Reading all the stories on the registries that were upset they lost out on getting a piece of that $135 million .web pie, got me to thinking. What if domain investors could participate in this ridiculous business model. Feign interest to gain riches.
Hey ICANN, registrars really never had a right to auction off domains they had no ownership of, so let’s have domain auction proceeds split between all the losers of the auction, the marketplace can keep 10% and then everyone else can go nuts bidding Frank Schilling and Mike Berkens to the moon, knowing they will share in the proceeds.
Of course I am kidding but it’s fun to dream
Right on Raymond. These new g registries are truly a hoot.
It’s a valid auction model, but it does incentivize some strange behavior.
I would say it’s valid when everyone has a legitimate means and interest. Some of these auctions I do not believe that was the case.
Often it’s a game of chicken. How high can I bid and still lose, in order to get my opponent’s money?
Actually winning the auction might be a disappointment / disaster. Some of those companies would HATE to be stuck running the TLD they’re bidding for.
I’d be happy to sit down next to a bidder, watch his expression, and bid him up and up and up – provided I get the money. God forbid I actually win the item, though!
Here’s why I say this auction mechanism is valid. Registry applicants at ICANN have all paid 6 figures minimum just for the privilege of bidding. So dividing the auction proceeds amongst the losers can be seen as a form of reimbursement.
The downside, obviously, is disingenuous bidding, designed to force an opponent to overpay AND to take their money for oneself.
Your opening line is perfect. It’s a game of chicken, and while I agree with you it can be legitimate.
You should not be reimbursed if you only entered to play a game of chicken.
There were people talking about this as a business model before the first auction.
“Let me get in there and bid Google up”
That’s why some would not agree to those kind of auctions.
@Joseph would you like my scenario in domain auctions ? That would be fun, you and I could bid up Taryn and HipHop (Schilling,Berkens) then split the proceeds, throw NameJet 10%.
Oh, I don’t disagree with you at all about how absurd this kind of auction can be.
Would it be fun to play chicken with Frank Schilling or Michael Berkens? It might be. Absurd, dysfunctional, but maybe fun.
Someone was arguing with me last week that Verisign was being “malicious” for wanting to avoid this scenario in the .WEB auction – for wanting NOT to be bid up by disingenuous bidders who’d take its money to market their own competing products. I said that ANY sane bidder who really intends and expects to win would want to sidestep that circus. But Donuts and Afilias and the person I was talking to over at TheDomains see things very differently.
Yeah I read that, you were spot on. I mean people who solely wanted to stand up for the auction proceeds being distributed, knowing the bidder didn’t want to win, either works for a registry or they are trolling.