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Afilias buys three gTLDs from Starting Dot
Kevin Murphy, August 9, 2016, Domain Registries
Registry upstart StartingDot has sold its small portfolio of new gTLDs to Afilias.
.archi, .bio and .ski are the three components of the package.
While the size of the deal was not disclosed, retail prices and zone file volumes suggest the portfolio probably brings in about $2 million a year in revenue.
The biggest seller of the three is .bio, which was originally intended for farmers but its basically unrestricted and has a variety of use cases.
Given the high ticket price — around $90 a year retail — .bio has a surprisingly impressive 14,000 names under management.
.archi and .ski have fared less well, with 3,500 and 6,200 names in their respective zones. Both have premium fees — retailing at about $100 and $60 a year respectively.
Due to the high prices, Afilias gets to call these TLDs “premium”.
.archi is the only one of the three to have registration restrictions — you need to be an architect to get one.
Both .archi and .bio have been available to buy for a couple of years, while .ski’s first renewal cycle is about a month away.
All three sell predominantly through European registrars. Starting Dot is itself based in Paris and Dublin.
The deal seem to have been struck due to Afilias’ we-buy-any-TLD offer, which executives discussed with us a year ago.
Afilias said that StartingDot execs Godefroy Jordan and Stephane Van Gelder will continue to be employed for a transition period.
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