sales Estonia auctioning off single letter domains; one already sold for six figures!

[Acroplex]

Estonia (.ee) is auctioning off its cache of reserved domains, which includes single letter and geo-domains.

So far, one single letter .ee domain has been sold: E.ee. The price was 220,000 euro.

 

[pb]

I wonder what was the reason for reserving these domains (esp. geo-domains), since clearly they didn't need to be reserved...

 

[Acroplex]

Many countries reserve (mostly) local geo-domains under their ccTLD to allocate them to local municipal authorities.

 

[Wesley S]

other practical reasons, assets for their country's defense or for whatever they want to distribute the money for.

 

[Samer]

Wonder how much total these “.ee” raise.

Estonia deserves better than .ee ext. There isnt two “e” in the country name; so why is it in ext?

We cant all win Lottery assigned “.ai” ccTLD!

 

[pb]

Many countries reserve (mostly) local geo-domains under their ccTLD to allocate them to local municipal authorities.

Yeah, for example .pl reserved geo domains but after 15 years (and a final notice to the relevant municipalities) they released the ones that were not claimed. My point is that maybe these names don't and didn't need to be reserved if the registry has no problem selling them to the highest bidder. Keep in mind that we're talking about a ccTLD registry that is supposed to be a public servant to the citizens, and not a private, for-profit entity.

 

[Acroplex]

Some countries see the financial benefits of selling/auctioning such geo-domains, others choose to reserve them until further notice. For example, Greece still retains a list of reserved city/region names under the .GR ccTLD. But they have released most 2 digit .GR domains that now carry a 500 euro renewal per year.

 

[kaurr]

Wonder how much total these “.ee” raise.

Estonia deserves better than .ee ext. There isnt two “e” in the country name; so why is it in ext?

We cant all win Lottery assigned “.ai” ccTLD!

In Estonian language our country name is Eesti and that has two E letters in the name.

Personally got also one letter .ee from auction in last autumn.