Registrar Fees - { Backend Expenses }

[quantass]

I'm trying to find out details regarding the fees paid out by already accredited domain registrars. For instance, if a registrar offers .COM domains to users, do they pay the following in back-end expenses:

$7.34 USD fixed to Verisign for EACH newly registered .COM domain
+
$0.18 USD fixed to ICANN admin fee for EACH newly registered .COM domain
+
$6500 USD per year (regardless of any domain registered or not) to ICANN just for being an accredited registrar

So basically all .COM domains purchased thru a registrar (with no additional services and fluff) MUST cost at least $7.52 ($7.34 + $0.18) each. And then a little extra to make up the cost of the fixed yearly fee of $6500.

Is the above correct in the fees an accredited registrar must pay out each year / for each domain registered?

 

[Kate]

That's it. Obviously there are other costs as well.

If you want to sell to retail customers you'll need employees, infrastructure. Inevitably some customers will cause problems, spam, cheat, be hit with UDRPs etc so you'll need legal staff to handle the complaints and ensure compliance with Icann rules. Also add payment processing costs.

Many providers sell domains at a loss and make up with ancillary services like webhosting.