Namecheap

Namecheap Makes 2 Changes to Auctions to Enhance Trust

In an email sent to customers this morning, Namecheap announced two changes to its domain name auction Marketplace. The Marketplace platform will assign user badges to illustrate the number of domain auctions bidders have won. The badge levels are Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. In addition, when an auction winner does not pay, it will be re-auctioned rather than offered to the runner up bidder.

The rationale for these changes is “[t]o make sure the Marketplace remains a trusted platform, and to ensure that each auction is conducted fairly.

Here’s the email I received from Namecheap explaining the changes that were made and why the changes were made:

Namecheap Shares Insight and Trend Report for 1st Half of 2023

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This morning, Namecheap published its Domain Insights & Trends Report for the first half of 2023. It is a look at domain name trends and insights highlighted by the company, which is the second largest domain registrar in the world. Because of the size and reach of Namecheap, this report gives a good overview of the domain name market from the perspective of a large retail registrar.

Some of the topics in the report, highlighted in the accompanying press release, include the following:

Spaceship Now Has 100k DUM

Spaceship.com is a domain registrar launched by Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall. The website, which was seeking beta testers last November, launched in beta a few months ago. According to its Founder, the registrar is growing pretty quickly with more than 100,000 domain names under management (DUM):

Spaceship.com Looking for Beta Testers

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Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall announced that he is looking for early beta testers for the company’s under development “registrar and digital product platform” known as Spaceship. Beta testers should be people who already own domain names and are looking to register more. They should be also willing to provide feedback about their experience using the platform:

Richard followed this tweet by telling potential beta testers that they will be able to register domain names at cost for the time being:

Namecheap Introduces Relate – Using Relate.com

Namecheap has acquired some exceptional descriptive domain names. I wrote about the company’s $150,000 acquisition of Cluster.com as well as Wolf.com for $550,000. Namecheap also acquired Poke.com and IZ.com last year. One acquisition I did not write about but noticed in May is Relate.com.

This morning, Namecheap announced a small business-focused suite of tools the company branded Relate by Namecheap. In coordination with this launch, Relate.com forwards to the landing page with these tools on Namecheap’s website. The company did not need to have Relate.com for this suite of tools, but it’s nice to see a valuable generic domain name like this being used.

I reached out to Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall to see if he is able to share the acquisition price of Relate.com. If he is willing and able, I will update the article with the acquisition price. Update: Richard told me the price was $95,000 and the domain name was acquired in February of 2021.

The press release announcing Related by Namecheap is below:

Namecheap Takes Action in Wake of “Russian Aggression”

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Namecheap has a large presence in Ukraine, and many of its employees work in offices around the country. A look at Namecheap’s job opening page gives an idea of the breadth of the company’s footprint in Ukraine.

Over the weekend, Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall spoke out about the Russian invasion of Ukraine:

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