In what appears to be a bold move, Minds + Machines, (London AIM: TLDH), today announced a flat pricing model for back end registry services for top-level domains.
According to a press release (translated from German) Minds + Machines will offer unlimited registrations for new TLDs on the registration platform “espresso” for a flat fee of $100,000 per year.
“For most new TLDs, no extra fee is charged for each domain name.”
“We have simplified the model,” said Antony Van Couvering, CEO of Minds + Machines. “Interested parties can now participate for only one low flat fee on TLD-business. ”
“Until now, the pricing of registry services mysterious and opaque. Try had to potential applicants, complicated to decrypt price categories. ”
“The new, approved on Monday by the ICANN gTLD program will initiate the beginning of a new era of free choice and innovation. In Minds + Machines We are proud to give the go-ahead with our offer. ”
“ICANN has opened up the address system of the Internet for the unlimited possibilities of human imagination,” said Rod Beckstrom, President and CEO of ICANN. “We have a platform for creativity and inspiration, and the next innovations in this area made available,” said Peter Dengate Thrush, Chairman of the ICANN Board.
“The flat fee of Minds + Machines is straightforward, simple and attractive,” said George T. Bundy, Chairman & CEO of BRS Media, the operator of the. FM domain and applicants. RADIO. “Platform we use for the espresso. FM and find them reliable, flexible and user-friendly. Along with this pricing is a very attractive offer. ”
From the new Minds + Machines offer are excluded certain high-volume, super-generic terms such as. Music, and geographical terms or abbreviations such as. Nyc.”
“The new prices will also benefit existing customers.”
“For disadvantaged or vulnerable applicants who serve under-served groups or communities, Minds + Machines offers the service even with a 50% discount.”
“Our goal is to enable more new generic top-level domains. The new prices will be a great help. Indeed, many applicants do not remember how many registrations file it, “says Van Couvering.” The better you can predict the cost, the lower the risk of an application for a new gTLD.”
“A flat fee that includes everything, means for applicant is a manageable budget and high savings, if they meet their target figures. ”
As currently all other back end providers generally charge a per domain fee for every domain registered or renewed to run the back end registry services this could be a real game changer in that industry.
this does make a huge difference, the problem of even a successful approved tld, using the fee for service registry services per name fee model, was the lack of economies of scale, ie you made and paid a flat fee on your first 10,000 registration; and also your 1,000,000th.
now your incentive for success is a higher margin the larger you grow your TLD.
cant imagine the flat fee makes sense though if your going to be 1,000,000+ names- seems like there would be some needed security, backup, hard costs then…
anyway nice to see, maybe ill relook at doing .kids
I am confused here. Can anyone tell me what this fee is for? Who pays the $185,000 to ICANN. This whole thing seems like a big mess. This is what I have been led to believe from my readings. So I am going to buy .car for $185,000 from ICANN, or $100,000 from mind + machines…(Lets say there is no auction because I was the only one who applied for .car) I am also going to have to stand up my own registry to do this.
If I get approved then do I now own the whole .car NGTLD? If I do who sets the price and who says I can sell porn.cars? Also will I be allowed to sell say all the car manufacturers like honda.car, chevy.car, etc. Will there be set prices or can I sell those domains directly to the manufacturer for say $1,000,000 each? I am just trying to get the big picture here. Correct me if I am wrong.
David
Mike,
Do you know how much the new registries will pay to ICANN for each registration? Is there a registry-level transaction fee?
Yea, because it is less statistically likely that a tld will get enough registrations in a year to be worth $100k in charges. This isn’t the first service to be priced this way. This will be a good deal for 1/100 registries but average all the registries together and it will always be a good deal for M+M.
why pay for expensive back-end services to account for major growth if you’re a registry with an uncertain future?
do it yourself. it’s just a database. epp is not rocket science, just basic commands and heaps of needless xml.
if a registry unexpectedly takes off and you can’t handle the volume then outsource as necessary. why pay a substantial flat fee from the beginning when you have no idea how many registrations you’ll get?
that said, it will be interesting to see what icann requires. will they hold every new registry to the same standards they ask for applicants wanting to take over a large established registry, e.g. .org or a cctld? even when the gtld is not associated with any city or local government? if they do, that will favour the existing companies that offer back-end services and software, e.g., to cctlds.
for any business, the basic rule is reduce costs by cutting out or combining with the middlemen (suppliers).
it’s no different here. all else being equal, whoever has the least costs and the fastest service is going to beat their competitors.
perhaps some corporation, or a non-profit, is able to provide their own back-end. maybe they do it with c and hash tables instead of java and sql. hopefully icann will be open to new players.
360
I think your underestimating the work, and investment in people and hardware to operate the back end of a registry
There are still less than 10 companies in the world that seem to do so.
For one new registry it would be pretty silly to attempt it rather than farming it out
David
The fee to ICANN at $185K is according to ICANN what it will cost them to review approve, deny and deal with the whole process on an average, so a cost recovery as they call it.
You need to be able to operate a registry to own a registry so you can build out your own system, hire your own staff, develop your own software, buy your own servers etc, etc and operate it yourself or you can hire one of the companies that already have this in place like M+M or Afilias, Neustar Verisign, Open Registry, Tucows or Demand to name a few.
If you apply for an extension and get it, then you as the registry set the wholesale price.
The domains are sold through registrars who set the retail price.
Just like it is currently done
Thank you! I really appreciate that. That is very interesting. So .nyc could charge every business in NY $100,000 for their .nyc name correct? If thats true then $185,000 plus the $100,000 fee from M+M doesnt seem that bad. Of course if I had that kind of cash to spend. It does seem like a good investment though.
Dave
M+M estimates the cost to start a registry at $400K – $500K.
Then on top of that you have (at minimum)
$25k/year ICANN + $100K to run the registry + employees + potential legal issues.
So you are talking about a minimum $2M – $3M commitment over 10 years, and those expenses could go far higher depending on the extension.
I think as time goes on, and people understand the true costs associated with the new extensions, it will lower the demand quite a bit.
Brad
Brad
Yup have said it before and will say it again, very much a high risk, high reward business not for the faint of heart
David
Yes in theory the registry for .nyc could charge 100,000 per domain registration but the city won’t allow that to happen.
I know some registrations for some new gTLD’s maybe $100 or more per year however.
@David & MHB
Yes I doubt the city will allow to charge $100k per registration but perhaps several domains will be sold by the registry in the sunrise phase at auction at $100k or in excess of that. We’ll have to wait and see. I suppose if just 10 domains go for $100k each on average in sunrise that will cover much of the overhead for the first 10 years. I wonder what the numbers are on sunrise sales revenue for recent other tld launches. I know .co had to be a large number.
JP
“”several domains will be sold by the registry in the sunrise phase at auction at $100k or in excess of that. “”
No doubt (well not in sunrise that is for trademark holders) but yes super premium gTLD domains are going to sell into the six figs, what do you think RIGHT OF THE DOT is all about?
realestate.nyc
yes I think one of the large real estate companies that sell hundreds of millions in real estate in new york will be biting at the chance of getting their hands on that domain and plenty more
Just for example
“”several domains will be sold by the registry in the sunrise phase at auction at $100k or in excess of that. “”
realestate.nyc will probably pay for the intial outlay of the whole TLD 😉
Hotels.nyc & Hotel.nyc will get some serious bidding going too.
I read somewhere that .ASIA kept back 5000 premiums to sell/auction, .CO probably kept much more than that because its potential for global use is far bigger than .london, .paris, .nyc. etc could ever be.
So as an owner of some of these new TLD’s it should’nt take too long to make a serious profit, even if it costs a million plus to launch.
Money makes money
It will be interesting to see how MrGoogle ranks them in the search engines, thats when you find out if they are value for money.
It will be interesting to see how MrGoogle ranks them in the search engines, thats when you find out if they are value for money.
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Mr. Google will treat them like Mr. Google treats all other TLDs.
Equally.
Catch is, the chimps will obtain gigantic keywords in hyper-competitive spaces, throw up their wordpress splog then blame Gs relationship with the TLD itself, when they aren’t meaningfully indexed.
Does anyone know of a company that you can outsource the ICANN application process to? Cost? After reviewing the gTLD application guidelines, it seems overwhelming and a nightmare….
Thanks.
-Peter
Mike was the original press release translated from French or something? Some of the sentences are so choppy they’re hard to read. For example,
“Try had to potential applicants, complicated to decrypt price categories.”
maybe should be
“Potential applicants had to try to decrypt complicated price categories.”
Anyway thanks for the interesting article and informed commentary!
LS
No one knows how Google will rank these new gTLD’s probably not Google itself.
How will carinsurance.com rank vs carinsurance.org or car.insurance is anyone’s guess
My guess is that the full string should rank well if the content is relevant and has a chance to rank better, but its just a guess at this point
Internet
YES there are companies that will do the whole process for any applicant.
We know everyone so if you have serious interest drop a line to me
Mike
Translated from German
As great as .NYC could be, it is still no .COM
The problem is even a domain like Hotels.NYC, or Homes.NYC is not that unique when other extensions like .Hotels, or .Homes launch.
Then you have NYC.Hotels / NewYork.Hotels / NY.Hotels /NewYorkCity.Hotels
or
NYC.Homes / NY.Homes / NewYork.Homes
I think the amount of confusion will just make .COM that much more valuable. Plus the fact is most of these will not come with much traffic, so it is basically just a brand.
Brad
@JP
“I suppose if just 10 domains go for $100k each on average in sunrise that will cover much of the overhead for the first 10 years. ”
The overhead for any registry, nevermind .NYC, is going to be way more than $1M over 10 years.
It could range from $2-$3M minimum, to tens of millions, especially if marketing is involved.
Brad
MHB
I will contact you offline.
Thanks.
-Peter
i think there are some keys differences between a registry that is selling names to the public or to some large segment thereof versus a private registry that may be relatively small. is there any requirement in the guidebook that all new registries must sell to the public, or must reach a certain size?
the technical side of a registry can be a one man operation. or it can employ dozens of people. it all depends on what the registry chooses to do. e.g. dotcom has requirements that few other registries have because it has enormous volume. other small cctlds might be run by a single person.
in the new gtld guidebooks, is there any requirement a registry has to sell names?
e.g. does .coke have to sell names?
there may be many possibilities here for how new gtld registries can be used. and we are only discussing a few of them.
the fact that there are relatively few companies/individuals managing registries does not necessarily mean this is not something that only a relatively few people are capable of. without any evidence to support it, that is only an assumption.
one could just as easily assume the reason is because, for many who undoubtedly have the ability to master it, dns is considered tedious and boring and they would rather focus their energies on other more complex and challenging projects.
it’s easy to assume.
Thanks for the story Michael. The press release in English can be found here: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/24/3724668/minds-machines-new-pricing-for.html
Elaine
Of course we wouldn’t have this translation problem if you sent all of your PR to us first.
)))::
No one knows how Google will rank these new gTLD’s probably not Google itself.
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As it stands, Google doesn’t care. There would have to be a pretty monumental ideological sea change for them to start caring.
In spite of too many (all?) domainers being depressingly clueless on the matter, never in the history of SEO as a discipline has one gTLD been shown to inherently ‘rank better’ than another, in the absence of other well established page signals, on page or off..
It’s possible there may be some tangential domain related signals that inherently advantage .com due to the way the internet has developed and .com’s founding role in that, but no. Pretty well established, Google doesn’t care about what TLD you use, save for the potential for a SERP uptick when using a ccTLD and locally originating searches.
i think the question most people mean by “will google rank”, is not “will i be indexed”- answer yes even a fifth level tld is indexed, , but will i somehow gain a magic special competitive advantage which requires me to do no work, and have no content, yet still rank higher than all other real sites…. and the answer is no.
but build a site, its easier to build a real site and get ranked on your merits than spend a bunch of money faking out google
imho of course…….
so when it comes to using sharedtlds, like tv , ws, co and .la- just build a real site and look for your site among your keywords, but dont expect magic beans..just your just due. as an example , were talking about newtlds, for info on new tlds type in new tlds on google- and on page 1, 6 sites down is newtlds.tv – my read, they had good content, the tv didnt hurt them…………
I have been spending many hours reading up on the New gTLD launch articles.
What I am concerned with is the simple fact of what will these do to the .com owners who are working to make there mark and business on the internet. What are the prices going to be for these new domains?
How is this going to affect the other domains on the World Wide Web?
Is it even worth buying a .com, .net, .org, .biz, etc…..?
From what I have been reading I don’t think any of the .com’s are even worth owning anymore. This looks more like a segregation of branding and the rich taking over the internet for separation in power.
Karl
Each new string (extnesion) will set there own pricing.
I have heard figures for $0 per year to $250 per year for a registration although most premium domains will go through the auction process.
“”From what I have been reading I don’t think any of the .com’s are even worth owning anymore””
I think that incorrect, we own 75,000 domains and are still buying.
Its an expansion of the market not a zero sum game.
You can read a LOT of articles that address a lot of your questions here on the blog
just click on the “new extensions” category on the right