The point of this thread was to highlight the fact auDA and a 100% owned foreign monopoly auDA Board member Ausregistry have not acted in the best interest of either Australia Demand or Supply.
What people are not recognising is the 2009 wholesale registry contract extension was done under the contract agreement the wholesale price would be reduced as more names where registered...Noone ever bothered to enforce this and with some parties having a very powerful place on the auDA Board they seemed to knockdown any such wholesale price decrease.
For those saying .com.au is the same price as others you are missing the point...Who is making the profits from the wholesale pricing? It is not a 100% owned foreign company with profits going offshore.
The only people making money from this has been auDA and the 100% foreign owned Ausregistry and several auDA Board members / related entities.
It is a fact massive amounts of money have been made in profits by Ausregistry over the years of the non contract extensions.
It is time somone ran for the auDA board who stands up for a decrease in wholesale domain fees. I know noone on the current board is interested and several others seem to have let this slide for many years also.
With auDA wunning the wholesale registry also they need to very clearly explain what their costs will be once Ausregistry is gone.
auDA is supposed to be a "not for profit"
FYI Deloitte Consikting agreed with me when I met with them on this issue taking into account both auDA and Ausregistry fees and profits from registrations, reneeals and COR Change of Registrant
Note also Crazy Domains have stated their total wholesale buy price including auDA fee is $14.. so they must be mistaken when they offered a promotion of $7.50 per year minimum 2 years in gst.They said their profit was just $1 on that promo.
Summary
1. auDA when it takes over the wholesale registry needs to reduce the total wholesale fee. Supply registrars / resellers can then add on their mark up as they see fit.
If auDA can offer a $3 or $4 wholesale .au price then it offers a benefit for both supply and demand. It will also stimulate .au registrations if this is in fact their wish.. people may even register more .com.au and .net.au names! Without Ausregistry things seem to be a lot better IF auDA can do their pricing better once Ausregistry/ Neustar / Golden Gate is gone from the wholesale registry middleman role.
As Ventraip has said.. they will pass on the decreased wholesale price savings to consumers.. so come on auDA just do it!
Why allow a 100% foreign owned wholesale registry monopoly to take over $10 million+ (?) a year in profits from Australia when they have not bothered to reduce their wholesale fees even when it formed part of a contract commitment in 2009?
This appears to be blatant profiteering and Australian domain name registrants and also supply registrars and resellers have been ripped off for too long.
It would be better if registrars / resellers had the chance to make some profit from the lower wholesale price...
https://www.accc.gov.au/business/anti-competitive-behaviour/misuse-of-market-power
https://www.accc.gov.au/business/anti-competitive-behaviour
2.
auDA should have enforced the 2009 contract terms whereby Ausregistry offered a lower wholesale price for more registrations... More registrations occurred but there was no price drop.. Just more profits for Ausregistry it seems? This is a possible serious issue especially when they are on the board and it seems auDA has not bothered to go to open RFT to see if lower pricing was possible etc.
