Late last week, The Australian newspaper wrote an article stating that the Liberal National Party had accidentally allowed their LNP.com.au domain name to expire and drop at a public domain name auction.
The domain name appears to have been purchased by someone not associated with the Liberal National Party.
Three-letter acronym domain names can be purchased and used for a variety of applications, including for domain monetisation reasons, according to and inline with auDA (.au Domain Administration) policy.
This is yet another reminder that domain names are powerful digital assets for every business and company in Australia and should be held in high regards. Managers and Directors alike should ensure payments and administration of domain names be left in the hands of domain name administrators who are both trustworthy and thorough.
Another recent example of a premium three-letter acronym domain name dropping is CPA.com.au(.) That domain name was dropped by an owner and then purchased for the “back on the rack” rate of $50,000.
One would have to wonder how many people are typing in LNP.com.au as opposed to LNP.org.au when trying to find the Liberal National Party?
And we shouldn’t forget how many mistakes were made when the National Australia Bank only owned the local NAB.com.au domain name. Private customer data was accidentally sent to NAB.com – without the “.au” on the end of the URL, to a private individual who owned the domain name.
Could private email messages meant for the LNP.org.au email address currently be getting sent to LNP.com.au by accident or sheer confusion?
Only time will tell.
