ICANN to Charge $185,000 for New TLD Applications
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
Fees estimated to cover actual costs of new TLD process.
Want to offer .anything? Prepare to write a hefty check.
Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) estimates that total application fees for entities wishing to offer new top level domain names, such as .nyc or .money, will be about $185,000. Despite the high price tag, ICANN expects 500 applications in the first round.
The application fee is expected to cover the historical costs of implementing the program in addition to future costs of the application process.
ICANN estimates it has spent nearly $13 million to date on new gTLD planning. With 500 applications expected, about $26,000 of the total application fee will be used to cover those expenses. Because these expenses have already been paid for, the money will be added to ICANN’s reserve.
$100,000 of the application fee will cover the direct costs of managing and evaluating applications. The remaining $60,000 will essentially cover “unknowns” and is based on risk modeling by an insurance firm.
But the financial costs don’t stop at the application fee. Setting up a registry is expensive, and annual fees to ICANN are expected to be at least $75,000. I suspect that many applicants will partner with existing registries to leverage their expertise with running a registry.
Further Reading:
new .anything top-level domains – $185k minimum app fee http://tinyurl.com/tldappfees
So, if someone proposes .anything and ICANN says no, it appears that some/most/all the $185k is, poof, gone? Or, if 5 entities propose the same .anything, ICANN may choose to award it to one party, and keep all 5 application fees?
GPS – I think those are some of the things that will be discussed in the comment period.
After the first 500 application fees are accepted and collected – historical costs of implementation should be covered – so the fees should drop by $26,000.
Managing and evaluating applications which is estimate to cost $100,000 should become more efficient and less expensive for ICANN reducing fees maybe as much as $50,000 in the coming years.
The remaining $60,000 to cover “unknowns” may disappear altogether as nobody ever knew what
this portion of the fees was for in the first place.
So, applications fees for ‘Custom TLDS’ after the first round could potentially drop to $49,000.
Week of October 27, 2008…
gTLD Applicant Guidebook public comment forum…
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