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Which made more money — .website, .press or .host?

Kevin Murphy, September 19, 2014, 12:28:16 (UTC), Domain Registries

Radix Registry launched its first three new gTLDs yesterday, and the first day’s numbers make an interesting case study in how difficult it can be to judge the health of a TLD.
Based on zone file numbers, .website was the clear winner. It had 6,340 names in its zone at the end of the day, compared to .host’s 778 and .press’s 801.
There’s clearly more demand for .website names right now.
But which made the most money? That’s actually a lot harder to figure out.
To make those calculations accurately, you’d need to know a) Radix’s base registry fee, b) the promotional discounts it applied for the launch c) which premium names sold and d) for how much.
None of that information is publicly available.
If we were to use Go Daddy’s base retail pricing as a proxy guide, .host was hypothetically the biggest money-spinner yesterday. At $129.99 a year, it would have made $101,132.
Because .website only costs $14.99 at Go Daddy, it would have only made $95,037, even though it sold thousands more names.
But Radix offered registrars what appears to be steep discounts for the launch. Go Daddy marked down its .host names from $129.99 to $49.99. That would make revenue of $38,892, less than half of .website.
With the discounts in mind, .host didn’t have as good a day from a cash-flow perspective as .website, but it arguably looks healthier from a long-term revenue perspective.
That’s all based on the snapshot of today’s zone files and an obviously incorrect assumption that Go Daddy sold all the names, of course.
Complicating matters further are the premium names.
Radix has priced a lot of its names with premium renewal fees and Radix business head Sandeep Ramchandani said that the company sold five five-figure premium names across all three gTLDs.
Given the relatively small amount of money we’re talking about, those five sales would have significantly impacted the three new gTLD’s relative revenue.

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Comments (2)

  1. anony says:
    September 20, 2014 at 8:49 am

    I posted a commented on another website DomainNameWire.com and it was not accepted.
    Radix Registry is based in India and the management skills are not ‘military’ as they are in the West, thus you saw the 24hours delay and problems registrants faced. Radix Registry is also in a company group and the group also has registrar business, example, Bigrock, the style feels GoDaddy and CrazyDomains. I also have computer browser and laptop crashes visiting Bigrock. Side note: I am in England went to 2 job interviews in May and June 2014 where the employers were Indian, one did not give any answer and the other kept giving excuses and therefore in the convention things are gray and not clear cut. Disclosure: I have Indian origins. Directi is the holding company. They have a business PublicDomainRegistry.com though it is not a registry, it is a registrar, therefore you see the confusion and ethical issues. A few registrars including these guys have bought out other registrars and they have ruined the sold out registar websites, talk about junk websites. Then their reseller business has similar cut and paste design and you see it at other resellers, junk websites coming out the ears and noses.

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