Reglikedomain industry desk

GoDaddy drops Uniregistry again

This time it appears to be permanent.

Earlier today I recorded a podcast with Frank Schilling that will air Monday morning. During the recording, Schilling informed me that GoDaddy will stop offering Uniregistry top level domain names. This isn’t the first time GoDaddy has dropped Uniregistry names, but it seems they now have put a permanent transition in place.

GoDaddy stopped offering fresh registrations of Uniregistry TLDs in March due to Uniregistry’s planned price hikes, but then added them back in with high prices. While fresh registrations are available as of today, this will soon be switched off.

I reached out to GoDaddy to ask regarding the decision. Mike McLaughlin, EVP & GM, Domains, replied:

GoDaddy strives to provide its clients with great product experiences wherever possible. Following careful consideration, we decided to stop offering fresh Uniregistry domain names for sale since their pricing changes caused frustration and uncertainty with our clients.

For existing clients who have Uniregistry names, GoDaddy has partnered with Hexonet’s 1API GMBH to take over the backend management of the domain names. Clients will continue to manage their existing Uniregistry domains through the GoDaddy platform.

The deal with Hexonet is interesting. Clients who by now have Uniregistry domains registered in their GoDaddy accounts will manage them as usual in their account interface. This will link to Hexonet’s backend.

The only difference clients might see is that they can no longer have Whois privacy on their Uniregistry domains. I came across this tweet from someone who received a notice regarding losing privacy:

here is why godaddy is dropping privacy on .link domains pic.twitter.com/iEBKUurCpH

— CWN (@Cyber_War_News) August 18, 2017

For his part, Schilling is taking the decision in stride. He stated GoDaddy was never a huge registrar for its domains since GoDaddy didn’t offer Uniregistry domains at launch. He also noted that the sizable registrar 1&1 is getting ready to offer Uniregistry domains again. Listen to the podcast on Monday to learn more.

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