Landrush phase for .uk short domains now open

[foz]

Auctions will begin from the 20th of July. NFPA will contact you to confirm the exact date of the auction.

http://www.nominet.org.uk/go/reservedprocess

I suspect they will bill be staggered.

 

[chrisduggan]

Yes I imagine they will be. Those who have applied for all of them will have fun tracking thousands of links.

 

[dotNetFreak]

That's how I see it, so you will have the potential to sit all day between 10am-5pm.

Oh what fun...

Looks like they won't allow proxy bidding

That was my take on it as well. It looks like if the high bid was £20 and someone else bid £500 and there were no further bids in the next 30 minutes the winner would pay £500.

 

[anthony]

Just spotted the first TV commercial (not brilliant, looks like a late 90s production) using a 2 letter domain from the landrush, MG.CO.UK , let's hope the car lives up to the iconic brand. You can see the ad at the web site.

 

[TinkyWinky]

I can see a few that will need to have more than one computer on the go to handle the 555 auctions they are in for even if they only run a few select ones each day!!

So no proxy - is that what I read... oh lordy that is a right pain in the butt.

Anyone got any thoughts on winning bids, I originally thought around the £650 mark upwards, but now I am thinking probably a minimum of £1000 for every domain.

 

[chrisduggan]

How long is a piece of string. The investment banks and media companies who have applied for 95% of .co.uk will have no problem pushing up the bidding low to mid x,xxx the bigger ones like CV.co.uk (10+ applications) could go higher.

Most of the me.uk have also gone, as they are personal initials mainly i assume bidding will be slightly less. I understand Nominet are rejecting a lot of me applications from companies.

Pointless speculating, I am under no illusions of getting any.

I had an interesting conversation with Nominet regarding TM issues so it will be interesting to see what happens over the next few months.

Wish everyone the best of luck. Start saving.

 

[cc976a]

The .me.uk's booked too!!?!

You generally can 't give these away for love nor money, yet a sniffer of a two letter (peoples initials or not) comes along and they all get snapped up.

Go figure

 

[octopus]

Noticed that a couple of individuals and International New Media Limited are interested in most of the names available.

Good luck if you're competing against these folks, I'm guessing they're serious investors.

 

[stevebrowne]

As in the owners of childcare [co][uk] ? "iowned and operated by International New Media Limited, a private UK company"

Registrant type:
UK Individual

Registrant's address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their
address omitted from the WHOIS service.

Surely Nominet should vet the applicants to make sure they actually follow the rules of the registry?

 

[Alien]

Damn shame that big investors weren't restricted to making ten applications maximum or similar......here we go again, those with super big pockets greedily get everything?!

 

[Edwin]

Damn shame that big investors weren't restricted to making ten applications maximum or similar......here we go again, those with super big pockets greedily get everything?!

Welcome to the "real world". It's a funny old place, where the people with the most money get to buy the most stuff. Perhaps you've heard of it...

 

[anthony]

Or a rare one-off opportunity to see a unique event take place.

I agree with Edwin though, money does, and should, talk. On this occasion, it'll be domainer money of course, as no other rich fuckers will be aware that the lid was taken off the jar.

 

[chrisduggan]

Auction bidding is one thing, expectations on re sale value will be quite another.

 

[monaghan]

On this occasion, it'll be domainer money of course, as no other rich fuckers will be aware that the lid was taken off the jar.

I've processed more non-domainer applications than from domainers, so the message is getting out to some of the other communities.

 

[anthony]

I've processed more non-domainer applications than from domainers, so the message is getting out to some of the other communities.

That's a different point, but i'm not surprised by your percentages, given that your site is one of the few straight forward ones listed which actually does the job. I'd wager though that this wont be reflected as the landrush completes, yours probably isn't typical. As Aristotle said, "One swallow does not make a summer".

So what are your order totals and percentages, that would be nice to know?

 

[monaghan]

Obviously, I'm not going to give facts & figures, but it is presently over 60% new customers (mostly coming via the registrar list on the Nominet page). Most of these are companies, but there's a few personal ones as well.

Most of the "new" customers seem to have come my way as their current registrar is not offering the facility, so the message is getting out to some clued up end users and they are going on the hunt to find someone to do the registration for them.

My personal take is that you'll not get many "ordinary" people willing to take a punt as there's so little understanding of the benefit of domains out there, just look at the number of @hotmail.com addresses on the back of white vans and facebook pages being used. I'm a geek and had my main domain pre-Nominet, yet I'm still having trouble getting the message across to friends & family, people seem happy with their hotmail & ISP emails and facebook messaging

 

[octopus]

Damn shame that big investors weren't restricted to making ten applications maximum or similar......here we go again, those with super big pockets greedily get everything?!

I've edited my previous post as I shouldn't have named the particular person applying for every name. Maybe a restriction would have benefitted everyone, maybe not. It can't be argued that there are though some serious investors looking at this.

I'm a geek and had my main domain pre-Nominet, yet I'm still having trouble getting the message across to friends & family, people seem happy with their hotmail & ISP emails and facebook messaging

You're absolutely correct.

However, if you look around, most people are using the 'app internet', on mobile phones. Domains do not matter unless you're a developer or commercial entity, and even then you don't need a good domain name to submit some software to an app store.

I don't think domains are as important with mobile as they are on the desktop. This is a worry for domainers, it might explain why more of them are now selling.

 

[Retired_member41]

I've edited my previous post as I shouldn't have named the particular person applying for every name.

Seeing as no one person has applied for every name as yet, no lol

I can see that changing in the next few days though.

As for the big pockets, then yes a limit would have been great, but I hope one of the people who have bid on lots gets them, they have bought enough names on here with their big pockets, so good luck to them.

Surprised just how many co.uk ones only have 1 bid so far though.

 

[sorlag]

Surprised just how many co.uk ones only have 1 bid so far though.

Our friend from New Zealand has just put paid to that.

 

[Blossom]

However, if you look around, most people are using the 'app internet', on mobile phones. Domains do not matter unless you're a developer or commercial entity, and even then you don't need a good domain name to submit some software to an app store.

I don't think domains are as important with mobile as they are on the desktop. This is a worry for domainers, it might explain why more of them are now selling.

Is that a serious post? Beyond Facebook and mobile games, what apps are there that are successfully fully replacing websites?

Mozilla, Microsoft, Google and Apple should be quaking in their boots then, considering Opera Mini is the most widely used mobile browser.