EnCirca solicits .pro questions

[EnCirca]

Several customers have been contacting EnCirca recently asking questions about .pro.

I would be happy to answer any questions you have.

Feel free to submit your questions here in this forum.

After a few days, I will compile all of the questions received and try to answer each one.

Our response will be distributed to all .pro customers.

Best regards,

Tom Barrett
President
EnCirca

 

[sky]

Thanks Tom! Here are my questions.

1. How confident are you that ICANN will renew the .pro TLD? Why?
Do you have any firsthand knowledge of ICANN's opinions regarding
the .pro domain and how 2nd-level .pro domains are being used?

People here have mentioned that EnCirca has interpreted the
qualifications of .pro registration in a way that gets around some of the
draconian limitations that have hobbled the TLD.

Multiple sources have also said this has never been addressed by ICANN
or Registry.pro. Is that true? If it has been discussed, what can you
tell us about it?

2. If ICANN is likely to continue the .pro domain, what changes do you
anticipate, if any? If ICANN were to decide not to renew the .pro domain,
wouldn't there be serious fallout, and a number of businesses harmed?

Do you have any information from ICANN about the disposition of .pro
that you can share? I know Registry.pro says ICANN is sympthetic
and supportive. Can you shed any further light on that from EnCirca's
own interactions with ICANN?

3. There seems to be no enforcement of 2nd-level domain qualification
besides self-certification at EnCirca. It also seems many 2nd-level domains
cannot be challenged. And there is a LOT of confusion in the community
about this. Do you think ICANN has any choice but to grandfather
many registrants in at this point?

Many 2nd level .pro domains couldn't be effectively challenged anyway.

For example, if I register "airbreathing.pro," who could dispute that I'm
I'm a professional airbreather?

Or even less challengeable, "fnordgorkling.pro". Far be it from me
to insist someone is not a qualified fnordgorkler.

Or a slightly more complicated case... What would qualify one to own
car.pro? Being a curator of a car museum? Designing cars? Building them?
Fixing them? Marketing them?

Do you have any thoughts or insights into this?

4. What are EnCirca's current long term goals with the .pro domain and
What is EnCirca doing to promote the .pro domains?

I think a lot of people would love to have a .pro domain name, and would
if they knew about them and where to register them. Most don't
event know .pro exists, or is viable. Others know, but are scared
by the strict or even weird rules, the cost, or the longterm viability
of .pro as a TLD.

An example of not being able to find out about .pro is that I couldn't
figure out where to register a 2nd level .pro when I heard about them.
Google was no help, leading me to sites with long scrolls of
words about the rules and the 3rd level domain qualifications and
registration process.

Someone on NamePros.com led me to EnCirca.

 

[akcampbell]

1) How is the $99 registration fee split between Encirca and Registry.pro?
2) What proposals have Registry.pro made to ICANN is relation to widening the number of professions and countries eligible to register .pro?
3) What is the logic behind UK, US, Germany, and Canada professionals not being able to register second level .pros unless they have two professions and a third level .pro?
4) Why do you think Registry.pro have registered some of the best second level .pros themselves when they already have suitable third level .pros ( eg Doctor.pro => med.pro Lawyer.pro => law.pro)
5) On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being Very Poor and 10 being Excellent, how do you rate Registry.pro's performance in promoting the .pro extension since it took over responsibility for the registry.
6) What do you think Registry.pro could do that they aren't currently doing to better promote the extension?
7) Why do you think the number of .pros registered hasn't changed in the last 2 years?
8) Why not remove all restrictions on the .pro extension and cut the registration fee to $10 in line with other TLD's?
9) How safe are Encirca's proxy .pro registrations? Could Registry.pro ever claw all the domains back? If they were clawed back, would Encirca compensate customers for the unexpired portion of their registrations?
10) Wouldn't a bigger registrar like Godaddy be better placed to grow the number of .pros registered and promote the extension?

 

[seeker]

Hi Tom, and thanks for getting in touch with us.
A lot of the main questions were already asked, so I'll add a one specific question.

1) Do you think that the registry will expand its country base by allowing individuals and/or companies from other countries register .pro domains?
Why was it restricted to 4 countries in 2 continents? Why not Japan, Australia, or other countries in the EU for example, what was the logic behind that?

 

[srisri24]

Hi Tom,

I am a fan of .pro

I own a few domains at encirca. And planning to register more. I am just wondering, have you got any plans to lower the registration or renewal fee? Or any discount coupons?

Srisri24

 

[stscac]

It's great to have a representative from Encirca on board. I look forward to hearing your responses to questions that our members have posed.

-Steve

 

[Ben42]

Excellent questions, I am looking forward to the responses Tom.

 

[DomainMayhem.com]

I too am eager to hear the answers to all of the excellent questions posed.

 

[akcampbell]

Tom, any news on this?

 

[EnCirca]

Update on .pro

Dear .pro fans,

I have not forgotton about promising to respond to your questions. I have decided to delay our response for a very good reason.

We hear that RegistryPro and ICANN are close to a preliminary concensus on relaxing the restrictions regarding .pro domain names. EnCirca supports these changes as a positive step forward for the .pro domain. In the up-coming weeks, look for a "call for public comment" from ICANN regarding these .pro changes.

I think these changes will ease many of your concerns about the future of .pro. This will also be your opportunity to address your questions directly to ICANN and RegistryPro about .pro.

best regards,

Tom Barrett
EnCirca

 

[Fundraiser]

Dear .pro fans,

I have not forgotton about promising to respond to your questions. I have decided to delay our response for a very good reason.

We hear that RegistryPro and ICANN are close to a preliminary concensus on relaxing the restrictions regarding .pro domain names. EnCirca supports these changes as a positive step forward for the .pro domain. In the up-coming weeks, look for a "call for public comment" from ICANN regarding these .pro changes.

I think these changes will ease many of your concerns about the future of .pro. This will also be your opportunity to address your questions directly to ICANN and RegistryPro about .pro.

best regards,

Tom Barrett
EnCirca

Tom,

Thanks for the intriguing news. If you have any more specifics (and it seems by your post that you might) it would surely be appreciated by all of us EnCirca customers (below is about $1,500 of annual EnCirca business ).

 

[namewaiter]

intriguing indeed!

 

[stscac]

It has indeed been quite some time without answers.

I'm looking forward to hearing the responses that our members have posted.

-Steve

 

[bocanames]

It's tough to be patient. But I think we all understand how Tom cannot afford to say things that are not yet agreed upon, or are still being negotiated. I recommend looking around http://cosmetics.pro for some gift ideas while waiting. Hopefully we'll all get a nice holiday gift in the form of explicit ICANN support for a substantially less restricted registration policy.

 

[Ben42]

I hope encirca doesn't decide, hmmm, look at all the names we registered! lol "If you want to register the .pro names we're forwarding there will be a "slight" fee." ! !

 

[bocanames]

I suspect all parties involved realize there's an order of magnitude more money to be made by lowering margins and dropping restrictions. As .org and especially .info have proven niche players can thrive without becoming Wal-mart (.com) - particularly when the extension comes to represent something in the public mind.

$19.95 reg + rational restrictions policy = success for all involved in .PRO

 

[StargateCapital]

Looking forward to Tom's reply on the questions above and also why is Find Inc. (find.pro) / Encirca involved in domain registration of .pro - isn't that a direct conflict of interest as a .pro registrar? For example realestate.pro, mortgage.pro, loan.pro (and many others).

S

 

[akcampbell]

What's the link between Find Inc / Find.pro and Encirca? They look like separate entities to me. Does Encirca reg .pros itself or is it acting as a privacy service for some registrants?

Registry.pro holds alot of .pros, I can understand the logic of them regging third level domains like law.pro and med.pro but I don't understand why they registered Doctor.pro and Dentist.pro etc.

The downside from a .pro domain holder's point of view is that assuming Registry.pro aren't paying $99 per annum to register these premium names, that reduces the registry's annual income which means less cash is available to spend on development.

Another downside is that they are holding some of the best .pros and not developing them. Most of us do that so it would be hypocritical to criticise but the the registry should set a good example and focus on making money from registration fees not through trading in their own domains. My guess is Registry.pro domains are held beneficially or indirectly for registry staff, that would explain why they own Emma.pro.

One advantage of staff or the registry holding premium .pro is it actually aligns their interests with those of .pro enthusiasts because unless they develop the extension by removing restrictions and reducing registration fees, they aren't going to make any money.

$19.95 reg fees would be a good start but if Registry.pro hired an economist to model domain registration price elasticity to find the reg fee that maximises total registration fees collected I think it would be much lower than $19.95.

Affilias is the only alternative extension registry to fathom that lower reg fees result in a disproportionate increase in domain registrations. It makes ten times more sense for Registry.pro to charge $5 to register .pros and get 1m registrations than charge $100 and get 5,000 registrations.

Alternative extensions are an inferior product to .coms and should be priced accordingly if you want to sell them in large quantities. If I register Bad-Three-Word.com I might as well register Bad-Three-Word.info defensively if it's only costing me $2 but I won't register Bad-Three-Word.tv for $30.

.net and .org sell millions of extra registrations because people feel obliged to register them defensively for their .coms especially if they have forked out several thousand dollars to buy a decent .com on the aftermarket. .pro has the commercial punch to worry a .com holder enough to register the equivalent .pro so why not cash in on the fact that you have 70m potential customers?

One of the things that attracted me to .pro was that it's a great product but it's being sold so badly that just about anything Registry.pro does will improve things for domain holders.

As Warren Buffet says, it makes sense to buy a business that can be run by monkey's because sooner or later it will be. With total .pro registration stuck in the mud at 6,000 for nearly 3 years Registry.pro have proved their monkey status beyond doubt so the only way is up.

If registration restrictions are being relaxed, that's great, but it's 2-3 years overdue because Encirca got round this problem in March 2005. The most important thing to tackle is the registration fee because at $99 it's killing the extension and there will be no rush to register or develop until this issue is addressed.

 

[AdoptableDomains]

Does Encirca reg .pros itself or is it acting as a privacy service for some registrants?

I don't think it's a privacy service as much as they become a holding company for you, actually owning the domain themselves technically. Most individuals who register .pro can't do so by the rules of the TLD agreement. you have to be a certified professional in two fields (lawyer, engineer, architect, doctor) to directly register a second level name in your own identity. As I understand it, Encirca has two or more professions themselves registered as eligible (or set up through a shell company) and technically registers the domain in their name using those credentials for anyone who registers a .pro from their site. If you or I were to register a .pro at encirca as "non accredited professionals", it would show them as the registrant. Your only record as far as I know might be other contacts like admin, technical, or billing and your access through your encirca account. As far as ICANN and regsitrypro is concerned, you are NOT the real and legal registrant of the domain.

Those holding domains against ICANN policy are in my mind risking loss of ownership. For a $99 name, it might be a good calculated risk, but I sure wouldn't pay thousands for one under those circumstances. If a UDRP were filed, you may not even get the notice and would have to rely on the listed registrant to defend the name for you. Your ownership is likely only as good as the registration agreement with Encirca, and their status and trust.

 

[akcampbell]

No what I meant was that some .pros have Encirca's name against all the WHOIS registration categories. Normally, if you register a .pro Encirca is down as the registrant contact but you have your own details for the administrative and technical contact. There are .pros that have Encirca down for everything. This may be people changing their customer handle to Encirca's for privacy or Encirca may actually own the domains.

There is definitely a risk of loss of ownership because of the Encirca proxy registration. I think that puts people off registering them at all let alone paying thousands of dollars for one. I judged this risk to be small when I starting regging and buying .pros because Encirca makes up more than 90% of .pro registrations as far as I know and pretty much all of those rely on the proxy loophole. If Registry.pro clamped down on it they would be losing 90% of their income and since they only earn a pittance anyway because they set the registration fee and rules wrong at the outset that would be suicidal. The only thing you can count on in life is people doing what is in their best interests.

I think the UDRP filing and defence risk is a red herring for 3 reasons. Firstly, .pros bought on the aftermarket are invariably single word generics so they are at no risk from UDRP filings. Secondly, even if somebody regged a trademarked keyword, .pro valuations are so low it wouldn't be worth somebody paying the UDRP filing fee to capture the .pro. Thirdly, not many people have heard of .pro so people wouldn't covet it enough commercially to challenge for it through the UDRP.