Category Archives: ccTLD

Outlook.com gets 32 new @Outlook email address with international domains

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As announced earlier today, over the next few days Microsoft will release an update for people who use Outlook.com. This includes a number of new features such as two-step verification, the ability to sign in with an alias and new international domains for your email address. So Outlook.com gets 32 new @Outlook email address with international domains.

Microsoft seems to be very happy by the reception to the new Outlook.com service. Microsoft claims that many people have chosen to create new @outlook.com aliases, and many people have switched over from other email services.

Microsoft got many requests from people that would like to be able to have an @outlook address that is unique to their country (e.g. @outlook.de). The list includes some domains that are favorites in their country like outlook.fr and some that are rarely used such as outlook.com.gr. (outlook.gr is parked at Sedo) So here is the list of new @outlook email domains that will be available in the next few days:

outlook.com-new-domains-email

.eu 7th anniversary report: 3.74 million registrations from over 1.84 million EU residents

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Celebrating the .eu 7th anniversary a study reveals how EU residents perceive Europe’s internet extension. With registrations topping 3.74 million just ahead of its seventh birthday, .eu has established its place as a respected domain for ambitious businesses, according to recent research commissioned by the .eu registry EURid.

“Our study shows that after seven years of operation we have a solid reputation as a quality top-level domain, suitable for large companies, but also for innovative and creative startups,” said EURid’s General Manager Marc Van Wesemael.

Today, over 1.84 million EU residents have registered at least one .eu domain name, with 25% of those having registered more than one. The research also shows that the majority of .eu users are in business, ambitious, tech-savvy and aiming for expansion, which is where the .eu TLD is important in projecting a continent-wide image.

The top 5 European Countries in number of .eu registrations are Germany, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom and Poland.

eu-domain-name-info-7th-birthday-2013Perception of .eu is reinforced by its performance on the IDNX index, which reflects the value attributed by the market to domain names and their related extensions. Since the index’s launch in 2006, .eu has consistently ranked among the big players on the domain name market. The IDNX index, created by internet entrepreneur and scientist Thies Lindenthal, is published on Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg. The index shows the evolution of the relative value of a domain name in different extensions compared with a normalised value of 100 in 2006.

“Our performance on the IDNX index and our consistently high renewal rates of above 80% lead us to believe that since launching seven years ago we have come to be considered a valuable asset to the domain name industry and the European public,” commented Marc Van Wesemael. “We are looking forward to the next years, continuing to consolidate our operations, simplify processes for .eu accredited registrars and add value to our domain name product for .eu users.”

EURid’s research sampled more than 1000 participants from throughout the European Union. More information on the IDNX index can be found at idnx.com.

Seriously: What is all the fuss with .PW?

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I have been reading lately about the rebranding of the .pw ccTLD. The extension .pw is the country code top-level domain for Palau, an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean. The question in my head all this time is: Why should I care?

I like Directi, the company who rebranding .pw as the “Professional Web”, but what is up with this? “Professional Web” means nothing. No one says let’s get on the ““Professional Web”. Also not every ccTLD is lucky enough to be .tv or .co. Most ccTLDs are meant to be used only by the people of same country. Palau has a 21,000 population and that is tough luck for the ccTLD but what can you do?

.PW is supposed to be the namespace for individuals and businesses who want a professional presence on the web. There are plenty of successful domains for that like .com and .net, a few of medium success like .biz and .co and few no one knows they still exist like .pro.

The campaign argues “Why .PW?”:

  • It’s Open – Anyone can register a .PW name
    (so are most of the gTLDs and ccTLDs)
  • It’s Available – A completely new namespace, with unlimited domain options
    (not so new, it was first delegated in 1997, and there are unlimited options for a reason)
  • It’s Affordable – Get a quality name at a reasonable price
    (the $10 wholesale price could be better)
  • It’s Secure – Best industry practices: UDRP, Trademark friendly
    (so are most of the gTLDs and ccTLDs)

Anyone that can tell me why should I care about .pw?

HEXONET temporarily disables new registrations and transfers for AdamsNames TLDS .GD, .TC and .VG

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HEXONET has temporarily disabled new registrations and domain transfers of the AdamsNames ccTLDs “.GD”, “.TC” and “.VG”.  Due to unprecedented circumstances explained below, this action is required until further notice.

HEXONET Registrar Statement:

1.    As many of our customers know, AdamsNames switched hands in August of 2012 to new owners.  With the transition, the new owners temporarily disabled .TC registrations to change pricing, as well as, introduce premium .TC domains.  Please note that prior to this change-over, AdamsNames had been running extremely smoothly without any hiccups (big thanks to one of the former owners Martin Oldfield)

2.    On Friday, March 8th, 2013, HEXONET received a notice from AdamsNames (Party A), that they had introduced enhancements to the registry with additional features.

3.    Also on Friday, March 8th, 2013, HEXONET received new login credentials from the Registry (Party A).  Though receiving new credentials was a little strange, HEXONET didn’t think much of it since many ccTLDs (country-code Top-Level-Domains) tend to operate differently than gTLDs (generic Top-Level-Domains).  As any registrar would attest, short notices like the above are very much disliked, but do happen from time to time.

4.    On the next day, Saturday, March 9th, 2013, HEXONET looked at the new registry and started migrating all our data over to a new platform (thanks to our engineering team for working on a Saturday) to quickly get our customers access to their AdamNames domains (register, renew, transfer and modify). Strangely, when starting on the new platform, HEXONET noticed that the platform was now on CoCCa.  HEXONET being very familiar with the CoCCa Platform the migration was completed swiftly and without much downtime.  Please note that at this point in time, HEXONET was only aware of one party representing themselves as the AdamsNames operator and no other.

5.    Then in the late afternoon on Sunday, March 10th, 2013, HEXONET received an email from the Legal Department of AdamsNames (now a second party, Party B), notifying us of important information relating to our access data.  The notice stated that the registry was experiencing connectivity problems due to a hostile attack and as such had created new registry accesses for its registrars (confused yet? So were we).

6.    With two parties (Party A and Party B) now claiming control of the registry, HEXONET needed to quickly identify who the authoritative registry operator was so that we could continue to process updates, renewals, new registrations, …etc on behalf of our customers.  To do this HEXONET sent an update command on one of our own domains.  Party A was able to process the update and the domain resolved shortly thereafter, which definitively showed that Party A had control over the Primary NameServers required to manage a TLD (Top-Level-Domain) at IANA (iana.org).

7.    Though there is a legal battle between the two parties for the registry today, HEXONET has always been committed to our customers first and foremost.  And for us, what matters most is that customers and registrants have legal certainty of the ownership and resolution of their domains.  Unfortunately, the legal battle and its effect on registrars has not been mentioned in the public statements.

8.    Apparently, both parties are now in a legal battle for control over the registry, which should have been handled behind closed doors and not in the public.  Hopefully an outcome will soon be determined to the satisfaction of registrants and registrars.

Due to the unique and unprecedented circumstances, HEXONET has no choice, but to temporarily disable all new registrations and domain transfers of AdamsNames TLDs until further notice.  During this period, we will attempt to process domain renewals at both parties to ensure that whoever wins their legal battle will have transactional renewal records from HEXONET.  Again, HEXONET is carefully proceeding to ensure that our customers and resellers are not affected no matter the legal outcome of the two parties.

For the record, HEXONET had no involvement or influence of these events at the AdamNames registry, other than comply and operate as a registrar should when given direction from a registry.  HEXONET does not run a registry or even want to run a registry, our goal is to only be a registrar and we strive daily to be one of the best registrars around.

Thank you very much for your understanding and support of our decision.

Nominet delays “Direct.uk”: looking for a revised proposal

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Nominet announced today, following its Board meeting yesterday, it will not proceeding with their original proposal on ‘direct.uk’ but will respond to feedback by looking at whether a revised proposal will address issues raised in the recent consultation. Nominet planned to introduce shorter domains (e.g. nominet.uk rather than nominet.co.uk) I think that the biggest problem will be the contention between different applicants for the same domain name.

Nominet received extensive feedback from a wide range of stakeholders including formal and informal responses.  They said that they “listened and carefully considered all the points made.”  All responses were available to the board, along with a report on the feedback that contained a summary of responses and analysis of the data.
It was clear from the feedback that there was not a consensus of support for the direct.uk proposals as presented, with some concerns cutting across different stakeholder groups. Although shorter domains (e.g. nominet.uk rather than nominet.org.uk) were considered desirable, many respondents felt that the release mechanism did not give enough weighting to existing registrants, and could lead to confusion if they could not obtain the corresponding domain.
The objective of raising trust/security was welcomed, but many disagreed with the proposed approach, suggesting that standards should be raised across the whole of the namespace. On individual security features, there was qualified support for options such as DNSSEC, but scepticism about whether the proposed trustmark would be effective. There was significant support for address validation, though some would like us to do more, and others would like us to do the validation process differently. There was clear support that the sale of domain names should be only through registrars who could meet a level of service and data quality.
As a result, Nominet is going to explore whether it is possible to present a revised proposal that meets the principles of increasing trust and security and maintaining the relevance of the .uk proposition in a changing landscape.
Over the coming months, this work will explore:
  • A revised phased release mechanism based largely on the prior registrations of domains in existing third levels within .uk and in which contention between different applicants for the same domain name should be reduced or eliminated.
  • Measures to improve security across the whole of the .uk namespace. This would include increased focus on encouraging the adoption of DNSSEC.
  • A firm focus on registrant verification and some form of UK presence.
  • Further investigations into the impact on the SME sector.
  • An appropriate pricing model.

The Board plans to review progress at their June meeting, where they would decide whether there is an alternative option that addresses the concerns raised in the consultation.  This would be subject to further consultation prior to any final decision being made.

Should the new shorter .uk suffix be introduced, Nominet has committed to continuing to support the existing third level domains (e.g .co.uk).
While Nominet needs more time to work on the details of the revised proposal or release mechanism, in light of the high level of interest in this issue, they wanted to let everyone know the proposed next steps as soon as possible.

.ME infographic: fastest-growing domain name in Europe

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.me is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Montenegro. The .me top level domain replaced the .yu (Yugoslavia) and .cg.yu domains previously used by Serbia and Montenegro. The .me registry is operated by doMEn, which won a contract to do so after a bid process conducted by the government of Montenegro. .ME was launched in 2008. .me was the fastest-growing ccTLD in Europe according to Centr is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting the interest of ccTLD (country code top level domain) registries.

Here are a few .me facts:

  • 53% of .Me domains are registered in the US;
  • 46% of .Me domains are registered by businesses;
  • There are still 35% of three-character .me domain names available

You can find a lot of details in the detailed infographic the .me registry has created:

.me domain names infographic

.me domain names infographic

Click here to read the related blog post.

Go Daddy starts offering .ca IDNs

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Starting January 13 Go Daddy started supporting .ca Internationalized Domain Names with French characters. This means French-Canadian individuals and businesses can now register the English and French versions of their domain name.
The .ca registration and management process is very specific, so to simplify the information, Go Daddy has broken it down into several categories listed below. Check it out:
One Registrant: The registrant of a particular .ca domain name will have the exclusive right to register all of the variants of that domain name. We call this process “bundling.” For example, only the registrant of grace.ca can register grâce.ca, and vise-versa.
Single Account: If a registrant wants to move their domains into another account with us and initiates an account change, they will be prompted to move all of their .ca variants. If they don’t accept the request to move all variants, the account change cannot be submitted.
Same Registrar and Contact Information: .ca domain names and their IDN variants must be registered in the same account, with the same registrar, and must have the same registrant contact information.
Bundle Transfers: If a registrant wants to transfer their .ca domain name, they must submit a transfer request for all other variants of that name. If they don’t submit a request for the variants within 5 days, the transfer will fail for all .ca domains.
Identical Prices: We’re keeping costs simple. All .ca domain names, IDN or not, will have the same registration and renewal fees.

Average domain prices stay stable – Mean .com price increases – “Buy Now” transactions at all time high – Sedo

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Sedo has been consistently producing a quarterly market study since the 2nd quarter of 2009. There are some stats from before but these are not complete. I took all the reports from the past 3 years and produced some interesting statistics and graphs as individual reports don’t tell the whole story.

Conclusions:

  • Domain transactions and sales volume drop at Sedo (Q3 is all time low)
  • Average domain prices stay stable
  • Average .com price stays stable (currently at $2225)
  • Mean .com price increases (currently at $642). A lot of low value .com sales brinf the mean price down.
  • .com transactions amount for about 50% of all sales
  • “Buy Now” transactions at all time high (42%)
  • Auction transactions at all time low (13%)

First of all, the domain transactions per quarter start at 8754 at Q1 2008 and rise up to  11942 in Q1 2010. Then transactions stay above 10000 per quarter for about a year and then the decline starts. Q3 2012 with 8181 domain transactions was the worst quarter ever for Sedo. (I am always taking about the reported market studies since 2008 or 2009 depending on the stats)

Again quarterly sales value has been declining since Q3 2011. The Q3 2012 15,1 million is the lowest sales value since Q2 2009. (Q4 2010 spike is because of the sex.com sale)

The average domain name price has pretty much stayed stable since Q3 2009 at about 2000 USD. But I help but notice that the Q3 2012 average of 1845 USD is the lowest average since Q2 2009. There is a small decline since Q4 2011 but I will wait on future report to draw a better conclusion.

The average gTLD domain name prices of .com, .net, .org, .biz and .info are a bit inconsistent as a single sale can influence the results. Nevertheless .com is always above the 2k USD mark and .info is just below the 1k mark.

The mean gTLD domain name prices of .com, .net, .org, .biz and .info are far more interesting.
Mean .com sales price has been rising consistently since Q2 2009 up to Q3 2012 from 410 USD to 642 in the latest report.
.net had a peak at about 600 USD but it is currently at about 500 to 550 USD.
.org has stayed above 500 USD since Q1 2010 showing the strength of the extension.
.biz is seeing a lot of fluctuations and lately it is below the 400 USD mark.
.info is consistently above the 400 USD mark (except for 1 quarter) and a few times it has been close to 500 USD.

Sedo’s sales channels percentages are also very interesting. The “Buy Now” sale percentage has been steadily increasing since Q2 2009 and has reached a maximum of 42% of the sales in Q3 2012. Offer/counteroffer sales have seen a decline from 47% to 33%. Auctions have seen a significant decline dropping from 39% to 13%. I wonder how many transactions of this 13% are auctions with only a single bid. These 1 bid auctions that have come from offer/counteroffer should be credited to the offer/counteroffer percentage as technically these are not auctions. Escrow transactions and brokerage sales have stayed stable.

Sedo increased sales commission in Q1 2011 from 10% to 15%. At that time Buy Now sales percentage was at about 25-28%. It then jumped at about 42% as Buy Now sales commission is 10%.

Other stats are showing that .com domain name sales always amount for about 50% of the total Sedo sales transactions in each quarter. .de sales have dropped a bit and are currently at 15% of total Sedo sales. .net and .co.uk are tied at about 5% each and .org follows at 4%. .info, .eu and .es are all tied at about 2% of the total sales transactions.

46% of the sales at for a value up to $500. That has been the case since Q2 2011. $501-$2500 sales are also stable at about 40%. $2501-$5000 are consistent at about 8% and sales about 5k take up 7%. These stats have mostly stayed the same since Q2 2011.