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Domain Name Registry, Domain Names

A New CEO And MMX Looks Forward To A Brighter 2021

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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.

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Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registry, New gTLDs

MMX: Registrations and Sales Up, ICM’s Adult Domains Stabilised and .LONDON Out

Minds + Machines Group (MMX) released its half yearly trading results to 30 June last week. In the first half of 2019m MMX reported a healthy year-on-year growth in registrations, up 19% to 1.82 million.

There was also strong channel growth within the original 28 MMX new gTLDs with new sales billings through the channel up 30%. The historic decline in the ICM adult portfolio (.adult, .porn, .sex, and .xxx), which had seen a 16% decline in billings in the corresponding first half of 2018 (compared to 2017), has been fully stabilised at $2.8million (H1 2018: $2.8million). MMX management believes there is now a clear pathway to drive future growth from the ICM portfolio with significant improvements achieved in three of the four ICM properties in the first half of 2018. Compared to the same period last year there had been decline, with further new initiatives coming online in the third quarter of 2019. Importantly, cash-inflows for the period were ahead of expectations at $8.6million (H1 2018 $6.3million) with cash generated of $3.6million including the receipt of $1.6million from contested gTLD auctions (H1 2018 cash generation net of auction proceeds: $0.5million).

“Whilst we are not upgrading guidance for the full year at this stage, we are extremely encouraged by the progress made in the first half,” said Toby Hall, CEO of MMX. “Our revenues are increasingly predictable, with healthy channel sales and strong renewal revenues now driving the business forward. With the legacy onerous contract issue now in the process of being resolved and innovation-based activity supplementing our organic growth, the outlook is bright.”

Currently MMX manages 30 new gTLDs, 28 of them in General Availability, with 1.9 million domain names under management according to nTLDstats. The largest by registration numbers is .vip with 1.023 million registrations.

MMX also addressed “the ongoing drag of one of its legacy contracts against which it had made an onerous provision in the first half of 2018 of $7.0 million in addition to the $2.1 million contractual marketing commitment, bringing the total liability to $9.1million at that time. It has been reported that this legacy contract was with the .london operators. The new gTLD for the UK’s capital peaked at around 86,500 in April 2018 and has been on a downhill slide ever since to today’s 50,700 registrations.

Currently, the estimated liability relating to .london stands at $7.9million. In the half yearly report MMX reports they’ve reached an in principle agreement that it will make a one-off payment of about $5.1m as full and final settlement for any further liability or contractual spend offset by revised contract terms which the Directors now estimate will generate net revenues of approximately $0.5million to MMX over the remaining contractual period. Binding legal contract and payment is expected in H2 and given the positive outlook can be made from the Company’s existing cash resources.

There was also strong channel growth within the original 28 MMX new gTLDs with new sales billings through the channel up 30%. The historic decline in the ICM adult portfolio (.adult, .porn, .sex, and .xxx), which had seen a 16% decline in billings in the corresponding first half of 2018 (compared to 2017), has been fully stabilised at $2.8million (H1 2018: $2.8million). MMX management believes there is now a clear pathway to drive future growth from the ICM portfolio with significant improvements achieved in three of the four ICM properties in the first half of 2018. Compared to the same period last year there had been decline, with further new initiatives coming online in the third quarter of 2019. Importantly, cash-inflows for the period were ahead of expectations at $8.6million (H1 2018 $6.3million) with cash generated of $3.6million including the receipt of $1.6million from contested gTLD auctions (H1 2018 cash generation net of auction proceeds: $0.5million).

“Whilst we are not upgrading guidance for the full year at this stage, we are extremely encouraged by the progress made in the first half,” said Toby Hall, CEO of MMX. “Our revenues are increasingly predictable, with healthy channel sales and strong renewal revenues now driving the business forward. With the legacy onerous contract issue now in the process of being resolved and innovation-based activity supplementing our organic growth, the outlook is bright.”

MMX also addressed “the ongoing drag of one of its legacy contracts against which it had made an onerous provision in the first half of 2018 of $7.0 million in addition to the $2.1 million contractual marketing commitment, bringing the total liability to $9.1million at that time. It has been reported that this legacy contract was with the .london operators. Currently, the estimated liability stands at $7.9million. In the half yearly report MMX reports they’ve reached an in principle agreement that it will make a one-off payment of about $5.1m as full and final settlement for any further liability or contractual spend offset by revised contract terms which the Directors now estimate will generate net revenues of approximately $0.5million to MMX over the remaining contractual period. Binding legal contract and payment is expected in H2 and given the positive outlook can be made from the Company’s existing cash resources.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry, New gTLDs

MMX Sees Their New gTLD Registrations Up More Than A Third in 12 Months

Minds + Machines (MMX) have started 2019 on a high with the release of a company update last week for the year to the end of 2018. During the 12 month period domain registrations were up 38% to 1.84m year-on-year with steady growth since the year-end 31 December 2018. This includes around 1.65 million for their 30 new gTLDs. The rest of the registrations would be for the 4 gTLDs MMX acquired from ICM Registry: .sex, .adult, .porn and .xxx.

Billings were up 129% year-on-year due to a combination of the first time ICM contribution and a significant increase in billings from China, up over 40% year-on-year, greatly helped by .luxe registrations and healthy ongoing .vip sales. Meanwhile, .law and MMX’s US portfolio are also performing well, up over 9% when compared to the same period last year with Germany 6% ahead of last year.

“The momentum we are generating in the industry is now being reflected not just in our numbers but by the calibre of individuals and partners now wishing to work with the Group,” said Toby Hall, CEO of MMX. “We very much look forward to the positive start to the year continuing throughout the full year and the increased flexibility that potentially provides as evidenced through the early retirement the London & Capital facility.”

Separately, the Company Update reports ICM has now completed its first annual renewals cycle on its main property as part of the Group, with renewal rates ahead of management expectations at 91%. Encouragingly, the company notes new registrations within ICM year-to-date are trending ahead of the same period last year reflecting initiatives that have been put in place since ICM was acquired by MMX to drive new registrations and usage of ICM properties.

As part of the .luxe R&D project, which looks to provide a standardised naming convention for blockchain addresses, MMX announced it is now working with the lead developers of the Namecoin blockchain and XAYA platform to develop an easy-to-use naming solution that will integrate human readable .luxe addresses with bitcoin alphanumeric addresses in a fully secure and decentralised fashion that broadly mirrors their .luxe Ethereum naming solution that successfully launched in Q4 2018. As a result, it will be possible to securely associate memorable .luxe names not just to Ethereum alphanumeric addresses but also to bitcoin alphanumeric addresses, such as an individual’s bitcoin wallet, as well as potentially use .luxe names within the XAYA decentralised gaming universe. It is expected the .luxe bitcoin naming service will go live in H2 2019.

MMX also announced a couple of key appointments: Christa Taylor as the Group’s Chief Marketing Officer and Daniel Schindler, co-founder of Donuts Inc, as a Special Advisor focusing on the monetisation of the Group’s premium inventory in the North American and European markets.

Financially, year-end cash balances stood at $10.4 million. Since the year end, MMX has seen encouraging cash generation following the strong trading in the renewal season in Q4 and a favourable resolution of the .cpa and .gay contention sets. Including an initial repayment of $700k having been made in January on the London & Capital facility, cash balances as at 25 February 2019 have increased to $11.9 million. Coupled with the encouraging start to the year and a positive trading outlook, the entirety of the outstanding debt of $2.3 million under the London & Capital facility will be repaid early in March 2019, leaving the Company debt free.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry, New gTLDs

.LAW and .ABOGADO Eligibility Simplified From 2019

Eligibility for .law and .abogado new gTLDs will be simplified from 7 January 2019, the registry Minds + Machines (MMX) has announced, in a bid to boost registrations.

In an update on the nic.law website, the registry says registrants for the new generic top level domains will still need to be qualified lawyers, law firms, a court of law, a law school or a legal regulator. However the requirements for additional information are being dropped, so registrants will no longer need to provide information confirming their eligibility at the time of registration.

In their update, MMX says they reserve the right to engage an independent verification agent to carry out the verification of applicants against the Eligibility Criteria in this Eligibility Policy.

Currently .law has 11,260 registrations while .abogado has 325, according to nTLDstats. Donuts’ .lawyer, by comparison, has 12,200 registrations.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registry, New gTLDs

DNS Inventor Says .LUXE ‘First Genuine Piece Of DNS Related Innovation In Last Decade’

When new gTLDs were being discussed there were some that viewed them as an opportunity for new business ideas, and new ways of doing business. One was Adrian Kinderis, then CEO of ARI Registry Services, now Neustar. In an interview with Domain Pulse back in 2012 Kinderis spoke of the benefits to brands that could include personalising services to customers, provide security for customers by saying this is our domain and allowing the business to focus their brand marketing on one TLD globally.

However there hasn’t been a lot of thought gone into the use of the new gTLDs, particularly by brands, as most have just been launched as an alternative to existing top level domains, with brands focussing on the security aspect for their customers.

One that has thought outside the square has been Minds + Machines’ .luxe. .luxe has been promoted by MMX as being “the first top-level domain specifically launched to bring a standardised naming convention to both the World Wide Web and the fast developing blockchain universe where no standardized naming protocols currently exist.”

It’s so unique that Paul Mockapetris, inventor of the Domain Name System, said in a .luxe update from MMX that .luxe is “the first genuine piece of DNS related innovation that I have seen in the last decade”.

“The prospect of integrating DNS with distributed ledger technology/ blockchain, for example what MMX is proposing in .luxe, is the first genuine piece of DNS related innovation that I have seen in the last decade that has the possibility to be truly transformative,” said Mockapetris in the update. “I very much look forward to monitoring its progress and potentially collaborating in innovation-based projects with the Company.”

Formally launched 6 November 2018, MMX says the key aspects to the ongoing development of the project are:

  1. ensuring distribution of .luxe through the traditional registrar channel;
  2. broadening distribution through newly emerging blockchain channels; and
  3. extending the number of blockchains integrated into .luxe beyond Ethereum, its cornerstone blockchain partner at launch.

Today there are 2,700 .luxe domain names in their zone file according to nTLDstats.

“In relation to building distribution through the traditional registrar channel, .luxe is now supported by 71 registrars globally, 11 of which have already agreed to implement the API, developed exclusively for MMX, that allows .luxe names to be easily, and securely, associated to items on the Ethereum blockchain by registrar customers.”

“In relation to broadening the distribution of .luxe names into blockchain channels, the Company is pleased to report that eight new blockchain industry distribution partners, in addition to IMToken, have now joined the .luxe initiative in Asia. This follows the recent completion of a stand-alone app that allows the provisioning of .luxe names to occur within the workflows of potential distribution partners. As a result, users of a specific blockchain product or service can now purchase their .luxe name and pair it to that product or service at the point of use without having to make a separate journey to a registrar to buy their .luxe name and complete the association of the name with the underlying product or service.

“New distribution partners to join the .luxe initiative in the Asia region through MMX’s commercial partner, Bitxbank, include China’s largest blockchain media group, BeeNews, BEPAL, Hillstone Partners, Math Wallet, MTC Mesh Network, Qufen, Fbee, and ChainDD (further information on each can be found below).

“Lastly, in relation to extending the number of blockchains supporting the .luxe naming convention, the Directors are pleased to report the Company is now in discussions with two further public blockchains. The Directors expect the integration of the next two blockchains into the .luxe family of supported zones to begin in H1 2019 at which point further details will be announced.”

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry, New gTLDs

.LUXE Launches With Ethereum Blockchain Innovation And Security At Its Heart

Minds + Machines (MMX) has launched what they’re describing as the first open top level domain to combine Ethereum blockchain innovation and security with ease-of-use for today’s world, with a Sunrise period commencing today. The .luxe standard that “lets you exchange easily” smart contracts, crypto and other blockchained products.

With a .luxe domain name, there’s no more unintelligible 40 character hashes – just easy-to-remember .luxe words of your choice.

The launch of .luxe sees MMX enter into an exclusive agreement that will enable Ethereum’s Ethereum Name Service (ENS) to be integrated into the services marketed by registrars to consumers in MMX’s .luxe.

Somehow MMX has made .luxe stand for “Lets U Xchange Easily”. One has to give them marks for creativity! However for an open new gTLD, .luxe is one of the few to be creative and offer something new, something that a top level domain hasn’t offered before, that is, something other than domain names for websites, email and so on.

To understand what is unique about a .luxe domain name, it helps to have an understanding of blockchain. But they can be associated through the Ethereum blockchain with the 40 character hash identifier that currently denotes any Ethereum asset, item or service supporting Ethereum. As a result, a memorable .luxe name can act as the public identifier for an individual’s Ethereum asset instead of the complex and long 40 character hash identifier.

MMX believes the market opportunities for the .luxe service are significant: specifically in the areas of cryptographic wallets, and the emerging sectors of smart contracts and decentralised apps (DApps).

For example, in the crypto wallet market, there are already over 26 million wallets in use. Currently, for two holders of Ethereum supporting wallets to transfer Ethereum or Ethereum-based tokens between themselves, the recipient has to provide the sender their unique 40 character wallet hash (eg. 0x314159265dd8dbb310642f98f50c066173c1259b) for the sender to then re-enter the hash to effect the transfer. Under the .luxe service, the recipient will be simply able to share the blockchain enabled .luxe word that they have associated to their wallet (eg. helen.luxe instead of 0x31415926dd…….). Wallets supported by the .luxe ENS service at launch will represent those used by the majority of Ethereum users.

The same process of replacing 40 character identifiers with relevant and user friendly .luxe names can also, in principle, be applied to all Ethereum assets or services – eg. smart contracts, distributed storage, DApps etc., making the potential addressable market for easy-to-remember blockchain enabled .luxe names significantly broader than just the crypto wallet market.

MMX and the keyholders of the ENS believe the secure association of understandable words to Ethereum items or services can significantly facilitate the movement of Ethereum assets, as well as usage of services based on the Ethereum blockchain, across the Internet by end-users.

“MMX is committed to working alongside ICANN and leading technology partners to ensure domain names continue to have real relevance to entrepreneurs, developers and end-users in the twenty-first century,” said Toby Hall, CEO of MMX.

“We already know from Ethereum’s test in its non-ICANN authorised .eth zone that there is a real proven demand for word-based identifiers that are blockchain enabled, ENS having received deposits of over $28 million on approximately 300,000 seven character words and above in the .eth zone. We look forward to working with ENS to allow those .eth registrants the opportunity to claim their equivalent .luxe name before the Company launches .luxe for sale to the general public in late October. We are delighted to have developed a deep working relationship with the keyholders of ENS.”

In addition to the blockchain related functionality, .luxe will also allow names to resolve over the internet in the normal way for email or web-based traffic. Users will therefore be able to complement those .luxe addresses that they use for traditional internet activity with those that they use for their Ethereum related items or services.

“We’re very excited to be helping advance integration between existing DNS-based name services and the Ethereum Name Service, improving usability for blockchain applications and users,” said Nick Johnson, lead developer and a root key holder of ENS.

The ICANN mandated Trademark Sunrise period, where certain trademark holders can claim their respective trademarks, will begin 9 August and run to 8 October 2018. There will then be a Limited Registration Period, 9-25 October, where registrants of the circa 300,000 .eth names already registered can claim their equivalent name in .luxe. Names will then be available to the public on a first-come first-served basis from October 30. During the first seven days of public sale, there will be an Early Access period where registrants will be charged an additional fee to secure the names of their choice.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registry, New gTLDs

MMX Happy With Over 3 in 4 .VIP Chinese Renewals

Renewals of .vip domain names for Chinese registrants are exceeding 75%, the registry Minds + Machines (MMX) announced Monday. MMX launched their .购物 (.shopping) TLD General Availability last week and .law is expected to be general available in China by the end of June.

In their announcement, MMX said manual renewals for the period 1 March to 30 June, covering over 525,000 registered .vip domain names that reached their annual renewal date in China during the period, have already surpassed 75%. This figure is, the directors believe, likely to increase as the rolling 45 day “at grace” period that follows a registration’s anniversary renewal date ends. This exceeds the renewal rates for .com and .net. The most recent renewal rates for both top level domains for the fourth quarter of 2017 globally was 72.2 percent compared with 67.6 percent for the same quarter in 2016.

The renewal results place .vip in-line with the best-in-class renewal rates of leading top-level domains globally and, the directors believe, based on the data available, makes .vip the top performing mass generic TLD in China, total registrations in .vip now standing at 888,400.

“The key metrics for our lead property in China continue to be exceptional. Standard registrations in .vip, excluding bulk registrations, are up 28% year-on-year, and the usage count – based on the number of live .vip pages showing on China’s main online search engine – is up 19% year-on-year,” said Toby Hall, CEO of MMX.

“Further, we are very encouraged that the major technology groups in China are now wanting to increasingly promote the extension, most notably Alibaba and Tencent Cloud which has recently expanded its registrar operations in the region. The BAT’s, China’s major technology companies, increasingly see the provisioning of domain names as a key way to bring SME’s into their cloud based universes for the delivery of services. As was the case last year, we anticipate revenues from the region to be H2 weighted given the 2018 allocation of .vip premium inventory is only now being released, post completion of its main renewal season. The H2 weighting of Chinese revenues will be further accentuated by the timing of this year’s new property launches in China highlighted below.”

MMX has 27 new generic top level domains in their stable with 1.5 million domains under management. The largest of their new gTLDs is .vip which has 893,000 DUM globally, followed by .work (323,000), .london (86,000) and .bayern (33,000). They are the sixth largest new gTLD registry by number of new gTLDs under management and third largest by registrations, according to nTLDstats.

In their announcement, MMX said .购物 (.shopping) formally entered General Availability on 21 June and that .law is due to go on general sale in China before month-end. Both will be marketed by in-country specialists as high-value domain names. As a result, the directors do not anticipate significant registration numbers but do expect meaningful revenue contributions from each over the course of the following 12 months. MMX also expects to announce in the next 8 weeks their first innovation based project which will potentially be released in the Asia region, at the same time as in the west, in the second half of 2018.

“Continuing to build our renewal revenues is central to our business and it is extremely encouraging that .vip renewal rates continue to be market leading,” said Hall. “It provides strong cash flow and recurring revenues from which we can further scale the business with innovation and selective acquisition as exemplified with our recent acquisition of ICM Registry LLC.”

Domain Name Registry

Public Interest Registry joins the Internet Watch Foundation

Public Interest Registry has joined the Internet Watch Foundation as a Member, in a move which reinforces its commitment to protecting billions of internet users and the child victims of disturbing sexual abuse images and videos.

As the operator of .org, .ngo and .ong domain names, Public Interest Registry has over 10 million domains under management globally. By joining the IWF, Public Interest Registry is helping to further prevent the spread of child sexual abuse content.

PIR joins other registry operators such as Nominet, Afilias, Donuts (along with Rightside who they took over in 2017), ICM Registry (recently taken over by Minds + Machines), Dot London, webhost and registrar Names.co.uk as well as DNS Filter and Linx – the London Internet Exchange, who are all among the 130 members of the organisation that works internationally to make the internet safer by removing images of child sexual abuse.

Though a small organisation, Public Interest Registry, which is based in Reston, Virginia, operates popular domains that the world counts on to be platforms for the public interest. Its values have been echoed in this important move to join the IWF.

“The IWF represents the companies that are defining how the world tackles online child sexual abuse,” said Susie Hargreaves OBE, IWF CEO.

“With 137 organisations joined up as Members of the IWF, we now have more Members than ever before. These companies include some of the giants of the internet world, through to smaller filtering companies. What unites them, is their commitment to do the right thing.

“We can’t thank Public Interest Registry enough for joining us as a Member. It means that so many more domain names are now protected from child sexual abuse content. In turn, this is protecting billions of users of websites on these domains, as well as the victims themselves.”

“IWF’s global mission to eliminate online child sexual abuse imagery is among the most important work being done on the internet,” said Elizabeth Behsudi, Vice President and General Counsel at Public Interest Registry.

“Public Interest Registry is committed to making the .org domain space a safe and trusted environment for everyone. We are proud to work with the IWF and support the incredibly important services they provide.”

Domain Name Registry, New gTLDs

MMX To Acquire ICM Registry

Minds + Machines Group (MMX), registry for 27 new gTLDs with around 1.4 million registrations, has announced it is acquiring ICM Registry, the registry for gTLDs such as .xxx and .porn, which has around 100,000 registrations.

The acquisition will see MMX acquire the entire membership interests of ICM Registry LLC, a US company, for a cash payment of $10.0 million, funded from the Company’s existing cash reserves, and a total of 225,000,000 new Ordinary Shares with an equivalent value of approximately $31.0 million. The Acquisition is conditional on receiving approval from ICANN.

ICM, a Florida based company, is the owner of 4 top level domains – .xxx, porn, .adult and .sex. In its tax filings for the 12 months ended 31 December 2017, ICM reported net sales of $7.27 million and net income of $3.5 million, from approximately 100,000 registrations. In 2017, approximately 78% of revenue was renewal based and approximately 14% was generated from premium sales.

The acquisition will see MMX dealing with 2 backend registry providers – Nominet for MMX’s current new generic top level domains and Afilias for ICM’s.

“We are delighted to have entered this agreement. We expect the Acquisition to be earnings enhancing in the current year and believe it will deliver scale, strong recurring revenues and positive working capital to the Company in 2018 and future years,” said Toby Hall, CEO of MMX. “Further, it will strengthen the quality of our revenues, both accelerating MMX’s already fast-growing renewal base and improving the geographic make-up of our sales, given ICM’s revenues are primarily derived from the US and Europe. We see this transaction as a major step forward in our ambition to introduce a progressive dividend policy over the next 18 months.”

According to a news release from ICM Registry, their current CEO is leaving working in the domain name business and will work on his blockhain based Age Verification business AVSecure.com, according to Domain Investing.

“Having successfully built and sold several technology businesses throughout my career in other consolidating markets, it became clear over the last few years that ICM’s business, shareholders and employees would be best served as part of a larger group with the corresponding resources, vision, opportunities and obvious cost savings that would bring,” said Lawley in a statement.

“I strongly believe ICM’s shareholders, customers and employees will be well served by this acquisition; MMX has a very dynamic management team. We received 4 offers in total for the business, some all cash and others a mixture of cash and stock. After lengthy, detailed negotiations and due diligence with the interested parties, the arrangement with MMX was clearly the best fit.”

Lawley will be a significant shareholder in MMX, will see Lawley will become the largest shareholder in MMX with a holding just over 15% and as part of the transaction, the 5 remaining senior managers of ICM will all have meaningful stock holdings in MMX.

Separately, MMX has entered into a Facility Agreement with a vehicle associated with its substantial shareholder, managed by London and Capital Asset Management Ltd, which is beneficially interested in approximately 16.03 per cent of the current issued share capital of the Group. The $3.0 million working capital facility, for draw-down at the Company’s calling post completion of the Acquisition, is available to support future innovation and acquisition orientated activity.

Also on Friday, the day of the acquisition announcement, MMX released their financial results for 2017. For domain names, the highlights they released were:

  • Industry leading renewal rates achieved for .vip in China
  • Successful renewal seasons completed in US and Europe across portfolio
  • Domains under management grown 61% in year to 1.32million (2016: 821,000)
  • MIIT approval gained for .law, .购物(shopping), .work, and .beer for future potential release in China
  • .boston launched in US
  • Process of re-balancing regional revenue mix begun: US revenues increased 14% to 32% of total 2017 revenue (2016: 28%), Europe’s grown 7% to 15% (2016: 14%), and China’s decreased 9% to 53% (2016: 58%), management expects this trend to continue in 2018.

In 2018, MMX has appointed strategic partners in China to spearhead the development of .law and . 购物.

Domain Name Aftermarket, Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry, New gTLDs

.CLUB Launches Names.club Marketplace for Brandable Premium New gTLD Domains

.CLUB Domains launched Names.club, a new premium domain marketplace featuring brandable domain names for new gTLDs, at the recent NamesCon conference in Las Vegas. The new web and mobile Names.club replaces Get.club, the market that was launched by the .CLUB registry at NamesCon 2017.

The announcement included a number of early registry partners for Names.club including GMO (.Shop) and MMX (.Miami, .Boston, .Fit, .Yoga and more). All premium domain names offered at Names.club will be available with 60-month Easy Payments (after down payment), making high value, brandable, keyword domains more affordable for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

“We’ve had great success with our Get.club platform,” stated .CLUB CEO Colin Campbell. “We’ve demonstrated that there’s a strong demand for premium domains when they can be paid for over time. With the introduction of new top-level domains, businesses can find a meaningful keyword or exact match domain, instead of misspelling or making up words. With Names.club we’re expanding our proven platform to include a wider choice of great names for entrepreneurs looking to build a great brand, and we’re honored to already have important partners lined up, like our friends at GMO and MMX,” Campbell continued.

More than $817,000 in sales were made by Get.club in 2017, including 153 active subscriptions under the Easy Payment plan. The network of more than 80 domain brokers with accounts established at Get.club will now be able to earn commission on names sold by Names.club, including names other than .CLUB. The Easy Payment plan at Names.club minimizes the upfront expense for the buyer and maximizes their flexibility and opportunity to use a great, brandable domain. After a 20% deposit the remaining 80% is paid in 60 monthly instalments, with no interest and no long-term obligation. For example, a name priced at $1,000 would be $200 down and $13.33 per month for 60-months.

The new marketplace is live now at Names.club. To apply to become a Names.club Broker or Affiliate, please visit NamesBroker.club.