Late this month sees the release of short .at domains – one and two character domains. In the leadup to their launch, Domain Pulse sat down with Richard Wein, nic.at’s joint CEO and Commercial Manager, to discuss why now and what has the interest been like, as well as to find out what the procedures are.Domain Pulse: nic.at is releasing “short” domains starting later this month. How are they being released? And are short domains being released for the 2LDs as well as .at?
Richard Wein: One and two character domains are already possible (since many years) for the 2nd Level Domains .or.at and .co.at – so this introduction only affects domains directly under the Top Level Domain .at We will start with a sunrise phase for trademark owners on August 29. They will have time to file their domain application online at www.nic.at/shortdomains until September 23. They can file this application themselves or authorise their registrar or any other third party to do so. Information on which trademarks are eligible can be found here:
https://www.nic.at/en/service/introduction-of-short-domains/marken-info/nic.at will then check all applications manually – if there is more than one valid application, the domain goes to a closed auction among the authorised applicants from October 10-21, 2016.All remaining domains will go to a public online auction starting on November 7, 2016 which will be conducted by Sedo GmbH.And finally all domains which are still free after the sunrise phase and the public auction will be publicly available first come first served from December 6, 2016.DP: Are the domains being released at premium prices?
RW: For the trademark domains during sunrise phase we have fixed prices: 100 Euro (net) for filing an application, 200 Euro (net) for the domain (for one year) if there is only one valid application.If a domain goes to auction, the starting price for the closed trademark domain auction is 200 Euro (net) and 60 Euro (net) for the public auction. The domain of course goes to the highest bidder.From December 6, all remaining domains are available based on usual procedures and prices for .at-domains.DP: Why now? Why haven’t they been released before? And what are the benefits, besides being shorter!
RW: Now is a good time: Many European registries are currently opening up their namespace for short domains, and many of the new top level domains have supported single character domains from the outset. We have been monitoring developments and decided to follow suit, in consultation with the Austrian internet community and our domain name council. We are taking this step voluntarily without any pressure to do so. Besides being shorter, we expect trademark owners to profit most from the short domains. They can bring their branding into line across all communication channels and sharpen the profile of their brand. For users, short domains are always easier to remember. And by the way, it’s always good for a ccTLD like .at to bring something new into the market.DP: What has the interest been like?
RW: We have quite a few trademark owners who are very interested in the development – some international brands like Volkswagen and “3” as well as some Austrian brands even agreed to serve as a testimonial for our information campaign. Registrars and Trademark lawyers start asking us detailed questions about the procedures, so we suppose that the industry waits in the wings. Sedo is already eager to communicate the list of domains for auction to their customers, especially outside of Austria like US and China. We’ve also seen an increasing interest from the press and marketing communities. Our own communication has been very intense – we provide a wide range of information material and a short explanation video which can be shared by anyone. But let’s see – examples from other countries show that the adoption varies from country to country.DP: New gTLDs continue to roll out. Has nic.at noticed any impact on .at?
RW: No, not at all. We don’t see any special trends besides the ones which count for the whole domain industry: the net growth curve is getting flatter. But our monthly new registration figures are stable since the beginning of the year.DP: What else is happening with .at? Are there any changes planned?
RW: The introduction of short domains is our big project for this year. We will communicate our plans for next year in November during our yearly Registrar Day.
Get Ready, Short Domains Coming To .AT: nic.at CEO
Late this month sees the release of short .at domains – one and two character domains. In the leadup to their launch, Domain Pulse sat down with Richard Wein, nic.at’s CEO and Commercial Manager to discuss why now and what has the interest been like, as well as to find out what the procedures are.
