Interesting observation, which fits into this thread is, shows that prices are going up if the comparison is taken from England.tv on the enom site.
enom list England.tv is now $15,000 where as ahead.tv says it is $5000 (which it apparently was prior to being droppped, while I would not be suprised if they are raising the price on domains such as this, does anyone know if ahead.tv premium check up is in realtime?
at one time, ahead.tv was in sync, that is no longer the case. I own a few names that ahead.tv has mis-priced and I assume there are others.
---------- Post added at 09:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:53 AM ----------
Interesting discussion.
Looking to the future I would assume the government of Tuvalu will be looking carefully themselves at how this extension could benefit them in the future. They have a population of just 12,373 so any increase in potential revenue affects these few people directly. I think, so far, they will be unhappy at what they have received from their previous agreements with regard to .tv
The premium market may have fallen off the wall for the domainer to domainer market but you still see large organisations around the world adopting and adapting to the use of a .TV name. Russia Today didn't care about domainers when they bought RT.tv for $60-odd thousand from JohnTV - they just wanted a name that worked for them.That is true for thousands of companies and organisations around the world.
That real world growth is under no threat of slowing down as we leave recession/depression. If it has grown over the past two years, it will really grow now - for economic, technological, and consumer demand reasons are too strong to ignore.
So, Snoops argument that a 2% a year sales figure at an inflated price is better than a 100% sales figure at a low price actually holds some water.
However, Enom/Verisign are not the only players in this game. I'm sure our beloved Bob Parsons, head of GoDaddy, who already showed willing towards .TV in the past (remember $15.99 regs?) is very aware that the new contract for .TV will soon be up for grabs again.
If anyone could understand that a vibrant and highly visible market in .TV names could benefit the people of Tuvalu AND the registrar organisation at a lower price /higher share market it is BOB and friends. This man reduced the average cost of domain names for everyone on the planet so is no stranger to the principle of lowering price, increasing share, improving profits.
The first move for any enterprising Registrar could be a mass auction of 'premium' names. Germany did a similar thing recently and theire was interest and awareness form everyone in the country. A large, well-managed promotion campaign for the world's .Tv auction would bring in major revenues today for both the registrar and the TUVALU government. Real money today is always better than Hoped-for Money tomorrow.
Names that didn't sell (I would assume a minimum price of say $10,000 for each name) could still be sold as premiums or subject to a yearly auction until they do sell - so helping maintain a tapering and larger profit from 'premium names' over the years. The big difference would be in the larger number of normal renewals at, say $10.
A ten-fold increase in sales at $10 would ensure much larger profits, and the steadying of the course, for the future of the .TV brand and the people of Tuvalu.
It might be worthwhile getting Bob Parsons to meet with Queen Elizabeth II (she is the head of state). If she would do a cribs style show called BuckinghamPalace.tv I think we might have the start of a great promotion!
ENOM recently tried the auction format (with a different pricing model) and it failed miserably. granted it was domainer to domainer, but it was a massive failure. I'm not sure if they will revisit that anytime soon.
Now look at their current model, if the domains are all parked and being monetized, there's a chance that parking alone is covering VRSN's cost.
just for fun:
54,000+ "premium" domains @ as little as .25 per day each average = $13,500 per day.
that equals $4,562,500 yr. collectively
then factor in any premiums sales, premium renewals, regular sales, regular renewals, etc.
... all speculation, but within the realm of possibility.
if that was your business model, would you be interested in dumping your domains to domainers who are most likely going to try the same exact business model? this way VRSN/ENOM control the flow, collect the toll, while preserving the brand and ensuring that high-end generics are available for end-users. and they have plenty of time left to manage, what I believe to be, a great branded TLD.
just something to consider.
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