Re: [wg-c] Eureka?

[Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>]

On Sat, Aug 07, 1999 at 11:01:46PM -0700, Kent Crispin wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 07, 1999 at 10:43:24PM -0700, Christopher Ambler wrote:
> [...]
> > I submit that computer.web is just as valuable as computer.com
> > if they are the only two. There have been a number of
> > expensive .net domains that support this statement. If
> > com/net/web are the only three, then we still have scarcity,
> > and we have value. Indeed, if the "IAHC 7" were to have
> > been added, CORE would have found themselves with
> > a very lucrative scarce resource. The registrars would have
> > made a killing off of the new and novel TLDs. Be careful
> > here - if you don't agree that they would have made a killing,
> > please explain why.
> 
> They might have made a killing, but I don't think so.  There were
> around 70 or 80 registrars; anyone else (including IODesign) could
> pay the entrance fee and become a registrar (if you thought they were
> going to make a killing, you would certainly sign up to be a CORE
> registrar), and soon there would have been 700 registrars.  Say each
> new TLD sold 5 million registrations in a year; that's $35M if
> current prices hold.  $35,000,000/700 = $50,000.  The registry was
> constrained to be a cost-recovery basis, so no one would be getting
> rich running the registry. 

Sorry -- I did that assuming 1M registrations/TLD/year, then changed
that to 5M, and hit the send button.  That would make yearly income
for a registrar $250,000, not $50,000.  Still peanuts, for a business.

> You might say that 700 registrars is way too many -- maybe.  But I
> assumed that every one of the new TLDs matched .com in a single year,
> which is also rather unlikely; and that current prices held (also
> unlikely). 
> 
> -- 
> Kent Crispin                               "Do good, and you'll be
> kent@songbird.com                           lonesome." -- Mark Twain

-- 
Kent Crispin                               "Do good, and you'll be
kent@songbird.com                           lonesome." -- Mark Twain