TLD Registrar Wants To Charge $300 For .Pro Names

dipfan writes: "The commercialization of the net continues: RegistryPro, the ICANN-approved registrar of the new TLD name, wants to charge up to $300 for .Pro addresses - or about 10 times the price of a .com address. The company says it will restrict .Pro to doctors, lawyers or accountants: 'qualified professionals in good standing ... .pro will be a premium brand, enabling effective, secure communication between professionals and users for the first time in the history of the Internet.' The Washington Post quotes RegistryPro's chief executive: 'The goal of RegistryPro is to build out a gated community for professionals on the Internet.' Is this what happens when you give one company a license to print money?"

Comments

So I guess...

[NewbieSpaz]

Prostitutes won't be able to register...

Let the market decide

[iangoldby]

Why not just let the market decide?

If people want to pay, that's fine. No one is forcing anyone to have a .pro domain. There are after all other choices.

I don't think there is really anything wrong with allowing people to pay for what is, in effect, a premium brand. (I won't be buying one.)

Re:Let the market decide

[reemul]

Sure, .pro is a monopoly. In the same sense that Pepsi has a monopoly on, well, Pepsi. Plenty of other beverages in the world, but you bet, only Pepsi can sell Pepsi. Bastards.

Why would a professional in a third world country want an uncommon TLD that is just part of an *English* word? There are lots of other domain names possible, no-one at all is forced to use .pro, and frankly if that name did become wildly popular there is nothing stopping the country registrars from offering .pro.au or .pro.uk and the like. If you want to get angry about something absurd in this market, complain about how small countries got good extensions just by a quirk in their names. No-one seems to be complaining about the folks in Moldova who got .MD, you'd think doctors would be lining up for that one. And the folks in Tonga just sold off the rights to .TO to some corporation. Tuvalu went for the big bucks with .TV, what did they do to deserve a good name for free? That sort of thing seems far more unfair than some desparate internet company trying to cash in on a new TLD by charging higher rates.

And while $300 does seem a little stiff as domain registration fees go, its still pretty cheap compared to other means of creating name awareness - that's the equivalent of a couple of boxes of business cards, some letterhead, and a small sign over the door. Not a big ticket item for a company looking to improve their image.

Re:Let the market decide

[yivi]

Why would a professional in a third world country want an uncommon TLD that is just part of an *English* word?

Spanish: Profesional
French: Professionnel
Italian: Professionista
Portuguese: Profissional

In good standing ??

[Tensor]

WTF do they mean by that.

I'm an engineer, and after 5 years of school, and 5 more being a professional i can't even apply for a .pro domain (not that i'd pay $300, but still)

What is Good Standing ? why is it limited to those 3 professions ? who decided this ? and why ??

Re:In good standing ??

[Jaeger]

Personally, I'd go for a few more tld's:

• .phd (which I'd like to get, but first I have to get grad schools to accept me)
• .engr (the people who *really* run the world.)

The narrowly-defined "professionals in good standing" can have all the .pro domains the can handle.

Perfectly suitable price

[jukal]

If we consider that Thawte is selling their 128-but SuperCerts at the price of US $300 per year, which is not even the highest price on the market (Verisign, $348, then:

it is completely understandable that the price is similar, as they are supposed to go into similar actions to verify the authentity of the registrant - or atleast this is what their marketing speach makes you think - that they only give this domain name for fully qualified registrants, this they can verify only by same procedures, as Thawte or Verisign. They sell different product, but need to do similar procedures to deliver the product

What is not understandable, is if their price for renewals is as high - as the work involved in renewal is minimal compared to first time granting. This is also the case with Thawte and Verisign, they charge way too much for the renewals too (Thawte, $300 Verisign $249 )

Compare it to Business Cards

[Schlemphfer]

Reading this, I couldn't help but think of the lead character's obsession with business cards in American Psycho. For professionals, a personal website today serves much of the role that business cards served in the 1980s.

Any website or businesscard will contain your contact information. But some people want more than that. They want to shell out extra money to make a statement. The extra $280 that they pay for a .Pro domain serves a purpose--it distinguishes them from the .Com rabble.

I hate to admite it, but what this company is doing with .Pro domains is innovative. If they market it well to people who want to make a statement, it'll sell. After all, we live in a world where loads of people spend $250 extra to get a gold plated nameplate on their Toyotas. Never underestimate the number of insecure people with money to spend.