Amazon beat out Google in the domain-based auction for the top-level .Buy domain. Other companies that placed their bids include Donuts and Famous Four Media. Two bidders placed a bid of more than $1.5 million. One company, PVT Registry, did not place their bid.
Google had other unsuccessful bid attempts. It lost against DotTech LLC in a bid to own .Tech which sold for $6.7 million. Other contenders were Uniregistry, Donuts, Nu Dot Co and Minds + Machines. Google still has a lot of chances in the future and is looking at the more than 100 top-level domains as the next target.
Incidentally, Irish domain resellers Minds + Machines won the bid for .VIP, which it bought at just over $3 million. Once again, Google lost in the bid and was joined by other contenders such as Donuts, VIP Registry, I-Registry and Vipspace Enterprises LLC. Three of the bidders were said to be willing to spend around $2.2 million in the domain-based auction.
The auction was facilitated by ICANN with the help of Power Auctions LLC, the company's auction service provider. There were at least twelve applicants that were expected to participate in the auction. A results report will be posted within seven days after the auction is concluded. Anyone who is curious to see the results can view them at the Auction Results page of the gTLD Microsite.
Compared with private contention set auctions, the losers in the above-mentioned auctions literally walk away with nothing but a mere application fee refund.
Acquiring one of the three top-level domains, .Buy, .Tech, and .VIP, would give owners full control in registering and maintaining any future domain registrations. It would mean that Amazon can easily get hold of some of the "hate sites" that have sprung up. These include amazonsucks.com, amazonstinks.com and screwamazon.com. Of course, Amazon can decide whether it's interested to make such a move or not.
From 1998, Amazon has been doing a lot of acquisitions and investments. Some of them even involved acquiring rival products such as Stanza (2009), a rival e-book reader to the company's very own Kindle. The most significant year was 1999 when the company earned a multitude of company stakes. These would include Alexa Internet, Accept.com, Pets.com and LiveBid.com.
Prior to the auction, Amazon also acquired Twitch, the global leader in video platform and community that caters particularly to gamers. The site focuses mainly on video gaming which includes playthroughs of video games and broadcasts of e-sports competitions. The acquisition was formally announced on Aug. 25 and said to have a cost of $970 million.
