DNSO Archives: [registrars]

Dear .NAME Registrar:

The Global Name Registry Ltd operates the dot name registry. We has received some inquiries regarding the upcoming launch of Personal Names Limited, a registrar that is wholly-owned by our parent company GNR Limited. Personal Names Limited was accredited by ICANN on 23 December 2002. This note is intended to provide the rationale behind the launch of the new registrar.

The Board of GNR Limited has been disappointed with the results posted by Global Name Registry. In the 9 month period ended 30 September 2002, Global Name Registry sold only 85,633 registrations. NAME registrations now trail other new gTLDs by a dramatic amount. On the same date BIZ enjoyed 768,857 registrations and INFO enjoyed 951,018 registrations. [State of the Domain report Q3 2002]

Of course, Global Name Registry does not sell directly to the public. It sells to registrars, who resell the service the public. The registrar community has simply not delivered NAME sales the way that they have delivered, and continue to deliver, COM, NET, ORG, BIZ, INFO and US sales.

Why?

We believe NAME is not selling at the same levels as the other gTLDs for the following reasons:

1. Most registrars sell domain names to businesses and organizations, with a particular focus on small to medium enterprises. The NAME product is targeted at consumers. Many registrars do not know how to communicate with or sell to consumers, and have little consumer traffic to their web sites.

2. The primary feature of interest to consumers is the personalized email capability offered by the NAME product, which guarantees consumers their last names, and provides them with name portability and permanence. Many registrars have not tried to sell these features, instead focusing on the domain name aspects of the product, which are of less interest to the average consumer.

3. The NAME product is somewhat more complex than other gTLDs, with three levels instead of two. Many registrars have not designed simple, easy to use registration and modification tools for the consumer.

4. Until recently, the NAME product cost considerably more on a bundled basis (personalized email plus personalized domain name) than other domain names. Global Name Registry charged registrars $13.25 for a one year registration bundle, while other registries charge approximately $6.00 for a one year domain name registration. Responding to registrar encouragement, Global Name Registry announced on 14 January 2003 that it would be reducing its bundled one-year registration price to $7.00 effective 15 February 2003.

Our research suggests that the market for personalized consumer email is enormous. There are 200 million online users in North America, and 600 million worldwide. The primary application used by the vast majority of these individuals is email. A significant percentage of those users do not enjoy email addresses that are easy to remember. But the registrar community has not even captured 2/100ths of 1% of the global market opportunity.

At GNR, we have come to the conclusion that we do not have a sustainable business model if we continue to rely on the current approach to NAME. We need, but are not getting, aggressive, creative techniques for reaching the consumer, for promoting personalized-portable-permanent email, or for creating registration engines that are consumer friendly. In fact, few registrars even give NAME placement on their home pages.

So we have decided to create a registrar that is tailored to the NAME space, and focused on developing the kind of marketing program designed to appeal to individual consumers. Our new registrar, Personal Names Limited, will become a development site for testing new strategies and tools for marketing NAME. Our intent is to share the best practices that we develop with interested registrars. Our hope is that Personal Names Limited becomes a model for the industry to follow. It is in the best interest of Global Name Registry for EVERY registrar that is accredited to sell NAME services to enjoy success.

Global Names Registry understands the importance of our obligations as an ICANN -accredited registry, including our obligation to provide equal access for all registrars, and to maintain separation from Personal Names Limited. We intend to uphold these obligations.

We hope this clarifies the questions surrounding the registrar launch. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to address them to me or Francis Coleman, our VP Law & Policy and General Counsel, during a conference call at 12:00 Noon ET tomorrow - Friday, January 3. The conference call number for those in the US is 1-334-323-6203, and for those outside the US it is +44-207-162-0125. The password is "Chuck Mancini". For best results, you may wish to call in 7 or 8 minutes before Noon.

Very truly yours,

R. Charles Mancini

CEO - GNR Limited

[registrars]

[registrars] GNR/PersonalNames Invitation to Teleconference and Background Information