new gtlds What are your '.best' domain names?

Thanks for the long explanation however it makes zero sense in that how can names which at the time of registration (regardless of the date) were not said to be premium and then the regular prices renew today at anything other than whatever the current regular renewal cost is?

If this practice is okay why is it I have never seen any other registry doing it? I had non-premium names in dozens of tlds over the years and in 100% of the cases I could renew at whatever the latest renewal cost is? Why have the other registry's or registrars not done this before? Is it something they can start doing?

P.S. When you say help get a discount do you mean going from say $80 to $60 or $80 to $40 or ...? What are the requirements to qualify and the maximum percentage discount which is possible?

namemarket said:

Thanks for the long explanation however it makes zero sense in that how can names which at the time of registration (regardless of the date) were not said to be premium and then the regular prices renew today at anything other than whatever the current regular renewal cost is?

If this is okay with ICANN why is it I have never seen any other registry doing it? I had non-premium names in dozens of tlds over the years and in 100% of the cases, I could renew at whatever the latest renewal cost is? Why have the other registry's not done this before? Is it something they can start doing?

P.S. When you say help get a discount do you mean going from say $80 to $60 or $80 to $40 or ...?
What are the requirements to qualify and the maximum percentage discount which is possible?

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Like I said earlier, all registries have the right to modify their premium list according to their RRA and almost all registries did it already and many times.

The difference, here, is that we did it (changed our premium list) at the same time that we changed our standard pricing, - and so this is why there is probably confusion on your side. It's even write in most RRA that a registry is able to modify its premium list (In our RRA, for instance, we can even do it twice a year upon notification to our registrars).

But once again, don't mix-up the change of status of a domain with the change of price of a domain.

This are 2 different things. In your specific case, there was no price change in your "old" domains.

As for the discount, email me the list of domains that you reg before 5th Feb 2019 and that you would like to renew, for how many years and with which registrar and I can work to get you a discount on renewal with a registrar. The discount will depend on the registrar.

The longest you want to secure your renewals, the biggest discount I can get for you.

Let me know by email.

All the .Best,

So let me get this straight Cyril. Are you now implying the $80 names before Feb 2019 have since been reclassified as now being premium? If you did that of course it is not a good practice.

The main question remains unanswered. Here it is again. "If in fact they are still standard renewal non-premium names how can these domains which at the time of registration (regardless of the date) were not said to be premium and then at regular or standard prices possibly not renew today (if they never expired) at anything other than whatever the current regular renewal cost is?

As far as I know in 20 years and dozens of tlds .best is the only registry who has done this. Anywhere else when you reg a standard non-premium name at the regular price it can be renewed at any time for whatever the current regular renewal cost it. Is that not correct?

I also don't know another such cases for non-premium domains...

And what other registrants did or do (1,3,5 or 10 years renewal ahead) - doesn't matter at all here, their problems only.

And for comparison: .ONE was also sold in Dec'2018...
But absolutely no any changes in their price policy.

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I am selling Server.Best , PM ME if anyone interested.

OnlineDomainShop said:

I am selling Server.Best , PM ME if anyone interested.

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DM me

Winning.Best

Cyril.Best said:

Like I said earlier, all registries have the right to modify their premium list according to their RRA and almost all registries did it already and many times. The difference, here, is that we did it (changed our premium list) at the same time that we changed our standard pricing....,,

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How can you in-effect increase renewal prices by switching a standard reg name to a new premium status if it never expired? If that can be done why are others not doing it? The uncertainty is a big negative for those planning on keeping and renewing, or buying new .best names, assuming you can do it again in future.

If I knew .com or .org or other tlds could do that any benefit I may get from difficult SEO work or Development would be lost (and I would likely exit the business) because if the registry realizes the names are now more valuable they can modify status to premium with a high renewal fee at anytime or any reason.

Thank you for the effort you have put into responding here, and elsewhere, @Cyril.Best. We are fortunate that NamePros is a community where an individual domainer can interact with even registry CEOs.

While I see some logic to your argument @Cyril.Best that you are supposedly not increasing renewal rates from those known at the time of registration (i.e. domains registered before the price announcement carry the $70 ish renewal, and those after the new standard rates (unless they were purchased as a higher priced premium domain name) renew at the lower standard rate, I think the confusion of such a structure, not known in other TLDs to my knowledge, is a definite negative as @namemarket points out:

namemarket said:

The uncertainty is a big negative for those planning on keeping and renewing, or buying new .best names

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The most important thing for both registry and domainers is clarity and as much certainty as possible. I would have thought that is better achieved by making all renewal (except those which were always premium purchase and renewal) at standard rates. Also, to not designate any domain names as premium while they are continually registered. Once a domain name expires, by all means designate it to as now premium if you wish and set the tier for purchase and renewal.

I am appreciative that at least for those purchased after the price announcement at discounted rates that there is a clear statement standard renewal (until the name expires).

Cyril.Best said:

"A .best standard domain name with a registration date after Feb 5, and was registered at the standard discounted rate of a few dollars retail, should not now be designated premium and should have the standard renewal rate." : 100% correct !

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Would this be a good time for me to point out that I am the registrant for clearly (.best) ? While appreciating the clarity added so far, I hope that the renewal and premium status of .best can be made even more clear and simple for all to understand. It will help us sell .best and ultimately help the registry with more registrations and more renewals.

All the .best,

Bob

Cyril.Best said:

on the last 3 months we had a global renewal rate up to 90%.

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Were just xx - low xxx expired/renewed domains within last 3 months.

Next year in case of thousands - you will see Renewal rate no higher than 33%.
My forecast.

Jurgen Wolf said:

....Next year in case of thousands - you will see Renewal rate no higher than 33%. My forecast.

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Possibly even less than 33% starting Feb/Mar 2020 when 1000s will be expiring. If renewals were say $3 to $5 the rate should be healthy but at $18 (and paying double cost of com) it's difficult to justify renewing (based on looking at recent misc stats) except for true premiums.

First, thanks for your feedback and sorry to no being able to answer on a daily basis at NP but as you know the journey of an entrepreneur is not always as it is supposed to be, and so please allow me a few days during each post to answer correctly if anything goes wrong and don’t hesitate to contact me directly by email ([email protected]) for an urgent matter related to your renew, sales or whatever can be an issue for you and your .Best domains.

I am even open to those who want to set a conf call with me or our .best team (Bob I give you the hand on this if you want one day to even set-up a linkedin live for instance) in order to be able to ask us directly all the questions you want (even the bad ones) related to the .Best registry.

No question is a taboo for us: we are 100% transparent on our strategy and I get your point about more clarity for the future. It’s all my fault to not having be there to probably explain things before our price change.

That said, let's now go back to the core problem with some renewals :

I am not here to explain you why we are confident about our .best registrations, renewals, strategy, … (For the registry, you can check it by yourself : https://ntldstats.com/tld/best), but I just want to give you details about the real impact of our price change for registrants on renewals and how I can help you to fix it for any remaining problems.

Numbers :

5th Feb 2019, (just after the NAMESCON LAS VEGAS) on 5th Feb, we informed and notified all our registrars about our price change while we were at almost 5100 live domains

Now let’s get in details of those 5100 live domains.

1st nov 2018, we were at almost 2800 domains.

Actually we have a monthy renewal rate that is up to 90% on those domains (it was 92% in July and 95% in August), means that +90 % of all those 2800 domains registered before 1st nov 2018 have been already and will continue to be renewed at $70 wholesale by registrants like they did since many years. Could still of course have exception in the future but not at scale. Some registrants have even already renewed their portfolio in advance for 10 years.

Means that in fact, the real price change impact is for domains registered from 1st nov 2018 and 5th Feb 2019 = almost 2300 domains.

From 1st nov 2018 and 31st Jan 2019, we offered a wholesale registration price at $7 to our registrants with almost all our registrars BUT also offer the opportunity to registrants to secure their renewal price on a multi-year promotion at $7 also. A lot of registrants did it. In fact, 50% of those 2300 domains were already renewed and secured for many years by registrants.

So, basically, the impact on renewals for domains registered before 5th Feb 2019, « only » concerned at least less than 1500 domains.

So if you are the owner of one or more of those 1500 domains, like I said earlier, I can help you to reduce your renewal price if you are able to renew them in advance with one of our registrars.

For the moment, only one domainer contacted me and I am working with a registrar to get him the best discount (close to the $15 wholesale per year and per domain).

So don’t hesitate if you need any help, just send me the .Best domain portfolio and I will be happy to assist you to get you the best renewal price.

As for .Best strategy, I appreciated your feedback, share part of them on future renewals but as for .best, we broke our number of daily new registration today, (+500 new registration today), we are not in China , and our .Best strategy is based on giving a real usage to each registered .best domain mainly through THE.Best social network coz at the end of the day only usage will give a domain a real value both for registrants and domainers (and not because you can renew it at $3, $5 - even for a domainer).

Usage is the key: not price! Ask apple

And usage at scale is the way to be successful - but that’s another story that is now coming live with THE.Best social network in the next months after 2 years of hard work.

So, don’t hesitate to contact me for any assistance.

All the .Best

CF

many offer received

Dealing.Best

I LOVE .Best

DomainFQ.com said:

many offer received

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Awesome!