Gets .web, plans to launch domain this year — Verisign finally
The firm paid $135 million in a 2016 auction ahead of a drawn-out dispute.
Finally.
Following a decade of fighting, Verisign disclosed yesterday that it now controls the .web top level domain.
Nu Dot Co applied for the .web top level domain in the 2012 top level domain expansion round.
Following the application period closed, Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) decided it wanted to own .web and worked out a deal with Nu Dot Co in which Nu Dot Co would bid in the auction and Verisign would then buy the top level domain from it.
Nu Dot Co (NDC) won the auction for $135 million, which was the amount of the second-highest bid, placed by applicant Afilias.
Other applicants were upset. Not only did their rival Verisign win the auction, but Nu Dot Co decided to use an ICANN auction of last resort rather than a private auction in which the losing applicants stood to earn tens of millions of dollars each. Indeed, one .web applicant promised Nu Dot Co it would receive at least $17 million if it lost the auction.
Identity Digital (then Donuts), another applicant, subsequently sued, but the judge dismissed the case.
Following Identity Digital exhausted its options, Afilias picked up the baton and filed for cooperative engagement with ICANN. Then it escalated to the Independent Review Process (IRP).
It lost, but kept fighting. Identity Digital later purchased Afilias, but not its .web application, and the remaining shell firm continued to fight.
In a press release, Verisign stated the domain has been delegated following the “successful resolution of all previous disputes related to the generic top-level domain (gTLD), the details of which are confidential.”
This wording suggests that Verisign might have paid the former Afilias entity to drop its claims.
Verisign is eager to get the domain out to the public, and plans to start selling registrations through the channel later this year.
Unlike .com, Verisign can charge whatever price it wants for .web domains. I expect it to charge higher than .com domains (it doesn’t want the Department of Justice to question why it would offer the domains for less money), but it might offer first-year discounts to stoke demand. I also expect it to sell the best domains as premium registrations.
Verisign notes earnings Thursday afternoon, and it might reveal more regarding its plans then. It is unlikely to provide registration projections for the domain.
