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Donuts bought .reise

Kevin Murphy, March 5, 2015, Domain Registries

Donuts has been confirmed by a German news site as the new owner of .reise, which was auctioned by its previous owner last week.
It was the first time a live gTLD had been sold at auction.
The deal, which is believed to have cost Donuts at least $400,000, means the company now owns .reise and .reisen.
Both mean “.travel”. According to my GCSE German skillz, last exercised 22 years ago, .reisen is a verb and .reise is a noun, but .reisen is also the plural of the noun .reise.
I believe this means that Donuts is the first company to own both the plural and singular forms of a new gTLD string.
Heise Online reports that former registry Dotreise was forced to sell up due to competition from Donuts.
Donuts’ .reisen has over 4,000 names in its zone file, compared to .reise’s 1,300. It’s a small market so far, but Donuts has the lion’s share.
The article notes that Donuts got a better position in ICANN’s prioritization draw in late 2012, meaning it got to market slightly earlier. Donuts also sells for a much lower price.
I doubt time to market was as much of a factor as price.
But it might be interesting to note that while Donuts’ advantage was just six days in terms of contract-signing, that lead had been extended to six weeks by the time .reise was delegated.
Donuts, which has more experience than any other company when it comes to the transition to delegation process, managed to hit general availability two weeks sooner than .reise, even though Donuts’ sunrise period was twice as long.

Live gTLD .reise sold at auction

Kevin Murphy, March 3, 2015, Domain Sales

The first auction of a live new gTLD resulted in a sale, I can reveal.
Dotreise’s .reise, which is German for “.travel”, changed hands in an auction managed by Applicant Auction last Friday.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to identify the winning bidder or the winning bid, but the winner’s identity will inevitably be revealed sooner or later.
Applicant Auction had said there was to be a $400,000 starting bid on the gTLD.
.reise has been general availability since August but has only about 1,300 names in its zone file. It retails for up to $180 a year.
If the TLD’s new owner is not Donuts, the company will find itself competing with Donuts’ much cheaper and more popular .reisen.

.reise to start at $400k in no-reserve auction

Kevin Murphy, February 11, 2015, Domain Registries

Applicant Auction has revealed the starting price of the first live new gTLD to be auctioned off.
Dotreise’s .reise will have a minimum starting bid of $400,000 when it hits the block on February 27, the company revealed.
There will be no reserve.
It seems quite possible that the registry is barely covering its costs, assuming the TLD sells. The application fee was $185,000, and no doubt the company has racked up many more expenses over the last three or four years.
The TLD, which is German for “.travel” has been in general availability since August but has fewer than 1,300 registrations, selling at up to $180 a year.
It competes with Donuts’ $25-a-year .reisen, which pretty much means the same thing.

.reise is first live new gTLD to hit the auction block

Kevin Murphy, January 7, 2015, Domain Registries

German domain registry Dotreise has become the first company to reveal that it wants to sell off a new gTLD.
Innovative Auctions is to handle an auction on February 27 at which Dotreise will attempt to unload the unwanted string, it emerged this evening.
The word “reise” is German for “travel”.
The gTLD has failed to capture much interest since it launched. As of today, it has just 1,254 domains in its zone file, about 1,000 of which were registered in its first week of general availability last August.
At launch, it had just a handful of registrars. Only four registrars sold more than 100 names in August.
It’s currently a relatively big-ticket TLD, which may account for the low sales. It retails for about $170 to $180 at United-Domains, the registrar that has shifted the most .reise names to date.
That would put revenue for .reise at under a quarter of a million dollars a year, based on its current volume, I guess.
It competes with Donuts’ .reisen, which has pretty much the same meaning but has been available a month longer and retails for under $25 a year; .reisen has a slightly bigger zone file, at 3,839 domains.
According to Innovative, the company behind Applicant Auction, which helps settle new gTLD contention sets with auctions:

The .REISE TLA will be a simultaneous ascending clock auction, similar to the format of the Applicant Auction. There will be no buyer commission for this auction, so no additional fees – you just pay the winning price if you win.

It’s a one-day auction.
Innovative had planned to auction off multiple live gTLDs in October, but was hit by delays.