RE: [gnso-vi-feb10] Single Registrant TLDs

["Michael D. Palage" <michael@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Eric,

The letter from Tim Switzer is rather straight forward, I do not understand
why you question the "correctness" of it.  In fact NeuStar's decision not to
raise prices was an event that I personally followed as well, to see if
there would be a repeat of the .NET dynamics after VRSN dropped its prices.
While I did not engage in a comprehensive "inventory pricing" to registrar
analysis, I can confirm that I saw no passing of savings along to
registrants in the major registrars that I surveyed. Additionally, you can
review the gTLD statistics at the ICANN dashboard as see that the growth
curve of .BIZ in comparison with .INFO and .ORG (that did raise prices) was
rather flat. 

Given that there are over 20 registrar participants on this working group, I
would welcome any registrars that might have evidence to contradict the
correctness of Tim Switzer's statement.

Best regards,

Michael


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Eric Brunner-Williams
Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2010 9:04 AM
To: Jothan Frakes
Cc: Neuman, Jeff; Avri Doria; Gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [gnso-vi-feb10] Single Registrant TLDs


Jeff,

Assuming the correctness of the assertion that at some point in time
the .biz inventory price to registrars remained constant, and at the
same point in time most other registries increased their inventories
prices to registrars, did this apparent increase in the marginal
registrar profit for each unit of .biz inventory sold have any
observable effect on the sales of .biz inventory?

In this episode, did registrars respond to the offer of a larger
margin by a registry by changes to their placement of larger margin
products relative to their smaller margin products?

Eric


On 4/9/10 8:59 AM, Neuman, Jeff wrote:
> 
> Avri,
> 
> With respect to this point:  
> 
> "For example, have there been cases where a registry lowered its fees, and
the regisrar did not in turn lower theirs to the consumer but absorbd the
profit?"
> 
> The answer is YES.  Registries have lowered fees and registrars have not
passed those lowering of fees through to consumers.  See
http://www.icann.org/correspondence/switzer-to-twomey-23nov08.pdf.  In early
2008, Neustar intentionally decided not to raise its fees to registrars when
most of the other registries raised their rates.  Despite this, every
registrar not only raised the rates of the other TLDs (that increased their
wholesale rates), but also raised the rates for .biz (despite the fact that
we did not raise ours).
> 
> 
> 
> Jeffrey J. Neuman 
> Neustar, Inc. / Vice President, Law & Policy
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Avri Doria
> Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 8:49 AM
> To: Gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [gnso-vi-feb10] Single Registrant TLDs
> 
> 
> 
> On 9 Apr 2010, at 08:17, Volker Greimann - Key-Systems GmbH wrote:
> 
>> Allowing all nGTLD applicants to bypass the registrar system would
effectively lead us back to the domain business we had a decade ago, which
is IMHO definitely not in the interest of the consumer. 
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Humility* aside, please explain why this is.  I would like to understand
how this has helped consumers and how that benefit has been measured.
> 
> I have heard different theories about whether the current modality has
helped consumers or whether it was even necessary - so leaving aside for the
moment the subject of whether it helps or hinders innovation and creativity,
please show evidence for the ways in which having separate Registrars has
benefited consumers.  
> 
> For example, have there been cases where a registry lowered its fees, and
the regisrar did not in turn lower theirs to the consumer but absorbd the
profit?
> I also am not sure I understand how any middleman who ads to the price,
benefits users unless they are offering some value add service.  So what
service have the registrars aded that was not doable by the Registries,
especially now that registries have effectively split into registry service
providers (RSP) and registry owners (RO) and we have full service resellers.
> 
> I really do not care too much about how the mountains of profit gained
from these consumers are split between the Registry Service Providers,
Registry owners, Registrars and Resellers - what I care about, in this
instance, is showing why having the Registrars, with the add on costs to the
consumer in their role as middlemen, has been a protector and a benefit to
the consumer.
> 
> Again, I expect you can show this quite clearly and I expect that at the
end of the explanation we will most all accept the importance of having
registrars, I just think it would be helpful to have it explained.
> 
> a.
> 
> 
> * the humility in question is the H in IMHO, for those who may not know
the acronym: IMHO, In My Humble Opinion,
> 
> 
> 
> 
>