i@m.fm

.EU is coming – Let the money-making begin: I was just checking the list of accredited registrars on the EURid website, when I noticed several applications from one Austrian city. All of those also have the same address details:

eu-artemis.at web invest gmbh & co KEG
eu-eos.at web invest gmbh & co KEG
eu-hera.at web invest gmbh & co KEG
eu-nemesis.at web invest gmbh & co KEG
eu-asteria.at web invest gmbh & co KEG
eu-iris.at web invest gmbh & co KEG
eu-kybele.at web invest gmbh & co KEG
eu-maia.at web invest gmbh & co KEG
eu-poena.at web invest gmbh & co KEG
eu-rhea.at web invest gmbh & co KEG

Why would you need multiple registrars?

Each registrar has an assigned amount of to the connections to the
registry. Each connection can accept one command (i.e. register,
transfer, delete, renew or modify a domain) at a time. The more
connections you have, the more likely the registrar is to be able to
register certain domains first.  So this works similar to trying
to catch dropping names in other registries.

So when the registry opens, they will start trying to register a list
of domains on all of their registrar connections. Since they own a pool
of those, they have a higher chance of getting certain names than
registrars that share their connections across all of their customers.

Now if you go to any of the websites of the above listed companies, you
will be told, that all of their registrations are handled by “realtime.at“. According to a search there also has been plenty of web/pr and press coverage in German on this company.

So what’s the business model?

Charge the registrants a higher than normal fee, which
determines the order of the registrations. Their price list currently states
the information for ranks 1-15 for each of the phases. The pricing
ranges from 385 Euro for rank 15 in the Landrush (general registration)
phase to 4,500 Euro for the first rank in the first Sunrise (trademark
etc.) phase. All prices are before tax. If I got the math right,
selling all of those spots would add up to 70,310 Euro. It looks like
they will not charge the users if the registration is not successful. I
did not see any terms and conditions on the English site.

According to their site, they are also planning to add even more registrars to the list in order to increase their amount of connections.

So far their investment would mainly be the 10,000 Euro * 10 for each of
the EURid registrar applications. This money is used as a pre-payment
in order to fund registrations. Landrush registrations will cost the
registrar 10 Euro per Domain Name Year (DNY), Sunrise registrations
range from 35 to 85 Euros.

I wonder why they did not take the extra step to make this an auction.