Tag Archives: VeriSign

Mon 8th June 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Will VeriSign Hold Domain Name Prices Steady this Year? - With significant bad publicity, a negative court decision, and a watchful eye in Washington, will VeriSign not invoke its full 7% .com price increase this year? For the past two years, .com and .net registry VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) has increased prices on .com domain names 7% and .net 10%, the maximum allowed under its contract with ICANN. The .com contract allows VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) to increase .com fees 7% per year for four years of each six year term in its ... read more ...
Thu 4th June 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Congress Beats Up ICANN (Part 1) - Members of the House rip into ICANN over pricing, transparency, and security. It wasn’t pretty. For better than two hours today, members of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet took turns ripping into Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and its President/CEO Paul Twomey. If nothing else, ICANN’s experience on Capitol Hill today will give it all the more reason to try to get out of U.S. oversight. In ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Congress Beats Up ICANN (Part 3) - Question and answer period at hearing gets testy. In part 1 of our coverage of today’s U.S. House of Representatives hearing on ICANN, DNW covered committee member’s opening remarks. Part two covered witnesses’ opening testimony. The real fireworks started when the committee members asked questions of the witnesses. Committee chairman Rick Boucher (D-Virginia) started the questioning by following up on Verizon’s comments about cybersquatting. (Verizon ... read more ...
Wed 3rd June 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Registration Growth: Up or Down? - New VeriSign report shows domain registration growth is up. Or is it? They say there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. The truth is you can focus on particular numbers to change the impression. That’s the case with VeriSign’s new June Domain Name Industry Brief (pdf). I could have headlined this article “Domain Registrations Up 17%”. But I also could have titled it “Domain Registrations Decline 17%”. It all depends on the baseline. VeriSign ... read more ...
Wed 27th May 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Demand Media Awarded Patent for Tiered Domain Name Registrations - The return of domain name tasting? Demand Media, parent company of eNom, has been awarded United States Patent 7539774 for “Method for domain name registration and a corresponding apparatus”. The patent application was filed in 2005 and appears to be targeted toward domain monetization of low traffic domains. The idea would be for the registry, such as VeriSign (NSDQ: VRSN), to offer domain registrations at different prices but with different rights. For example, ... read more ...
Wed 18th February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign: 177 Million Domain Names Registered - Latest industry brief shows rate of domain registration growth slowing. VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) has released its latest Domain Name Industry Brief (pdf), which shows an all time high of 177 million domain names in existence. Although the total base of domains is growing, the growth rate is falling. The total base of domain names increased only 2% in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to the third quarter. New registrations in the fourth quarter totaled 10.1M, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign to Pay $6M More to ICANN in FY 2010 - Proposed budget includes increased contractual fee from VeriSign. Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has published its Proposed Framework for FY10 Operating Plan and Budget (pdf). ICANN’s Financial Year 2010 runs July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. Despite the possibility of declining domain registrations, ICANN will get a $6 million windfall thanks to a fixed fee provision in its dotcom agreement with VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN). VeriSign will ... read more ...
Fri 6th February 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
VeriSign: Domain Registrations and Renewals Rates Down: Price Increase to Come? - According to VeriSign’s Earnings call report for the 4th quater of 2008, new domain registrations (.com’s .net’s) were down 15%  in the 4th quarter of 2008 compared to the 4th quarter of 2007. In 2008 there were 6.3 million new domain name registrations, compared with 7.5 million names during 4Q 07. There are a lot in interesting information in the report including these gems: “”””The decline..reflects the continuation of weakness in names registered for the he online advertising ... read more ...
Fri 9th January 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Notifies Registrars About Domain Tasting Changes - VeriSign sends notice about changes to add grace period rules. As required by a new ICANN policy, VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) has notified its registrars about changes to the Add Grace Period policy. These changes were made to limit the practice of “domain tasting”, which is registering a domain and returning it for a refund within the grace period if it doesn’t deliver enough traffic. The text of the notice is below: Please be advised that ICANN formally announced ... read more ...
Mon 8th December 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domainers Don’t Care if VeriSign Increases Prices - Do domain name owners care if VeriSign can drastically increase .com prices? Apparently not. ICANN has released new details about its proposed registry agreement and added a line-by-line comparison to previous registry agreements. These agreements dictate the terms that registries such as VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) must follow as they run top level domains. You can see details of the new information on ICANN’s web site. As written before on Domain Name Wire along ... read more ...
Thu 4th December 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign: Google Slowing Domain Name Registration Growth - Latest VeriSign report blames Google Adsense weakness for slowing domain registration growth rates. New domain name registrations are slowing, and VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) says Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) may be to blame. About 11.5 million new domain names were registered in the third quarter of this year, VeriSign reported in this month’s Domain Name Industry Brief (pdf). That’s a 2% decline from the previous quarter as well as over Q3 of 2007. When you look only ... read more ...
Thu 13th November 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Will .Com Domain Name Fees Soar? - Hidden bomb in new gTLD agreement could introduce tiered pricing to .com domains. Upset about VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) increasing your .com registration fees 7% a year? Imagine if they could raise them by whatever they want. There’s a little time bomb in the new draft gTLD registry agreement, part of the new top level domain rollout process, that could make this happen. Essentially, the new registry agreement wouldn’t place any pricing restrictions on registries ... read more ...
Thu 30th October 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Going Offshore? Watch Out for Australia, Too. - Moving domain names out of the United States may not be safer. Last week I wrote about a growing movement for transferring domain names away from United States registrars to other countries. I argued that: -Even if you move your domains to a non-U.S. registrar, U.S. courts could still claim jurisdiction through Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) or ICANN -Other countries also make silly decisions that could jeopardize your domains I gave the suggestion of an Australian court ... read more ...
Thu 25th September 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
I’ve Got Domain Renewal Fatigue; 5 Days to Go - Looming price hike means it’s time to renew your domain names. Over the past few days I’ve renewed thousands of dollars worth of domain names. The price of renewing most domain names will shoot up on October 1 as many of the registries increase prices. That includes VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN), which runs .com and .net. Registrars will pass these price hikes to customers. Last time before prices increased I renewed domains a couple months out. This time, thanks ... read more ...
Thu 11th September 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker Drops .Com to $7.29 Ahead of Registry Fee Hikes - Moniker joins other registrars in “renew before the increase” promotions. Domain registrar Moniker has just cut the new registration and renewal price on .com domain names to $7.29 until the end of the month. Moniker joins other registrars in offering promotions prior to a wholesale price increase that goes into effect October 1. The current wholesale price of .com domains, including the ICANN fee, is $6.62. The price jumps to $7.06 on October 1. eNom is ... read more ...
Thu 28th August 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Hikes Price of .Net and .Org Domain Names to $13.19 - You’ve been paying more at the pump. Now you’re paying more at the registrar. I’m not sure when this happened, but a reader pointed out that GoDaddy has hiked prices on .net and .org domain names to $13.19 per domain. That’s a 30% increase. This is probably just a business decision by GoDaddy to maximize profit. It can easily calculate how many .net and .org sales it loses and determine if the price hike is worth it. When I asked GoDaddy about its ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Renew Domain Names Before Oct Price Increases - Renew domains before end of September to avoid additional fees. It’s that time of year again — time for VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) and other registries to increase their wholesale price of domain names. VeriSign’s wholesale prices for .com and .net increase on October 1, 2008. The new .com price will be $6.86. With ICANN’s 20 cent fee that means the minimum cost to your registrar is $7.06. .Net prices will be $4.23 before ICANN’s fee. Earlier today Domain ... read more ...
Tue 5th August 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Registries Must Lobby GoDaddy for Success - GoDaddy’s power in domain registration cannot be ignored. Here’s a tip to any registries for new domains coming online in the next couple years: before you create your marketing strategy and invest in infrastructure, go cozy up with your new pal Bob Parsons at GoDaddy. Registries make money when more domains are registered as they get a typically flat fee for each domain registered. For example, VeriSign gets $6.42 for each .com domain registered. With GoDaddy ... read more ...
Thu 17th July 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Stocks Pummeled in 2008 - Stocks of domain name companies take beating with the market — and beyond. It’s been a rough year for stock markets, and domain name companies’ stocks are having a tough run as well. The good news is that two “pure play” domain companies’ stocks are performing much better than the market overall. Here’s a quick run down of domain related stocks and how they are doing year-to-date as of yesterday’s close. For comparison, the SP 500 is down 15% this ... read more ...
Mon 16th June 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign: 162 Million Domain Names Registered - Registry sees sharp domain registration growth (again). .Com and .net registry VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) estimates there are 162 million domain names registered across all TLDs as of the end of Q1 2008. In the company’s latest Domain Name Industry Brief (pdf), the company says new registrations increased 17% compared to the previous quarter, although the overall base of domains grew only 6%. Other interesting news: -.Net is no longer the third most popular domain ... read more ...
Tue 10th June 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Trivia Lands on Jeopardy - Final Jeopardy question tests contestants’ domain name knowledge. ICANN’s blog has a story about one of this week’s “Final Jeopardy” questions on the popular Jeopardy game show: “On March 10, 2003, this nation got control of the .af internet domain”. The answer is “What is Afghanistan?”. This trivia got me thinking about a few other possible Jeopardy answers for domain name trivia buffs. Most of the “questions” can be found on Domain Name Wire. ... read more ...
Fri 9th May 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Org Domain Name Prices to Jump 10% - Public Interest Registry to raise wholesale prices of .org domain names. Public Interest Registry, the registry for .org domain names, has notified ICANN that it is increasing wholesale prices 10%. The annual wholesale price for .org domain name registrations will be $6.75, slightly below the $6.86 rate that .com domains will jump to later this year. The rational for the price increase? None. At least none that was disclosed to ICANN. The rational is purely for ... read more ...
Tue 25th March 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Credit Suisse: Domain Name Parking to Slow - Analyst predicts decrease in parked domain names. Credit Suisse Internet technology analyst Philip Winslow predicts domain name parking will become less profitable, leading to a drop in domain registrations, reports financial publication Barron’s. According to the Barron’s article: To wit, some enterprising folks will sign up tons of temporary, or “parked” Web sites, to drive keyword search results to their pages and collect an ad fee they split with Google. ... read more ...
Mon 25th February 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Network Solutions, ICANN - Lawsuit stems from “customer protection measure”. My prediction has come true: Kabateck Brown Kellner, LLP has filed a class action lawsuit against Network Solutions for its practice of preemptively registering domains names searched for on its site. This issue was uncovered on the DomainState blog in January and set off a media firestorm. On the day the news broke, I wrote: “If Network Solutions doesn’t stop this practice immediately, they are guaranteed ... read more ...
Thu 10th January 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Top Domain Name News Stories of 2007 - A look back at a watershed year for domains. It’s time again for Domain Name Wire’s annual roundup of the domain industry. In 2006, the top stories were surging domain values and major investors entering the market. This year includes some familiar stories, but also includes new trends in the industry. 7. Registries increase prices. We new it was going to happen, but it still hurts. This year VeriSign increased the wholesale price of .com domains by 7% and ... read more ...