UNR, the owner of some Top Level Domains (TLDs) has decided to auction off 23 TLDs to the highest bidder. There are 23 total, including some great endings such as .audio, .blackfriday, .christmas, and .help, and .link. These are not domain names, but the endings of domain names.
The full list of TLDs up for auction on April 28, 2021 is:
.audio
.blackfriday
.christmas
.click
.country
.diet
.flowers
.game
.guitars
.help
.hiphop
.hiv
.hosting
.juegos
.link
.llp
.lol
.mom
.photo
.pics
.property
.sexy
.tattoo
The domain name registrations would come with those endings–and domain names that are currently registered are included. The registered domains would still be registered, and domain won’t go down. You’re essentially bidding to own a domain name business, the entire Top Level Domain. These have domain names already registered, so you’d just continue to charge the domain name owners (you could leave the annual renewal fees in place or change the business model).
Personally, I think there are several of those TLDs that are promising, and a few of them that I believe are too risky. For example, Christmas will always be around in the future: but based on what occurred the past few Black Fridays, with retailers having sales on Thanksgiving or even days before “Black Friday”, will there be a traditional Black Friday in the future?
I took a look at the number of domain names that are currently registered for each of these TLDs, and the numbers are interesting:
.audio – 4731 domains registered
.blackfriday – 1046 domains registered
.christmas – 1634 domains registered
.click – 38961 domains registered
.country – 1069 domains registered
.diet – 1473 domains registered
.flowers – 1139 domains registered
.game – 2291 domains registered
.guitars – 823 domains registered
.help – 16811 domains registered
.hiphop – 528 domains registered
.hiv – 321 domains registered
.hosting – 3201 domains registered
.juegos – 593 domains registered
.link – 159124 domains registered
.llp – 1 domains registered
.lol – 11595 domains registered
.mom – 2852 domains registered
.photo – 18145 domains registered
.pics – 5916 domains registered
.property – 2963 domains registered
.sexy – 5973 domains registered
.tattoo – 1696 domains registered
Here are some key dates for getting registered and set up to bid on these TLDs:
April 2, 2021 – Last day to submit non-technical questions
April 16, 2021 – Deadline to complete bidder validation and sign all required documents
April 19-22, 2021 – Auction demos for eligible bidders
April 23, 2021 – Deadline to receive bidding deposits
April 28, 2021 – Auctions open
April 29, 2021 – Auctions conclude
There are services available that would completely manage the TLD for you, so it’s really a turnkey operation if you want to own your own Top Level Domain. You can be involved as much as you want in the technical side of it, or not.