Aliababa $5.99 .com

[Scott.L]

In your opinion, and the opinion of a very small group of people who stand to lose money because they fear that auDA will introduce premium registrations or question the legitimacy of domainers who sit on domains that they will then be forced to contest ownership if direct registrations are introduced.

Sometimes you need to drive on both sides of the street, keeping an eye on what’s coming and an eye on where you’re going. After all, you live in a ‘free-market’ globalized by the very product you sell, and most are domainers.

As for the legitimacy of domainers - I do not see any registrar warning its viewers / potential customers about domain name registration that may infringe trademarks, why? because registrars feel they do not have a public responsibility to the registrant to do so - its up to the due diligence of the registrant to conform to eligibility. How ironic. Playing into the gullibility of the public's knowledge about domain name registration only to profit from it and then condemn their actions later.

Where on your website do you inform the public about possible trademark infringement risk when registering a domain name?
https://ventraip.com.au/domain-names/register/
.

 

[Cheyne]

Most new registrants do not buy a .com for 2 years. In many cases the 2nd year will be a waste.

Do you have evidence to support this claim? I am critical of this because global mass-market registrars such as GoDaddy and Crazy Domains by default add 2 years to domain name registrations when you add them to the cart, after being lured in by 99 cent first year registrations.

Let me ask you this, when someone comes to you a signs up for web hosting for 2 years what sort of discount do they get? I bet it is substantial because most people wouldn’t normally stay for 2 years and companies know that.

Speaking only on behalf of ourselves, we offer the same discount on hosting whether you purchase 1 month of 2 years. Other companies might know that but we have built our business on trust and transparency.

Australian are being ripped off with .com.au prices, it is a worse situation even than .com because people are forced to sign up for 2 years at $20-$160.

Something is only as valuable as what you are prepared to pay for it. People have been paying MelbourneIT $140 for .au registrations for over a decade but that is what they market their service to cost. Nobody with sense would pay that much for a domain name but if people are happy with the service then who are we to judge?

I would love a Tesla Model X with all of the trimmings but my two mortgages get in the way of that dream. Should I expect Tesla to lower the price simply because they're effectively a monopoly and by your logic are ripping people off? Of course not.

As I said though still .com is overcharging because of no competition for the registry.

But simply saying they are overcharging doesn't make it so. Where do you want them to go, cents in the dollar?

 

[snoopy]

Do you have evidence to support this claim? I am critical of this because global mass-market registrars such as GoDaddy and Crazy Domains by default add 2 years to domain name registrations when you add them to the cart, after being lured in by 99 cent first year registrations.

Yes I do, straight from Verisign,

"But historically, our first-time renewal rate has been 50%.”

https://www.thedomains.com/2016/02/...igh-non-renewal-rates-from-chinese-investors/

in .com.au people are forced to pay for a 2nd year upfront when in reality 50% of those registrants would have dropped the name after the first year. That is a big part of the rip off. The other part is that prices are far too high.

But simply saying they are overcharging doesn't make it so. Where do you want them to go, cents in the dollar?

I believe there will be a big drop in pricing at the end of the tender process. 9 groups wouldn't have submitted proposals if they thought they couldn't do better than the current pricing.

Wouldn't be surprised to see wholesale pricing come down 30-50% or more. Ausregistry are overcharging and the root cause of that is 100% AUDA. Ausregistry are just doing what their shareholders demand. Meanwhile AUDA is supposed to be regulating in the interests of the Australian public, they have not done that.

Wouldn't it be funny if the tender results in the registry fee ending up lower than AUDA's exorbitant fees?