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Verisign will increase the .com price from $7.85 to $8.39

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Re: Verisign will increase the .com price from $7.85 to $8.39

#21

Post by newsclues »

debrice wrote: post #16

Yes, this sounds like pure profit (and it is) but part of me wishes .com domains were 10x to 50x more expensive. It's selfish, I recognize that, but to purchase a basic domain today I'd have to pay anywhere from $10,000 to $1,000,000 to purchase an unused parked domain. Is there a solution or a place where ICANN and/or Verisign limit the massive amount of parked domains?

Wouldn’t that just result in the domain squatters to be much wealthier and average people would be priced out, while the practice continues but the people profiting change…

Re: Verisign will increase the .com price from $7.85 to $8.39

#22

Post by ocdtrekkie »

debrice wrote: post #16

Yes, this sounds like pure profit (and it is) but part of me wishes .com domains were 10x to 50x more expensive. It's selfish, I recognize that, but to purchase a basic domain today I'd have to pay anywhere from $10,000 to $1,000,000 to purchase an unused parked domain. Is there a solution or a place where ICANN and/or Verisign limit the massive amount of parked domains?

A lot of domain squatting can be argued with: If they're sitting on your trademark, you basically can take it from them. But the ICANN dispute resolution process is like $1200 minimum, so most squatters like to sell for just under that.

Re: Verisign will increase the .com price from $7.85 to $8.39

#23

Post by bdcravens »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #15
amichal wrote: post #7

Devil's advocate.... what percentage of .com registrations are parked/squatted domains looking for a sucker to buy at huge markups from the registrar price? I'd be very happy if this made the math on squatting a little less desirable. Edit: Don't get me wrong. If the reported profit margins at Verisign are correct they are clearly continuing to exploit their privileged market position unreasonably

I prefer the term "Domain Scalping". Domain Squatting has a specific legal definition and it really only applies to people trying to sell a domain name that involves a company with a pre-existing trademark.

I think it's more speculation than scalping. Scalping implies exclusivity, and there is some legal recourse if a domain is your trademark.

Re: Verisign will increase the .com price from $7.85 to $8.39

#24

Post by bluesign »

amichal wrote: post #7

Devil's advocate.... what percentage of .com registrations are parked/squatted domains looking for a sucker to buy at huge markups from the registrar price? I'd be very happy if this made the math on squatting a little less desirable. Edit: Don't get me wrong. If the reported profit margins at Verisign are correct they are clearly continuing to exploit their privileged market position unreasonably

It will only increase the price of parked/squatted domains

Re: Verisign will increase the .com price from $7.85 to $8.39

#26

Post by domador »

What is the real yearly cost of managing each .com domain?

To put it differently, what would be the profit margin for a .com registry maintainer that operated at reasonable efficiency (which might or might not reflect Verisign's own efficiency)?

A related question: what would be the base, fixed costs for running a reasonably efficient .com registry and what would be the additional per-domain costs?

Re: Verisign will increase the .com price from $7.85 to $8.39

#27

Post by Loic »

tryptophan wrote: post #19

Please note that Verisign has a profit margin of 50%. Ie, 50% of their revenue becomes pure profit. This is an insane level. Apple is at 23%. Facebook at 35%. Profit margins that high only come from rent seeking backed by the full force of the law.

Elsevier had/has also a profit margin at about 35%.

As a small structure you can achieve that but at a very large scale, this is effectively the sign that natural competition is not working as expected.

Re: Verisign will increase the .com price from $7.85 to $8.39

#28

Post by jaywalk »

jeffbee wrote: post #10

When Network Solutions had a monopoly these were $100/2 years, later falling to $70/2 years. At this pace it will be a long, long time before we are back up to the bad old days.

I remember mailing a check to Network Solutions to pay for a domain name registration.

Re: Verisign will increase the .com price from $7.85 to $8.39

#30

Post by minikites »

makotech222 wrote: post #4

Capitalism is an economic system in which private individuals capture property, make it private, make it scarce, then charge others to use it, making profit. Profit is theft from society. Stuff like this is the natural conclusion of such a system.

Exactly. Capitalism stifles innovation by taking resources from society and concentrating them into the hands of a few. If society was more equitable and if social safety nets were larger, we would see more people taking chances and innovating. Instead we have a society where people work under the duress of losing food and shelter, not exactly the best way to drive creativity.
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