discuss Do you think GTLD registrars like .top and .xyz would come up with $1 renewals?

aditya agrawal · Feb 26, 2016

Many of us would have bought gtlds. Many of us do not approve registering those gtlds, few of us don't care if they register or not. This question is just a discussion if the registries should come up with $1 renewals to avoid heavy decline in the registered domains?

To start the discussion and add a perspective,here's what I feel.

1) We cannot ignore the fact that the current numbers in .xyz and .top is simply because of $1 giveaways.
So a person having a $100 spare would have bought 100 domains instead on 10. A few because he liked and others on speculation that they are only for a dollar, even if I flip it for $2, its 100% profit.

2) Considering the fact that there was a not a lot of movement in those domains and many of us do not have even a single sale to boast off. Today the same person will have to pay $1000 to renew them.

3) This could start a negative thought process about renewing the domains. that if buying $1000 worth of renewals, it would be wise to buy 100 6L 7L .com brandables and put them on brandbucket. Which would sound less riskier than renewing ngtlds which does not have a lot of movement right now.

4) So instead of renewing hundred domains, a person might renew 5 or 10 best ones and let the others go causing serious dip in number of registered domains and possible future renewal revenues.

So the question is should registries come up with $1 renewals to avoid heavy decline in the registered domains?

JayT · Feb 26, 2016

I think they will, maybe not right away, but as soon as a lot of domains start to drop.

That screenshot in your sig is pretty funny. The most funny part is that he put a reserve.

Kate · Feb 26, 2016

You know what happens with cheap regs: spam, scams, phishing etc
It's what we are seeing in .xyz .top .pw and some other extensions. It is a dangerous strategy to boost volume through cheap pricing. When a TLD has got a bad reputation, serious people will stay away.

But many of those domains will not be renewed anyway, they have a short shelf life. So I don't think $1 renewals is the answer.

What you are saying is very relevant, domainers don't think enough about the renewals. They usually want to flip before renewal. Most are not prepared to keep and renew.
It is inevitable that we are going to witness massive drops.

But the most important for a TLD is not to have huge numbers of registrations, even though there has to be critical mass... what is important is that enough bona fide development takes place.
Only development will enhance TLDs. The challenge is to convince end users to try and adopt them. This is difficult, so some registries are pursuing artificial growth strategies through zone stuffing, giveaways, cheap regs, to pretend that there is widespread interest and rapid adoption.
But this is not enough, the proof is that .tk has more regs than .de or .net. It's not a credible extension by virtue of being 'big'.

Kostas · Feb 26, 2016

Kate said:
It is a dangerous strategy to boost volume through cheap pricing.

I agree with you but without the spam and cheap registrations these tlds would be nothing.
The only chance to succeed (as a registry) with such a shitty tld is by creating a hype fueled by free and $1 registrations. They succeeded!

Lite · Feb 26, 2016

To offer $1 renewal is impossible for registries. It will never happen. $1 registrations are provided by them to mass market and they expect at-least 10-20% renewals. IMO upto $15 is a reasonable renewal fee.

brandnow · Feb 27, 2016

nGTLDs in an ideal world should cost the same as .com
no more and no less.. period. they should run the same promotions as .com, etc. However, this is not an ideal world and the clusterf**k with nGTLD pricing will continue.. just my 2 c

garptrader · Feb 27, 2016

What would happen to the registration stats if XYZ were to offer a 10 regs for a $1 campaign?

And then when the renewal cycle hit jacked up renewals to $25 each.

brandnow · Feb 28, 2016

garptrader said:
What would happen to the registration stats if XYZ were to offer a 10 regs for a $1 campaign?

And then when the renewal cycle hit jacked up renewals to $25 each.

Renewals are already $12 for .xyz, and $20 for .top, so honestly $25 is not too far off from reality.

garptrader · Feb 28, 2016

Since the new TLDs are starting to be viewed as cheap lottery tickets, perhaps a 10 for $1 promo might keep registration stats growing. Register 1000 domains for $100 and you have a year to sell enough at $XX on the forums to cover your initial cost. At renewal time, you drop all but the top 5% or less. Then you have massive drops and the cycle repeats.

aditya agrawal · Feb 29, 2016

JayT said:
I think they will, maybe not right away, but as soon as a lot of domains start to drop.

That screenshot in your sig is pretty funny. The most funny part is that he put a reserve.

The funnier part is that he invited his friends to shill bid and leave non-sense comments on the listings.

aditya agrawal · Feb 29, 2016

Kate said:
You know what happens with cheap regs: spam, scams, phishing etc
It's what we are seeing in .xyz .top .pw and some other extensions. It is a dangerous strategy to boost volume through cheap pricing. When a TLD has got a bad reputation, serious people will stay away.

But many of those domains will not be renewed anyway, they have a short shelf life. So I don't think $1 renewals is the answer.

What you are saying is very relevant, domainers don't think enough about the renewals. They usually want to flip before renewal. Most are not prepared to keep and renew.
It is inevitable that we are going to witness massive drops.

But the most important for a TLD is not to have huge numbers of registrations, even though there has to be critical mass... what is important is that enough bona fide development takes place.
Only development will enhance TLDs. The challenge is to convince end users to try and adopt them. This is difficult, so some registries are pursuing artificial growth strategies through zone stuffing, giveaways, cheap regs, to pretend that there is widespread interest and rapid adoption.
But this is not enough, the proof is that .tk has more regs than .de or .net. It's not a credible extension by virtue of being 'big'.

I agree with your point. Instead of giving away domains for free or spamming, they could rather invest in developing a few of them to reach the world markets. Building news.tech as a tech magazine and marketiing it will expose .tech to more end-users and hence automatically increase value within end-users and domain community alike.

aditya agrawal · Feb 29, 2016

Lite said:
To offer $1 renewal is impossible for registries. It will never happen. $1 registrations are provided by them to mass market and they expect at-least 10-20% renewals. IMO upto $15 is a reasonable renewal fee.

Its not really impossible I feel. Eventually the turnover would remain more or less the same. 10 domains for 10 each or 100 domains for 1 each. I feel more registrations and $1 renewals could increase the future predictions of the earnings. People would really not want to let go off a domain if its for a dollar only.

aditya agrawal · Feb 29, 2016

brandnow said:
Renewals are already $12 for .xyz, and $20 for .top, so honestly $25 is not too far off from reality.

$12 for an xyz is acceptable but $20 for a top is quite funny. I wonder how many are renewing.

garptrader said:
What would happen to the registration stats if XYZ were to offer a 10 regs for a $1 campaign?

And then when the renewal cycle hit jacked up renewals to $25 each.

Well I feel all of them would expire.

discuss Do you think GTLD registrars like .top and .xyz would come up with $1 renewals?

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