Radix targets a million .online names in 2-3 years
Having just finished the most-successful new gTLD launch day to date, Radix Registry reckons it can get .online to seven figures in two to three years.
“We’re at 37,170 names as of an hour ago,” Radix CEO Bhavin Turakhia told DI at about 1000 UTC this morning.
That represents less than a full day of general availability. The company said last night that 28,000 names were registered in the first 30 minutes.
UPDATE: At the 24-hour mark, Radix tweeted this:
What an exciting Day 1 it has been for .online! Total DUMs 24 hours into the GA is 39,449 #newgTLDs #domaining
— Radix (@RadixRegistry) August 27, 2015
That beats .club’s 25,000-ish, which was Radix’s publicly stated goal, but it also tops .berlin’s 31,000 first-day names.
The CEOs of both these rival registries had publicly predicted their positions would be toppled and actively encouraged Radix to claim the crown.
Turakhia said that the majority of names registered came from pre-orders, largely at 1&1.
“Fourteen thousand names came from 1&1, 6,000 from Go Daddy, 2,700 from United Domains, 1,900 from Name.com and 1,400 from Tucows,” he said, partially breaking down the 37,170 figure by registrar.
He said the goal is to have a .online zone measured in the millions of names.
“I estimate that we should be able to get to a million names in a period of two to three years,” he said. “That’s on a conservative basis.”
Depending on how you count domains, .xyz may have already been the first to hit one million. Its zone never got as high as a million names, but it may have briefly crossed a million in terms of domains under management earlier this year.
At auction, .online sold for what is believed to be an eight-figure sum, originally to a joint venture of Radix, Tucows and Namecheap.
Radix bought out its partners earlier this year.
That was an increase in risk exposure Radix business head Sandeep Ramchandani said made him nervous. He said launch day’s numbers show .online’s potential.
Turahkhia said that there are 680,000 names in the .com zone that end in “online” today, and a million that have “online” somewhere in the second level, showing that the string is desirable to registrants.
Radix said last night that its Early Access Period — during which names are sold for a higher price — ended with 1,130 sales.
Turahkhia said that of these, about 1,000 were registered in the last three days, during which time the price was $100. Regular .online pricing is around the same as .com ($14.99 at 1&1 and Go Daddy), but some registrars are selling for as much at $50.
Too many of their “premiums” are WAAAY overpriced; in order for a new G to gain feet and be widely adopted, the price must be reasonable, including premiums.
A yearly renewal fee of $12,000?
That just won’t fly, even for “rich” businesses with deep pockets. Businesses are even reluctant to buy an expensive .com with a normal renewal fee.
who is buying domains from 1&1??
I bet if you looked into those you’d find they are owned by a few people who regged very questionable domains.
Many agree the term is outdated, and oblivious, JZ is right there are a few domainers who think that many 3rd tier .com domains have online.com endings, that may pay them to upgrade…
1 million is not possible, the same way .club is struggling to reach their 1 million, does not look like it will ever happen at 262K, which does not even meet there 1 month goal.
In the year 2015, we still have the redundancy of saying online when we’re going to a website, online. The redundancy is amusingly dated. It’s not as silly as .xyz but still silly.
It is a little strange if the business is only online. Makes slightly more sense if it’s a bricks-and-clicks play — “Visit Walmart Online!” for example.
This is similar story as to what happened with .xyz
You have to wonder how these registrars can sell at these prices:
$9.99 http://www.1and1.com/online-domain
$9.88 http://www.namecheap.com
Who is giving them 70% off ? When the registry cost price is $25
A discount isn’t really the same as a free forced push, is it?
101domain.com is really cheap, and they have hundreds of TLDs available.