Your .COM domain name is going to cost over 30% more unless ICANN, the group in charge of the domain name system, listens to the public and changes its mind about price increases. We created a tool to help you submit your viewpoint to ICANN. It takes 30 seconds! Use the tool here.
ICANN sets the price for .COM domains. Verisign is the sole-source supplier of .COM domain names at the wholesale level, giving them an effective monopoly. Verisign charges $7.85 per year to register or renew a .COM domain name each year. Verisign’s costs are estimated at between $2.50 to $2.90 per domain name per year. Everything above that is pure profit.
Verisign already enjoys one of the highest profit margins of any company in the world. A further price increase is not justified. Yet ICANN staff want Verisign to increase prices on .COM registrants by 7% per year from the current $7.85 to $10.26 after four years. This will impose hundreds of millions of dollars of added expense on .COM registrants – simply to benefit Verisign.
ICANN is supposed to act in the public interest and to be responsive to public comment. Here’s your chance! Take 30 seconds to let ICANN know what you think.
You can learn more about the issue in the following articles:
DomainInvesting: ICA: “Oppose price hikes on .Com”
Circle ID: Verisign’s Attempt to Increase its Fees Still Unjustified Despite Diversionary Tactic
Circle ID: Hundreds of Millions of Dollars at Stake as .COM Price Freeze Set to Expire
Domain Name Wire: .Com prices are going up after Verisign pays off ICANN
The Register: ICANN extracts $20m signing fee for $1bn dot-com price increases – and guess who’s going to pay for it?