RE: [ga] .org price breaks

[Paul Stahura <stahura@enom.com>]

This message posted on behalf of The .org Foundation (theorgfoundation.org)

Good question Rick.
I can tell you we struggled with this one.
We devoted some text to it in our proposal.
The question was: why lower prices if the lower prices
will not be passed to the registrants, especially
low volume purchasers (the majority of .org registrants), 
for whom the registry exists to service?  
We can see this already.  Most registrars do not charge
slightly lower prices for .info and .biz names, even
though those names cost slightly less than .com and .net
Why not keep more to do "good works"?  
Since the price to registrants (especially those who
purchase just one name) is generally the same either way,
the registrars in effect would be paying for the "good works",
if the price was higher.  
Additionally, who's to say this will continue?  
A competing registrar in the future may well choose to
service the .org community by passing on the lower fee
to .org registrants.  This can only happen if there is
a lower fee to pass on.

What we decided was to set the price to cover expenses.
Any "good works" would be covered by 3rd party matching funds.  

The maximum price that we proposed ($4.95/name-year)
covers running an efficient, robust and stable registry and 
still provides a  small amount for the registry to respond well 
to the needs of the noncommercial Internet community, and to
support that community.
At this price, which I believe is one of the lowest proposed, 
we figured only a portion of the ICANN endowment
would be needed to help cover expenses and 
contingency costs of the registry.


Terry Drayton
Executive Director
The .org Foundation




-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Wesson [mailto:wessorh@ar.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 22, 2002 11:02 AM
To: ga@dnso.org
Subject: [ga] .org price breaks



Anyone else been reading .org proposals? I've got a question for you
folks regarding price and supporting causes in respect to proposals to run
the .org registry.

If all the proposals proport to support some internet or not-for-profit in
exchange for running the registry and that certain funds will be donated
to the not-for-profit is it not in the interest of supporting the
not-for-profit that prices be kept at or near the $6 whole sale price for
a .org.

It seems most of the organizations waving a flag for the .org bid have a
non-profit which gets donations of revenue. As the registry drops its
price the non-profit gets less of a benefit, and the price difference
translates into a better gross margin for the registrar.

Since most registrars do not price near the wholesale price a 15% drop in
wholesale price would not encourage registrars to drop their list price by
15% or an equal dollar value.

So this is what I don't get, why are most of the .org proposals offering a
$4.95 price which effectively reduces the contribution to the NGO that
is supposed to be the beneficiary of the whole operation.

I just don't get it -- could anyone explain, or did I totally miss the
mark?

thanks,

-rick




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