According to ICANN’s site both Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) have withdrawn their application for the new gTLD .Live, leaving .Donuts as the winner of the .Live new gTLD.
Earlier today we reported that three other public company’s Google, Amazon and Symantec Corporation, (NASDAQ: SYMC) all lost the new gTLD auction for .Cloud.
The Donuts application was placed under the company Half Woods, LLC
So far Google has won 4 new gTLD in contention: .Dev over Amazon; .Docs over Microsoft, .Drive over Amazon and .Play over Amazon, Famous Four Media and Radix.
This marks the 12 new gTLD application that Google has withdrawn.
I think this actually constitutes a problem for tld adoption. If Microsoft and Google are backing out then they are also backing our their marketing dollars and efforts in educating the public on the new tlds. Somebody ought to let them win a few.
I believe that the auction prices went higher than really expected. That’s 5 million USD on top of the costs already committed !
I agree with jp above. The gtld’s took a big hit after an outcome like this. Same thing happened when .amazon was pulled after Brazil’s absurd complaint.
Yet another reason in a Rapidly growing list as to why the gtld’s are not going to survive. Bad planning, bad execution and bad follow through. Stick w .com only. That’ll be the only ship to navigate the gtld storm. The others will all sink.