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ICANN to auction off first failed new gTLD
ICANN is planning to auction off .wed, the first new gTLD from the 2012 application round to fail.
The TLD has been running on Nominet’s Emergency Back-End Registry Operator platform since late 2017, when former registry Atgron suffered a critical failure — apparently planned — of its registry services.
After some lawyering, Atgron finally lost its registry contract last October.
Now, ICANN has confirmed that .wed will be the subject of an open Request For Proposals, to find a successor registry operator.
It’s the first time it’s had to roll out its Registry Transition Process mechanism. All previous gTLD terminations were single-registrant dot-brands that were simply quietly removed from the DNS root.
The RFP will basically amount to an auction. Registries will have to pass the usual technical and financial background checks, but ultimately the winner will be selected based on how much they’re willing to pay.
In ICANNese: “The RFP process will identify the highest economic proposal and utilize it as the deciding factor to proceed to evaluation.”
But the money will not stuff ICANN’s overflowing coffers. After it’s covered the costs of running the RFP, any remaining cash will go to Atgron. There’s a non-zero chance the company could make more money by failing than it ever did selling domain names.
It currently has 39 domains under management, the same 39 it’s had since Nominet took over as EBERO, and the successor registry will be expected to grandfather these names. Only 32 of the names appear to be genuine end-user registrations.
Atgron’s business model, which was almost antithetical to the entire business model for domain names, is to blame for its failure.
The company tried to sell domains to marrying couples for $50 a year, on the understanding that the renewal fee after the first two years would be $30,000.
Atgron wanted to actively discourage renewals, in order to free up space for other couples with the same names.
Unsurprisingly, registrars didn’t dig that business model, and only one signed up.
Fortunately, whichever registry takes over from Atgron will be under no obligation to also take over its business model.
ICANN said it expects to publish its RFP “in the coming months” and pick a winner before the end of the year.
The .wed successor registry should have a discount to apply to .mon, .tue, .thu, .fri, .sat and .sun.