Webwork - 1:42 am on Apr 6, 2007 (gmt 0)

[infoworld.com...]

On Oct. 15, the wholesale price of a .com domain will go from $6 to $6.42, a 7 percent hike and the maximum annual percentage increase allowed under the March 2006 agreement with ICANN. A .net domain name will increase 10 percent, from 3.50 to $3.85.

My prediction: For every rate increase, intended to raise revenue, there will be an offsetting drop of registrations of marginal speculative and traffic generating domains. Thus, for every domain that is renewed, at a $.42 increase, the drop of any 1 domain will offset the added fees generated on 14.2 renewed domains.

Do the math: $6.00/$.42 = 14.2.

100,000 domains dropped = $600,000.00 decrease in revenue and on upwards from there.

Some day the monopolistic brain of Verisign might wake up to the idea that decreasing prices might result in increased registrations and renewals generating more revenue.

They just couldn't wait to raise rates.

Wait and see.