On 17 May 2004 at 14:33, Kim Davies wrote:

> Whilst I am as keen as anyone to see prices drop, I don't agree that .au
> is a failure due to pricing.


On 17 May 2004 at 17:37, IntaServe  |  Amin Kroll wrote:

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


There is no particular value in a .au domain name. It is a cypher and signifies nothing 
not even Australianess as namescout.com.au and plenty of others registered by or on 
behalf of foreign entities demonstrate.

There is no real evidence that having a .au domain has any overwhelming influence 
on Google or any other significant SEs results (for a "sites from Australia" search).

The main reason that most Australian based companies register .au domains is 
because the names which are still available are relevant to their business not having 
been grabbed by speculators etc.. This is largely due to the fact that .au domain 
names are licenced on a restricted basis (- less so now than previously) and, as we 
are all aware, is a great contrast to gTLD domains.

However the domains available for Australian business are expensive - much more 
than they should be. The reasons for this are:
a) too high a price being charged for the basic product by the wholesaler to the next 
level of distribution
b) two levels of distribution between the wholesaler and the consumer ie. registrars 
and resellers.who get their cut.

The registrar and reseller levels should be eliminated and wholesaler should be 
required to sell the domains to consumers or their agents direct without the other 
levels getting in the way.taking their cut and essentially not adding any real value.

The company where I turn up from time to time is a reseller for a registrar. They 
sometimes only charge the registrant the net registrar price. They never load it.  
Being a reseller has no value for them other than to stop (some) registrars using their 
"relationship" with the registrant to onsell unsolicited other products which are in 
direct competition with the company's own services including hosting, design, SSL 
certs. SEO etc..

It should also be noted that very few Australian businesses have a turnover in excess 
of $1 million - most are micro business and for them EVERY expense needs to be 
watched. It is particularly galling for them when they become aware that part of their 
hard earned is frittered away promoting the most pointless .au domain space of all via 
the sponsorship of a motor racing car.

cb