According to a press release I received this morning, 4.cn, a Chinese domain name auction platform and marketplace, will host an auction exclusively for .Club domain names. Jeff Sass, Chief Marketing Officer of .Club told me that “this is the first time 4.cn has held an auction for a single new domain extension exclusively.”
The auction contains 25 .Club domain names. All but one of the domain names are NN.Club (2 number) domain names. The one exception is 8.Club. The auctions will all be available for bidding via 4.cn on March 7, and they will close between March 21-24. You can have a look at the inventory on the .Club registry website since they are not yet listed on 4.cn.
I was told that there are no reserve prices, so the domain names will sell to the highest bidder. In addition, “these are all offered by the registry,” Jeff told me. I am not sure what the opening bid will be, but Jeff believes that it is the minimum 4.cn auction bid. He will let me know when he finds out for certain.
To date, the .Club domain name extension has become one of the best selling new gTLD extensions. I believe much of their success has come as a result of Chinese registrations. Some registrars have been offering .Club domain name registrations at just a dollar or two, which I believe has contributed to its growth. .Club currently sits in the #5 spot for most registered new gTLD domain names. nTLDStats.com reports that there are over 720,000 registered .Club domain names.
Here is the press release I received this morning: