--- Anand Kumria <wildfire&#167;progsoc.uts.edu.au> wrote:
>However a lot of organisations are realising just how expensive .au is
>and are making use of other gTLDs (e.g. cityrail.info,
>sydneyhomeshow.com, etc.) instead. With those kinds of URLs getting
>widespread coverage and being heavily promoted I believe you'll find
>fewer and fewer people who need to be told '.com but not au'.

>Anyway, I'm down to three domains stuck in .au and since I've got them
>for another 2 years, I'll be able to transition them away fairly slowly.
>However if I was involved with the .au domain industry I'd seriously be
>asking why auDA/AusRegistry/whoever are trading short-term profit for
>long-term viability.


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cityrail.info was registered via Melb IT. Retail price is 2 Years AUD
$138.60 USD $70.00
(taken from their site) and I assume if it was registered via a reseller
they would price somewhat similarly.

from whois >> R141-LRMS. Melbourne IT Limited dba Internet Names WorldWide

So I would not say it was a price driven registration. Whats more to assume
that lower pricing by itself will drive up demand is a simplification of all
the factors involved in a buying decision.

There is now a wide choice in .au domain pricing and overall prices have
dropped siginificantly, and in our experience most businesses will make a
decision on the type of TLD they want based on their target market or what
their web designer/professional recommends. ie if you have Aussie customers
= aussie domain names, if you have Global aspirations = global domain name.

The key is to build up the value of .au names. How to do that? Educate the
market and that costs money.

amin