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Frank Schilling Increasing New gTLD Prices 3,000%

Discussion in 'Domain Industry News' started by dog, Mar 7, 2017.

  1. dog

    dog Active Member

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    http://domainincite.com/21603-schilling-big-price-increases-needed-to-keep-new-gtlds-alive
     
  2. Domain Forum

    Acorn Domains Elite Member

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    IWA Meetup
     
  3. philiporchard United Kingdom

    philiporchard Well-Known Member

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    Ouch... not for the faint hearted!
     
  4. Edwin

    Edwin Well-Known Member

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    That's the end of the new GTLD right there, because their ICANN agreement (different from .com) allows any registry operator to do the same.

    You'd have to be bonkers to renew for a decade to beat the price rise, since there's nothing to stop the prices going up again and again - who would dare buy them on the aftermarket under those conditions?
     
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  5. dog

    dog Active Member

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    A registrant could renew for all those years, then the registry could decide to steal the domain from you.
     
  6. Edwin

    Edwin Well-Known Member

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    Exactly. The new GTLD are like a frontier town in the Wild West: the rule of law is weak, and malleable.

    This was a known problem, by the way - it's just that none of the registries exploited it until now...
     
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  7. RobM

    RobM Retired Member

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    Lol only in the domain industry do you raise prices due to a lack of demand. How to make worthless extensions that nobody wants even more worthless.
     
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  8. Edwin

    Edwin Well-Known Member

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    It's a case of "take the money, and run run run..."

    If 10% of their customer base renews for 10 years, that's a gush of cash equal to the current annual rev rate. And that looks good if they then want to turn around and try and sell the right to the extension to a different new GTLD player.
     
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  9. dog

    dog Active Member

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    Good analogy.

    Actually Donuts raised prices and several others marked domains as premiums after the fact.

    Totally wrong move by Frank. He's creating chaos and instability, this will be a domino effect.

    New gtld registrations are going to get massacred this year.

    It's a scare tactic to renew out.

    How can you sell these when investors and end users don't want them? :)

     
  10. martin-s United Kingdom

    martin-s Well-Known Member

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    All good news for reinforcing that .com and the other established extensions are the best homes for your website.

    I almost added .co.uk, but who trusts Nominet not to continue to screw that up?
     
  11. dog

    dog Active Member

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    Yup! Why would you use anything else?

    .UK seems minor issue.

    Real question for Nominet... Is running backend for MMX and Automattic making them lose money?

     
  12. dog

    dog Active Member

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    Godaddy has dropped support for Uniregistry Domains.



    -Mike McLaughlin, Godaddy GM of Domains.

    https://www.acorndomains.co.uk/threads/godaddy-drops-uniregistry-domains.146176/

    What registrars are next? :)
     
  13. getmein United States

    getmein Active Member

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    It makes Nominet look like a benign dictator.

    I do wonder if FS will decide to backtrack, it's a big deal to lose such a big distribution partner.
    The decision not to grandfather existing registrants is an error because it creates an uncertainty of pricing across the whole programme. If the current rate of new registrations is so low that they've discounted grandfathering as being too costly, then it suggests some of these namespaces are already on life support.

    I understand the rationale to increase the prices to try and make the numbers work but the problem with some of the G's continues to be a fundamental one, a lot of these strings can never generate the demand to either become well known in their own right or to sustain themselves as a standalone entity. The appeal of .blackfriday is so limited both in terms of people who might be interested (brand.blackfriday) and words that actually work with the extension, that it's clear some of these extensions are doomed. One thing to have prices rise 3000% another to just have the namespace disappear because no one else wants to rescue it.

    The pricing pivot, suggests that they were overly optimistic about registrations. But when the registries have tried to capture value from registrations, premium registrations and their own name hoarding - they've probably been a little too greedy. I suspect this is the beginning of many pivots to try and make these operations successful.
     
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  14. dog

    dog Active Member

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  15. RobM

    RobM Retired Member

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    A good example of greedy registries being screwed by their greedy provider. It was obvious that *most* new gtlds would fail - less would fail if it hadn't cost so much in the first place and ongoing to maintain them but their paymasters don't care and want to take as much money off these sucke...erm..business men. End result - icann loadsamoney... registrars 2 years and bankruptcy... consumer nil.
     
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  16. dog

    dog Active Member

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    Agree, but I'm sure a lot of people will.

    Thought about this.... yeah I think Frank Schilling's plan was to scarce investors into renewing out @Edwin. Then sell the extension, because he knows these aren't worth it.

    All new G registries will have cashflow problems this year. So who will buy?

    Do people realize Schilling spends millions buying .COM still? :)

     
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  17. dog

    dog Active Member

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    Yup!

    WebNames.ca
     
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  18. woopwoop United States

    woopwoop Well-Known Member

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    Rules and assurances will come into effect because of this but some registries also dropped their prices massively (Boston Ivy). I think even a slash in prices doesn't help maintain customer confidence either.

    At the end of the day, the registries who provide the guarantees and stable and reasonable pricing are the ones that will stick around and grow and possibly thrive.

    I used to have lots of .co.uk's and the introduction of .uk really kicked the aftermarket. I'm down to 30 .co.uk's (and some .uk's) I think. I've been out of the UK market for a while and so am not sure about domainer and end user sentiment.

    In terms of gTLDs, I'm invested in .NYC where I live/work now, and it feels solid. No swings in the pricing and it's supported by the city government. This NYC website directory shows the cross section using .NYC. I think you have to take each gTLD on it's own merit and risks.

    If I was in the UK opening a bike shop, I might go for a company.bikes gTLD. Why not? SEO? Maybe, but there would still be work to do on a somename.com website to get it to rank well... plus how many bikes am I selling online? Probably none. So if I wanted a memorable website, I could be proud of handing over my company.bikes name on a business card to my potential customers - it might give me an edge in them remembering my business.

    I believe that although some gTLDs will die, the mass release of them and registrations over time have slowly been chipping away at .com and customers have options that provide meaning, brand extension and the opportunity to get the keyword/name that they want on the left of the dot, that is out of reach with a .com.
     
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  19. dog

    dog Active Member

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    .bikes is not an extension. You've just shown the problem with new gTLDs.

    Even people on domain forums can't remember .whatever correctly. :)

    Apply for .bikes in the next round?

     
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  20. woopwoop United States

    woopwoop Well-Known Member

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    Nope you misunderstand. I'm glad it wasn't an extension for the purpose of making my point about the possibility of .anything and how if it is relevant to the business then it has value in branding and in forming a memorable domain.

    @dog, I don't even have a bike shop or any plan to open one... did I forget that too! :)
     
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  21. dog

    dog Active Member

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    So you believe using fake extensions to prove points helps the new gTLD argument? o_O
     
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