50 of London’s most-wanted premium internet domain names are to be auctioned off to give Londoners a unique chance to own sought after premium domains and raise up to £50,000 for charities across the capital.
Dot London, the city’s Top-Level domain name, will be giving businesses and individuals the chance to own some prime online London real estate by bidding for premium domain names in an online auction of 50 of their top domain names, which have never been released to the public before, from 13 – 30 July.
Dot London has teamed up with the Evening Standard and The Dispossessed Fund and will be donating a proportion of the auction’s proceeds to the fund. The money raised will be distributed to grassroots charities supported by the fund, helping to tackle poverty, inequality and exclusion across the capital.
The 50 premium domain names up for grabs during the auction will include key generic names such as – ‘cars.london’, ‘spa.london’, ‘gallery.london’, ‘flats.london’ and ‘cycle.london’.
Interest for London’s Top-Level domain names, as an alternative to ‘.co.uk’ or ‘.com’, has been strong, with over 64,000 Dot London domain names registered since its launch in April 2014. Over 3,000 of those registered names are premium, varying from personal names, to generic words, and to place names.
A number of companies have opted to register generic keywords as their Dot London premium domain names, creating a stronger synergy with search terms and links for prospective customers looking online for suppliers and contractors. A company that is currently supporting their brand identity with a matching Dot London premium name is Dine Time Ltd, who is using ‘Brunch.London’ for their new brunch booking website that they launched in March 2015.
Keith Newton, Managing Director of Dine Time Ltd, said: “London has the largest brunch market in the country and the new Dot London domain was the obvious choice to launch a website focused solely on the capital. As ‘Brunch.London’ is a new site, we weren’t sure how Dot London domains would be treated by search engines, but our placement has been steadily improving and we now appear in the top five position on Google for relevant keywords.”
Other current live premium names include ‘Catering.London’, which is being used by catering and events experts, The London Catering Company; The Shire London, the only golf course in the UK to have been designed by the late Seve Ballesteros, have registered ‘Golf.London’; and Advising London, formerly the Blackfriars Advice Centre, have been able to support their rebranding strategy by adopting ‘Advising.London’.
Leading exterior building cleaning and restoration company, Thomann-Hanry, have also taken the opportunity to register a premium Dot London name that’s relevant to their line of work. Mark Styles, Managing Director at Thomann-Hanry, commented: “We registered ‘Cleaning.London’ as soon as the new domain names were made available. We’re cleaning the face of some of London’s most iconic buildings so our new memorable and short domain name seems really fitting to what we do in the capital.”
Alex Kinchin-Smith, Director of Dot London, said: “Our premium name auction gives companies and individuals the chance to own some of our most valuable domain names, allowing them to have a name that relates closer to their line of work, potentially help improve their search engine placement, create unique marketing and branding opportunities, and further strengthen their links with the city.
“It’s a real honour to be partnering with The Dispossessed Fund for the auction. The fund has awarded grants to help a number of small London charities, thereby changing lives and giving hundreds of people across the city the chance to improve their future, for the better.”
Since its launch, the Dot London suffix has proved to be popular with some of London’s leading icons, including the Wimbledon Championships; visitor attractions, ZSL London Zoo and Museum of London; the newest edition to the city’s skyline, Sky Garden; and a number of co-working spaces that are helping to build London’s reputation as Europe’s leading tech hub.
The auction will be held online by independent provider, Pool.com. It will take the form of a public and open auction, starting at 12pm (BST) on Monday 13 July and closes at 12pm (BST) on Thursday 30 July. For more information and to register, visit: https://domainauctions.london.
Here is the complete list of the 50 .london domain names:
Domain Name | Current Bid | Close Date |
history.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:00 |
amaze.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:02 |
hospitality.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:02 |
perfume.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:02 |
am.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:03 |
care.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:03 |
be.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:08 |
massage.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:08 |
smallbusiness.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:08 |
wifi.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:08 |
now.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:10 |
omg.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:13 |
schedule.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:13 |
trading.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:13 |
kiss.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:15 |
top5.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:15 |
go.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:16 |
cinema.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:18 |
course.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:18 |
rooms.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:19 |
community.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:20 |
app.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:21 |
casinos.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:21 |
up.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:21 |
club.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:23 |
one.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:24 |
accounts.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:26 |
blog.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:26 |
spa.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:26 |
hot.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:29 |
food.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:31 |
cars.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:32 |
people.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:33 |
free.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:37 |
flats.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:39 |
gallery.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:39 |
dentist.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:44 |
opera.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:44 |
toy.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:44 |
west.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:44 |
shoes.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:45 |
coffee.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:50 |
consulting.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:50 |
discounts.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:50 |
spin.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:50 |
courier.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:52 |
jazz.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:54 |
secret.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:57 |
trust.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:57 |
cycle.london | 100.00 GBP | 30 Jul 2015 – 11:58 |