registries Stop the Price Increase of .com

[pablohc86]

Got this mail from Bodis today and I'm sure that everyone here is ok to join:


Sometime before November 30, 2018, the price of .COM domains may go up when the NTIA's "price-cap" agreement with Verisign, called the "Cooperative Agreement,” expires! You, the owners of .com domain names, stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars collectively if that price increase goes into effect. But you also have the power to do something about it! Demand that ICANN and the NTIA take action NOW to stop a potential price increase on .COM domains and keep their pricing reasonable!

With just a few clicks, make your voice heard and sign a petition (https://www.change.org/p/david-redl-stop-verisign-from-raising-com-pricing) started by the Internet Commerce Association (http://internetcommerce.org/) directed at David Redl of NTIA and Göran Marby of ICANN.

This is what we need you to do:

1. Visit StopThePriceIncreaseOf.com;
2. Sign the Petition: change.org
3. Share the Petition on Social Media

Verisign has vast funds to help them lobby the Congress for the price increase. We have you, the domain name owner, to help us stop it! Please help us and share the petition and website on your social media, blogs and online publications.

Links:
https://www.change.org/p/david-redl-stop-verisign-from-raising-com-pricing
http://stopthepriceincreaseof.com
http://internetcommerce.org


Sincerely,
The Bodis Team

 

[TrueDN]

Signed.
Thanks.

 

[Yusupbabay]

I signed it

 

[Cristi Marin]

Signed the day I got the news from Bodis. (thanks for the notification Matt!)
This is definitely too important not to care!
We all need to spread the word on, as we all stand to lose if Verisign win their argument
and increases the price.

 

[Abiashue lucky]

Signed and shared the link on social media

 

[Daniel Owens]

I've been fearing the risk for a while that is why some of my domains that are .com have until 2021 for renewal, might add a couple more years to some of them. At, this point the renewals of $8.47 (or less) on .com's make cheaper than 95% of what renewals are on other extensions (well maybe a few cctlds cheaper but you get the idea).

 

[Daniel Owens]

"Under the terms of the original 2012 agreement, .com prices could have been as high as $10.26 today had Verisign taken advantage of their price increases." - circleid
That would be crazy if .com went that high, I mean they almost did that in past so no saying whether it'd get that high this time. We, have seen .org and .net go up by about $2 each in last 3 years, as a result we've seen tons of drops. Although, people are less likely to drop .com's because of price increase portfolios of .com especially investors would take a huge hit and the bargain bin on namepros would fill up like crazy with good deals (most likely)!

 

[Daniel Owens]

Just to be safe a couple of my domains .com that have 2019 expiration's I just added 2 years to.

 

[Daniel Owens]

Is, anyone aware of any .org or .net price increases coming?

 

[Daniel Owens]

Dang, I didnt notice until now that namesilo charged $8.99 to renew .com's so a bit more then the $8.47 I pay at godaddy. Privacy at NS is nice for free at least instead of $8 extra. Both, are amazing registers.
I would like to hear if anyone knows about .net or .org prices increases...
Also, does anyone here know if the price increase would raise .com's at registers to over $10?

 

[alcy]

jmo but I don't think anything will happen to .com price any time soon.

but it is interesting question someone menbtioned here before.. ie:

what is roughly the % of coms owned by domainers vs nondomainers.

any guesses? its obviously not 50/50.

 

[DomainBoxio]

Gathering signatures for a petition to a business not to raise prices is dumb. You are handing the company which stands to gain from the price increase free no-labor-required market research. Each unique/legitimate signature is just proving demand for their good/service.

I will not claim to be an expert of economics, but the one thing I remember from school is that demand and supply are the primary force influencing the cost of goods and services. So, I would recommend to ignore the unsolicited email and behave casually in the face of the potential price increase. A collective indifference to any change would likely yield more favorable results to consumers, and could possibly even force the registry to consider lowering costs-due to the growing popularity and usage of new gTLDs.

Certainly, the worst course of action-for keeping prices the same or lower-is gathering free market research reports and hand-delivering them to the provider.

 

[Galaxy Traveller]

We, have seen .org and .net go up by about $2 each in last 3 years, as a result we've seen tons of drops.

True, I am one of them. I even drop premium keyword ngtld due to high renewal.

 

[Kamila_ICA]

Thanks to everyone who's already signed the petition and to Bodis and other companies for sharing it with their customers.

Due to the dominance of .com, Verisign has no real competitive pressure on their pricing. In 2012 U.S. government stepped in to cap Verisign's prices but prior to that, Verisign's contract permitted it to raise prices 7% annually in most years. With the cooperative agreement expiring this November, Verisign will likely seek an unjustified price increase (effectively costing domain name owners hundred's of millions of dollars over time) unless NTIA steps in again.

To bring awareness to the issue, we (The Internet Commerce Association) launched a website and petition directed at NTIA. If you have any stake in domain names and haven't yet, I suggest you take a look at both. We believe it's crucial for domain name owners to be informed of the situation and to know, there's something they can do about it. If you agree, please sign and share petition!

If you'd like more information, you can contact me directly, visit our website or read the national press release.

https://www.change.org/p/david-redl-stop-verisign-from-raising-com-pricing

 

[Daniel Owens]

@Kamila_ICA
I've given my best guess on what the price increase could be. Do you have any solid theories and/or facts that would give us an idea what the new .com price could be? Would it go up at least 7% all at once if this goes through?

 

[Kamila_ICA]

@Kamila_ICA
Do you have any solid theories and/or facts that would give us an idea what the new .com price could be? Would it go up at least 7% all at once if this goes through?

There is precedent for 7% increase in 4 out of six years previously, but it's not really possible to guess how high it could go.

 

[Ategy]

There is precedent for 7% increase in 4 out of six years previously, but it's not really possible to guess how high it could go.

Like I already said .. I'm pretty sure this statement is wrong! When was the last increase? As far as I know the wholesale price Verisign sells .com's to registrars has never changed .. and particularly not in the last 6 years?

I'm quite sure this is wrong. The amount Verisign has been allowed to charge registrars was set to ~$7.85 .. with NO possible increase. The upcoming renewal will likely see the status quo is my guess. The best option however .. would be to open the contract to competitive bids. That could actually DECREASE the price of .com given the massive volume .. but I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen either .. but if it did it wouldn't be too far a stretch to see .com prices drop by $2-3 .. maybe even $9.99 retail and $6-7 for those with volume discounts. Opening the contract to competition should ultimately be what we're looking for here.

 

[Daniel Owens]

Like I already said .. I'm pretty sure this statement is wrong! When was the last increase? As far as I know the wholesale price Verisign sells .com's to registrars has never changed .. and particularly not in the last 6 years?

By comparison, the wholesale price of a .com domain is $7.85. That price is set in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Commerce, and Verisign can’t increase it without facing an additional cost burden and getting approval from the Department of Commerce. It’s possible that the implementation of thick whois in .com could be an impetus for a price increase. However, thick whois might be delayed due to European privacy issues. - July 2017
HOWEVER, since the contract is up all bets may be off but sounds like they don't have a huge history of increasing .com prices. They did increase .net prices though, "increasing the price of .net domain names by 10% on February 1, 2018. " So, yeah in past so who's is to say .com is not at risk of price increase (with contract ending)?

 

[Daniel Owens]

The only good thing is most registers only make less then 50 cents on selling .com's so we would only be paying the difference of price increase, which would be more, and help fund the registry however, domain registers would likely not make any more with a registry price increase for .com.

 

[Ategy]

Upon doing a little more digging .. it seems there were some 7% increases in the past prior to a 2012 price freeze set by the US government. While I'm sure Verisign wants and will likely request an increase .. their profit margins are so huge I really couldn't see how the government could justify allowing this and see no reason for the government to unfreeze pricing.

All that said .. technically and legally .. I'm not sure if the price freeze is even tied to the likely extension .. seems to me like a price freeze would continue after renewal and the only reason people are getting antsy about all this is because the contract renewal is a natural opportunity for Verisign to request an increase .. but I just don't see how they could ever realistically be given that authorisation?

 

[Kate]

But if Icann did their job (regulate the industry), we wouldn't have to call upon NTIA in the first place.