[registrars] ONE MORE IMPORTANT point

["Bhavin Turakhia" <bhavin.t@directi.com>]

In my prevoius mail i forgot one more point -

I dont know how many people have realised this, but the higher the price
point by Verisign Registry the more the advantage to Verisign Registrar
apart from anyone else.

Typically today the end user retail price at snapnames is $49 for these
spots. Consumer mentality has already shifted towards paying $49 for these
spots. Most customers will not shift their mindset whether guaranteed 100%
success or not. Now since the retail consumer is willing to pay $49 we
Registrars must charge him $49 for the entire packge. No matter what all of
you say I can challenge this that the retaiul price of this package will
fall to $49 due to price wars amongst registrars.

This means that each Registrar makes about $3 per subscription package sold
(cost $40 plus $6 reg fee). However Verisign Registrar makes the whole $49
as profit.

This definetly does not create a level playing field for Registrars since
this becomes one more LOW MARGIN product for us Registrars. Here is the best
part -

. In case of Domain Names the cost to Registrars was $6. Therefore if we
sold at $8 and Verisign Registrar sold at $35 they were making larger
profits, but at the same time losing a large number of customers, so most
Registrars. Customers chose other Registrars as a lower cost option
primarily because of this.

. Now consider WLS. In case of WLS subscriptions Verisign Registrar themself
can afford to match any pricepoint of other registrars. Having the highest
visibility and brandname in the domain name market I dont see customers
looking out for other options to buy WLS subscriptions from. Each WLS
subscription gives Verisign Registry a good margin anyways. In the domain
name market Verisign was the default monopoly due to Network solutions. That
is being eroded today primarily because of lower price points and NO other
reason (I would luv to see the monthly snapnames report if EVERY Registrar
was charging $35 per name). Now in case of WLS subscriptions,  Verisign
Registrar can use their huge domain name base to effectively become a
monopoly in WLS Subscriptions too. And here there will be no eroding of
their market or distribution of the clients primarily because if Verisign
Registrar wants they can MATCH the price point of other Registrars
considering that the product effectively retails to the end customer at a
$49 pricepoint today anyways

Best Regards
Bhavin Turakhia
CEO
Directi
----------------------------
Tel: 91-22-6370256 (4 lines)
Fax: 91-22-6370255
http://www.directi.com
----------------------------

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-registrars@dnso.org [mailto:owner-registrars@dnso.org]On
> Behalf Of Rick H Wesson
> Sent: Monday, December 31, 2001 1:44 AM
> To: Registrars List
> Cc: Gomes, Chuck
> Subject: Re: [registrars] Registrar Wait Listing Proposal
>
>
>
> all:
>
>
> It seems just about everyone had a problem with the M$ word doc, attached
> is a PDF file for your review.
>
> In the future I'll request that a PDF and Text version be available for
> all proposals or formal communications that can't fit in the body of a
> email.
>
> again, sorry for the inconvience.
>
>
> -rick
>
> On Sun, 30 Dec 2001, Rick H Wesson wrote:
>
> >
> > Registrars:
> >
> > Please review the attached proposal as a replacement for the "overflow
> > pools" some times referred to as the "Batch Delete Process."
> >
> > Chuck needs comments back to him by the Jan 18th. You may write
> > him directly.
> >
> > I would also like this constituency to develop a consensus on this
> > proposal and that we have a statement to VGRS by Jan 18th. We have
> > scheduled a constituency call this month, I will see that this is on the
> > agenda for that call.
> >
> > regards,
> >
> > -rick
> >
> >
>