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.au pricing & innovation to stay globally competitive

Andrew Wright

Top Contributor
Neither extensions are priced at "market levels" in my view. Suspect .com would fall to $2-3 dollars wholesale with a proper tender (tender has never been done)

Both extensions were similar situation, AUDA & ICANN both frozen and where unable to do a proper tender. Seems AUDA finally had no choice but to act with Ausregistry's proposed new owners being seen by govt as completely inappropriate.
Back in 2005, it was felt that the price of .com would drop as the contact was coming up for renewal, and possible tender and intereste parties were quoting lower wholesale prices.

Verisign applied legal pressure and ICANN buckled, giving them the opportunity for multiple price rises to boot.

Back in 2005, Verisign used its financial and legal advantage over ICANN to push it into an agreement where Verisign retained the dot-com contract on very favorable terms: it retained control, plus a presumptive renewal of the contract, and was given the ability to increase prices by seven percent in four of the six years of the contract term.

Internet users attempted to halt that agreement and even filed several lawsuits in an effort to open it up to public scrutiny. Where Verisign at the time charged $6 wholesale per dot-com domain, other companies in the industry said they could run the registry for a third of that price – just $2 a domain.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/01/verisign_retains_dotcom_cash_cow_until_2024/

There's no reason for au registration costs to be so high, particulalry with auDA taking the registry component in house...
 

Scott7

Top Contributor
Neither extensions are priced at "market levels" in my view. Suspect .com would fall to $2-3 dollars wholesale with a proper tender (tender has never been done)
Do you think .com and .com.au would be utilised more for spam if the prices were that low?
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
Do you think .com and .com.au would be utilised more for spam if the prices were that low?

Yes. But likewise .com and .com.au spam could be reduced if prices were increased from where they are now.

Neither extension has major problems with spam, there will always be spam simply because they are major extensions. i.e. nobody says "not another .com site, this must be fraud". Reducing prices wouldn't change public perception in my view as people use these extensions all day long.

Different situation to ntlds.
 

DomainNames

Top Contributor
The point of this thread was to highlight the fact auDA and a 100% owned foreign monopoly auDA Board member Ausregistry have not acted in the best interest of either Australia Demand or Supply.

What people are not recognising is the 2009 wholesale registry contract extension was done under the contract agreement the wholesale price would be reduced as more names where registered...Noone ever bothered to enforce this and with some parties having a very powerful place on the auDA Board they seemed to knockdown any such wholesale price decrease.

For those saying .com.au is the same price as others you are missing the point...Who is making the profits from the wholesale pricing? It is not a 100% owned foreign company with profits going offshore.

The only people making money from this has been auDA and the 100% foreign owned Ausregistry and several auDA Board members / related entities.

It is a fact massive amounts of money have been made in profits by Ausregistry over the years of the non contract extensions.

It is time somone ran for the auDA board who stands up for a decrease in wholesale domain fees. I know noone on the current board is interested and several others seem to have let this slide for many years also.

With auDA wunning the wholesale registry also they need to very clearly explain what their costs will be once Ausregistry is gone.

auDA is supposed to be a "not for profit"

FYI Deloitte Consikting agreed with me when I met with them on this issue taking into account both auDA and Ausregistry fees and profits from registrations, reneeals and COR Change of Registrant

Note also Crazy Domains have stated their total wholesale buy price including auDA fee is $14.. so they must be mistaken when they offered a promotion of $7.50 per year minimum 2 years in gst.They said their profit was just $1 on that promo.

Summary
1. auDA when it takes over the wholesale registry needs to reduce the total wholesale fee. Supply registrars / resellers can then add on their mark up as they see fit.

If auDA can offer a $3 or $4 wholesale .au price then it offers a benefit for both supply and demand. It will also stimulate .au registrations if this is in fact their wish.. people may even register more .com.au and .net.au names! Without Ausregistry things seem to be a lot better IF auDA can do their pricing better once Ausregistry/ Neustar / Golden Gate is gone from the wholesale registry middleman role.

As Ventraip has said.. they will pass on the decreased wholesale price savings to consumers.. so come on auDA just do it!

Why allow a 100% foreign owned wholesale registry monopoly to take over $10 million+ (?) a year in profits from Australia when they have not bothered to reduce their wholesale fees even when it formed part of a contract commitment in 2009?

This appears to be blatant profiteering and Australian domain name registrants and also supply registrars and resellers have been ripped off for too long. It would be better if registrars / resellers had the chance to make some profit from the lower wholesale price...

https://www.accc.gov.au/business/anti-competitive-behaviour/misuse-of-market-power
https://www.accc.gov.au/business/anti-competitive-behaviour

2. auDA should have enforced the 2009 contract terms whereby Ausregistry offered a lower wholesale price for more registrations... More registrations occurred but there was no price drop.. Just more profits for Ausregistry it seems? This is a possible serious issue especially when they are on the board and it seems auDA has not bothered to go to open RFT to see if lower pricing was possible etc.

"new pricing that sees a drop in AusRegistry's wholesale price to $14 (for a 2 year licence) for .com.au and .net.au domains and further drops as volumes increase"
https://www.ariservices.com/contract_extension.php
https://www.crn.com.au/news/118m-payday-for-melbourne-domain-name-firm-407350

$118m payday for Melbourne domain name firm.....
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
What people are not recognising is the 2009 wholesale registry contract extension was done under the contract agreement the wholesale price would be reduced as more names where registered...Noone ever bothered to enforce this and with some parties having a very powerful place on the auDA Board they seemed to knockdown any such wholesale price decrease.

......
FYI Deloitte Consikting agreed with me when I met with them on this issue taking into account both auDA and Ausregistry fees and profits from registrations, reneeals and COR Change of Registrant

Do we know what was in the contract regarding further price decreases? If the price has not reduced I doubt there is anything in them about further price reductions.

Regarding Deliotte, sometimes people just agree with others for the sake of it, doesn't mean they actually hold that view or that anything they say is accurate (look at some of Boardman's prior comments about tenders and transparency for example). Deliotte's official view is probably just whatever AUDA tells them their view should be.
 

DomainNames

Top Contributor
auDA and Ausregistry agreed that the wholesale contract price would be reduced back in 2008 as domain registration volumes increased.

Who at auDA, auDA Board for the last 9 years have let auDA Board Member Ausregistry not honour this contract agreement?

Why has the auDA Board, Auditors, Supply done nothing about this contract obligation? Is it because of the power Ausregistry has on the auDA Board and over registrars and resellers who dare not complain?

What we have seen instead in massive profits for Ausregistry, some auDA Board members. https://www.crn.com.au/news/118m-payday-for-melbourne-domain-name-firm-407350

This raises very serious red flags for good corporate governance, Conflicts of Interest and Price fixing.

Certainly auDA and the auDA Board has failed in their duty to have the wholesale price decrease honoured as per the contract. WHY??

https://www.ausregistry.com.au/auda-extends-ausregistrys-au-registry-term-to-2014/

February 26th, 2009
"The major points of the renegotiated Licence Agreement include:
  • extended Customer Support Hours for Registrars
  • funding towards Marketing and Market Research
  • a $0.25 donation to the auDA Foundation for every .com.au and .net.au domain renewal and new registration
  • the implementation of DNSSEC
  • commitment to yearly independent Security Audits
  • continued improvement and enhancement of the Registry Software
  • new pricing that sees a drop in AusRegistry’s wholesale price to $14 (for a 2 year licence) for .com.au and .net.au domains and further drops as volumes increase."
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
  • new pricing that sees a drop in AusRegistry’s wholesale price to $14 (for a 2 year licence) for .com.au and .net.au domains and further drops as volumes increase.

That is a very good question. I would suggest chasing this up with AUDA as to why the price has not dropped given that statement. There were around 1.3-1.4 million .au's in Feb 2009 so obviously there has been a huge volume increase since then.
 

Scott.L

Top Contributor
That is a very good question. I would suggest chasing this up with AUDA as to why the price has not dropped given that statement. There were around 1.3-1.4 million .au's in Feb 2009 so obviously there has been a huge volume increase since then.

We cannot interfere in the management of auDA -LOL
 

DomainNames

Top Contributor
That is a very good question. I would suggest chasing this up with AUDA as to why the price has not dropped given that statement. There were around 1.3-1.4 million .au's in Feb 2009 so obviously there has been a huge volume increase since then.

Has auDA and the auDA Board failed over the years in their duties to properly enforce the contract renewal terms, failed to meet their Constitutional Obligations to Domain Name Registrants, Supply ( except Ausregistry who have benefited) and Demand?
Just who has made all of the profits over the years from the wholesale pricing? auDA and Ausregistry have made well over $100 million combined.

Registrars and Resellers should have been onto this to make sure the wholesale price was reduced so they also could have a chance to make some money while keeping end consumer pricing globally competitive for .au

Is Ausregistry still taking $14 wholesale or how much is it now reduced to? Is it true they send at least $10 million in .au profits offshore a year to the real Foreign owners?
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
Is Ausregistry still taking $14 wholesale or how much is it now reduced to? Is it true they send at least $10 million in .au profits offshore a year to the real Foreign owners?

They would have at least $20 million in annual revenue from the contract and their margins would be huge on that.
 

DomainNames

Top Contributor
They would have at least $20 million in annual revenue from the contract and their margins would be huge on that.

I wrote to the auDA CEO and several auDA Board members today. Let's see what their response is why there has been no wholesale price decrease as per the 2008 contract renewal agreement AND published promises from Ausregistry if they got the contract again their wholesale prices would continue to drop as registrations increased .

Someone else may want to delve into just some of the legal aspects;

"the duty not to improperly use your position to gain an advantage for yourself or someone else, or to cause detriment to the company,
and
the duty not to improperly use information obtained through your position to gain an advantage for yourself or someone else, or to cause detriment to the company."
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
Ok, I'd suggest shortening the message to basic facts as the may not follow the email easily. Definitely worth chasing this though as something is up with it.
 

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