Tag Archives: .sex

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

ICM Registry Releases Over 10,000 Premium Sex And Porn New gTLD Domains

XXX PORN ADULT SEX gTLDs logoICM Registry has released additional domains across the four gTLDs it operates – .xxx, .porn, .adult and .sex, taking the total number of premium domains released to 10,296. Prices for the domains still available range from $475,000 for tube.porn to $,1860 for a wide selection of domains across the four gTLDs.

But many of the premium domains are listed as sold on the ICM website. Not only are there premium prices attached to the domains. Registration fees also attract a premium with ICM noting they start from $149 per year.

For more information, see the Premium Domain Names section on the ICM Registry website here.

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

Get Ready For .SEX

dotSEX logoThe .sex gTLD has entered its Trademark Clearinghouse Sunrise period, which runs from 1 September to 1 October, ICM Registry has announced.

The TMCH Sunrise is for trademarks and brands who have registered their marks with the Trademark Clearinghouse.

Then on 5 October the Sunrise B/Domain Matching period will commence, running until 30 October. This is for anyone that has either participated in the .XXX Sunrise B Program in 2011 or has a registered .XXX domain name as of 1 October, 2015. Registrants eligible have a priority opportunity to register available, matching names in .SEX.

And then on 4 November anyone interested in purchasing a .SEX domain name can register one. No pre-eligibility requirements or prior registrations are necessary.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

.PORN And .ADULT Take Off As General Availability Commences

XXX PORN ADULT SEX gTLDs logoThe .PORN and .ADULT new gTLDs entered General Availability last Thursday and saw a big jump in registrations. As of 6 June there were 10,354 .porn and 7,823 .adult registrations.

“With nearly 15,000 names already registered even before General Availability opened, there is clearly a strong interest in these adult TLDs,” said Stuart Lawley, Chairman and CEO of ICM Registry. “Considering the success of our previous launch phases, we’re looking forward to .PORN and .ADULT becoming accessible to the general public.”

“The company’s new gTLD applications with ICANN had predicted 10,000 .porn domains and 3,000 .adult domains at the end of the first year of availability, he said,” reported Domain Incite.

Under special programs designed for trademark owners and .XXX owners, .PORN and .ADULT have already sold more domains than most TLDs launched under ICANN’s new TLD program. ICM Registry has sold approximately 7,000 names per new adult TLD since launching in March 2015.

The new adult TLDs themselves inspired trademark owners to register names to ensure brand consistency. Celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Liam Hemsworth, Paris Hilton and David Beckham all made sure to purchase their names in these new TLDs. These efforts resulted in both of ICM Registry’s new TLDs nearly doubling initial forecasts.

“The opening up of .PORN and .ADULT to the public brings exciting opportunities for those creative enough to capitalize on the SEO inherent in our new TLDS and to experiment with new marketing initiatives and sites,” continued Lawley.

The social and cultural acceptance of “porn” as a way to express enthusiasm for a topic means that both mainstream and adult brands can explore creative marketing initiatives in .PORN (e.g., food.porn, shoe.porn, etc.). The .ADULT TLD can also be implemented in innovative ways by multiple verticals including hospitality, alcohol, online dating, e-cigarettes, and more.

ICM Registry is also offering adult-industry keyword names in .XXX, .PORN and .ADULT as a part of its ongoing Premium Program. With “porn,” “adult,” “sex” and “xxx” searched over 300 million times per month, now is the perfect time to get .XXX, .ADULT and .PORN names that help drive traffic to these exciting domain extensions. For the adult industry, premium keywords are now on both sides of the dot in a domain name.

ICM Registry created an easy to use, free resource that provides the public, domain name holders, and brands an efficient tool to use to ascertain whether a name of interest is available in their TLDs, as well as throughout new TLDs in general. Visit ICM Registry’s Domain Check Tool to check the status of domain names across ICANN’s TLD Program.

Cybersecurity

Daily Wrap: Christians Oppose Sex (gTLDs), .RADIO Conflicts And IOC’s Amazing UDRP Success

One of the four applicants for the .RADIO gTLD, BRS Media, is claiming “ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee has a ‘direct conflict of interest’ over the gTLD,” reports Domain Incite. The issue comes about from another applicant, the European Broadcasting Union, having observer status at the GAC.

It is well known that many Christians publicly oppose anything to do with sex, and this opposition has transferred to the new gTLD arena with Domain Incite reporting “Morality In Media, one of the groups that fought the approval of .xxx for years, has launched a letter-writing campaign against the proposed .sex, .porn and .adult top-level domains.” The complaints, so far anyway, are only against gTLDs ICM Registry has applied for. But there are two .SEX applications – the second is from Internet Marketing Solutions Limited, while there is also an application for .SEXY.

The International Olympic Committee has been busy not only preparing for the London Olympics in a few weeks, but also “for domain owners, and anyone else, who uses a word or phrase that could be construed as being sponsored by the IOC or any of its affiliates,” notes Dan Duval, one of Sedo’s legal staff.

“Decisions dealing with the 2012 Olympics have shown that World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) panels are willing to broaden their interpretation of the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) beyond traditional trademark rights, especially when dealing with domains containing any word that could be associated with the Olympics,” continues Duval.

Success by the IOC included “a WIPO panel forced the transfer of mylondon2012.com to the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG). The owner registered the domain in 2005, the same day the IOC announced the location of the 2012 Summer Olympics.”

The article concludes suggesting registrants “steer clear of domains containing words or combinations of words that could result in the forced transfer of such domains to the IOC, as with a domain as seemingly harmless as mylondon2012.com.”

The Paris based registry start-up Starting Dot submitted five applications for community-based new gTLDs as part of ICANN’s new gTLD programme. The TLDs are .ARCHI, .BIO, .SKI, .DESIGN and .IMMO and will use the registry system of the German based provider KSregistry GmbH as technical framework. Starting Dot is a new registry managing a portfolio of new industry-related TLDs that was founded in Paris in October 2011.

Domain Name Registry, ICANN and Governance, Opinion

Domain name overload

Original article written by Naseem Javed :

The explosion of new names will eventually hit the fan, and the global entrepreneurial community in desperate need of making some mega online bucks will ride this flood by paying top dollar to have any desired name with an equally desired suffix to corner markets.

However, it’s a great move that favors the global consumer. This move creates a new wave of interconnected global interactions and equally allows existing powerhouse name owners with a new set of strategies and angles to expand their global outreach by marking new territory.

With this new decision, big and small players will have their own suffixes like ibm.ibm, while others would create hotels.paris or play.casino all the way to sex.sex. Never in the history of business will a single decision create so much impact as this bold new policy by ICANN. Even when domain names were originally introduced, the adaptation process matured over a decade, and now everyone engaged in e-commerce has become so financially dependent on the structure of their domain names, the impact will be massive. Without a clear blueprint or a proper evaluation of their existing dotcom potential, a business can make huge blunders as sharks enter in protected waters.

My opinion :

I agree with what is stated by Mr Javed, but i think ICANN would lay down rules for each suffix before introducing it onto the web. Most registry’s that carry ccTLD extension have rules and regulations before a person can obtain one for example Ireland, if you would like to obtain a .ie domain name you must meet the registry criteria such have a presence in Ireland and trade within Ireland. If you have no connection to Ireland you will be rejected by the registry (IEDR).

If ICANN allow the new extensions such as .hotel, .sex and .ibm into the domain market they would assign registry’s to each of the extension. Just because ICANN have approved new extensions does not mean it will be available to everyone, the threat of internet sharks could possible be none. Obviously ICANN would assign a governing body to decide who is eligible to obtain the domain name.

To read the article further : http://www.axcessnews.com/index.php/articles/show/id/16267