And XYZ to sell .car, cars and .auto registries — Frank Schilling
Three low-volume, high-price domain registries go on the auction block.
A partnership between Frank Schilling’s UNR and XYZ is auctioning off three domain name registries: .car, .cars and .auto. [Update 8/7/20: XYZ won the auction.]
The two firms partnered five years ago to bring the domain names to market. The three top level domains have generated combined revenues of more than $11 million so far and have a “predictable revenue stream of $1.7MM per year” with an average operating margin of 95%.
As stated by nTLD stats, all three registries combined have fewer than 1,000 registrations. But the partnership took a unique pricing approach to the registries. Retail prices for the domains are regarding $3,000 per year, significantly higher than most domains.
A fresh buyer could continue that strategy or choose a lower-price, higher-volume business model.
Frank Schilling told Reglike, “We both have made a lot of money from the strings and continue to, but we realize maybe the market wants it more than either of us. So this is a fair way to roll the investment.”
The auction will take place on July 13 and end the following day. Surprisingly, there will be no reserve. UNR or XYZ could technically bid in the auction under the same terms as other bidders.
Schilling noted that this is the first auction of fresh top level domain registries for which anyone can participate.
Innovative Auctions, which handled many of the private contention set auctions, is managing the auction.
