RE: [ga] WLS

[George Kirikos <gkirikos@yahoo.com>]

Hi Chuck,

--- "Gomes, Chuck" <cgomes@verisign.com> wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: John Berryhill Ph.D. J.D. [mailto:john@johnberryhill.com]
> At extremely excessive expense to VGRS to support a business model
> that
> results in one six dollar registration for as many as 500,000
> transactions.

You've been offered the opportunity to document those "excessive"
expenses on more than one occasion. We offer you yet one more.

Note the words you used are "as many as" -- i.e. you're NOT saying that
is the typical case, or the average. Furthermore, your own documents
(answers to Questions B.2 and B.3) say that registry load is no longer
an issue, and even more powerfully, should not be considered in the
deletions debate.

Also, not every registry activity is a profit center, for instance the
provision of registry WHOIS, the zone files, etc. In relation to your
total expenses and revenues, the amount spent on the batch pool is
trivial, and I'm sure you know it (thus explaining the embarrassment
and hesitation to provide the actual figure).

> Please elaborate on the consumer choice that is available today. 
> What
> specifically are the choices?  How does a consumer find the choices? 
> What
> will the consumer have to pay if he/she is successful?  How easy is
> it?
> Everyone continues to make these broad generalizations but nobody
> puts
> forward any measurable data to support them.

If you're selling WLS as a 1-year test, don't you think YOU and ICANN
should have done the research on some of the above questions, to havea 
baseline of measurable data, before interfering in an existing market?
Perhaps a 6-month cooling off is required on the WLS debate, while we
get the current market data, via an independent research source, e.g.
one of the universities can devote a summer student to the job.

To give you some examples, without enumerating all of them, NameWinner
and NicGenie have prices as low as $20 per name, and that's INCLUSIVE
of the $6 wholesale cost that goes to VGRS (your WLS prices don't
include the additional $6+ that a successful registrant would be
charged).

Here's a question for you -- what does a consumer pay under WLS if they
are NOT successful?? They're out the $35+ !! That's maybe good for
VGRS, but not good for a consumer, getting something for nothing. Under
other models, consumers pay NADA if they don't get the name.

Consumers can find these sources the same way they can when they go
looking for regular domain names. Some registrars, like Verisign, have
banner ads all over the place. Others have different marketing
strategies. AOL/Compuserve, for instance, seem to own a registrar.
Perhaps you can advise where on the web I can signup to buy domains
through them.....or perhaps they only serve themselves, amazing...
NameWinner even has a program at Commission Junction (www.cj.com) for
those who want to remarket the service. Of course, these are all
obvious to those whose heads aren't in the sand.

If I go to http://www.registrar.aol.com/index.adp I can't see where to
input my credit card.... I want to "show them the money", but they
won't let me. :( I've never seen anyone complain about bad domain name
service at AOL Registrar -- it must be only the "elite" that can get in
there...boo hoo. :(

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
http://www.kirikos.com/

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