Domain Tasting 2.0
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
The new era of domain tasting starts in April.
“The end of domain tasting”
“Domain tasting is dead”
“ICANN shuts down domain tasting”
You’ve heard it all before. But as I’ve pointed out, new rules designed to kill domain tasting starting in April won’t kill it. Curtail it, yes. But not kill it.
In some ways, the new era of domain tasting parallels to other changes in the domain industry. What used to be very easy will now become difficult.
Domain Tasting 1.0 didn’t require many brains. Just register everything and see what was profitable.
Domain Tasting 2.0 will require sophisticated calculations. To make it profitable, companies will have to predict a high likelihood of a domain paying off before tasting it.
The rate of domain tasting has already decreased significantly since ICANN introduced a stop-gap budget measure to curtail it. In October, about 1.5 million .com domain names were deleted during the 5 day add-grace period. (Not all domains deleted in add-grace are tasted; the purpose of the period is to allow registrars to get a refund for errant for fraudulent domain registrations). In January 2008 nearly 19 million domain names were deleted during the grace period.
How will domain tasters make it in the new world? Data and good calculations. Data from ISPs, registrars, search engines, etc. will all be required. And a PhD will help.
Further Reading:
- Domain Name Tasting Down 84%
- VeriSign Notifies Registrars About Domain Tasting Changes
- ICANN: Domain Tasting Down 99.7%
Tags: domain tasting
So, a registrar such as eNom with 25k registrations per month would only be allowed
to taste 2500 domains? If so, I see this as a big plus. Sure, they can make those 2500 tastes as calculated as they want but it will cut down 9000% of what they are doing now.
It means they can return 2500 names out of 25,000 a month without penalty. They can taste more than that. If they get 90% accurate with tasting then they can taste about 25,000 domains.
when you say without penalty do you mean no ICANN fee, zip, zilch nothing?
I don’t think anything is going to stop eNom from tasting on a large scale. Even after the $0.20 fee, they are still grabbing up thousands of drops every day and deleting almost all of them.
@ Domain Name Media – yes, but in April the penalty is more than $.20. They will not be able to get refunds on anything over 10%. So it’s the registry fee plus $.20.
@ JP – they may still have the 20 cent fee…I’m not sure.
RT @domainnamewire: Domain Tasting 2.0: The new era of domain tasting starts in April.“The end.. http://tinyurl.com/cavhly
Thank you for the information! This is a good step in the right direction, but still too little: in my opinion, tasting should just not be allowed. I am willing to concede a limited possibility for registrars to cancel registrations done by mistake, but tasting is just not a good idea and the world of domain names would be a better one without tasting…
It seems that all good things or uncontrolled things come to an end, like the Wild Wild West. It is true that we are entering another chapter in domaining.
On a different note……
How do I get one of those PhD in domaining that you mention?
I think everyone who doesn’t do tasting hates it and everyone who does it loves it.
On the plus side for smaller domainers, a lot more good domains are dropping and not being tasted.
I agree with your last remark, Andrew. In my views, tasting tends to disrupt what should be the normal flow of domain names – if tasting disappears, the market of domain names will just become more open and more fluid, it will rely more on the proper assessment of domain names. This is why I am so much against it.
Broadcast News…
Sedo Acquires RevenueDirect and Why It Makes Sense Sedo has acquired domain name parking company RevenueDirect. For established domain parking companies, acquiring another domain parking company usually doesn’t make sense…….
So I’ve been noticing an increase lately in the number of domains that I seemingly have caught and regged (proceed to do the happy dance), only to receive an email from NoDaddy minutes later telling me that an “error” occurred and, unfortunately, the domain is already registered. Obviously I’ve been hoodwinked by an automated domain snatcher with API access. Fine. No sour grapes.
Here’s the thing…like clockwork, about 4 days later – just as the “test drive” period is about to expire – miraculously, NoDaddy informs me that the domain has been successfully registered.
It’s not the concept per se of tasting that is at the heart of the problem, it’s the rampant abuse of the AGP.
As Andrew points out, if you review some of the data – showing the ratio of # of registrations, compared to actual domains held/dropped – it’s ridiculous. Before the mandatory ICANN fee was imposed to halt kiting, nearly 90% of registrations would drop during the AGP. That’s the problem.
The most egregious offenders out there are the guys who setup registrars so they can engage in mass tasting – tasting 10s of thousands of domain names at a time – (so-called Drop Registrars) with the express purpose of bulk tasting, exploiting the AGP and monopolizing the aftermarket.
The same could be said of many existing registrars where there is a narrow line between warehousing and tasting. When registrars taste domain names the general public will never even get a look.
This practice will never completely disappear, but something needs to be done to level the playing field.
Andrew
Can you explain how becoming more “accurate” will allow them to taste 25000 domains if they are only registering 25000 per month? Seems the math would remain the same at 10% refunds?
@ CJ – I assumed the 25000 domain registration number was referring to how many their clients are registering each month. In that case, they can return a total of 2500 domains without paying registration fees. (10%).
But let’s say they are 90% accurate in selecting which domains will make money if they are tasted. Then they can taste as many domains as they want and still not incur a big penalty, since they can return 10% of the domains.
If they register 25k domains per month for clients, and taste 100k domains themselves, then they can return 12.5k domains each month.
Andrew
Thanks for the clarification – This would still be a 90% reduction in refunds compared
to what they are doing now? I think we will
see more domains available for the small fish
during the main drop as a result of the new ICANN rules.
CJ – absolutely. We’re already seeing it now.
They should make it legitimate by charging a few. Good revenue for ICANN