PALM BEACH, FL—ICM Registry, the company behind the .XXX top level domain (TLD) has announced that it has successfully concluded its Founders program, which had been running for the last 9 months. This unique program was designed for early adopters from within the adult industry to secure and develop key .XXX domain names as showcase sites ahead of the official launch of .XXX on September 7, 2011.
35 companies from the adult industry from around the world were accepted into the Founders program, claiming approximately 1,500 .XXX domain names after their business plans and development ideas were diligently reviewed. Some domain names were issued for the basic registration fee and several others sold for well into six figures, immediately demonstrating the high value of .XXX domain names. All premium domain names issued under the Founders program come with strict development guidelines and timetables.
The first .XXX sites to go live after the July 31 close were www.casting.xxx and www.orgasms.xxx and were immediately greeted with good converting traffic with over 70 sign ups in the first 24 hours. Many more sites are expected to go live in the coming weeks.
"We were extremely excited to be part of the Founders program because it allowed us to acquire several keyword domains in the .XXX space that were simply not available to us in .COM and other extensions”, says Lewis Thomas from Really Useful Ltd. “We worked hard to be the world’s first company to launch .XXX sites and the traffic to casting.xxx and orgasms.xxx immediately exceeded our expectations.”
Beate-Uhse AG (FWB: USE), one of the largest distributors of adult related entertainment and products in the world, has secured a portfolio of domain names including kostenlos.xxx, which is the translation of “free” in German. Similar EU and UK based companies have also registered domain names and are busy rebranding and developing new sites to be launched soon.
In the US, numerous high-profile adult companies have joined the Founders program and are busy getting new sites ready for release in the coming weeks. Jeremy Leonard, the CEO of DirtyDiablos commented “.XXX Founders Program gave us the opportunity to register great domain names like inked.xxx and diablos.xxx which can be a tremendous platform to develop new sites. We expect to receive substantial type-in traffic with this new, content-specific TLD.”
ICM Registry had realized that an extremely high proportion of the top 200 adult keywords in the .COM space were in the hands of professional “domainers” and were being used for paid parking and/or pay-per-click advertising programs rather than for fully developed websites. ICM Registry felt that this was not ideal for consumer satisfaction and is determined to make .XXX a vibrant and content rich domain
Frank Schilling, owner of possibly the world’s largest portfolio of domain names, had never previously participated in any other new TLD launch. However, Schilling excitedly negotiated a deal with ICM Registry for some premium generic domain names such as live.xxx, hot.xxx and free.xxx in a seven figure deal out of the nearly $4 million that ICM Registry has received during this Founders program period. Schilling is now partnering with other notable adult companies to develop impressive new sites, ultimately contributing to the increased value of the adult eco-system.
With the close of the Founders program, ICM Registry is now focused on building a successful launch that starts on September 7 with the opening of the Sunrise A period. For more information, please visit www.icmregistry.com or your preferred registrar.
