dotGreen Community Inc Withdraws Application Despite Upside of Private Auction

October 17, 2013 Christa Taylor

Surprising is the best word to describe news that dotGreen Community, Inc. has withdrawn their .green application with ICANN. It’s a shame as they were a big part of the ICANN community and were passionate about a sustainable planet. It is even more surprising that they decided to withdraw now after they had passed all of ICANN’s gTLD evaluation processes and as the only .green TLD that does not have GAC advice. While they are a registered charity in California, they could have raised additional funds to be used in auction.

So why didn’t dotGreen go to private auction?

The other .green applicants past actions indicate that they would consider the idea. Additionally, each of the companies within the contention set have a multitude of application: Top Level Domain Holdings Limited with 70 applications, Afilias Limited with 58 applications and United TLD Holdco Ltd. with 26 applications. I think it is likely that a fair price would have been achieved in auction and in the worst case, certainly would have exceeded the refund. At this stage in the ICANN gTLD process, dotGreen Community, Inc. would receive a refund of $65,000 (35% of their application fee of $185,000). It’s a small sum of money in comparison to all of their efforts, their costs and their cause.

In the most simplistic view of the first and second private auction, the average price paid per TLD was $1.3 million and as long as the auction value exceeded $195,000 (assuming three applicants @$65,000) .green would have been in the green.

Whatever the reason, hopefully they continue on their noble cause…I’m sure we’ll all miss their presence, their company and laughs in Buenos Aires.