Google launched the new gTLD .App into the Early Access Program (EAP) this week and the results I believe are unlike any previous major new gTLD launch.
.App went into day 1 of the Early Access Program (EAP) on Tuesday allowing early registration of domains for a one time extra fee. Fees as always vary by registrar but day 1 pricing was around $12,000 for the EAP fee plus the cost of the domain. On Day 1 of EAP there were 92 registrations the EAP fee was around $12K retailOn Day 2 of EAP there were 266 registrations. The EAP fee was over $3,000 retail
On Day 3 of EAP Google got over 700 domain registrations where the EAP was around $1,100 retain.
On Day 4 of EAP there were over 1,300 domain registrations at around $650 retail
On Day 5 of EAP there were just over 500 domain registrations at around $150 retail.
In all cases for premium domains the registration fee was in addition to the EAP fee.
It’s highly unusual if not unprecedented for the number of domain registrations in EAP 5 to be less, well less than EAP and EAP 4
There were 2,000 registrations on day 3 and 4 of EAP and only 500 on day 5.
Like I said highly unusual if not unprecedented.
Google’s launch of .APP varied greatly from all previous new gTLD launches in my opinion in 2 ways:
1. Google reserved very few domains. Outside of domains Google wanted for its own brands and products almost every domain that was not taken in Sunrise by Trademark holders were available in EAP. All single letter/number domains; double letter/number domains, all super premium domains like Travel.app; Weather.App, Music.App; were all available.
2. Premium pricing was not crazy. The registration/renewal prices for those single letter/number domains; those super premium domain were priced around $2K per year. Personally I didn’t see any domains priced over that amount. I Didn’t see 5 figure or 6 figure registration and renewal fee domains.
Between the pricing of premium and super premium domains, and making almost all domains available, led a lot of people to step up early and pay the higher EAP fees in days 1-4.
General Availability where domain names can be registered on a 1st come 1st served basis begins on May 8th 2018.
On Day 2 of EAP there were 266 registrations. The EAP fee was over $3,000 retail
On Day 3 of EAP Google got over 700 domain registrations where the EAP was around $1,100 retain.
