Yea, I realize many folks find the whole thing morally bankrupt, especially how ICANN has behaved through it all, but setting all that aside for a moment I wanted to discuss the result of a gTLD going bankrupt, or perhaps simply shutting down because they aren't financially viable.
It's an entirely new landscape now with this mess, and up until now I think most folks have simply assumed that a TLD isn't just going to close up shop and cease to exist. Perhaps the closest example might be a country code if it were to cease to exist politically or physically, but now it may simply be a business decision, not much different than dropping a domain today or a beverage company dropping a brand that isn't selling.
I'm going into this question blind to the facts of what maintenance costs are associated with a TLD, anyone know if ICANN demands a regular fee of a registry? I know there's the per domain reg ICANN fee but its hard to imagine there not being some hefty annual fee as well. Then there's the cost of simply managing the business of it all, the registrar relations, the technical back end, or contracting all that to a vendor like afilias.
Considering some of these registry companies now have many TLDs these overhead costs are spread out over multiple TLDs. But there are also lone operators as well. In either case they are running a business, and its very hard to imagine that all TLDs will remain financially viable longterm or that not one single registry will close down.
As a business person this especially causes me concern if I'm building a website on these new TLDs, investing in development and growing a brand only for it to cease to exist for no cause of my own.
I wonder what recourse a registrant has in these types of situations, does ICANN have our backs insuring or assuring that every TLD will continue to exist from this day forward? Assuming they claim to today that is merely a vote away for them to say we're SOL and they keep counting their money.
Anyway, the point of this thread is I'm wondering if anyone has any facts they can share regarding TLD costs for a registry and if ICANN has anything to say at this time about how they would handle and respond to this eventuality. Short term speculators may not care, but a website owner needs to think about these things.
It's an entirely new landscape now with this mess, and up until now I think most folks have simply assumed that a TLD isn't just going to close up shop and cease to exist. Perhaps the closest example might be a country code if it were to cease to exist politically or physically, but now it may simply be a business decision, not much different than dropping a domain today or a beverage company dropping a brand that isn't selling.
I'm going into this question blind to the facts of what maintenance costs are associated with a TLD, anyone know if ICANN demands a regular fee of a registry? I know there's the per domain reg ICANN fee but its hard to imagine there not being some hefty annual fee as well. Then there's the cost of simply managing the business of it all, the registrar relations, the technical back end, or contracting all that to a vendor like afilias.
Considering some of these registry companies now have many TLDs these overhead costs are spread out over multiple TLDs. But there are also lone operators as well. In either case they are running a business, and its very hard to imagine that all TLDs will remain financially viable longterm or that not one single registry will close down.
As a business person this especially causes me concern if I'm building a website on these new TLDs, investing in development and growing a brand only for it to cease to exist for no cause of my own.
I wonder what recourse a registrant has in these types of situations, does ICANN have our backs insuring or assuring that every TLD will continue to exist from this day forward? Assuming they claim to today that is merely a vote away for them to say we're SOL and they keep counting their money.
Anyway, the point of this thread is I'm wondering if anyone has any facts they can share regarding TLD costs for a registry and if ICANN has anything to say at this time about how they would handle and respond to this eventuality. Short term speculators may not care, but a website owner needs to think about these things.