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Afilias loses $600,000 auction for Chinese “.info”
Kevin Murphy, June 5, 2014, Domain Registries
The results of the first “auction of last resort” in the new gTLD program are in, and it’s a bit of a head-scratcher.
Afilias lost out to rival applicant Beijing Tele-info Network Technology in the ICANN-backed auction for .信息 which means “info” or “information” in Chinese.
The winning bid was $600,000, ICANN said.
That money goes into a special ICANN fund, which will be put to some kind of unspecified purpose (to be determined by the ICANN community) at a later date.
It seems like quite a low price. Given what little we know about new gTLD auctions conducted privately, over a million dollars seems to be pretty standard for a gTLD.
It also strikes me as odd that Afilias wasn’t willing to shell out over $600,000 for a gTLD that could take a localized version of its existing .info brand into the world’s largest market.
It’s the only contention set to be settled by ICANN auction so far. The next will take place July 9, and will see Minds + Machines take on Amazon for .coupon.
The third, which will see 22 strings hit the block, will take place August 6.
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