When I was taking care of my backorders on NameJet last night, I noticed a banner for an Emoji domain name auction. It looks like there are somewhere around 150+/- Emoji .WS domain names coming up for auction between 5 days and three weeks from now.
So far, it looks like there are quite a few bids for the upcoming auctions. Many of the domain names with bids also have reserve prices that have not yet been met. It looks like 13 of the auctions with bids do not have a reserve price and will sell (assuming the high bidder continues through to the auction).
Emoji domain names seem to be somewhat popular, at least amongst domain investors. Back in September, I reported that the ☯.com domain name (yin yang Emoji) was sold for $11,201. Vice News recently had a news segment with Page Howe covering Emoji domain names as well. Aside from a Coca Cola Puerto Rico billboard campaign, I do not recall seeing Emoji domain names used by mainstream companies in advertising. I know some own them, but I don’t recall seeing them in marketing materials (you are welcome to share any you find if you wish).
This is not an auction in which I am going to participate for two reasons. First, I am not really an Emoji user. In fact, I removed the Emoji keyboard from my iPhone because I found myself accidentally hitting it in error more than I intentionally sent Emojis. Secondly, I do not buy non .com domain names and don’t have any plans to change that.
I did not do any Whois research, so I am not sure if these domain names are all owned by one entity or if there are multiple owners participating in this auction.
I have no idea if there is a legit aftermarket for these kinds of domain names, but we shall see how the auction does once it concludes in a few weeks.
👍👎
Emoji Domains are not easy to bid on. They have a weird actual address that is code (punycode) to make the picture of the emoji like…
xn--NumbersAndLettersThatDontMakeSense.ws
GoDaddy has many emoji domain drops now that have a little auction activity. The boxing glove went for over $800 today. Never saw the end result. Just saw a tweet that Jon Roig tweeted with 2 minutes left. Funny because GoDaddy only shows the weird Punycode.
My point here…
This makes the NameJet auction a bit more valuable to most people because there is no work involved. NameJet has the emojis show as they should be shown. AS the actual emoji picture. Just like on youe mobile device shows it. Just like your Twitter account shows oit. Just like your Facebook shows it. etc. You don’t have to take your xn--whatever to the Punycoder translation site to find out what the actual emojis are. All you have to do is click on the emoji auction banner and you will see the actual emojis.
I applaud NameJet for doing whatever they had to do to make the users/buyers/investors not have to do any work to see these domains.
If you are looking for a real deal on emoji domains these next few days, go to GoDaddy and translate those xn--whatevers.ws into punycode to see what is dropping. You can get some deals since alot of people dont want to do the work to see what each one is.
If you don’t want to do the work and want to get into Emoji Domains, check out the emoji domain link Elliot posted to the NameJet auction!
Sorry about the typos. I really have to read my entire post before hitting send. Doh!
I forgot to add this…
The emoji/punycode translation site is PUNYCODER.com if you were interested in all of the GD dropping emoji domains these next few days.
Never seen an emoji ad, ever.
Emoji dotcom’s are speculative and may be worth the risk. Emoji gtld’s is just throwing away money.
thought this might help, in case you havent been to namejet in awhile…
Namejet Process Summary for Public Auctions – my summer see namejet.com for official terms
Each domain name has a backorder date, Auctions
start ending Sunday Night 11PM EST. All bidders need only place backorders at the initial price of $69, first bidder is the winner and this will help put the domain on your auctions list. Auctions continue til December 28th
If the name gets no backorders, its not auctioned and goes back to the existing owner/registrant.
If One (1) bid is received, AND the bid was above reserve, the name is awarded to that bidder and no
further auction takes place. Most auctions are no reserve so one bid will win the name. Reserve auctions have a blue R.
If Two or more (2+) Bids are received the name goes to an auction, called a Public Auction and anyone can bid up until the closing time, bids must increase the price.
For no-Reserve public auctions, winning bidder wins, for reserve auctions bidder only wins if above reserve.
DOMAIN EXPERT TIP – Once a public auction starts you cant place a $69 backorder to have the name show on your MY AUCTIONS page, but you can ADD TO WATCHLIST to easily track closing time.
All public auctions will also show on the Namejet.com page http://www.namejet.com/featuredauctions/emoji
Hope that helps.