Have you ever thought of getting your own new gTLD? Well, now’s your chance. XYZ Registry and Uniregistry, joint operators of the .cars, .car and .auto new gTLDs, are putting them up for auction.
It could be argued the three have failed to make an impact with a combined total just nudging the 1,000 domain name registrations mark, although in the auction news release the claim is they “have been at the forefront of innovation in automotive naming and marketing” with “hundreds of dealerships, start-ups, and large automotive technology companies [having] utilised these new domain endings, as anchor locations, marketing tools and to enhance their online presence.”
It was claimed the three automotive new generic top-level domains have generated more than $11 million in sales with a predictable revenue stream of $1.7 million per year abd an average operating margin of 95%, on a modest but growing registration base, with tremendous additional profit potential.
“After a successful 5 year partnership XYZ and UNR have decided it is time to divest our mutual interest in the .Cars .Car and .Auto namespaces,” said Daniel Negari, CEO of XYZ, in a news release. “Collectively we have put a lot of hard work into this investment and we have built a solid community of automotive customers. With strong utilisation has come strong growth, and we look forward to watching these namespaces evolve as more automotive businesses expand their web presence.”
The auction will start on 13 July and end the next day with a certain sale, since there will be no reserve price. It will be conducted independently by Innovative Auctions, the facilitator of the private auctions held after ICANN’s first new gTLD application round. Uniregistry and XYZ say they selected Innovative Auctions based on their proven track record, reputation within the domain investor community, and its known and trusted settlement abilities.
The package of assets being auctioned includes the top level domains .cars .car .auto, all related intellectual property rights, brands, social media accounts, and high-value registry reserved domains, such as electric.car and rental.car.
“Our journey with the team at .XYZ has been nothing short of remarkable. Uniregistry’s investment has now matured and I’m so proud of this trio of products, our customers and the incredible latent value of this generational naming asset,” said Frank Schilling, CEO of Uniregistry. “I look forward to watching the .Car, .Cars and .Auto extensions move from the creative hands that gave them birth to the strong guiding hands which will curate their greater success in the future. These are incredible naming assets. It is unlikely they will ever be seen openly available for sale again.”
Interested parties may contact cars@innovativeauctions.com for further information..