Blind Freddy Could See This Coming

[Data Glasses]

Yep, no price caps on these pesky New Gtld's means the registrant gets a raw deal
~
http://domainincite.com/21603-schilling-big-price-increases-needed-to-keep-new-gtlds-alive

 

[snoopy]

I see the price increases as an alternative to an extension moving into Icann's emergency system. Frank pretty clearly mentioned the need to "keep the lights on" with these tlds and without dramatic price increases a significant number of ntlds would be going to "the registry of last resort" within a few years. In other words I think lots of other registries will need to follow suit.

As far as registrants getting a raw deal, I guess you could say if you were running a business on these you got a raw deal, you'll need to change domains otherwise you'll probably just get high and higher prices, e.g. $3000 per year.

For domainers they are getting a bit of a hallpass here, when your extension goes from $10 per year to $300 a year that is a pretty clear signal to get the hell out of that extension, you don't need to think about it, debate it, or stay in for a few more years.

So domainers are better off getting that clear "drop" signal now rather than potentially hanging in for year and years facing more gradual increases. Frank basically just dropped the A-Bomb on the whole new tld domaining area. Best of luck to anyone who thinks this is still a good place to invest.

 

[findtim]

forgetting this is domain names, the concept is flawed in any business.

basically just dropped the A-Bomb

is correct , would an electricity provider do this? no.
they are not in a strong enough position to use this tactic imo. no future sales, massive drop outs, investor drop out because of increased holding costs, the only people staying are the ones trapped but be assured they will be planning a way out and it won't be to another nTLD
then when other registries follow suite it cascades across the industry.
if .com increased by 300% there would be outcry but it would die as its to strong, the same thing happened a few years ago in the WP plugin industry, they all got together, changed the terms and didn't honour past agreements, some of my "for life" plugins turned into "grandfather" in which i'd start paying again in 2 years, i felt betrayed as it was my premium price i paid that helped them get that strong advantage only to be bitten by it.
they think they survived but they didn't, just go to fiverr and you can get almost any $60USD plugin into your site for $5 ( i don't )
this must be a MASSIVE hidden dint in their sales, WHY, because they were greedy.
people like me NEED these paid plugins to do specific tasks and its worth paying a reasonable price for them, but most people don't NEED a nTLD given they haven't proven themselves on google yet imo
i suspect other nTLD owners are making huge decisions.
tim

 

[Data Glasses]

.com can only increase it's price by 10% a year .... it has a price cap, even then the U.S government seems to have a big say on pricing hikes

 

[Horshack]

This looks like the final cash grab on the new extensions before they fade away.

 

[snoopy]

forgetting this is domain names, the concept is flawed in any business.
is correct , would an electricity provider do this? no.

I think it is quite different because of the nature of the product. Unlikely electricity there isn't clear cut competition and the target market (defensive registrants) aren't even planning to use the product, they just want to stop others using it. That is a very unusual product.

FS is effectively detonating the domainer market to focus on those defensive registrations. Some of those defensive registration customers would have an ability to accept large price changes (perhaps not even notice them), I suspect he'll be better off after the changes and that other registries will follow.

 

[findtim]

i disagree, i've done the same analysis on my directory pricing models and it doesn't work.
less participants even though paying more leads to less market penitration and less brand recognition, you need to get a balance.

FS isn't looking at any of this, he's looking at an accountants spreadsheet.
in the short term whilst people decide it may keep it all alive but in the long term the tactic will fail, and owning a nTLD there is no exit strategy

 

[snoopy]

i disagree, i've done the same analysis on my directory pricing models and it doesn't work.
less participants even though paying more leads to less market penitration and less brand recognition, you need to get a balance.

FS isn't looking at any of this, he's looking at an accountants spreadsheet.
in the short term whilst people decide it may keep it all alive but in the long term the tactic will fail, and owning a nTLD there is no exit strategy

I think with this he is throwing in the towel on market penetration/brand awareness, think it is only about defensive registrations which probably doesn't need much promotion.

Long term if it seemed to be failing he could just go back to the old model and "grandfather" existing regs at the high prices. Extensions like .tv for example have played around with things like this over the years, changing the model, and they still get people coming back.

 

[snoopy]

.com can only increase it's price by 10% a year .... it has a price cap, even then the U.S government seems to have a big say on pricing hikes

I think that is it, it needs to be huge to get proper protection. Prices are frozen by the US Government at the moment but even .net did not get frozen, so that says something, .net prices look at be up around $10 now, about $1 more than .com. The extension needs to be critical to get government intervention and ensure adequate protection, even .net deemed not big enough. For ntlds nobody could care, it is the internet equivalent of the ghetto.

.Com.au is possibly similar to .com where the government would potentially step in if AUDA and Ausregistry started playing pricing games. Icann or AUDA aren't really going to help anyone, it needs government oversight.

 

[Scott7]

Yep, no price caps on these pesky New Gtld's means the registrant gets a raw deal

Uniregistry's new pricing:

LD / Current Price / Future Price
AUDIO $9.33 $100.00
BLACKFRIDAY $26.67 $100.00
CHRISTMAS $20.00 $50.00
CLICK $4.67 $7.00
DIET $13.33 $100.00
FLOWERS $17.67 $100.00
GUITARS $20.00 $100.00
HELP $13.33 $20.00
HIPHOP $13.33 $100.00
HOSTING $20.00 $300.00
JUEGOS $9.33 $300.00
LINK $6.67 $7.00
PICS $13.33 $20.00
PROPERTY $20.00 $100.00
SEXY $13.33 $40.00
TATTOO $20.00 $30.00

source

 

[Rhythm]

via circleid

Not All New gltd's Are The SameMax Menius – Mar 08, 2017 4:04 PM PST
It is very important to maintain perspective on this news. While it is a very poor business practice to subject registrants to unexpected fee hikes, the tld's affected are under-performing ones and have a relatively small user base.

Many of the new tld's are self-sustaining, profitable, and growing. There are unjustified critics of the new tld program who are rooting for its demise because they have a vested financial interest in legacy tld's like .com. Many of these people have large, costly portfolios of .com's that will never sell. Consequently, they are out today like chicken little proclaiming the sky is falling. It's not.

Uniregistry's renewal increase on a small group of unpopular tld's is not indicative of the future of all tld's. Some web addresses simply have better viability.

 

[Data Glasses]

They are gonna need to start marketing to endusers then it seems .....good luck with that
"Hello would you like to register a premium domain name for only $10,000 a year, it will help your business"

 

[findtim]

only $10,000 a year

EVERY YEAR

 

[Data Glasses]

EVERY YEAR

Kind of makes .com or local cctld a bit more appealing

 

[snoopy]

via circleid

Not really accurate because Uniregistry are putting up prices on their biggest tlds aswell. Those increases are much smaller but I would expect if the data points to large increases being worthwhile they'll be doing more substantial increases down the track, why wouldn't they? At the moment a big increases on a popular tld would be risky without having any data on possible effects.

 

[Rhythm]

So what about the gTLDs that are decreasing prices?

 

[snoopy]

So what about the gTLDs that are decreasing prices?

They'll probably need to increase them in year or two.

 

[snoopy]

They are gonna need to start marketing to endusers then it seems .....good luck with that
"Hello would you like to register a premium domain name for only $10,000 a year, it will help your business"

Endusers = domainers.

 

[findtim]

They'll probably need to increase them in year or two.

its really hard to bring a price UP once going down IMO

Endusers = domainers.

with so many gTLDs to choose from i can't see there being a good balance in these gTLD's any time in the near future.
tim

 

[snoopy]

its really hard to bring a price UP once going down IMO

These registries typically don't need to deal with customers though, aside from their registrars. It is not like they'll get a hundred phone calls from people complaining.