VeriSign says it supports new top level domains, which shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Chuck Gomes, VP of Policy and Compliance, Naming and Directory Services at VeriSign, wrote a post at CircleID about his company’s support of new top level domain names. This really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone in the industry for many reasons:
1. New top level domains won’t erode demand for .com, which VeriSign manages. .Com will remain king.
2. VeriSign will make money as a back end registry for new top level domains. Gomes makes this clear in his post:
For registries—like VeriSign—that offer backend services to other registries, the new domain round represents a significant business opportunity. VeriSign is already in talks with several prospective operators of new domains and intends to engage actively in the emerging backend services market.
Gomes also says VeriSign is working to make sure that the applicant guidelines require TLD operators to have the financial wherewithal to ensure a successful rollout of new TLDs:
Given the importance of the registry function, it is also critical that new registries start from a position of financial stability and have clear mechanisms in place to protect registrants in the event of unforeseen events.
This, of course, plays to the favor of VeriSign since it has a big balance sheet.
One of the challenges VeriSign faces with new TLDs is that many other registry providers will undercut it on pricing. That’s because the true cost of running a registry like .com is less than a dollar a domain. But if it offers registry services for that little — like some of its competitors may — then people will call on it to lower .com prices (currently close to $7 per domain).
With .com registration growth slowing, VeriSign needs the short term lift of new top level domains.
3. New TLDs may remove price caps from VeriSign’s management of .com and .net. Gome doesn’t mention this in his post, but I will.
M. Menius says
All hell will break loose if registries are ever allowed to introduce unregulated pricing in existing tld’s. I find that scenario so incredibly abusive and preposterous, it seems unimaginable. Something akin to everyone’s home mortgage payment being quadrupled overnight for no reason. There are fed laws against these types of flagrant abuses in the larger consumer market. I can’t quote the protections specifically, but price gouging in general is prohibited.
Existing tld’s must operate under a different set of guidelines … regardless of new TLD standards or rules.