.XYZ sent out an email the other day announcing that they were taking live domain name direct registrations from their registry site at Gen.xyz for .XYZ domains
While a lot of new gTLD registries look like they take registrations from their registry site, I believe that .XYZ joins only Uniregisty as a registry, to have live domain name registrations from the registry site.
.XYZ appears to be a domain name registrar reseller, rather than have their own Registrar credentials.
I would guess they are an Enom reseller.
A .XYZ registration on Gen.xyz is $10 a domain.
.College is the next string being launched by the same company that owns .XYZ and also has a live registration site (just for Sunrise) at go.college which is offering free first year registrations to accredited colleges and universities.
I would have thought with ICANN expanding their rules to allow companies to be both a registry and a registrar we would have seen more of this blending approach already.
Typically a registry will refer a customer to one of its ICANN accredited registrars if a domain is available.
Allowing customers to register domains in one seamless transaction from the registry site, seems a natural winner as most customers still have no idea of what the difference between a registry and a registrar is, nor do I think most really care.
Directing customers anywhere they’ll face your competitors is always a bad idea.
That’s a primary argument for owning a good domain – so that customers aren’t constantly running the gauntlet of Google advertisers in order to reach a business’s website.
The same applies to registries. At any registrar, more TLDs will be on offer; and some percentage of interested visitors a registry hands over to a well stocked registrar will purchase something other than the registry’s nTLD.
So, while it’s a good idea for consumers to go to a website like GoDaddy or 101Domain or wherever they can be exposed to a wide range of options, it makes sense for registries to put blinders on their visitors and monopolize their attention in house.
If customers can complete their purchase without leaving the registry’s website, that should be fine.
Desperation at the highest level before renewals kick in.
What renewals?
Touché
XYZ with pricing domains the same or lower than .com this move will prove to land XYZ long-term success.
When someone types in XYZ in search the first one that pops up is XYZ.com. They own XYZ.com so why is their site so horrible. It looks like a 6 year old made the site. You would think that if someone is searching for an XYZ domain and you just so happen to own the first search that pops up that you would have a better site or at least use it to it’s full potential.
A registry can also be a registrar and succeed if it has varieties of domain name extensions (gTLDs).
Mike, just as a minor clarification – Uniregistry does not take registrations on the registry website.
The Uniregistry registry website is at Uniregistry.link, and it provides a menu of all registrars accredited for Uniregistry TLD’s: http://uniregistry.link/registry/accredited-registrars/
Uniregistry’s registrar affiliate operates at Uniregistry.com – which is solely a registrar website and is not the registry website.
The other day I collected my 8 year old son from school, and he went on to tell about his computer class where he accidentally typed in google .com .com (Schoolboy error) and it landed on the xyz site!
He knew what xyz was as I often wear xyz tees and we sometimes talk domains and tech etc. But I’m intrigued how they managed this?