Many doubted that .au would take off, but here we are .au numbers are as of today 252,515 and .net.au numbers are 218,705. The actual date that .au started to beat .net.au was 15 August 2022… far exceeding our forecast and predictions.
Current registration numbers of .au are now averaging over 3,500 new domains added daily. We also know that there are likely to be a further 100,000 (estimate) .au domains registered in the next 4 weeks before the 20 Sep cut off point, making the total over 350,000 .au domains. The big unknown is what will happen on 4 October when the all Priority Hold domains are released to the general public. Close to 2,750,000 (yes million) .au domains will be released to the general public. Based on our expectations I would anticipate over 100,000 more .au names will be requested to be caught by Drop.
That would make direct .au over 450,000 in Oct 2022 and more than likely over 500,000 by end of the year.
For a list of the top names to go for, please contact the Drop.com.au team and request access/details for this one time special Drop event.
Many did doubt, it’d take off, many red herrings were thrown. But as a registrar talking to end users every day it was obvious there was demand in the market.
For all the hand wringing – the sky didn’t fall in, mass confusion and anarchy didn’t ensue and ultimately the launch has been positive for registrants, the industry and in time the after market.
Even though I’m no longer associated with the industry in any way other than being a registrant – the personal vilification I received has been completely worth it.
Hi Brett,
You were spot on with the demand needs!
The only thing I would have changed is the way the allocation process was launched. The format selected created unnecessary confusion and created a lot of extra work for Registrars for a single event. Lots of code and infrastructure for a one time use event. Code that will never get used ever again as no one else will release it like this. We already had the code for .uk and others, but .au was unique and complex.
We would have much preferred for .au domains to have been allocated to the .com.au holders 1st and then .net.au and have no allocation rights beyond that.
I don’t disagree the allocation process is over-engineered. The issue is people got themselves onto the allocation panel for the sole reason of trying to complicate the process so much as to make it unworkable and then for .au to be shelved.
Navigating through that was a complete nightmare, and concession after concession was made to have a process as opposed it not going ahead, and here we are.
I remember discussing this with you at the time, and you pointed out that *.au does not have a hierarchy in the name space and that this was the reason why auDA and the allocation panel were instructed to adhere to that point where working out the process.
I tried to disagree at the time at as there was and always will be a hierarchy all you need to do is look at the registration numbers to determine their order of use and importance. I had hoped that this was used instead of the no hierarchy
Anyway in less than 4 weeks the allocation process with be done for most, leaving a few contested names locked. Hopefully we do not end up like NZ where after 8 years there as still locked names not allocated. I hope auDA do something different and force the allocations to be resolved as a Registrar we do not want to be supporting a whole code base and processes for a handful of domain names for that long.
The no-hierachy principle is part of the policy of au domains. That policy would have had to been materially changed first.
https://www.auda.org.au/policy/2012-04-domain-name-eligibility-and-allocation-policy-rules-open-2lds
My view of the simplest allocation model would have been for all contested names just to have a best and final offer (BAFO) blind auction bid. If there was only one bid you just get the domain at normal registration cost. Where there are multiple bids highest bid gets the domain. Fees go to auda and they reduce general registration fees for all registrations so it’s a net/net and there’s no windfall.
As you say though 4 weeks we’ll know how many domains end up being tied up. I’ll guess it’ll be under 10,000. Maybe on those residual names give them 6 months to negotiate anything stalemate post that you just go the BAFO route.
Final numbers for end of August
.com.au 3,106,749
.au 278,716
.net.au 219,080
.org.au 74,759
.id.au 13,162
.asn.au 3,140
But will domain.au become more valuable than domain.com.au? And if so, how long will that take?
Hi Stuart,
That is a good question, will it ever?
The way I see it, overall the only way it will get more valuable is when there are more .au than .com.au registrations. So until that time .com.au will be considered as #1 and will achieve the better values.
Though I firmly believe that a few specific .au will be even more valuable than the .com.au instantly due to the name and length and potential sound… so I would not be surprised to see some decent sale values happen very soon.
Pingback:Did someone say 300,000 direct registrations? – Domainer