I received an email from Pete Lamson, Senior VP and GM of NameMedia this morning announcing that Afternic was launching a pre-expiry domain auction service. This is good news for the domain business, as Afternic has extensive experience in the domain auction vertical, and all of the NameMedia properties have strong customer and technical support in place. It will be interesting to see which registrar(s) will be partnering with Afternic on this venture.
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NameMedia Launches Domain Auction Sales Platform
New Service Will Feature Exclusive Domain Inventory
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 19, 2007 Waltham, MA—NameMedia today announced the launch of Afternic Auctions on the company’s award-winning AfternicDLS domain sales platform. With this launch, NameMedia expands AfternicDLS’ suite of products to include exclusive pre-expiry domain auctions. These daily auctions will allow buyers to purchase domain names from among thousands of names that have not been renewed by their owners prior to expiration.
“We are pleased to further enhance our marketplace by operating exclusive, daily domain name auctions,” said Pete Lamson, senior vice president and general manager of NameMedia’s marketplace. “The Afternic Auction platform, backed by Afternic’s personalized service and flexible bidding options, gives domain buyers another source of premium domain names.”
The Afternic Auction platform, launched after extensive customer usability testing, includes the following product benefits:
– Simple search functionality and bidding interface
– 35 day “Preorder” period, followed by extended 5 day auction
– Individually prepared Domain Appraisals available for every auctioned name
– Personalized bid management system including: Bid Increase Alerts, Domain Watch Lists, Closing Soon Reminders and more
– Capability to download the inventory of upcoming auctions to facilitate analysis and bidding strategies
– Secure domain escrow process
“Customer reaction during beta testing was very positive, particularly with respect to the platform’s search technology, bidding interface and bid management summary,” said Adam Gross, product director for NameMedia’s domain marketplace. “We look forward to this launch of another new service for our customers.”
For more information, visit www.Afternic.com
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For Press Inquiries, Contact:
Libby Levinson
781-839-2809
For Business Development Inquiries, Contact:
Tom Murphy
Vice President, Business Development
781-839-2871
About NameMedia
NameMedia operates a leading targeted online media business and a leading online marketplace for domain names. Further information is available at www.namemedia.com.
Snapnames has been offering pre-expired domains for the last month or so. I saw one listed “Available June 2008” (can’t remember the domain, though), so I looked it up, and it wasn’t expired yet and still registered to the original owner. Maybe the original owners will get smart and begin renewing their valuable properties.
In my opinion, this is bad news for the beginning domainer; more than that, it’s a terrible conflict of interest and ethical breach for any partner registrar. The only way that this practice would be acceptable is if the registrar is working with the original domain owner, but we all know that this isn’t probably the case.