.London which launched last week has just over 39,00 domain name registration in the zone file as of today, which many regard to be less than impressive.
The population of London’s metropolitan area is the largest in the EU with a total of 13,614,409.
So out of over 13 Million residents not counting all the businesses and organization in the area, 39,o00 registrations isn’t that terrific in my opinion.
Minds + Machines is operating the registry with active cooperation from the city.
We got a hold of the .London premium domain list.
The premium domain list for .London totals over 66,200 domain names, and here is the list:
Premium .London List(excel)
So with over 66,200 domain names, the number of Premium Domains outnumbers the amount of registered domain names.
There may also be and most lightly is a reserved list in addition to the premium list containing possibly thousands of more domains.
Not a good sign.
When the a registry has a premium priced list of domains that outnumbers the registered domains by a factor of almost double that spells trouble.
Premium .London domains are being sold like Donuts strings and all other Minds + Machines strings, at premium registration and annual renewal prices.
The price of a normal non-premium .London domain registration on Godaddy is $41.99.
The lowest premium priced domain I found was Mp3.London which is at $92, not bad until you see that the domain CdPlayer.London is priced at $499.99 a year.
Hum.
Do they even sell Cdplayers anymore?
Why would an old technology product be priced more than 5x as the cost of a shorter domain with current technology?
When customers see prices that have no relation to the other, it puts into question all the premium prices.
On the other hand a domain like d0r.london (the letter d the number 0 and the letter r) is priced $104.99 a year or 2 1/2 times the cost of a normal registration as is all sorts of three character combos of letters and numbers.
Basically every three character .London domain seems to be on the premium list including one’s with numbers and letters mixed.
So lets just say this;
00j.london (the number zero repeated with the letter j) F8G.London, and thousands of others like them are not premium domain names.
You would be lucky to get anyone to register those domain for the normal registration fee much less than 2 1/2 times the cost.
Lets look at some other premium domains:
fenwaypark.london is premium priced at $209.99 per year. Of course Fenway Park is located in Boston not London, so while the domain its definitely a “premium” domain in .Boston extension not so much for .London
The domain breastfeeding.London has a premium annual price of $599.99
I have no idea of how that domain relates in anyway to the city of .London and why it would be a Premium domain priced at 15 times the cost of a normal .London domain registration
Cocaine.London is priced at $2,099.99 a year.
Admittedly I have only been to London once for a couple of week but I’m assuming its illegal to sell cocaine in London.
Not only should a domain name like Cocaine.London not carry a premium price but it should have been blocked by the registry so the domain could not be owned by anyone.
Which brings us to another issue which is whether consumers will accept .London to be an extension closely alligend with the interests of the city to bring more commerce to the city and make the city a better place to live and raise families.
A registry, especially one which represents a city, in my opinion needs to have a very large list of prohibited terms.
Domain names like Childporn.London and NakedChildren.London both of which are available for normal registration prices, should have been blocked by the registry. The N word .London can be registered.
Failing to block highly offensive domains is one issue.
Charging a premium price for the domain names, makes it many times worse.
Check out some of these “premium” domains:
Hate.London $599.99 a year.
Terrorist.London is priced at $559.99 a year
Bomb.London is priced at $559.99 a year
Explosions.London is priced at $559.99 a year
Isis.London is priced at $559.99 a year.
Analsex.London is priced at $559.99 a year
Blowjobs.London is priced at $1,049.99 a year
Attack.London is $1,049.99 a year
Rape.London is priced at $2,099.99 a year
Guns.London is priced at $2,099.99 a year and I thought it was illegal for private citizens to own Guns in the UK.
Fucking.London is priced at $5,599.99 a year.
I can’t image the city of London is thrilled if anyone winds up owning these domain names and puts up sites around them.
The fact that they are making a big profit off some of these domains names makes it even worse.
.London is off in my opinion to a slow start and didn’t help themselves by placing domains on a premium list which are clearly not premium.
Allowing domains to be registered that can only embarrass the city, and reduces the credibility of the registry and charging extra money for many such domains in a venture where the city gets a share of the revenue makes it even worse.
