Amazon Becomes Domain Name Registrar

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Amazon Becomes Domain Name Registrar

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Saturday March 1, 2003 @12:42PM from the one-click-bwahahaha dept.

prostoalex writes "Internet's largest retailer is setting up a domain name registration business. Wall Street Journal recently found out that in December Amazon.com got approved as domain name registrar. According to people from ICANN, the registration included rights for .com, .net,. org, .biz and .info TLDs."

24 of 159 comments (clear)

It will be good for innovation. by m_chan · 2003-03-01 12:48 · Score: 4, Funny

Now Jeff Bezos can patent one-click domain squatting.
1. Re:It will be good for innovation. by $$$$$exyGal · 2003-03-01 13:11 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  I'll be they'll set this up to work closely with their ZShop businesses. Sign up as a Zshop business, and get your own domain for 8cents.
  
  --
  Very popular slashdot journal for adul
can't wait to see the patents by Anonymous Coward · 2003-03-01 12:48 · Score: 4, Funny

So, what kind of patent BS will they milk out of this one?

One great thing about boycotting internet retailers like Amazon.com : you can shop there, read reviews, compare models, pick out what you want .. then buy it someplace else with a few clicks [note: more than one click, don't sue me]!
Check out this report. by Deal-a-Neil · 2003-03-01 12:48 · Score: 4, Informative

Monthly Report (Oct 2002) for all ICANN registrars. Weird this /. article just made it because I was just reading this report. Shows a LOT of information about registrars, their SLAs, and even their registration statistics. Of course, Netsol, Tucows, Enom, Bulkregister, and MelbourneIT are stompin', but it will be interesting to track Amazon's progress since they're starting from scratch.
And in other news by ClippyHater · 2003-03-01 12:49 · Score: 5, Funny

Amazon patents the process of using human-readable names to alias network addresses of computers on the internet.
Low margin by Anonymous Coward · 2003-03-01 12:49 · Score: 4, Interesting

With all the recent competition this became such a low margin business. I wonder what amazon expects to get from it...
1. Re:Low margin by kfg · 2003-03-01 12:58 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  A vast improvement, since most of their business is based on a model of working at a negative margin and making it up in volume. You can believe it or not, but I'm not making that up. The orginal idea was to take large losses over a period of years but make it up in volume later on when you had become the biggest player in the field. It's not an umcommon stratagy, and sometimes it even works, but when it doesn't. . .
  
  That's why they keep adding products to their line, To offset the losses the previous line racked up.
  
  So a line with *any* profit margin at all will be a valuable thing to have come the next stockholder's meeting.
  
  KFG
2. Re:Low margin by Alomex · 2003-03-01 13:47 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  So a line with *any* profit margin at all will be a valuable thing to have come the next stockholder's meeting.
  
  If only the could have one of those... Amazon just sold $1.43 billion in merchandise last Xmas, and couldn't get 0.25% of that in true profits...
  
  This means that as far as businesses are concerned, your savings account is a more successful business model than "man of the year" Bezos' Amazon.
3. Re:Low margin by LostCluster · 2003-03-01 13:55 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Actually, it's a "Rinse. Wash. Repeat." process. (It's hard to explain this concept on a geek-friendly site, since so many programmers each year have to be rescued from showers after getting caught in that infinite loop on the shampoo bottle.)
  
  As older divisions turn profitable, they are funneling most of those profits into setting up new businesses on their site so that they can repeat and profit again. The result is that the overall operation is hovering around break even, but the value of the stock should theoretically increase because it now represents a bigger company. (Actual stock milage will vary due to the the external factors that send the whole stock market spinning at times.)
  
  Look at Microsoft's breakdowns when they have to file their paperwork. Their domanant businesses of Windows and Office are profitable, but then Microsoft turns around and spends money trying to break into the businesses that it doesn't dominate such as its MSN web properties. Still profitable, but how much more profitable would they be if they gave up the ghost on MSN?
Already taken... by davidstrauss · 2003-03-01 12:49 · Score: 4, Funny

It turns out amazon.com is reported as already taken.
Recommendations by jackal! · 2003-03-01 12:54 · Score: 5, Funny

Recommendations will be particularaly helpful:

"People who registered "cowsex.org" also registered: "grandmasex.org" "verbalsex.net" and "mbate.org"

--
Who moderates the meta-moderators?
1. Re:Recommendations by $$$$$exyGal · 2003-03-01 13:15 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Other people purchasing cowsex.org have also purchased clean underwear. Interested?
  
  --
  Very popular slashdot journal for adul
More power to them... by UsonianAutomatic · 2003-03-01 12:54 · Score: 5, Funny
...as long as they don't resort to Register.com/Verisign tactics like fake expiration notices and renewing domains without asking me first.

I do wonder what they have planned for this... with the addition of domain name registration to their list of products I can imagine them introducing some sort of turnkey affiliate web site product.

One thing you don't want to see when browsing domain names:
If you like this domain name, you might also be interested in...
- goatse.cx
umm ok by Anonymous Coward · 2003-03-01 12:55 · Score: 5, Insightful

will people stop saying "amazon will patent domain registrations"?

the joke is dead.

it died after the first time it was posted. repeating it in a different form 3 ... 4 times after that doesn't help to make it any funnier.
w00t! by one9nine · 2003-03-01 12:58 · Score: 5, Funny

Free shipping on two or more domains. Yaaaaaaaaaaaay.
In other major retailer news.. by NotAnotherReboot · 2003-03-01 12:59 · Score: 4, Funny

In other major retailer news, it turns out that Wal-Mart will be expanding the range of products they sell by adding a new "Sam's Choice" soda Pepsi Blue imitation. Analysts are speculating why anyone would want to buy generic Pepsi Blue, let alone the real deal.
About time... by Mullen · 2003-03-01 13:00 · Score: 4, Interesting

I am not suprised at all.

I use to be a member of the team that ran, maintained and added new domains to Amazon.com DNS's. While I won't tell you everything, I can tell you they did this to save money since Amazon.com owns something like 4,000 domains (Maybe less, maybe more).
Just paying the money to be a registar and then not having to pay to register new domains and also not paying to re-register all the domain names they own will save them a lot of money.

Smart move, IMHO.

--
Linux O Muerte!
Domain Registration is second best net business by hillct · 2003-03-01 13:01 · Score: 4, Interesting

Say what you want about Verisign, they had it right, and so it should come as no shock that Amazon.com has entered the domain registration business. Verisign operates in the two markets that are at the gateway to the net. they are the premier SSL certificate authority and the the primary (although far from the best) domain registrar. Amazon - as a well run business - is seeking to mazimize proffits so it follows that they would enter the domain registration business, since it has one of the highest margins of any known internet business with the possible exception of the sale of pornography, and, yes, sales of SSL certificates. If the bariers to entry int othe Certificate Authority weren't so high, I'm sure Amazon.com would have attempted entry into that market as well.

--CTH

--

--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
Re:amazon... by goatasaur · 2003-03-01 13:08 · Score: 5, Funny

People who searched for ".cx" also purchased:

Clean Underwear from Target

Latex Gloves from Target

Stainless Steel Speculum from Target
...

--
~D:
Re:Choosing a Good Registrar by man_ls · 2003-03-01 13:34 · Score: 4, Informative

godaddy.com

good service, 9.95/domain/year/1 year, and it goes down to like 6.95/year at 5 years.
Re:Wrong. by Phroggy · 2003-03-01 13:48 · Score: 4, Insightful

You obviously weren't very high up in the department. A registrar still has to pay Verisign for the privilege of being able to register and keep registered .com and .net TLDs.

Yes, but it's only $6 (might be different for different TLDs, I'm not sure).

You also have to pay an entrance fee to become accredited to register domains.

I'm sure they figure they can make it back over time. Besides, this probably sounds good on Wall Street.

Yes, it's probably less money than doing it through another company. But not free.

Agreed.

--
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
who's a good registrar? by bcrowell · 2003-03-01 13:54 · Score: 5, Insightful

So who is a good registrar these days?
I currently have one domain registered with Network Solutions, who are, of course eeeeeeevil, and when it comes up for expiration I'll go somewhere else.
I have another registered with Gandi. Although Gandi is cheap and doesn't send spam, that's about all I can say for them. I started trying yesterday to get a connection to their server so I could update a DNS entry to point to my new webhost. Tried around the clock at various times (including getting up at 1 a.m. my time), only got through after many many frustrating attempts. (Oh yeah, I e-mailed their support address, and got a reply saying that support was unavailable for an indefinite time.)
So who's good? I've heard good things about EasyDNS/opensrs/tucows, but they're not particularly cheap. Although I'm not a fan of Amazon's behavior (patents, labor relations,...), I'd be interested to see if they turn out to be a good registrar.

--
Find free books.
Here is a good registrar by ciurana · 2003-03-01 14:06 · Score: 4, Informative

Anonymous Coward wrote: In a couple months, I've got to re-register my domain names. Does anyone have good info on cheap places to register domains that don't have evil contracting agreements that may endanger my future rights to the domain?
I manage servers and build software for several companies in the pr0n industry; it seems like most of these guys like registering with www.godaddy.com. I use them all the time with excellent results. I've registered four of my own domains with them so far; some of my friends followed me there. In total I'm managing about 120 domains with no hassles. Go Daddy's domain transfer rate is ~$7.00 and registration for a new domain is about ~$9.00/year. I have nothing but good things to say about them.

The only problems we had so far were in transferring domains from Verisign/NetSol over to Go Daddy. NetSol makes it almost impossible to happen; it takes two or three iterations before they comply.

Cheers and good luck,
E

--
http://eugeneciurana.com | http://ciurana.eu
Squatters by Brian+Kendig · 2003-03-01 15:39 · Score: 4, Interesting

These days *anyone* can become a registrar, it seems.

That's how cybersquatters can afford to snatch up tens of thousands of domain names the moment they expire. The cybersquatters aren't paying $35 to another registrar for each name; they're just putting out a couple of thousand bucks to become registrars themselves then they get to snap up as many newly-expired domain names as they want, for free.

And then they easily recoup the couple of thousand bucks by finding people who didn't mean to let their domains expire, and extorting large sums of money from those people to give them their domains back.

Cybersquatters are scum of the earth, second only to spammers.