The Alibaba Cloud Domain Name Trading Platform was launched on January 18, 2016. To ensure a healthy trading environment, Alibaba Cloud began charging service fees for domain name transactions on November 1, 2016. The service fee rate is low compared to industry standards. The service fee is typically paid by the seller and does not affect the buyer. The buyer pays only the total price for the domain name.
Domain name transaction service fee rates
The standard service fee for a Priced Push transaction is 1% of the final total payment. If a promotion is active, the promotional rate applies. Alibaba Cloud deducts the 1% service fee through Alipay, and the remaining 99% of the transaction amount is transferred to the seller's linked Alipay account.
On November 8, 2023, the Fixed Price (Wanwang) domain name transaction model was upgraded to the Fixed Price (Premium) domain name transaction model.
How domain name transaction service fees appear in Alipay
After a successful Priced Push domain name transaction, the seller receives the full payment. However, these funds are temporarily frozen. After the system deducts the service fee, the remaining funds are released. This process is very short and usually goes unnoticed. After the service fee is deducted, a debit record for "Split - xxx domain name transaction service fee" appears in the seller's Alipay transaction history.
Transaction types subject to service fees
The following table describes the service fee rules for each transaction type on the Alibaba Cloud Domain Name Trading Platform.
Transaction type | Description | Is a service fee charged to the seller? | |
Priced Push | Priced Push is a peer-to-peer transaction model between a buyer and a seller. The seller transfers a domain name to a specific buyer and specifies the transfer price. The transaction is complete after the buyer accepts the domain name and pays the transfer fee. | Charged | |
Backorder and Auction | A service provided by Alibaba Cloud through partner channels for backordering and auctioning expired domain names. | Free | |
A service provided by Alibaba Cloud through its own registrar service channels for backordering and auctioning expired domain names. | Free | ||
A service provided by Alibaba Cloud for registering soon-to-expire domain names. This transaction type does not require an auction. The domain name can be registered directly. The first user to place and pay for the order gets the domain name. | Free | ||
A platform provided by Alibaba Cloud that lists domain names currently being auctioned in the backorder process. Users who have not backordered a domain name can join the auction directly in the Auction Hall. The highest bidder wins the domain name. | Free | ||
Fixed Price | Published directly by Alibaba Cloud domain name users. Alibaba Cloud participates throughout the transaction process and issues invoices to buyers. You can pay for Fixed Price (Premium) domain names using your Alibaba Cloud account balance, online payment, or offline remittance. | Free Note For Fixed Price (Premium) domain names, a certain percentage is added to the seller's asking price to cover taxes and service fees. This additional amount is charged to the buyer. The actual amount credited to the seller's Alipay account is the original price set by the seller when the domain name was listed. | |
A platform provided by Alibaba Cloud through partner channels for purchasing fixed-price domain names. The purchase process for domain names on the Fixed Price (Choice) platform generally takes longer. | Free | ||
Default Purchase domain names are a special type of fixed-price domain name. These domain names become available when a user successfully backorders a domain name on the Alibaba Cloud platform but fails to pay by the deadline. According to the default rules, the user forfeits ownership of the domain name. Alibaba Cloud holds the legal rights to these defaulted domain names and offers them for public sale as fixed-price domain names. | Free | ||
Delegated Purchase | Users can submit a request on the Negotiated Price Domain Name platform to delegate the purchase of a domain name that is already for sale. Alibaba Cloud and its partners will then negotiate the price with the domain name seller to complete the transaction. | Free | |
Similar to Negotiated Price Domain Names, users can submit a request in the Alibaba Cloud Management Console to delegate the buyback of a domain name. Alibaba Cloud and its partners will then negotiate the price with the domain name seller to complete the transaction. | Free | ||