Registrar NameKing still biggest domain taster, but numbers declining.
Domain registrar NameKing.com is still the king of domain tasting.
NameKing, a subsidiary of Oversee.net, continues to drop nearly 1 million .com domains during the add grace period each month. As I predicted, ICANN’s budget measure to stem domain tasting curtailed the practice but did not eliminate it.
The graph below shows the number of .com domains NameKing dropped during the add grace period each month from April to September 2008 (the last month for which data is currently available from ICANN). As you can see, NameKing’s domain tasting has been reduced from about 2.5 million .com domains a month to 1 million domains. According to RegistrarStats, the company only has 737,197 active domain registrations.
In 2007 NameKing briefly suspended domain tasting after one of its customers was sued by Microsoft for trademark infringement and cybersquatting.
By April 2009, NameKing’s tasting appetite will be seriously crimped by a new ICANN policy that will not allow registrars to receive refunds for more than 10% of domains returned during the add grace period.
But the new policy won’t be the end of domain tasting. There are several ways companies can still make tasting profitable under the new policy, especially for registrars that have retail customers. Demand Media’s eNom, currently a big domain taster, may be able to continue its practice. In September, eNom’s dozens of registrars dropped over 100,000 .com domains during the add grace period, according to VeriSign reports submitted to ICANN. But the company registered about 150,000 new .coms during that period, meaning it can return up to 15,000 domains without penalty. It will have to reduce its domain tasting operations but not eliminate them.
RegFeeNames.com says
I didnt know domain tasting was still BIG business – I thought most people got out of that.
I shall be glad to see ICANN cut down on this!
I dont see how domain tasting helps the industry.
We should be buying domains to build brands and business not just to gain traffic for parking.
Regards,
Robbie
Jamie says
The only way I see domain tasting to be 100% gone, is if the AGP itself is gone!
Once a domain is registered, it’s registered for the amount of time paid for, Period!
If you make a typo, you will be more careful next time…
cj says
I see this cutting down the tasting by about 90% not eliminating it. Previously enom and snapnames would register 99.9% of the drop and delete it within the rgp. Using the new rules they would have to be very selective (90% more selective) on their tastes. This also brings up a new question for the registrars that allow customer deletions. Will this be discontinued, or will it come with the same limits or increase in price?
Adam Oyster says
There are several entities with multiple creds (e.g. Oversee which owns NameKing, Snap, and all their subsidiary registrars; Enom which owns several dozen; Pool/Momentous; Dotster/Mydomain; and more). Add up all the 10%’s and you can still test domains.
You’ll still see domain testing, it will just be more spread out.
Renting creds for testing could become profitable for registrars who’ve been hurt by declining revenue in the drops.
Those who are against the AGP and domain testing are ill-informed. It doesn’t not significantly impair the security or stability of the net, and those who say otherwise are propagandists who dislike advertising and capitalism.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Adam – yes, I added up all of eNoms to get the 100k+. The catch is, each of there registrars counts as one, and most of them don’t have any registrations. So they will have to taste all of them through one registrar (or ones that get real registrations).
Good point on “renting” other registrars for tasting. Someone could rent from GoDaddy, which registers enough domains each month to make tasting a possibility. Of course, then you’ll probably read about that on this site 🙂
Dave Zan says
Unfortunately the AGP isn’t going to be done away with, as registrars catering to end users need that to correct mistakes or fraudulent registrations. And I doubt users want to pay and keep misspellings, which really and seriously happens as I’ve dealt with a few in my past registrar life.
Debbie Spencer says
Please call me 570-412-7847 to add years to my renewal. Thank you!!!!