If two or more applicants applied for the same new gTLD unless the parties can resolve their contention between themselves the parties go to an ICANN last resort auction.
We have chatted before that we expect some of the new gTLD string auctions to go into the $xx,xxx,xxx range.
With potentially over 200 new gTLD strings going to an ICANN auction we would expect revenue to ICANN from these last resort auction to generate Hundreds of Millions of dollars to ICANN.
Yet ICANN 2014 budget includes virtually no revenue from these last resort auction which we have called ICANN out over the years for failing to include.
When it comes to revenue from String Contentions ICANN only has a little over $1 Million dollars coming in 2014 from these auctions and $1.5 in 2015 as a line item.
While ICANN always said the application fee of $185,000 would be a cost recovery fee meaning that ICANN was only charging what it estimated it would have to pay in proceeding of the new gTLD applications and program, it continues to ignore the real pot of gold at the end of the rainbow otherwise known as the last resort auctions.
Since ICANN hasn’t budgeted any revenue coming from last report auctions they haven’t budgeted any thing to spend the last resort auction revenue.
Its the hundreds of millions of dollars that ICANN will receive from the new gTLD last resort auctions that might propel the non-profit into the billion dollar cash on hand club.…
