.com prices are likely to increase

[GordonH]

ICANN has given Verisign the go ahead to increase .com prices by up to 7% per year.
The current trade price is $6.25

Section 7.3(d)(ii) of:

http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/verisign/com-registry-agreement-22sep05.pdf

Various other companies had offered to run the registry at a much lower price if the job was put out to tender.

The result of this will probably be higher costs for registering .com domains in the future.

7% per year is much more than the rate of inflation and is unfair as the registry actually costs less to run than it did a few years ago (economies of scale).

[niyogi]

Hmmm. For those that don't want to do the math, the new rate would then be $6.69/domain/year representing a 44 cent increase.

Quite frankly, if we can can $3.95 for a sandwich at chick-fil-a that eventually leaves our system the next day, I seriously think it's not that bad of a deal. :-)

Roj

[GordonH]

7% per year would compound to a far higher rate in three or four years.

[ldcdc]

In other words, the price could more than double in the next 10 years.

1.07^10 ~ 2.1..

I wonder, what would be the reason for them not to raise the price with the maximum allowed each year...

[blue27]

Increase them I say.
Triple them.
It would keep a lot of kiddies out of the business.

[niyogi]

I remember the days when the were 10x the price they are now. They've gone a bit too low and now we have cybersquatters that have made a business out of buying for a bag of pennies and selling them for the prices of used cars. :-P

Roj

[Chicken]

I really think that 1) has littel to nothing to do with it, and 2) wouldn't as $20/domain ins't exactly a big enough increase to, "keep a lot of kiddies out of the business."

Back on topic... it wouldn't surprise me to see increases. It would almost be surprising NOT to. Though I'm not saying I want it higher.

[GordonH]

I think the issue is about Verisign cashing in and getting "money for nothing" when the other registries seem to be able to make a profit on much lower fees.

Just remember that Verisign is responsible for the Crazy Frog....

[jatos]

Precisely, everyone please start moaning to ICANN about this, we need this to stop, it will seriously cause internet base business's some problems.

[nameslave]

wouldn't as $20/domain ins't exactly a big enough increase to, "keep a lot of kiddies out of the business."
Not necessarily so, since most decent domains are now in the hands of professional speculators; to them, even $35 per name year could not handicap them enough. Remember, all the good ones were grabbed back when registrations cost $35 each.

[Chicken]

Yeah, I remember back in the day when someone showed me (briefly) a book. It was a listing of web sites (and it wasn't all that thick mind you). I wish I would have looked at it a bit more closely and gotten in on those days.

[GordonH]

I boughta couple of domains back then.
I was going to buy hudson.com but it was $70
The guy who bought it sold it to Hudson Consulting for a very large amount of money eventually.

I did sell one of my old domains a couple of years ago and made enough money to take my wife and kids to Disneyworld for two weeks from here in the UK, so it IS possible o get good money for domains as long as they are good domains.

[inogenius]

Increase them. Hopefully it'll put those freaking mass Domain buyers out of business. I HATE with a passion, when I come up with a sweet name for a site, and then find it pointing to something like buydomains.com.

[WireNine]

Increase them. Hopefully it'll put those freaking mass Domain buyers out of business. I HATE with a passion, when I come up with a sweet name for a site, and then find it pointing to something like buydomains.com.
That is true, maybe increasing the prices will stop those mass domain buyers!

[nameslave]

Like I mentioned earlier in this thread, the domain aftermarket is basically dominated by big players who have very deep pockets. And when you come across a "sweet" name, it has very likely changed hands for more than a couple of times, and the cost goes far beyond that few dollars.

[Stacie]

Increase them. Hopefully it'll put those freaking mass Domain buyers out of business. I HATE with a passion, when I come up with a sweet name for a site, and then find it pointing to something like buydomains.com.

I think it might put 'legitimate' people with other interests out of domain ownership, providing more business for 'mass domain' buyers.

[Liquid Hosting]

Unfortunately, the stubborn current U.S. government administration has taken the same stance on this as they take on everything else - frankly, they don't give a damn. I find it incomprehensible and completely detestable that this is being allowed to go through. Why can't someone who knows what they are doing run ICANN?

[CrucialWebHost]

That's good to know. Hey, if you could go back in time, what domains would you have registered :D Now that I look back, I would have registered a lot of keyword domains, like:

recipes.com
food.com
computers.com
books.com
music.com
pizza.com

Things like that, just solid, one-word keywords. Ah, one can dream right :)

[ss-johnt]

.com wholesale rates costs less than 6.25 just depends on who you know :-P. By the time a reseller gets hold to it, yes 6.25 is rock bottom.

But overall - that 7% is gonna be ugly.

[organic]

its not like its a huge increase in the cost of the domain name extension.

many providers already have built into there pricing the possibility for a future rate rise so it doesnt affect there customers and new potential ones

[StarGate]

... .com prices by up to 7% per year.
The current trade price is $6.25

Small correction: It is 6$ - 0.25 are fees but the increase applies to the 6$ :cool:

[asp-hosting.ca]

...7% per year is much more than the rate of inflation...

I don't think so. With the US and other governments printing money at will, the real inflation is much higher than the one you see in the doctored government stats. I own quite a few .com domains and I don't like the idea of increase, but I think we will see more than one increases in the coming years...

[GordonH]

I don't think so. With the US and other governments printing money at will, the real inflation is much higher than the one you see in the doctored government stats. I own quite a few .com domains and I don't like the idea of increase, but I think we will see more than one increases in the coming years...

I have rationalised the number of domain names I own personally and in the company's name.
I no longer hold unused domains or try and gert the names in all the extensions unless they are being used.

For my personal site, my family now use subdomains off our main domain which have their own dns and therefore act just like real domains.
This is the way it used to be years ago in .ac.uk where four or five dots in a domain was common.