – and is completely ignorant of the new market dynamics within the industry.
In any case, it’s still far too early to accurately measure the long-term viability of any new TLD. But a focus away from registration numbers and an emphasis on use and purpose would be more appropriate.
TLDs like شبكة. haven’t even started their marketing and awareness campaigns yet and the impact of name collisions is holding back many operators from fully implementing their strategic plan to deliver their mission and purpose.
Remember, the game has changed and so have the goal posts.
This article by Adrian Kinderis, CEO, ARI Registry Services, was sourced with permission from:
www.ariservices.com/blog/registration-numbers-not-the-only-success-measure-for-new-tlds/
Sedo Reports $2,8 Million in Two Weeks of Transactions
Jamrock.com topped Sedo’s sales list for the past two weeks. Highlights also include Homify.fr, leading the ccTLD category at 20,000 EUR and HFF.org, leading the “Other” category at $10,000.
Other notable domain name sales include:
.COM
1905.com 57,000 USD
trace.com 50,000 USD
imeeting.com 47,750 USD
americangreen.com 25,000 USD
360power.com 15,000 USD
carparts24.com 15,000 EUR
payability.com 15,000 USD
brokerexpress.com 11,500 USD
pujiang.com 10,000 USD
everytown.com 10,000 USD
seedr.com 10,000 USD
hometechnology.com 10,000 USD
zzphone.com 10,000 EUR
talkable.com 9,999 USD
ripply.com 9,875 USD
lawblog.com 9,700 USD
mgtow.com 9,500 USD
airpop.com 9,000 USD
payclub.com 9,000 USD
luxcard.com 9,000 USD
travelis.com 8,500 USD
advocatus.com 8,350 USD
sovrn.com 8,000 USD
diypestcontrol.com 8,000 USD
eaglehills.com 8,000 USD
lotto365.com 7,200 USD
darzi.com 7,000 USD
booo.com 7,000 USD
transferairport.com 7,000 USD
sportwetten24.com 6,800 EUR
spritzing.com 6,077 USD
tenbank.com 6,000 USD
3609.com 6,000 USD
shoppingcentral.com 5,000 USD
hotelier.com 5,000 GBP
aranga.com 5,000 USD
mwnews.com 5,000 USD
felsenthal.com 5,000 USD
vemedia.com 5,000 EUR
feelin.com 5,000 EUR
acea.com 5,000 USD
crnews.com 5,000 USD
1800hvac.com 5,000 USD
exiger.com 5,000 USD
ccTLD
consulting.de 15,500 EUR
e-b.de 14,000 EUR
bestonlinecasino.co.uk 12,950 GBP
routeradar.nl 10,000 EUR
leo.co 8,000 USD
biz.me 8,000 USD
cgl.fr 5,900 EUR
jet.mx 5,600 USD
makers.cn 5,000 USD
fairloans.co.uk 4,000 GBP
pasiones.es 4,000 EUR
creditauto.fr 4,000 EUR
afterlife.co 4,000 USD
dwm.de 3,900 EUR
muba.nl 3,500 EUR
terreetmer.fr 3,500 EUR
welcome.us 3,500 USD
thescore.co.uk 3,500 USD
aimed.eu 3,450 EUR
babycare.ch 3,000 EUR
roco.de 3,000 EUR
skool.de 3,000 EUR
aquapanel.pl 3,000 EUR
tankstellenpreise.de 2,810 EUR
dejtingsidor.se 2,700 EUR
bestonlinecasinos.org.uk 2,500 USD
quepasa.es 2,500 EUR
vertaal.nu 2,500 EUR
dubai.pk 2,500 USD
immobilare.it 2,500 USD
tonight.at 2,500 EUR
haya.es 2,500 USD
vorhang.ch 2,400 EUR
elia.gr 2,300 EUR
123bonus.de 2,004 EUR
pennylane.com.au 2,000 USD
limo.eu 2,000 USD
latt.es 2,000 USD
weihnachtsdekoration.at 2,000 EUR
ideecadeaux.fr 2,000 EUR
viet.vn 2,000 USD
wrapp.me 2,000 USD
thescore.co 2,000 USD
kpage.de 2,000 EUR
maxlotto.de 2,000 EUR
Other
mobile.asia 10,000 USD
yjp.org 9,888 USD
fhw.org 9,888 USD
openfuture.org 6,000 USD
quilt.org 4,000 USD
duravit.net 3,500 EUR
netparents.org 3,500 USD
ctag.org 2,500 USD
fuelinjectors.net 2,500 USD
antarktis.net 2,000 EUR
ilap.org 2,000 USD
unipay.net 1,950 USD
necc.net 1,900 EUR
foodbox.org 1,900 USD
casasoft.org 1,800 EUR
asos.info 1,800 USD
agb.info 1,600 EUR
rodas.net 1,549 USD
can.info 1,500 USD
bb3.org 1,490 USD
collateral.biz 1,280 EUR
feeds.biz 1,200 USD
soyou.net 1,200 EUR
fx.asia 1,200 USD
mobiles.pro 1,200 USD
it.asia 1,000 USD
empleo.pro 1,000 USD
freestylers.net 990 USD
annotate.net 980 USD
tercercielo.net 925 USD
roma.pro 900 EUR
startwebsite.org 875 USD
muses.org 875 USD
crosswords.org 851 USD
bluetoothspeakers.net 850 USD
footballodds.org 825 USD
fob.biz 820 EUR
kautionsversicherung.org 800 EUR
disabledveteran.org 800 USD
smartphone-test.net 800 EUR
v5.biz 800 USD
crossdesign.net 788 USD
shared.info 777 USD
ireporter.net 750 EUR
liv.bike 706 USD
cronies.org 700 USD
Check out Sedo.com for more information .
Afternic Reports $2,1 Million in Domain Name Sales, Led By QY.com at $100,000
Afternic/GoDaddy have just sent in their sales report for the previous week. Sales add up to a total of $2,1 million.QY.com was the highest selling domain name at $100,000.
Other notable domain name sales include :
dolor.com $16,500
destinfloridacondorentals.com $10,000
autismsociety.com $9,750
carshippers.com $8,320
justjob.com $7,600
clearhome.com $7,500
designfind.com $7,500
airclass.com $7,450
conservativebook.com $7,000
conservativebooks.com $7,000
harddrivedatarecovery.com $7,000
fiam.com $6,924
adulthookup.com $6,800
thinkgate.com $6,175
manyone.com $6,000
summitcollective.com $5,995
8ballpool.com $5,875
contentintelligence.com $5,700
focusnews.com $5,088
teambase.com $5,000
metacog.com $4,999
theadrialondon.com $4,999
restaurantwifi.com $4,888
10018.com $4,873
redistro.com $4,700
6759.com $4,500
dealscene.com $4,500
healthlifestyles.com $4,188
beaconwmg.com $4,105
fortressgroup.com $4,000
smarterskin.com $4,000
Non .COM Sales
mpt.net $9,800
poverty.net $7,500
charlottenc.net $5,000
foco.net $4,188
swimsuit.photos $3,550
canadajobs.org $3,288
emailarchive.org $3,200
tibetanarts.org $2,502
familyofgod.org $2,088
myprofile.org $2,088
smia.org $2,088
utw.org $2,000
lifeplan.org $1,944
renta.limo $1,776
openswf.org $1,651
chicago.limo $1,625
hcreo.org $1,525
everythingleather.co $1,495
ccmep.org $1,475
lincoln200.net $1,225
prayerhouse.org $1,200
icns.org $1,110
greencleansolutions.net $1,088
seniorpartners.net $1,060
statebt.net $1,025
mikebaker.photos $1,005
barefoot.me $1,000
