The .cloud new gTLD commemorates its fifth birthday this week with its first ever Premium Domain Sales Report that notes there were $320,136 in total premium revenue in 2020, $203,884 through their premium registrars who sold 155 premium domains with an average price of $1,315 per domain sold.
Verisign reported its fourth quarter and 2020 financial results Thursday and the highlight that will get most attention is the increase in the annual registry-level wholesale fee for each new and renewal .com domain name, which will increase by 7%, from $7.85 to $8.39, effective 1 September, 2021.
ShortDot is launching the Sunrise period for its fourth new gTLD on 10 March, the recently acquired .cfd, which they are promoting as being for #ClothingFashionDesign.
Uni Naming and Registry (or Uniregistry or UNR) is to offload its 23 new generic top-level domains (new gTLDs) in a one-day auction event on 28 April. The event will consist of separate no-reserve auctions for each of the 23 new gTLDs, giving bidders the flexibility to only acquire the Top Level Domains that fit their strategies or budgets.
MMX, aka Minds + Machines, are looking forward to a brighter 2021 with the appointment of Tony Farrow, who re-joined MMX at the end of October as Interim CEO, as CEO of the Company. There has also been a settlement with ICM Registry and the company’s former Chair and CEO Stuart Lawley, while domains under management declined by around one-fifth (19%) in 2020 when many other top-level domains saw increases as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly ccTLDs. The company is also reviewing its portfolio of top-level domains.
Less than one month after it was announced Donuts were taking on the domain name registry business of Afilias, Ethos Capital has announced it is taking over Donuts by acquiring a controlling interest in the company.
The XYZ Registry recently launched Sunrise periods for five recently acquired new gTLDs – .quest and four new gTLDs for the beauty industry – .Beauty, .Hair, .Skin and .Makeup. Registrations for trademark holders commenced 1 December while General Availability will commence on 2 March.
A couple of days before Christmas, ICANN announced that all of the current 1,195 generic top-level domains (gTLDs), that’s new and legacy, have deployed DNSSEC.
Public Interest Registry has handed out three more of their 2020 .ORG Impact Awards to .ORG registrants that are connecting communities, making a difference, and utilising the internet to drive transformative change. There are ten awards in total, one handed out each day during their 10 Days of .ORG. The three latest winners are The Crisis Tracker, Mangrove Action Project and Food For Free.
The second .ORG Impact Awards have recognised three more outstanding contributors that are doing their bit to have an impact on the world around them. Following Monday’s Combating Coronavirus award to Days for Girls International, winners were SMASH in the Promoting Education category, the Outstanding Volunteer award was awarded to Kayla Abramowitz, founder and CKO (Chief Kid Officer) of Kayla Cares 4 Kids and the Championing Equality, Equity and Inclusion award was awarded to Change Labs.