MMX domains

.VIP gets 200,000 new domain registrations worth $1.3 million

Minds + Machines Group Limited (AIM: MMX), reported today orders for over 200,000 new registrations in its .vip top-level domain valued at US$1.3 million.

The orders comprise both standard names and premium names, including 61 premium names sold via the recently completed eName auction. The company said that the order contracts also ensure high renewal rates for the new registrations and a guaranteed minimum of $1.3 million of income payable to MMX over the life of the contracts. MMX expects that the registrations will show on industry sites tracking new gTLD registrations, such as nTLDStats (ntldstats.com), over the next ten days and will take total registrations in .vip to in excess of 800,000.

Toby Hall, CEO of MMX commented:

“The latest registrations underline the ongoing vibrancy of the Chinese domain name market and the long-term potential of .vip both in China and potentially the wider Asia region. It also bodes well for the upcoming first-year renewals season following the industry breaking first month launch of .vip last May.  Management is confident of its ability to exceed the 2017 one million registration target set for .vip.”

The Company has identified a number of factors which it believes is driving .vip’s growth in China, namely:

  • Domain investors recognising the long-term relevance of .vip web extensions for China’s burgeoning SME market as well as the region’s established corporates;
  • the first mover advantage generated for .vip in China via it gaining MIIT regulatory approval (announced December 2016);
  • the supportive entrepreneurial environment within the China’s fast growing internet industry; and
  • the strength of MMX’s in-country management team and in-country distribution partners.
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About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

6 comments

  1. Andrea Paladini

    That’s fool’s money, aka wasted money … 🙂

  2. Don’t give many details, as in how many years and $ per domain. If one year then average is about $6.50 per domain. If there are some premium sales in there, then the regular domains would be even cheaper. This just before the one year anniversary when there may be some drops. I don’t know if news like this shows that .vip has any long term viability, which was probably the intention.

  3. @ Andrea

    …right, and the Chinese market for domains is totally fake, as well, I suppose.

    It’s funny how those who bash dot-VIP, and the demand for it (…because they didn’t have the balls to acquire any), are the same ones who have no hesitation in accepting the demand for their numeric names from the Chinese market: And it’s that very same market that’s almost exclusively devouring dot-VIP names (SPECIFICALLY).

    So either you believe that the Chinese demand for domains is real…or you don’t. You can’t have it both ways.

    If the Chinese buyers of dot-VIP (who account for ~ 97% of all those purchases) is all just a lie, then there’s no reason to believe that Chinese demand for numerics and short letter dot-COMS isn’t just bullshit as well. Maybe all the reported purchases on Sedo, NameJet, and GD for these types of do-COMS is all just a lie, based on your ‘logic.’

    What all the bashing is about – including yours – is what’s known as ‘rationalization’: You didn’t have the guts to buy any, you see many/most of the other gTLDs falling apart (which, admittedly, most of them suck), and you realize that you’re missing the boat on dot-VIP.

    Reality check: The value of your (and mine) dot-COMS are NOT going to increase if dot-VIP fails, which it won’t. So waste your time in other ways.

    • Andrea Paladini

      Time will tell, good luck.

    • The difference is the quality of the registrations. The big Chinese tlds are failing with enormous drop rates, the comparable in the western world is people who invested in 3D and Dubai domains a few years ago, there isn’t any end user market. If there is no endusers the market eventually fails. Different scenario to quality numerics.

  4. What are these mysterious contracts they keep talking about? “$1.3 million over the life of the contracts”. Is this related party stuff or is there more to it?

    Also .vip retail price is $3, wholesale probably $1.50 or less so not much of the revenue would be registrations. It is yet another cheap tld driven by Chinese speculation.

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