Minds + Machines announced recently that it has crossed $5.5 million in sales (wholesale) of .VIP domains after just three weeks on the market. It paid $3.0 million to win rights to the domain in an ICANN auction. Over 400,000 .vip domain names have been registered and all have been paid registrations.
MMX CEO Toby Hall commented:
The exceptional take-up we are seeing of .vip is being achieved without using a freemium strategy or equivalent to boost numbers – the latest surge coming from standard name registrations bought through the registrar channel. This bodes well for renewal rates and the long-term reputation of the domain. We very much look forward to the ongoing growth of .vip billings.
While most of the demand has been in China, .vip also has some demand in the West with a significant number of registrations coming in from the United States and Canada.