Bido.com is a new auction provider, with a twist. Bido.com auctions one domain per day, with no reserve. There’s a self-imposed hiatus at the moment while they fix some bugs in their system, which on the whole I take as a positive sign — better than the endless-Beta mode that Google has popularized.

Note: In this series on auction providers, responses to my questionnaire are unedited, except that I’ve fixed typos, punctuation, grammar, complete nonsense, etc. to protect the guilty.

How many years have you been in business?

At this time, Bido.com is still within its first year of operational business. Our team consists of successful veterans of the industry.

Will you work with new TLDs to auction names? Will you do that on a non-exclusive basis?
Yes, Bido.com will be working with new TLDs to auction domain names. While we would prefer exclusivity, we’ll offer our services on a non-exclusive basis as well.

Do you have customizable offerings for Sunrise, Landrush, and collision (limited participant) auctions?
We’ll certainly tailor the auctions as needed, we can be flexible, and can quickly produce a customized solution should the client have a specific request. Our platform already provides most if not all of the provisions that could be desired, however we may tailor features as needed on a per-client basis.

Have you auctioned names for a new TLD before? If so, which ones?
Bido.com has yet to run our first auction for a new TLD.

Do you do online auctions, live auctions, or both?
We can offer one or any combination of a telephone bidding application, online bidding applications, as well as a live, in person auction scenario. We’ll still further and enhance the accessibility options in the future.

What languages have you done auctions in? (Please distinguish between live and online auctions)
At this time, we’ve done auctions strictly in the English language but our online platform can easily handle any left-to-right or right-to-left language, as well containing an internal module for punycode and unicode conversions.

What currency(ies) have you used in your auctions?
We’ve used the United States Dollar (USD) in our auctions to date.

If you run an ongoing domain auction platform, how many domains are currently listed for sale?
The Bido.com website currently runs one premium, hand-picked domain auction per day, notwithstanding any temporary hiatus.

At which venues/conferences in 2009/2010 will you have a presence where you could promote the TLD auctions?
Historically, we tend to attend and have a presence at most, if not all, of the domain name trade shows. This has been the case ever since the earliest gatherings of domainers.

Will you provide any marketing/advertising for the new TLDs you are working with. Please be specific.
Our service at Bido actually provides marketing and advertising for all the domains that we’ve auctioned. For each domain that is auctioned, we’re contacting end users and getting them educated and involved. It’s been a very fun and interesting process at times with the office staff to educate the masses about domain names and issues such as the importance to their business and relevance to their business. We have a skilled sales team to get the job done and the word out, and its been effective and we have been happy and impressed with the results. Scaling this up to the necessary levels required to launch a TLD is certainly doable, it is massive and perhaps tricky but it can be designed properly and should be executed with few, if any flaws.

Are you willing to provide a fixed payout to the TLD in addition to percentage-based payouts?
Yes.

Are you willing to collaborate on a TLD at the business plan stage without an exclusive agreement?
Yes.

Do you have a primary point of contact who has TLD launch experience with the process of a TLD launch? If so, who? Please provide name and email address.
We have yet to launch a TLD but are looking forward to our inaugural TLD launch partner. For a consultation, please contact Jarred Cohen at jarred@bido.com.

Please add any additional relevant thoughts
There are several important key points for a TLD applicant to consider when choosing a partner to launch the TLD. Among our plusses, Bido.com is extremely competitive, we offer the lowest commission of any of our competitors and we’re open to suggestions. Our platform has been designed to handle the massive load and stress that a TLD launch requires. We have the team, the contacts, the membership base, the plan, and the platform to execute a flawless TLD launch. Please feel free to visit Bido.com and contact us for a private consultation.

Bido sent me this questionnaire just after I had completed the profile for Oversee.net. If anyone has comments on their hiatus, and what that means, please leave a comment.

Tags: Bido, domain auctions, domain auction providers, ICANN new TLDs

Posted by Antony in: Domains, Guide to new TLDs