Three more new gTLD applications were withdrawn with ICANN today and two are very interesting.
Tucows, Inc. withdrew two of its new gTLD applications one for .Media, just one week after another applicant Uniregistry dropped their application for .Media. and .Marketing just a little over a month after Uniregistry dropped their application for .Marketing.
Tucows application for .Media had prioritization number of 407 and .Marketing had a prioritization number of 793 and both had passed ICANN Initial Evaluation (IE) meaning that Tucows will only receive a 35% refund of its application fees on those two applications.
So here is where it gets interesting:
There were originally three applicants for .Media; Tucows, Uniregistry and the now the last one standing, Grand Glen, LLC an application filed by Donuts.
There were originally three applicant for .Marketing; Tucows, Uniregistry and now the last one standing, Fern Pass, LLC an application filed by Donuts.
It would appear there was some deal between Tucows, Uniregistry and Donuts however Uniregistry has gone on record to say they would not participate in any private auctions and Donuts on the record to say that would not be engaging in joint ventures with other applicants.
Mr. Schilling did tell TheDomains.com after Uniregistry withdrew its application for .Media saying:
“While Uniregistry does not believe in the legitimacy of so-called “private auctions”, we are open to exploring joint ventures, which allow us to lower costs and improve our product offering in a pro-competitive manner, for the registrants of the future. I would expect any withdrawals of our applications to follow that meme going forward.”
Since Tucows is a public company we should get an definitive answer on what happened to these two application during their next earnings call.
Tucows which originally applied for 4 new gTLD only has one new gTLD left, one for .Group.
Travelers TLD, LLC which applied for 5 new gTLD withdrew its first application, for .Northlandinsurance which would have been a very long .Brand closed TLD.
There are now 104 new gTLD’s applications that have been withdrawn.
Donuts and Tucows were competing applicants for the .MEDIA and .MARKETING TLDs. As of yesterday, that contention has been resolved privately between the two applicants, and Donuts will continue as the sole applicant and exclusive operator for both TLDs, with no joint venture or revenue sharing agreement with any party.
Donuts remains strongly committed to private auctions as the preferred method of resolving contention for its applications.
Thanks Mason for the information so the only possibility therefore is a straight buyout of the other applicants.
that last part of the comment seems like its intended to scare off the other applicants.
auction as the “preferred” method seems like it would cost a LOT of money with them applying for what 300 TLD’s.. not saying they dont have access to the money but whats the point if it aint profitable..
….get big fast 2.0?