Geely, one of the largest automobile manufacturers in China, has launched a website on a .Auto domain name: Geely.Auto. The website launch was mentioned by the .Auto registry in a tweet yesterday:
One of the largest OEMs, Geely, is now using https://t.co/CCN8Oxok3N. New automotive domains are a global phenomenon pic.twitter.com/7WdVmGk0L1
— .CARS Domains (@cars) March 11, 2016
As you might expect, the .Auto registry team was excited to see this website launch. I was curious if there was a deal made for Geely to launch the .Auto website, and I was told that the registry had “no communication or knowledge of this use case.”
The website at Geely.Auto appears to be the same as the website on Geely.com. In fact, when you visit Geely.Auto, you can see that the homepage title says “Geely.com.” I am not sure if this is a temporary website prior to launching a unique website or if the company intends to keep both websites the same. It’s possible the purchase was made for protective reasons, although there may be a strategic purpose behind it as well.
After seeing the tweet about Geely.Auto, I emailed Daniel Negari, CEO of the company that operates the .Auto domain registry to ask him how things are going with the .Auto extension. Here’s what Daniel told me:
“The authoritative namespace for the auto industry is finally here with .Cars / .Car / .Auto. In just a few months we have seen hundreds of dealers and over 70% of car manufacturers worldwide register their ideal domain names. In addition, industry leaders have started to develop beautiful websites like HV.auto, Wichita.cars, Motortrak.auto, & Pace.car. We are thrilled to power this revolution in automotive naming and we are extremely happy with the results so far. The Cars Marketing team is attending many industry events, from NADA in Las Vegas to Goodwood in the UK. We look forward to continuing our marketing efforts and spreading the word about .Cars / .Car / .Auto. The future of automotive marketing is here. I have to thank my business partners and everyone involved for such a fantastic execution to date. If anyone reading this will be at NADA later this month in Las Vegas – Please make sure to drop by our booth for a picture with the Lucra. ”
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