Can ICANN handle 9 figures of cash?
$185,000 per application. Let’s say 550 applications for new to level domain names. That’s $101.75 million in cash coming in ICANN’s door next year.
That’s a lot of money.
What will it do with the cash that it doesn’t immediately spend on application processing? How much of this will now be considered “cost recovery”? How much will be reserved for resulting lawsuits?
Don’t get me wrong, I think it should cost a lot to apply for a new TLD in this round. It will help ensure applicants are well funded.
But we could see a lot of applications. Think about IDN equivalents alone. And a lot of marketing departments of large companies will say “Hey, I don’t know if we want one of these. But for under $500,000 we may as well protect ourselves.”
One hundred million in cash. That’s a lot of dough. Hope they don’t screw this up.
Adam says
Does anyone know the fee breakdown? That is, of the $185k, how much is ICANN’s cost and how much profit will it make on each application?
Note that UK non-profit registry Nominet, poised to auction valuable one- and two-character domain names, has promised to donate fee surplus to internet-related charity projects.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Adam – I believe it is supposed to be “fee neutral”, but there’s economies of scale. If only 10 people apply then it’s fee negative; if 1,000 apply then it’s fee positive.
Einstein says
“One hundred million in cash. That’s a lot of dough. Hope they don’t screw this up.”
From 5 star hotels to 7 star hotels
Raises
Better pensions
More trips
All in all, it’s a scam: approve more extensions out of thin air and get more $$ to ensure their own job security. That money is not theirs, it should be used to lower prices, fix UDRP with an appeals system, or improve domain infrastructure, not support their bureaucracy. I hope the US congress rains on these people.
Deke says
Quote: “What will it do with the cash that it doesn’t immediately spend on application processing?”
Crush anyone that opposes them on any front.
Oh, and also take some very expensive vacations in the name of protecting the Internet from hackers, terrorists, domainers, child rapists, and simple murderers.
At least that is how they will spin it.
Adam says
“One world. One internet. Everyone connected.”
Invest the fee surplus in internet infrastructure and access projects in the world’s most disconnected locations?
Icann winning lottery ticket says
They will use part of the $100mil to
move to Switzerland where they won’t
need to answer to anyone.
Get away from –
indirect U.S. gov’t control,
Versign control,
U.S. lawsuits,
financial disclosure and accountability.
Then, they will have absolute power
over the internet.
Landon White says
“One hundred million in cash. That’s a lot of dough. Hope they don’t screw this up.”
—————————-
They will need every single penny to fend of the barrage of lawsuits (litigation) planned by the numerous industry and non related advocate groups if ICANN exhibits poor
vision and allows itself to be bullied and thus fails to DENY the .XXX extension.
Gazzip says
I agree 100% with Einstein and the Icann winning lottery ticket posts.
Not for profit org LOL, dream on.
Icann is cash hungry and running off the rails.
mosstrooper says
“One hundred million in cash. That’s a lot of dough. Hope they don’t screw this up.”
Nah.They’ll do more of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrEGJLTxwzw
More dosh to party with!
George Kirikos says
Prediction: ICANN will find a way to “justify” buying a Gulfstream G650 (the new flagship), for a price of “only” $70 million. 🙂
M. Menius says
500 tld applications? I doubt it. The primary entities who will go for this are companies aiming for a vanity tld, ex. maybe IBM for .ibm.
And a handful of hot keywords or geos possibly like .music, .realestate, .hotels, or .nyc. As stated many times, the largest initial market will be domainer fever buy-ins.
Andrew Allemann says
Here’s part of the answer: ICANN is setting aside nearly 1/3 of every app fee for “risk costs”. $30M for risk i.e. legal issues
http://domainincite.com/is-icann-too-scared-of-lawsuits/