registries Breaking: Verisign announces .com price hike to $8.39

[koolishman]

.Com domain name registry Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) announced today that it will increase the wholesale price it charges registrars for .com registrations and renewals from $7.85 to $8.39. The price hike will go into effect on September 1, 2021.

https://domainnamewire.com/2021/02/11/breaking-verisign-announces-com-price-hike-to-8-39/

 

[DomainNature]

Why should a good single dictionary name be 'penalised' or charged more after the current system has been in place for 30-odd years?

Can you also imagine the implications of what defines a single dictionary word?

Which dictionary is the source?
And are we talking about british english, american english or another language etc.

An interesting idea but not fair or workable.

Hello, thanks for your input.
The idea is most for English dictionary which is 1st in domain registrations, however they should just make some versatile pricing adjustments on the go which i see for .world exist, the prices should be cheap for crappy names and huge for car, cars, hotel, hotels etc.
It's not fair for those names to have the same prices because they make allot of $$$ with them so the renewal should cost allot like for .car ands .cars, same thing with 2 word and no sense domains that bring 0 should cost cents to buy or renew, this will be fair for everyone.

 

[Mike Goodman]

It's not fair for those names to have the same prices because they make allot of $$$ with them so the renewal should cost allot like for .car ands .cars, same thing with 2 word and no sense domains that bring 0 should cost cents to buy or renew, this will be fair for everyone.

What you are arguing for is that the registries capitalise on premium names and in so doing push domainers out of business. The market is already headed in that direction. If you want to go broke sooner, carry on encouraging its acceleration.

 

[CraigD]

Hello, thanks for your input.
The idea is most for English dictionary which is 1st in domain registrations, however they should just make some versatile pricing adjustments on the go which i see for .world exist, the prices should be cheap for crappy names and huge for car, cars, hotel, hotels etc.
It's not fair for those names to have the same prices because they make allot of $$$ with them so the renewal should cost allot like for .car ands .cars, same thing with 2 word and no sense domains that bring 0 should cost cents to buy or renew, this will be fair for everyone.

Hi
We are talking specifically about .com

The point I was trying to make is that someone who purchased a great single-word .com name 20-years ago, should not have to pay more for renewal than someone who purchased a mediocre 2-word domain a couple of years ago, just because it is now judged to be more valuable.

As to your idea concerning other extensions, some registries do actually charge more to register premium one-word domains. There may be an increased renewal fee also, but I'm not sure. There are so many new extensions that have their own pricing policies.

 

[Mike Goodman]

There may be an increased renewal fee also

There is for some, certainly. I have no doubt at all the likes of GD and NetSol (.web group) will go the same way if, or more likely when, Verisign/ICANN give them the nod.

 

[DomainNature]

Sorry for my poor English, yes based on other gTLD's the prices should versatile for .COM registering and renewals, i have a couple with .world and the short word cost more to renew than the longer one, based on this it would be good to apply same with .COM version. But anyways this is just my poor idea the Verisign has their rules.

 

[Zilla]

there is no simple fair...people invest Single word .com Since 199*，they are lucky, and they also taking their own risk and cost at that time...we can not simply state it is unfair, and think they should pay more renew fee...that is really unfair and broken the contract/rule...

 

[CraigD]

Sorry for my poor English, yes based on other gTLD's the prices should versatile for .COM registering and renewals, i have a couple with .world and the short word cost more to renew than the longer one, based on this it would be good to apply same with .COM version. But anyways this is just my poor idea the Verisign has their rules.

It's really a moot point because you won't find a good one-word .com for registration

 

[Future Sensors]

Sorry for my poor English, yes based on other gTLD's the prices should versatile for .COM registering and renewals, i have a couple with .world and the short word cost more to renew than the longer one, based on this it would be good to apply same with .COM version. But anyways this is just my poor idea the Verisign has their rules.

It's the first time I hear this argument from someone who is not working at Verisign, PIR, or is a major shareholder in VRSN (like Warren Buffett with his investing company). Still unsure why you are in favor of premium tiers in .com .net and .org - I disagree that this would be a good thing.

 

[CraigD]

...Now please explain to me exactly what it is that domain companies are offering us that has to cost so much in the first place never mind all the price increases.

In my opinion if we pay $20 for a domain name we should own it for life or until it's transferred to someone else who then will have to pay a one time fee of $20 for the transfer without having to pay any renewal fees after that. I don't believe that there should be any renewal charges (just the transfer fees), but if there has to be some renewal charges they shouldn't be more than a dollar or two which comes to around 10 to 20 percent of the original cost of registering a new .com domain name.

I'm sure that the ARPANET guys who invented the domain name space had no concept of what it would evolve into. I suppose that it was decided from the outset that it would be a bad idea to assign names permanently for all sorts of seen and unforeseen legal reasons.

When I purchased my first couple of names from Network Solutions back in the 90's, they cost a fortune to buy and renew - around $100, so I consider prices today to be comparatively cheap.

If you look at it from an end-user perspective (domains were meant to be used, not hoarded or traded) the modern cost of a domain name to run a business and reach the world is peanuts.

IMO

 

[CraigD]

^^
Sorry, I didn't completely answer your question above.

We are paying for the infrastructure and oversight to keep the wheels rolling. I imagine that we will pay still more in the future as the industry becomes more regulated.

I do agree that renewal fees are too high in comparison to registration fees, but I guess that this is where the registrars get to make a dollar (or more) for themselves in a free market.

 

[oldtimer]

We are paying for the infrastructure and oversight to keep the wheels rolling.

Don't forget about that 25 cents that is added to each domain registration that is supposed to go towards maintaining security and infrastructure and creating more opportunities for the masses.

I don't mean to be too hard on the .com Registry here and I believe that people should be rewarded for their innovations, discoveries, and inventions, but what exactly is it that the Registry is innovating, discovering, or inventing here that justifies the orginal registration fees and the subsequent renewal charges.

Although the 10 or 20 dollars that a company or business has to pay for their domain might be insignificant to them, but the money that is generated by 150 million .com renewals at $7.89 which comes to around a billion dollars a year is not peanuts.

So why is there still a need yet for another 80 million dollars or so in the form of price increases (and the ones that might happen in the future).

I don't necessarily want to stop the flow of the money to the Registry,

I just want to make sure that the majority of the revenue generated goes toward benefiting the registrants and the digital community.

IMO

 

[Future Sensors]

Don't forget about that 25 cents that is added to each domain registration that is supposed to go towards maintaining security and infrastructure and creating more opportunities for the masses.

An important reason for creating this ICANN fee was to create funding for ICANN lawyers, to defend the ICANN organization.

 

[CraigD]

Don't forget that the US government would also take a cut of the huge figures being quoted, as taxes.

EDIT: excuse me for playing the Devil's advocate here. I have often asked myself the same questions.

 

[oldtimer]

Don't forget that the US government would also take a cut of the huge figures being quoted, as taxes.

I have no problem with the current fees (or Taxes if you want to call them that) as long as the revenue generated goes towards benefiting the people.

The real problem here is the watchdog groups who are supposed to look after things like this which unfortunately it seems like they might have been compromised.

Sometimes it seems like the whole domain Industry is operating more like a mafia organization than a technology oriented Industry that wants to serve the people through innovation and creating new opportunities for the masses.


IMO

 

[Mytz.com]

Price rises again

 

[zomainhacks]

The problem is that for some reasons the Americans have decided to give something fundamental for the Web as .com to a private company.

My country of birth hasn't changed the price of its country TLD since forever.

What I paid in 2005 is what I pay today to register or renew the domain (5€)

Ask me why?

Because the government gave the registry to a non-profit national research entity. That's common sense....

Why this should be common sense? It seems to me just communism in the domaining sauce.

 

[DomainNature]

I suspect the real price of domains bought from Verisign by different Registrars cost cents, but the price we see 7.85$ and ICANN 0.18$ fees are for the public eye.
This is based on the fact that registrars can do huge discounts, i doubt they pay from their own pocket to make the discount.
Recently NameCheap did a big discount of .COM domains transfer to them which i can say it is a very tempting offer and hard to revoke, but i could see the reason behind it, that is why i skipped the offer.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

This should be known, but I can't seem to find the answer. Is the 7% increase, and then the 3 more 7% increases in subsequent years, only for .com, or are .net prices also going up. Thanks if someone knows.
Bob

 

[Mike Goodman]

DNW's Andrew Alleman has just released a great podcast,
Verisign’s .com printing press – DNW Podcast #329 in wh8ch he interviews monopoly expert David Dayen about Verisign's dominant market position.
https://domainnamewire.com/2021/03/15/verisigns-com-printing-press-dnw-podcast-329/

Mike Mann responded with a link to another article, this time in the CircleD newsletter, on a related monpoly issue regarding Verisign.
https://www.circleid.com/posts/president_of_buydomainscom_responds_to_wls_issue

All interesting stuff. Where are the great societal benefits from laisez-faire the Chicago school economists promised? And which politicians from Thatcher and Reagan onwards have lauded as though some form of enlightened gospel? And where are the \USA authorities in preventing or stopping such abuses of market power?