Google regularly forks out millions of dollars to buy startups that it can envelop into its tech empire and now domain names are on the shopping list. The search company has paid $25 million for the entire .app domain, which makes it the most expensive domain ever bought.
ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which controls the world's web domains and has been creating specialized Internet addresses known as generic Top Level Domains or gTLDs and auctioning them off.
The Google-owned Charleston Road Registry Inc. won the latest auction for the .app domain with a bid of $25,001,000. The previous record for an ICANN auction was $6.76 million which Dot Tech LLC paid for the .tech domain in September 2014 when it reportedly outbid Google. Other gTLDs auctioned by ICANN include .baby, .mls, .realty and even .dot.
"This specialization makes it clear to Internet users that this is the authoritative and designated space where they can find applications and information about developers accessible via differentiated and streamlined web addresses," Charleston Road Registry said in its bid application.
There's no official word directly from Google yet but it's pretty clear how an .app domain could fit into its business. The purchase comes just after the company's new product guru, Sundar Pichai, told Forbes that he intends to introduce advertising into the Google Play app store.
Google isn't the first tech company to pay big money at an ICANN auction, although the $4.6 million that Amazon paid for .buy in September 2014 looks like good value now.
ICANN is an international private sector, nonprofit corporation created in 1998 to keep the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. On its website ICANN says that the proceeds of these auctions are being reserved until the organization's board can determine an appropriate use through consultation with the "community." Before ICANN set up alternate domain names there were only eight domain names available on the web: .com, .edu, .gov, .int, .mil, .org, .net and .arpa.
Photo: Ash Kyd | Flickr
