Canadian Domain Auction Landscape Changes

There have been some notable changes over the last few days in the Canadian domain auction landscape.

Sibername has introduced changes in their TBR system. First, they have raised the minimum bid from $15 to $25. While I’m sure domainers will complain about the increase in price (after all, who wants to pay more?), I believe that this is a good step. My guess is that Sibername was wasting a lot of resources trying to catch dropping domains that would only sell for $15, when these resources could have been reallocated to catching higher value domains. For $15, they are better off selling new registrations than TBR domains.

Sibername has also introduced a “minimum opening bid” for their TBR auctions. According to Sibername, “[t]his is the minimum price you would like to pay for the domain name if you are the only bidder for the domain name.” If the domain is caught, the auction will start at this amount. This seems to me a step back towards their old bidding system (that I preferred) in which the auction actually started before the name was caught. I like this move, as it allows Sibername a better idea about how to prioritize their attempts to catch dropping domains, again allowing them to aim for the best ones.

Sibername has quietly cancelled their monthly .ca domain auction. There is currently one running that finishes at the end of this month, and this will be the final one. When asked why they were cancelling the auction, the only thing Sibername would tell me was that the auctions were “inexpedient.”

With Sibername dropping out of the .ca domain auction world, other companies are stepping in to fill their place. Pool has announced their first premium .ca auction. It only contains one domain – cafe.ca – obviously a very good domain. The auction starts tomorrow – to join it, you simply add this domain to your backorder list. The one name at a time concept is interesting and I will be interested to see how it works out. Bido is planning one premium auction per day; with the smaller Canadian market, offering one premium auction per week may make sense.

Finally, the MyID auction has been rescheduled. I’m not sure why, but I’d prefer that they do a good job, rather than a quick job! The auction will now take place from May 22 to May 29. They will start accepting submissions of domains on Friday and will continue to accept them until May 1. If it doesn’t sell before then, I’ll be submitting my 0b.ca domain and will report on how that goes.

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