snoopy
Top Contributor
Was surprised to see a big change in registration numbers at Nominet for the new extension, (August and September)

After a bit of digging I found out that Nominet is now giving away the new extension to try and build usage, like many new tlds are doing. They have also kept extending this promotion for several months. Seems to mainly apply to existing .co.uk holders.
Australian registrars may care to look into the future here in terms of what it means for the reputation of the extension and the profitability of the namespace.
Worth noting this promotion looks to have totally tanked registrations of of "paid for" domains in the last few months. See "third level" in the last few months, that is paid for .co.uk registrations mainly. Down 70%.
https://www.acorndomains.co.uk/threads/right-of-registration-promotion.147235/
In my view the failure of .UK is a huge embarrassment for Nominet and they will do anything to "pad the numbers", even to the point of wrecking supply side profitability.
Given the way AUDA reacted to the failure of .id.au and .net.au in the past I believe AUDA will be doing similar stuff when .AU fails. How to "fix" a poorly performing .AU will occupy AUDA for years. These regulators will prefer to keep their own jobs than keeping registrars happy.

After a bit of digging I found out that Nominet is now giving away the new extension to try and build usage, like many new tlds are doing. They have also kept extending this promotion for several months. Seems to mainly apply to existing .co.uk holders.
Australian registrars may care to look into the future here in terms of what it means for the reputation of the extension and the profitability of the namespace.
Worth noting this promotion looks to have totally tanked registrations of of "paid for" domains in the last few months. See "third level" in the last few months, that is paid for .co.uk registrations mainly. Down 70%.
https://www.acorndomains.co.uk/threads/right-of-registration-promotion.147235/
In my view the failure of .UK is a huge embarrassment for Nominet and they will do anything to "pad the numbers", even to the point of wrecking supply side profitability.
Given the way AUDA reacted to the failure of .id.au and .net.au in the past I believe AUDA will be doing similar stuff when .AU fails. How to "fix" a poorly performing .AU will occupy AUDA for years. These regulators will prefer to keep their own jobs than keeping registrars happy.
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