RE: [gnso-vi-feb10] Notice: VI Call Thursday with the Economists Salop/Wright at 20:UTC

["Drazek, Keith" <Keith.Drazek@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Good questions Tom. To drill down a bit further on your point #4, I'd ask the 
following:

-- "Would a large vertically integrated registry/registrar be more inclined or 
less inclined to offer TLDs operated by a competing vertically integrated 
entity?" 

-- "Would non-integrated registrars be more inclined or less inclined to sell 
TLDs of vertically integrated competitors?"

-- "Would large registrars be more or less likely to charge a stocking fee to 
offer a vertically integrated competitor's TLD to its existing customers?"

-- "Would multiple large vertically integrated operators in retail competition 
with one another refuse to offer each others' TLDs, thereby reducing the number 
of participating retail distributors for those TLDs?"

-- "Would a large vertically integrated operator be more likely or less likely 
to set a high threshold for qualification/participation in offering its TLD, 
effectively excluding smaller registrars?"

The number of total registrars may (or may not) remain constant or even grow, 
but the number of PARTICPATING registrars offering a particular TLD could be 
significantly less than the total accredited. 

________________________
Keith Drazek: NeuStar, Inc.
Director, Government and Industry Relations  
1775 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Suite 400 Washington, DC 20006
[ T ] +1 202 533 2914 [ M ] +1 571 230 2809 [ F ] +1 202 533 2972 [ E ] 
keith.drazek@xxxxxxxxxxx [ W ] www.neustar.biz  
 




-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx] On 
Behalf Of Thomas Barrett - EnCirca
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2010 1:43 PM
To: Gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [gnso-vi-feb10] Notice: VI Call Thursday with the Economists 
Salop/Wright at 20:UTC


 

The Salop/Wright economic study encompassed interviews with four registrars:
enom, tucows, network solutions and Melbourne IT.  Based on this sample,
they concluded that vertical promotional programs by registries were not
anti-competitive.

This is not surprising as vertical promotional campaigns are often biased
towards the "tier" represented by the four registrars above.


The questions I have for the group are:

1. are we limited to considering harm only to consumers?
2. should ICANN be concerned about harm to existing or future registrars?
3. Does ICANN want to continue to encourage new registrars to enter the
marketplace?  Or is it done?
4. Is there any harm to consumers if there are a lot fewer registrars than
today?
5. what if there were fewer registrars than gtld's.  Is this a healthy
marketplace for consumers?


tom barrett
Encirca