GMO Registry paid $41.5 million for.shop in January.
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The firm beat off competition from the likes of Google and web registry firms Afilias, Radix and Donuts, so it clearly means business.
The process of selling the potentially lucrative suffix began in 2012 but has taken until now to resolve because many different companies applied to run it.
Icann, which oversees the net’s address system, dismissed the allegation saying it was satisfied with Nu Dot Co’s application and there was no need for the sale to be delayed.
Donuts and Radix tried to stop the auction from happening because they suspected an ownership change in the NU Dot Co LLC applicant but ICANN and a U.S. court were not convinced. A judge in California denied the application. NU DOT CO LLC (that is suspected to be backed by Verisign) prevailed in the auction for the price of $135 million to operate the.WEB gTLD, and Vistaprint Ltd prevailed with a price of $1 for the.WEBS gTLD.
ICANN has now sold the rights to more than 16 top-level domains, including.app and.hotel, raising about $230m. “The massive price tag has raised eyebrows in the domain name industry, not least because one of the companies taking part in the bidding last week sued the non-profit running it, ICANN, in an effort to prevent the auction from going ahead”.
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The huge $135m fee for the domain is far in excess of previous prices at auctions.
