Telnic Trips Up with Baidu.tel
Firm touts first-come-first-served .tel rights, but it sends a mixed message.
Telnic, the firm behind the fresh .tel top level domain name, sent me a press release today touting that Baidu.tel had been awarded to Baidu Europe, a firm that uses Baidu.eu. .Tel has a first-come policy for claiming trademark domain names during the sunrise message.
The implicit message is that Baidu, the Chinese search engine, didn’t get the domain since it didn’t apply fast enough. Firms need to act fast so this doesn’t happen to them.
The message I interpret is different. First, Baidu (the search engine) probably felt .tel wasn’t worth spending time and money on.
Second, and here’s the real kicker: Baidu Europe isn’t much of a firm. When you go to its web site, you’ll see that it has a trademark and ten domain names — all of which are for sale! In other words, Baidu Europe’s value is that it hopes Baidu the search engine will buy it for its domains and trademark.
The regarding us page for the firm is very nebulous:
Baiduâ„¢ Europe is a services firm in the Netherlands offering an extremely wide range of internet services and products.We supply what we call low threshold automation. That means clear prices, detailed agreements and accessibility to both big and modest firms. If you choose Baidu Europe, we will ensure that your requirements are met, naturally with your input regarding the information we need to comply with your request.
But the home page of the site and recent news stories are just regarding how the firm is trying to sell its domain names. In fact, a quick look at historical screenshots of its home page shows that all the site discusses for the past year are the domain names it owns.
Do you think Telnic actually went to the Baidu.eu web page ahead of sending out this press release?
Other Telnic Stories:
Telnic: A $35 Million Investment Gone Awry
.Tel Has Benefits, But Many Challenges
