Horse Race Stops Expired Domains In Australia

It appears that AusRegistry didn’t release .au expired domains today. This would normally happen on National Public Holidays, but its not a National Public holiday….

It just so happens that in Melbourne, Victoria (where AusRegistry is based) its the running of the Melbourne Cup.

In February, 2009 auDA announced that it had extended its .au Registry Licence Agreement with AusRegistry until 2014. They have a few more Melbourne Cups to get it right.

Adrian Kinderis, MD of AusRegistry – Live from Traffic DownUnder 2008

AusRegistry was co-founded in 2001. Since then its had substantial growth:

• 1 million .au names in November 2007
• 1 million .com.au names in June 2008
• Currently 1.25+ million .au names
• Average 25% annual growth

Adrian talked a LOT (in fact too much) about AusRegistry, explained some auDA policy around domain name monetization. For example, you can acquire a name if your primary business is to monetize. While there is no formal policy on domain tasting, there is a 3 day grace period.

Here is an interest graph of growth in the sector:

Personal comment: Given the low CPC rates and the population, I’d still question the viability of this space.