On Thu, 22 Nov 2001 13:27:50 +1100, Chris Berkeley wrote:


> On 22 Nov 2001, at 1:15, Patrick Corliss wrote:
> > These registrars are, of course, very price competitive.  Depending on
> > who you are buying from, domain name prices can be as low as about $8
> > a year. One high volume and efficient registrar, OpenSRS is charging
> > $10 a year as a wholesale price as follows:
> >
> > "Individual .com, .net and .org domain registrations to our
> > Registration Service Providers at a cost of $10 US per year"
> > http://www.opensrs.org/payment/apayment.shtml
> >
> > So you are making a reasonable profit at $40 a year (if you are
> > picking up sales at that price).
>
> Apart from the fact that I don't you to teach me how to suck eggs, we
> <adopt high moral tone> as a matter of policy offer domain name
> registration for our Australian clients through a publicly listed
> Australian based domain name registry </adopt high moral tone> so our
> margin isn't that terrific. Even if we were using bucket shops, the
> margins would not allow us to fully cost recover given all the other
> work that has to be done in connection with the transactions. If you
> don't understand this Paddy, I suggest you return to tech and brush
> up on BP.

Hi Chris

I certainly did not mean to be offensive when I said that you were making a
"reasonable profit" and I am surprised that you thought so.  I was merely
explaining what I thought the effect of competition in Australia will be by
analogy with the United States.

As a director of auDA, I try to provide a service to the public.  It would
be really easy for me just to ignore complaints and comments but I do not
see that as very constructive.  However, I have spent enough time dealing
with the domain name system to understand the dynamics of mailing lists.

Apart from being a director of auDA, I am also a director or the Top Level
Domain Association.  Until recently I was the Alternate Chair of the DNSO
General Assembly of ICANN.  I am as knowledgeable as almost anyone in
Australia.

As far as qualifications, I have a Bachelor's degree in Computing Science
and a Master's degree in Accounting as well as numerous other
qualifications.  I am or have been a member of five professional bodies.
Perhaps the fact I was formerly a lecturer in the School of Computing
Science at UTS tends me towards pedagogy.

> > Within a year, or less, the price of .com.au domain names will be one
> > hundred dollars cheaper i.e. $37.50 for two years.  And that is being
> > conservative in my view.
>
> The point I was trying to make is that for essentially $1 per week we
> will be swapping a regulated understandable market with relatively
> sane rules and regulations for what is likely to be a mess. If you
> have dealt with some of the el cheapo domain registries overseas, you
> will be aware that getting anything resembling support and service
> other than robot responses is but a faint hope. Oh yeah... and a
> dispute settling system that is biased towards the big end of town
> and expensive.

I'm sorry to disagree but the current rules are not particularly sane.  If
that were the case the Competition and Names Policy Panel would not have
made such sweeping suggestions for change.  Personally, I believe the new
system will be a great improvement.

Hence my comment that the results will become apparent within 6 months or
so.

Whilst I agree that there are some "el cheapo" domain registrars overseas, I
would see that as part of the competitive process.  Some in the market will
cut prices to the bone.  Others will provide value added services.  There
will be a medley of different suppliers.

My view is that the better suppliers in the market will push the shonks out
of the way.  That is happening overseas too.

And, without "teaching you to suck eggs", I would have thought this would be
a good opportunity for people like yourselves to differentiate your
services.

Best regards
Patrick Corliss




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