new gtlds What are your '.best' domain names?

[Most Bay]

Hi All,
We know, one registrant has launch great discount for registering new '.best' (dot best).
My knowledge is very limited about this extension. But I have tried to register some new names. Such as:

cap.best
bat.best
ham.best
dew.best
nap.best
tan.best
yap.best
night.best
morning.best

So What are yours?
And, Anyone can help me (or us) to explain how about the future prospects of this extension (dot best) for global market?

Thank you...

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Yes, it was $70+ from the beginning...
But significant plus comparing to other nTLDs - was very short list of .best premiums...
Almost all keywords were available for endusers for $70+.

This premium list was extended just this year.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

$70-100 x 10 years = just no higher $1K for enduser.

 

[Cyril.Best]

That is not fair because I am fairly sure they were NOT really identified as premium at the time of reg Nov 2018 or whenever ($80 sounds to me to be far below typical premium pricing). It appears status later changed from standard to premium possibly as a way to make more money, I am guessing. Not too happy about it Cyril.

Thanks for your feedback but I do not agree with you on the "unfair" term.

Let me explain :

First, I totally understand that this price change can generate some frustration, especially for the older or first .Best domainers that bought .Best domains at the beginning and/or even before our .Best acquisition.

But you have to understand that a pricing down transition is touchy because we have to find a "Fair Date" between registrars on one side and registrants on the other side.

Indeed, as it is easily understandable, registrars would prefer that all domains registered before the effective pricing change date (5th August 2019) have to be "still" renewed at the old wholesale price while, of course, registrants/domainers, in the other sense, would prefer all domains to be renewed at the new reduced price.

For me, the "Fair Date" is the date of notification to registrars and announcement of our price change to registrants/domainers.

If we were really unfair, we could take the effective price change date of 5th August 2019 (exact date where our standard price drop).

But I thought that the date of our price change announcement (5th Feb 2019) was the fair date coz all registrants that registered/renewed domains before were not aware of our new pricing strategy.

To be even totally transparent, internally, we fixed the new pricing and date of price change after the Namescon 2019 in Las Vegas (beginning Feb 2019) and immediately notify all our registrars on 5th Feb 2019.

We would even prefer to go faster but we had to legally respect a window of 6 months for our registrars to update their system.

So, trust me, nothing was unfair in our price transition and the result is also that we found now a strong traction on new registration from registrants since our price change and also on renewals (on the last 3 months we had a global renewal rate up to 90%).

We are now only few months from the opening of THE.Best social network that will give a lot of value and impulse to our .Best domains for registrants and will continue to grow daily until DAY 1.

There is still great opportunity for registrants (today, for instance, we had a huge number of first name registration that was still available at $1) and for old/first registrants/domainers of .Best domains, I would be happy to assist them on a one to one basis to get them a discount for their .Best portfolio and/or any correction/issue that have to be done following our price transition.

Hope this will enable you to better understand everything.

Let me know if I can help in anything.

All the .Best,

CF

 

[namemarket]

Also, $70+ to renew a .best is ridiculous.Brad

Yes it is. Even $17 to $18 is high, imo. What with .best being a relatively obscure extension to the public, few sales and little or no sale inquiries or ppc revenue and mostly light traffic it's sadly hard to justify renewals above $5 to maybe $10 on the top-side.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Not just fees... More important - it was always hidden for almost all endusers...
Lack of any active marketing in the previous years...
Just this year some registrars started to promote it...

p.s. Few weeks at GoDaddy main page - and you will see another results...

 

[namemarket]

l

....Indeed, as it is easily understandable, registrars would prefer that all domains registered before the effective pricing change date (5th August 2019) have to be "still" renewed at the old wholesale price while, of course, registrants/domainers, in the other sense, would prefer all domains to be renewed at the new reduced price......

I have not been following the newer tlds (or registering many of them except .best) and not aware their renewal pricing methods could allow standard non-premium (wholesale?) names to be renewed by some registrars at old high prices not the current lower and standard pricing. I did not know it was happening until now. Is it widespread?

Does that also occur on other newer tlds or just ,best? I don't want to do business with a registrar who would refuse to renew at the current cost and instead demand an old higher price on non-premium names. Clearly the old $70 to $83 .best prices were not marketed as being premiums before.

When I purchased one name at Godaddy early Feb 2019 all .best were $83 standard prices including made up worthless names I checked as a test at the time. Sorry Cyril, I fail to understand the logic that these names are now said to be premium and do not qualify for new $17-$18 renewals.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

I agree.
The optimal solution here for Registry: move those domains into the premium list only after their drop.
But if already registered domains were STANDARD from the beginning - then renewal must be STANDARD as well, at current rates regardless of Reg dates.

 

[DomainMonitor]

 

[DomainMonitor]

 

[Cyril.Best]

l

I have not been following the newer tlds (or registering many of them except .best) and not aware their renewal pricing methods could allow standard non-premium (wholesale?) names to be renewed by some registrars at old high prices not the current lower and standard pricing. I did not know it was happening until now. Is it widespread?

Does that also occur on other newer tlds or just ,best? I don't want to do business with a registrar who would refuse to renew at the current cost and instead demand an old higher price on non-premium names. Clearly the old $70 to $83 .best prices were not marketed as being premiums before.

When I purchased one name at Godaddy early Feb 2019 all .best were $83 standard prices including made up worthless names I checked as a test at the time. Sorry Cyril, I fail to understand the logic that these names are now said to be premium and do not qualify for new $17-$18 renewals.

Thanks for your feedback.

Once again : please, don't mix-up the status of a domain with the pricing of a domain.

A premium domain can even have a lower price that a standard domain.

FYI, all registries have the rights (according to their RRA with registrars) to modify or update their premium price list.

What happened to the .Best (even if almost all ngtlds had also already changed many times their premium list) is that we had the legacy of domains that was registered before our acquisition or price change notification to registrars in Feb 2019 and that need to respect also our RRA with registrars.

We NEVER increase the price of a registered domain for a registrant but neither want to decrease the price of a registered domain for a registrar without our prior notification.

This is why the compromise date in our transition pricing process to a lower .Best pricing was taken at the date of notification to our registrars.

But once again also, I can totally understand some frustration for "old registrants" but we had to find a fair date between registrars and registrants.

Regarding your own case and the case of "old-registrants", and as you mention, all domains that you bought before Feb 2019, you bought them and registered them at $83, and most important, you know also that you will have to renew them at $83 the next year and the years after !

Exactly like all other registrants that are actually renewing their "old" .Best domains.

Also, as I mention, if we were really unfair, we could even legally decide to choose the date of our effective price change (5th August 2019) as the new date for lowering our price on renewals but as we had notified registrars 6 months before (5th Feb 2019) and as a gesture of goodwill for our registrants, (99% of our .Best registrants were even not aware about this coming price change) I was thinking that the fair date had to be 5th Feb 2019.

I know that the situation is not perfect for a couple of registrants and this is why I am here to help you and other registrants that have registered .Best domains before 5th Feb 2019 get a discount on renewals with your preferred registrar on a one to one basis.

Globally, I don't want to minimize here the situation but only a few registrants are concerned by this situation and most of them already renew their domains in the long term (even before our price change notification). FYI, the .Best registry had a renewal rate up to 90% on the last 3 months.

So I am sure that I can assist you and older registrants to get a discount renewal price on old-registered domains with a registrar.

My email is : [email protected] - don't hesitate if you have problem or need any assistance on renewal with your .Best domains.

All the .Best

CF

 

[namemarket]

Thanks for the long explanation however it makes zero sense in that how can names which at the time of registration (regardless of the date) were not said to be premium and then the regular prices renew today at anything other than whatever the current regular renewal cost is?

If this practice is okay why is it I have never seen any other registry doing it? I had non-premium names in dozens of tlds over the years and in 100% of the cases I could renew at whatever the latest renewal cost is? Why have the other registry's or registrars not done this before? Is it something they can start doing?

P.S. When you say help get a discount do you mean going from say $80 to $60 or $80 to $40 or ...? What are the requirements to qualify and the maximum percentage discount which is possible?

 

[Cyril.Best]

Thanks for the long explanation however it makes zero sense in that how can names which at the time of registration (regardless of the date) were not said to be premium and then the regular prices renew today at anything other than whatever the current regular renewal cost is?

If this is okay with ICANN why is it I have never seen any other registry doing it? I had non-premium names in dozens of tlds over the years and in 100% of the cases, I could renew at whatever the latest renewal cost is? Why have the other registry's not done this before? Is it something they can start doing?

P.S. When you say help get a discount do you mean going from say $80 to $60 or $80 to $40 or ...?
What are the requirements to qualify and the maximum percentage discount which is possible?

Like I said earlier, all registries have the right to modify their premium list according to their RRA and almost all registries did it already and many times.

The difference, here, is that we did it (changed our premium list) at the same time that we changed our standard pricing, - and so this is why there is probably confusion on your side. It's even write in most RRA that a registry is able to modify its premium list (In our RRA, for instance, we can even do it twice a year upon notification to our registrars).

But once again, don't mix-up the change of status of a domain with the change of price of a domain.

This are 2 different things. In your specific case, there was no price change in your "old" domains.

As for the discount, email me the list of domains that you reg before 5th Feb 2019 and that you would like to renew, for how many years and with which registrar and I can work to get you a discount on renewal with a registrar. The discount will depend on the registrar.

The longest you want to secure your renewals, the biggest discount I can get for you.

Let me know by email.

All the .Best,

 

[DomainFQ.com]

CarFinance.Best

 

[namemarket]

So let me get this straight Cyril. Are you now implying the $80 names before Feb 2019 have since been reclassified as now being premium? If you did that of course it is not a good practice.

The main question remains unanswered. Here it is again. "If in fact they are still standard renewal non-premium names how can these domains which at the time of registration (regardless of the date) were not said to be premium and then at regular or standard prices possibly not renew today (if they never expired) at anything other than whatever the current regular renewal cost is?

As far as I know in 20 years and dozens of tlds .best is the only registry who has done this. Anywhere else when you reg a standard non-premium name at the regular price it can be renewed at any time for whatever the current regular renewal cost it. Is that not correct?

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

I also don't know another such cases for non-premium domains...

And what other registrants did or do (1,3,5 or 10 years renewal ahead) - doesn't matter at all here, their problems only.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

And for comparison: .ONE was also sold in Dec'2018...
But absolutely no any changes in their price policy.

 

[Most Bay]

Best Ticket Marketplace:
Tix.best

 

[DomainMonitor]

T r a c t o r / best
E d i b l e / best

 

[DomainFQ.com]

Dotcom.Best

 

[OnlineDomainShop]

I am selling Server.Best , PM ME if anyone interested.