new gtlds 16 new TLDs will get price increases of up to 3,000%

[Shimmy]

Uniregistry is to massively increase the price of some of its under-performing new gTLDs in an effort to keep them afloat.

Sixteen TLDs from the company’s portfolio of 27 will see price increases of up to 3,000% starting September 8, CEO Frank Schilling confirmed to DI today.

Link to article:
http://domainincite.com/21603-schilling-big-price-increases-needed-to-keep-new-gtlds-alive

 

[MapleDots]

can't and wont trust any registrar that changes their pricing that drastically

They are just creating uncertainty in the new extension marketplace - they are just shooting themselves in the foot

I would say in the arse... Are we allowed to say that?

 

[HotKey]

How are higher prices going to bring more registrations, if the majority of registrants are domainers? The current registraions won't be sustainable nor favourable, causing massive drops. Renewing your domain for ten years before this kicks in in September? Yeah right, what stand-up suggestion.

This is going to put a roadblock on any momentum the new G's had gained in those strings. It will drive domainers to invest in other TLDs. You can't just increase the price of crappy performing TLDs and now suddenly they become a worthy investment because the registry says its so. It is us, the investors, entrepreneurs and professionals whom ultimately determine the value.

They don't need higher prices. They need more sales, and better quality TLDs. So either scrap the TLD, or lower the prices and market them. Make them exciting. As exciting as you can make .flowers, anyways.

 

[hullswingerscom]

be interesting to see any big sale of ngtld from place like Sedo like the few we had in the past.
and how will past buyers think now who paid over $$$$

 

[SpareDomains]

Feel bad for domainers that were "all in" on some of these as investments. I sit on an aged 99.9% .com portfolio so never considered these for investment as didn't need to since I'm old I bought 1 .domains strictly cause a hack for one of my developed sites. My stance since the beginning was a couple kinda make sense and will gain some traction but the majority will fail. I've talked to end user buyers since 2003 and 99.9% of every domain name I've sold or acquired for them has been .com.

 

[hullswingerscom]

Feel bad for domainers that were "all in" on some of these as investments. I sit on an aged 99.9% .com portfolio so never considered these for investment as didn't need to since I'm old I bought 1 .domains strictly cause a hack for one of my developed sites. My stance since the beginning was a couple kinda make sense and will gain some traction but the majority will fail. I've talked to end user buyers since 2003 and 99.9% of every domain name I've sold or acquired for them has been .com.

looks like you need to be in your teens to invest in ngtld

 

[DomainVP]

Farewell gTLDs, it's been real fun.

 

[anantj]

The best part of the quote in my earlier comment is below the "click to expand". Let me repost that brief section here instead, in case folks missed it:



(emphasis added)

Doesn't this make the current price increase illegal? Or was this a non-binding commitment?

 

[betthelot]

Doesn't this make the current price increase illegal? Or was this a non-binding commitment?

Remember ICANN have no teeth. They would have to enforce any breach of contract. Not going to happen. It's the Wild West of domains.

 

[Wass]

DONUTS decreases pricing for .Business and .Company & UNIREGISTRY increases prices for 16 nGTLDs.

 

[hugegrowth]

Seems like most new gtlds either have to be priced super cheap 99 cents or now super expensive. Why not just $10 like .com? Have to say this can only be good for the legacy tlds

 

[4pm]

interesting that apparently their analysis showed that higher rates would still bring higher revenues even though it's quite clear that the number of registered names would decline dramatically.
i mean while increasing prices 10 times they obviously expect that the total regs will not fall below 1/10 of the current levels so the revs will be still better than now.

i dont personally own any of their tlds but would be interested to hear from those who do what % of their holdings they intend to keep after new rates are in effect...

 

[DU]

"Because the new prices don’t kick in until September, registrants are able to lock in pricing at current levels by renewing for up to 10 years."
It looks like current regs are not grandfathered into to any sort of price lock and will face the higher renewal costs if not renewed before September.

The registry is required to keep uniformity of prices. They can't grandfather in prior registrations but they can make you pay extra for something you've already paid for (hence you renew now at the cheaper price).

regulated domain extensions.

Do you have a list and links that reference said regulations?

Remember ICANN have no teeth. They would have to enforce any breach of contract. Not going to happen. It's the Wild West of domains.

ICANN had no bearing or role in that "contract" promise.

interesting that apparently their analysis showed that higher rates would still bring higher revenues even though it's quite clear that the number of registered names would decline dramatically.
i mean while increasing prices 10 times they obviously expect that the total regs will not fall below 1/10 of the current levels so the revs will be still better than now.

i dont personally own any of their tlds but would be interested to hear from those who do what % of their holdings they intend to keep after new rates are in effect...

I'm sure the idea is to force 10 year renewals get good names dropped... then play with pricing again to net +ve cash flow (if possible on these extensions that are particularly bad).

 

[NigelD]

I think this action will be a killer blow to the ngtlds. However good you might think an extension sounds - you'll be completely at the mercy of the registries in the future. So who in their right mind would invest all their time and effort building a website on an ngtld. This sentence from the article hardly gives you any confidence:

"But we need to get to 10 years, and to keep the lights on between here and there we need higher prices..."

so you're being asked to pay higher fees to "keep the lights on".

Uniregistry stats for its ngtld string is already looking pretty grim. Of the 24 ngtlds shown on the ntldstats site there are only 873k registrations with 222k (that's 25%) already showing in 'upcoming deletes' status.

 

[dordomai]

more of this will happen.. a lot of registries are not profitable and need to fight for their survival. the number of strings is greater than the market demand.

domainers will get crushed in the battle between registries.

 

[LucidDomains]

I do feel sorry for anyone who has invested heavily in ngtlds.

 

[nomen]

What amazes me the most is why domaining super star FS applied for such bad strings in the first place. .SEXY, .HIPHOP, .CHRISTMAS, .BLACKFRIDAY, .GUITARS. What.

 

[NigelD]

Agree with you there LucidDomains. And agree with nomen - some of these new ngtlds were so shockingly bad - how could they have ever have got off the ground. But we've all made bad investments in the past. Hopefully most of these domainers are young enough to learn from this experience.

 

[Alvaron]

I'm starting to finally see a decent amount of gTLD domains used in advertising ... When the ship tries to leave the port they're giving it a "good luck" torpedo?

Thankfully those aren't the most interesting gTLDs, as long as the others don't follow this example

 

[betthelot]

Y

I'm starting to finally see a decent amount of gTLD domains used in advertising ... When the ship tries to leave the port they're giving it a "good luck" torpedo?

Thankfully those aren't the most interesting gTLDs, as long as the others don't follow this example

You don't understand the cat has been let out the bag. These nGTLDs are able to screw you at any time and by any means of their choosing. Their are no price controls or caps, it's the Wild West. Where as dot Com is restricted at inflation increases unlike these names. This is now in the public domain, it's a game changer.

 

[dordomai]

I think the most important part of the article is where Schilling said he prefers the pricing model of a flat $2,888 per year for every domain like he did with .cars, .car and .auto

There is a chance that is where the pricing is going for all his domains. He can do 3,000% increases year after year

i think for some extensions with low reg numbers this could well be the future.

A lot of money is made from protective regs. Large TM holders like Amazon for example don't mind paying 6 figures a month to protect their mark and once they register a domain they will keep renewing it forever.

with just 1000 regs you can make a cool $3 million a year

This model could well be the future for some extensions. It's actually pretty good, like a license to print money forever, selling domains that no one ever uses, selling to corporations with so much money that they don't care.

If the entire registry gets just 3k regs from TM holders @ 3k/year each that would be $9 million/year.

it is also more stable income than depending on domainers that need to be kept hopeful and entertained to keep paying for renewals.

https://gwhois.org/bing.cars+dns
https://gwhois.org/microsoft.cars+dns
https://gwhois.org/mazda.cars+dns
https://gwhois.org/microsoft.christmas+dns

 

[GeorgeK]

Given the massive expected domain name deletions, Uniregistry shall henceforth be referred to as Punyregistry.

 

[betthelot]

Given the massive expected domain name deletions, Uniregistry shall henceforth be referred to as Punyregistry.

Haha
Back in 2013 and he said he will be the biggest registry in the world. Fonyregistry..

 

[Silentptnr]

I heard that along with the price increases, FS will be offering domainers financing to help with the increases.

 

[carob]

Luniregistry.

The loony bin of domaining.

 

[dordomai]

Verisign executives are popping the champagne right now probably.

could become a new marketing slogan: ".com the only TLD that doesn't screw you over.."