Uniregistry price increases of 3000% for some new gTLDs

[brotherhood of LAN]

Uniregistry is to massively increase the price of some of its under-performing new gTLDs in an effort to keep them afloat.

Sixteen TLDs from the company’s portfolio of 27 will see price increases of up to 3,000% starting September 8

[domainincite.com...]

For instance, it would appear anyone with a .hosting domain who paid and would have renewed at $20, will now have to pay $300.

The affected TLDs appear to include
.audio
.blackfriday
.christmas
.click
.diet
.flowers
.guitars
.help
.hiphop
.hosting
.juegos
.link
.property
.sexy
.tattoo

[Dimitri]

In all events, gTLD are a screw ! Also, I don't see how increasing these prices will make these gTLD perform better... or may be the company means earns them more,from people who have already registered and have no choice than keeping them (if you established your business with a given TLD, you are stuck).

[engine]

That is way overboard, and is holding registrants to ransom.

Seems to me like a good reason to avoid using the new TLDs, resulting in the opposite of keeping them afloat.

[robzilla]

What a scam. Better run before they go belly up.

[graeme_p]

@engine, I think they expect that they have enough people heavily committed to these domains to be able to profit from them.

[Chrispcritters]

I've got a lot of ccTLDs and a few gTLDs but fortunately none of those -- most of them are to prevent squating and redirect to the .com or a subfolder on the .com

[topr8]

@chrispcritters ... the question would be though, just say one of the gTLD's you owned did up the renewal fee to $300+ would you still keep it?
(i'm refering to undeveloped domains that only redirect to a primary developed domain.)

[Chrispcritters]

I'd have to look at type-in traffic and see if a business case could be made to keep it. I doubt that the case would be successfully made.

I suspect the .click and .link are most used for branded link shorteners... Those people would likely need to renew them...

[engine]

I think they expect that they have enough people heavily committed to these domains to be able to profit from them.

Yes, and that's the problem with this move. I'm surprised there's no rules that prohibits such massive increases in fees. I guess it's an open market and they can do whatever they want.

If you're locked in, such as with a shortener, or a brand, you're going to have to pay.

[Chrispcritters]

This makes a good case for registering your domain names out many years. Those that did so will have time to make an orderly transition before the have to pay up.

[Dimitri]

Isn't (was) the .tv extension which has a price model which made that each renewal was more expensive ?

[radix]

This makes a good case for registering your domain names out many years. Those that did so will have time to make an orderly transition before the have to pay up.

The price increase kicks in in Sept 2017. Until then those who jumped in can renew their domains up to x (10?) yrs at the old prices - and so buy ample time to move their holdings to a more reasonable gTLD.

[graeme_p]

@Chipsritters, I am definitely more inclined to long term registrations for anything that matters now.

@engine, it is an open market, but unfortunately not a free market because customers are locked in to a domain. A bad combination. It is a bit like building a house on rented land. People need some way of making domain ownership really permanent.

[jmccormac]

The reaction from the domaining community has been overwhelmingly negative. The real problem for a lot of new gTLDs is usage. When people develop sites and use domains for e-mail purposes, it drives awareness of the TLD among the general public. ICANN made a mess of the new gTLD programme, the timing and the expectations. Some of the registries made a mess of their gTLDs by withholding large numbers of premium domains (keyword domains that are valuable in .COM). ICANN made a mess of the launch schedule by not staggering the launch dates. All this resulted in reduced demand and awareness. Uniregistry is reacting like a registry and has upset a lot of domainers with these price rises but domainers are only part of a TLD's ecology. The demand for some new gTLDs has flatlined and this move is the opposite of becoming a zombie TLD that bases its business model on discounting offers. It is a very risky move.

Regards...jmcc

[jambam]

isnt this just bait and switch?

[jmccormac]

No. This seems to be based on a lack of demand and the registry having to make a hard decision about increasing registration fees.

Regards...jmcc

[accurate]

Just like any other private business starting up, all these new TLDs will have a 50 per cent chance of going out of business in two or three years,” Holland says. “That’s going to be somewhat disquieting to people.

-Byron Holland, CEO of CIRA.

[itbusiness.ca...]

66% going bankrupt

[dottba.com...]

[accurate]

We have stopped registering or transferring Uniregistry domain names into our system. The dramatic price hike Uniregistry announced left us no choice. Until we can assess the impact on our current and potential customers, we have stopped new registrations.

GoDaddy works to deliver a great customer experience. We now have customers who will be paying up to 3,000 percent more for their renewal. That’s an extremely poor customer experience and does not reflect well on the domain name industry in general.

-Mike McLaughlin, Godaddy GM of Domains.

[jmccormac]

Now will other registrars follow Godaddy?

Regards...jmcc

[brotherhood of LAN]

GoDaddy talking about poor customer experience. The 3000% increase doesn't seem so bad now.

[jmccormac]

Perhaps people don't realise the significance of this move by Godaddy. Godaddy dominates the North American market and has major market shares of most gTLDs. Without Godaddy, a TLD might as well not exist for registrants in the North American market. This kind of registrar rejection is something that was being discussed at ICANN's meeting in Copenhagen outside the main sessions.

Regards...jmcc

[accurate]

Other registrars will follow GD lead and drop these garbage extensions.

Wonder if GD will now request price caps on new TLDs? If a registry says "No" I'm sure GD will stop support for those extensions as well.

[branko97]

Guess it has something to do with "premium" domain names now?