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Big Changes for .AI Expiry Auctions

Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall has shared many .AI domain name sales over the last year or so. NameBio lists more than 1,000 .AI domain name sales at Namecheap in its database.

This afternoon, Richard shared a handful of high value .AI domain name sales. He also shared some pretty big news about .AI expiry auctions going forward. Expired .ai domain names will now be auctioned exclusively at Namecheap. In addition, the auctions will be conducted daily rather than once a month as they had been running previously.

Registrar Where My Last 10 Afternic Sales Landed

After I sell a domain name, I don’t pay much attention to it. Occasionally, I will look to see how it is being used, but I don’t really follow my sold domain names after they’re sold.

Last month, Namecheap Founder and CEO Richard Kirkendall sounded the alarm that his company would “most likely” leave the Afternic sales network.

With Afternic listings still showing up in the Namecheap registration path, I was curious to see which registrars have been responsible for my most recent 10 Afternic sales. To do so, I did Whois searches on my most recent 10 Afternic sales, not including LTO deals or the a sale I closed using the Afternic checkout link.

CEO: Namecheap “Most Likely” to Exit Afternic Network

I don’t always check where my Afternic-sold domain names are transferred post-sale, but I have noticed quite a few transfer to Namecheap. This is because Namecheap is a part of Afternic’s network, and Afternic-listed domain names show up in the Namecheap registration search path.

This may not be the case for much longer, according to Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall. In a reply to a conversation on X, Richard indicated that Namecheap will “most likely” exit the Afternic network, eliminating a very large source of buyer leads:

Namecheap CEO on Registry Price Increases

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Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall has always spoken his mind freely. The other day, I replied to someone who asked about why domain registries raise their fees. I think it’s pretty clear that they raise their fees because they can and because the want to increase their revenue.

Richard’s response to this was better than mine:

Richard has a good point. Once a user is using a domain name, it can be very expensive, risky, and time consuming to switch domain names. Most won’t do it over the inconvenience of a renewal fee increase.

Namecheap Black Friday & Cyber Monday Domain Name Sales

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In a press release I received yesterday morning, Namecheap announced its upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Of particular interest to domain investors are the sales on domain name registrations, including newly registered .com domain names.

Here are the domain name registration deals announced by Namecheap:

Namecheap CEO Previews Thunderbolt

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Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall shared a preview of something his company currently has under development. It is called Thunderbolt, and you can visit Spaceship.com/thunderbolt to see what the company intends to bring to the market with Thunderbolt.

Richard shared a high-level vision for Thunderbolt, with the idea being the possibility of not needing an ISP or phone service:

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