.tv U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and 2012

[MicroGuy]

Someone was asking me for more 2012 D-Day™ information, so I'm going to provide this source again.

Click the screen capture below to visit the CIA Factbook regarding Tuvalu.

Hope this helps clear things up. Thank you.

 

[freedom30]

Someone was asking me for more 2012 D-Day™ information, so I'm going to provide this source again.

Click the screen capture below to visit the CIA Factbook regarding Tuvalu.

Hope this helps clear things up. Thank you.

I guess that makes it clear as a bell ...just wondering, did the CIA factbook also mention that there will be a presidential election in the United States in 2012 as well?

You sure know how to party on a Friday evening. :great:

 

[MrRhee]

Someone was asking me for more 2012 D-Day™ information, so I'm going to provide this source again.

Click the screen capture below to visit the CIA Factbook regarding Tuvalu.

Hope this helps clear things up. Thank you.

Microguy, let me clear things up for you. CIA is referencing out-dated information & contracts.


re: dotTV corporation
-----------------------

in December 2001 the company was purchased by
VeriSign, Inc., the domain administrator for “.com.” Tuvalu’s share
of the sale amounted to about US$10 million, which was received as
a lump sum. The new contract with Verisign provides Tuvalu with
US$2.2 million per annum plus 5% of all revenue exceeding US$20
million sales per year. VeriSign holds the rights to market ‘.tv’ for 15
years.
Source: GOT.
---------------------
Source: Government of Tuvalu
Doc: http://www.adb.org/documents/books/tuvalu_2002_Economic_PSR/tuvalu_2002_epsr.pdf

Bottom line: Not 2012, but 2016.

You are confused regarding history/timelines, out dated contracts, etc... here is the entire paragraph, please note that the original contract was from 2000-2012 with former owners of dotTV, not Verisign.

It's not your fault or the CIA's for thinking the contract expired 2012, because after the Verisign buyout, new contract was formed, new dates in place. Everything is transparent:

----------------
In the early 1980s, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
(IANA) assigned each country a country-code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD)
Internet address. In 1999, the Government of Tuvalu signed a contract
with USA based DotTV Corporation International to market and manage
its ccTLD ‘.tv’ indefinitely. In return for the exclusive rights to sell
second-level domain addresses, the Government would receive US$1
million per quarter for 12.5 years and 20% equity in the company.
To 30 September 2000, the Government duly received five quarterly
payments of US$1 million, plus a one-off lump sum payment of
US$12.5 million after the principal investor, Idealabs Inc. Pasadena,
California, exercised a call option under the agreement. In late 2000,
the Government arranged with DotTV Corporation to forego quarterly
payments for the December quarter of 2000 and the first two
quarters of 2001, to acquire US$3 million of preferred stock in the
corporation. In mid-2001, the DotTV Corporation ran into financial
difficulties and in December 2001 the company was purchased by
VeriSign, Inc., the domain administrator for “.com.” Tuvalu’s share
of the sale amounted to about US$10 million, which was received as
a lump sum. The new contract with Verisign provides Tuvalu with
US$2.2 million per annum plus 5% of all revenue exceeding US$20
million sales per year. VeriSign holds the rights to market ‘.tv’ for 15
years.

Source: GOT.

----------------

Microguy, even though you now have info backing 2016 vs 2012, will that even make a difference in your stance on .TV? will you still be telling us all to avoid .TV because 2016 is the cut-off date? You're still going to hate .TV either way, right? LOL.

But for those of us that seriously believe Verisign has mismanaged .TV and that Demand Media / ENOM only made things worse... keep in mind that in 2016 when the contract comes up for renewal, perhaps a competitor will come to the table and outbid Verisign for control/management. If the government of Tuvalu isn't happy with Verisign's $2.2 million annual payout, it won't take much to lead them away from Verisign. Hell, by that time, who knows: maybe one of us will be able to pull it off. When 2016 rolls around, if I have the funds and still cared about domains/internet & the investment was both wise & lucrative... I'd love to outbid Verisign and manage the TLD. But of course: who knows if Tuvalu (as an island) will still be around, and if not, will the Government of Tuvalu be able to maintain their TLD (I believe they are allowed to continue using it, but time will tell).

But most importantly, by 2016 (and starting Fall 2010), there are so going to be so many other NEW TLDs to pick from. Hell, will we even navigate the internet the way we do now? I just hope I live to see the next evolutionary steps the world will make within the next decade.

(rant over)

bottom line: 2016, not 2012.


.

 

[freedom30]

Thank you for the update, Mr Rhee.

re the internet(and the world), the only thing constant is change. I am curious to see its next incarnation as well.

 

[MicroGuy]

Read that again carefully.

This is terrible and much different than the original contract that allowed the licensee to market "and manage" its ccTLD "indefinitely". The new contract actually returns control of the management back to Tuvalu.

"In January 2002 .tv Corp. became a wholly owned subsidiary of VeriSign Corp., which bought it for $45 million in an agreement by which Tuvalu maintains control of the management of its domain name."

Tuvalu Regains Control of .TV

The situation is actually worse than I thought considering this new information. IMO.

 

[MrRhee]

Read that again carefully.

This is terrible and much different than the original contract that allowed the licensee to market "and manage" its ccTLD "indefinitely". The new contract actually returns control of the management back to Tuvalu.

"In January 2002 .tv Corp. became a wholly owned subsidiary of VeriSign Corp., which bought it for $45 million in an agreement by which Tuvalu maintains control of the management of its domain name."

Tuvalu Regains Control of .TV

The situation is actually worse than I thought considering this new information. IMO.

Worse, how so?

Perhaps the country learned their lesson not to give control of their most precious asset "indefinitely" to another party. Maybe it was wise to modify terms when Verisign acquired the TLD-rights to ensure that the Government can grant those valuable rights to someone else if Verisign fails to generate enough revenue/awareness/adoption to make the Government happy.

They are giving Verisign till 2016. Perhaps that date is so far away that VRSN isn't losing sleep and that's why the TLD is operated the way it is (love it or hate it), but as that date nears, (if VRSN wishes to renew/re-up) I believe VRSN is going to do some serious promotion, maybe even huge discounts, whatever they can, to generate sales & awareness to make Tuvalu grant them more time. If not, then another competitor will be waiting to pay Tuvalu for the rights or Tuvalu will hire their own team to manage the TLD in-house.

If your fear leads you to believe that in 2016 your .TV domains are at risk, or that prices will fluctuate, become much more expensive, etc... only time will tell if those things will happen. But the opposite could happen... Tuvalu could lower prices, they may discontinue the Premium pricing, they could choose to do anything they wanted to do...

But why are you worried about 2016 in 2009? There are going to be many things to worry about in the domain industry between now and then, some far worse than what happens to .TV --- other registries are discussing price hikes/caps as we speak.

But the issue here is whether or not anyone should be worried about 2016 and how it effects .TV, true... well this is a decision that everyone has to decide on their own and weigh all the options. On my end, I'm not going to wait until 2016 to make a decision. Too many people live life as a spectator, booing or cheering but never actually getting into the game to play. If someone chooses to sit on the sidelines to watch what unfolds (where its safe) with the dream of someday being able to join in the action, that's fine with me... that's why stadiums have so many seats. But I'd rather be on the field, fighting to win, yes it is risky but the rewards are great. And, yes sometimes you will lose, but the times you win are worth it. There's too much money to be made TODAY, and in the meantime between now and 2016. It is almost 2010. That's 6+ years to make money. I'm not worried about the longevity concerns of building my business on a TLD that may evolve in 2016. Neither am I concerned with any price manipulation that may occur at that time. I've done my research, and between now and then there is a solid foundation to build upon, there is plenty of time to build, launch, grow and earn enough money to make a decision at that point in time... and by then, I'll have the funds necessary to "cover my ass" or negotiate the right deal with the people managing .TV, be it Verisign, a Competitor or the Government of Tuvalu itself.

One thing to keep in mind is the release of all the new TLDs ICANN is planning. This is a gamechanger... a tectonic shift... the marketplace and the industry will not be the same. If a TLD registry, be it .TV or .SC (Microguy, you always point back to their price hike) wants to compete in the future, they will have to re-think their pricing policies to remain competitive. And as I said before, and many have said or thought about this: what if domains are no longer relevant in the future? What if we all navigate the internet using different tools? What if the internet has evolved so much we wouldn't be able to recognize it if we saw it today? What if the internet dies tomorrow?

Too many "what if" questions... you can spend your days asking yourself all these things... spend your nights worried about the future... spend your life watching other people succeed/fail...

I'm not saying don't plan for the future or ignore 2016. What I am saying is that I don't see it as a barrier to investing in .TV or developing .TV under those terms. If you or anyone has identified a huge problem looming, please elaborate as to what your fears are concerning 2016.


Either way, good luck.

 

[MicroGuy]

But why are you worried about 2016 in 2009? There are going to be many things to worry about in the domain industry between now and then, some far worse than what happens to .TV --- other registries are discussing price hikes/caps as we speak.

If this source is complete and accurate, which I'm unsure of since it contains discrepancies (eg. no mention of highly publicized original 12-year term) when compared to every other single source of information on the Internet regarding the original contract including one official Tuvaluan government website, the United States CIA, Wikipedia, and a host of others, then the situation is even more dire that before.

First, we have no details on the extent or exclusivity of the marketing agreement and your source clearly indicates that the "management" of the TLD is now back in the hands of Tuvalu. This could mean that the government of Tuvalu, and not Verisign, is now controlling Wholesale pricing of the TLD including those of premiums.

That might explain why Enom is now jacking up premium renewals as fast as they drop. Interesting....

Good luck to all.

 

[equity78]

Excellent point Mr Rhee and it looks like .com has that worry way before 2016. Read the post on thedomains.com
If The Google Brand is Worth $100 Billion, What Would VeriSign Set As The Annual Renewal Fee For Google.com? | The Domains

The new Gtld's want a premium pricing system just like .tv, and Verisign and other Gtld's like .biz want in too. They want price caps removed if the new Gtld's get the premium pricing. Read the comments there and decide for yourself, some believe people would line up and pay X,xxx per year for a name like Hotel.com. Not sure I agree with the whole post, but it seems like paranoia is everywhere in the domain Industry. People should be taking one day at a time and being grateful for each day let alone worrying about an extension contract being up.

Let's also look that the extension being up and someone competing with Verisign would be a good thing, if anyone here has done any reading on Tuvalu they have no technical knowledge or resources on their own to manage their CCtld, by the way which they have the right to, No country technically "owns" their cctld.

The one thing I will agree that has been brought up by some of the people who would be regarded as negative toward .tv is to focus on "MAKING MONEY NOW" If anyone believes the Internet will look the same in 2016 as it does now I think that is naive. You need to focus on making money now and have a plan for the future, but the plan cannot be that a domain is a savings bond that will mature at face value in 10 years. I believe people will need an address to find a website in the future same as today, just like we have postal addresses and phone numbers, but domains might change big time, something else comes along that you need to own, or you need to also be represented on social networks etc.......... So focus on making money now and try to repeat that over and over.

 

[MrRhee]

It's good to be paranoid. But never let your paranoia trump your own common sense and need for research. I don't rely on message board members to make my financial decisions. I perform countless hours of research, pick up the phone, talk to people, meet with people, sign contracts with people and try to make sure that I have the knowledge I need before I proceed and if possible be within 3 degrees of contact with those I do business with... and keep pressing forward until I am in direct contact. If anyone has questions about ENOM, DEMAND, VERISIGN, etc... call them up.

If people want to keep yelling that the sky is falling for .TV, and they actually believe it, then why are they spending their time here on a .TV forum, instead of running away as fast as they can? If you're here to help those who aren't aware of the impending doom in 2016, and you are looking for bad news... I guarantee that you will find all the bad news and data you are searching for. However, if you choose to search for good news, you'll find that too. If you believe .TV will fail, then it WILL fail... for you.

I don't expect Tuvalu, Verisign, DemandMedia/ENOM or anyone here to lead me to financial freedom and happiness. I won't blame THEM or the TLD or 2016 or anyone on NamePros... if I fail. No one is responsible for my failures, and by the same token, no one is responsible for my success... except for ME. I'm not sure what direction everyone else is moving in... but when it comes down to .TV, I don't see the doom & gloom on the horizon... I see opportunity.

Perhaps it's time for people to truly analyze themselves and decide if the domain industry is right for them... and vice-versa. Whether or not you like .TV, .mobi, .info, me, tel, cno, etc... we aren't on this earth forever... and if domaining/development isn't moving you forward, then it might be time to RE-BOOT and RE-INVENT yourself and pursue other opportunities before you only have a life full of regret, broken dreams & unfulfilled wishes. The domain industry is not an easy game to play... there are so many people that entered this space over the last decade+ and so many have faded away. You must be willing to be open-minded and adapt quickly... I've been in this industry consistently for 10+ years and I've heard the doom & gloom story many times... same story, different storytellers, different characters/settings... same ending... the storytellers have disappeared and the industry is still here and just a handful of the same players survive.

Enough... I'm done. I've got work to do... great .TV domains to work on, great .MOBIs, even some .Infos, not to mention some .COM gems (if you haven't figured it out yet: I am TLD agnostic, I'll work and play with nearly any TLD, even .cc & .ws, and hopefully soon: my own). I don't want to rant and be seen as a naysayer or cheerleader or madman... and many people here are too set in their ways. It often seems like certain people's only goal here is debating for debating's sake. Counter-productive.

I wish everyone the best of luck.

.

 

[RogueWriter]

You know, it used to bethat people invested in GM because it was deemed as 'safe', it's very size and popularity made it impossible that you might lose your investment, even if it did not appreciate at an accelerated rate.

Uhhh, ooops.

So, anything can happen, to any asset, positive or negative. One thing that is undeniable, though, you can't score a touchdown if you are sitting in the bleachers.