On Schilling/Negari domain name tie-up — 2 thoughts
Two long time domain name investors partner to release three automotive top level domain names.
XYZ (Daniel Negari) and Uniregistry (Frank Schilling) have teamed up to launch three automotive top level domain names: .car, .cars and .auto. .Car was purchased from Google. Here are my thoughts on this deal.
Negari and Shilling partnering on domains isn’t a huge surprise. They’ve both found success with low cost generic domain names. This weekend, Schilling tweeted how .click is selling well thanks to low prices.
.click has done 300 registrations 1/2 way thru a Sunday, without @GoDaddy. Low price registrations in generic strings just work
— Frank Schilling (@Frank_Schilling) May 17, 2015
That stated, I wouldn’t expect niche domains like .car, .cars and .auto to be priced low.
Is this a sign of Google’s further retrenchment from generics in the fresh top level domain name program, or a change in strategy? Google lost most of its top level domain name auctions, but forked out $25 million for .app. This shows that the firm is focusing more on .brands and domains related to its core business than general industry domain names.
On the other hand, Google’s agreement to sell .car could also have to do with its failed effort to can .cars. It wanted only the singular or plural to see the light of day, and might have been concerned regarding confusion if it released .car when someone else owned .cars.
