.APP which went into a ICANN Last Resort contention auction yesterday, appears to be going into a second day.
ICANN Last Resort auctions, like private auctions for new gTLD contention sets, are not held in a normal auction format that most people are familiar with.
Unlike a online domain auction or live domain auctions where bidders keep raising the bid, outbidding other bidders, within minutes of each other, what you would call a traditional paddles up in the air type of auction, Contention Auctions are “step auctions”
Step Auction are held in various rounds which last a set period of time which can be up to one hour in-between, in which the auctioneer set a amount and each applicant has to decide if they are still in the auction at that next preset level or not.
If an applicant does not agree to be in the next round and level of bidding, they are out of the auction and cannot get back in.
If an applicant go into the next round, at the next highest level as set by the auctioneer, the auction continues as long as at least one other bidder goes into the next round as well.
Many private auctions have gone into a second day and a few reportedly have even gone into a third day.
All the 10 previously new gTLD auctions have ended in the first day but none have gone higher than .Tech which sold for 6.7M.
In other words we have not had an ICANN auction that has went into the eight figures although private contention auctions have.
A step auction unlike a traditional paddle up in the air auction, has a built in practical daily limit on how many rounds there can be and and therefore how high the auction can go.
If there is more than 1 bidder still in the auction in the last step of the day then they auction rolls over to the next day as the applicants and the auction company need to get some sleep.
.APP was the most applied for extension, with 12 active applicants (there were 13 but one withdrew months ago)
What I would say based on what I know about private auctions .APP has now passed $10M in bidding.
We should get the results later today but don’t be shocked if the auction rolls into a third day especially if you think the bidding will top $25M
Here are the applicants for .APP:
APP Registry Inc (Cayman Islands)
Afilias
Amazon
Aquent.com
Donuts
DotApp Inc
Famous Four
Merchant Law Group LLP
Minds + Machines
Radix
Straat.co