Thu, 9 Dec 2004

Net24 launches new auction service for expiring domain names

Press release, 9-Dec-04, Net24, Christchurch, NZ: Online businesses searching for eye-catching domain names to house their websites can now use a smart new tool for finding and buying names already registered, but which are about to become available on the open market.

Domain name Registrar and Web hosting provider Net24 (www.net24.co.nz) has launched Expired Domains (www.expireddomains.co.nz), a New Zealand-first service that allows people and organisations to view, bid for and register expiring and recently released .nz domain names.

"For a variety of reasons, several thousand domain names expire every month, some potentially valuable to the right owner. Occasionally real gems emerge, waiting for a canny (or lucky) web operator to snap up, if only they knew where to look. We calculate that around 2000 domain names expire every month," says Mike Schupbach, Director of Net24.

Net24's new service provides a quick and easy preview of soon to expire domain names and enables people to bid for them prior to the Registry releasing them.

The highest bidder is awarded the domain name at the bid price and only charged if the domain name is successfully registered on their behalf by Expired Domains.

The launch of Net24's new service follows the .nz Registry's recent decision to make available to authorised .nz Registrars a daily list of .nz domain names that will expire within 24 hours.

The service was developed in partnership with Net24's Registrar division, 1st Domains (www.1stdomains.co.nz). 1st Domain's back-end automated registration process is used to secure domain names on behalf of a customer moments after the Registry releases them.

As well as providing the ability to bid on expiring domain names, the Expired Domains site will publish recently released domain names available for registration on a first in, first served basis.

Expired Domain's minimum bid price is $25 and the top-bidding price includes a one-year domain name registration. An extensive list of recently released domain names can also be registered for $25 for a one-year term with 1st Domains.

About Net24 (www.net24.co.nz)

Net24 is one of New Zealand's leading privately owned website companies. It specialises in website hosting (Unix and Windows), domain name registration, and data co-location or telehosting services, running a fully redundant network that is physically located in New Zealand.

Christchurch-based Net24 currently hosts over 2000 websites, manages over 16,000 email accounts, and is the registrar for more than 14,500 domain names, placing it in the leading handful of New Zealand registrars.

ENDS