Vox Populi Registry, a subsidiary of Momentous company, has won a contention set for the right to administer new gTLD .SUCKS. Vox Populi has beaten Donuts and Top Level Spectrum by paying $3 million, however, the numbers haven’t been confirmed. This event marks a new phase in the history of this controversial domain.
English word “sucks” is very commonly used to describe something that is “lousy” or “lame”. This is why it is not hard to imagine that almost any name registered in .SUCKS domain can be perceived by someone as an insult. On this basis, representatives of different organizations and countries had repeatedly proposed to reject the application on this domain, however, it still got the green light from ICANN.
Interestingly enough it seems that this characteristic of the domain is what attracted Vox Populi in the first place. Even before obtaining the rights for the domain, John Berard, CEO of the registry, said that price of registration in the domain zone during the sunrise phase would be around $25 thousand. The figure is absolutely cosmic, but the calculation is obvious: hardly any company wants to see its name or names of its brands in .sucks domain. The best way to avoid this is to register corresponding names themselves, even if they have to pay huge amounts of money.
Berard’s statement provoked a storm of indignation. Domain community has accused Vox Populi of predatory and amoral approach. US Senator Jay Rockefeller wrote a letter to ICANN where he noted that domains like .SUCKS were discrediting the whole New gTLD Program and did not serve the development of the Internet, only enrichment of unscrupulous businessmen. It's still unclear what influenced Vox Populi, but after the announcement of the victory in the auction for .SUCKS was made, the very same John Berard stated that the company had reviewed its plans. Sunrise registration fee is not going to be $25 thousand, he said they were “considering something much more in line with current pricing practices.”
