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Pay up or Sell up, ICANN Tells Failing New gTLD (domainincite.com)
ICANN has responded to a request for it to reduce the $25,000 annual fee it charges gTLD registries. The answer is no. From a report: That wholly unsurprising reply came in a letter from registry services director Russ Weinstein to John McCabe, CEO of failing new gTLD operator Who's Who Registry. McCabe, in November, had asked ICANN to reduce its fees for TLDs, such as its own .whoswho, that have zero levels of abuse. ICANN fees are the "single biggest item" in the company's budget, he said. His request coincided with ICANN commencing compliance proceedings against the company for failure to pay these fees.
Weinstein wrote, in a letter [PDF] published today: "We sympathize with the financial challenges that some new gTLD registry operators may be facing in the early periods of these new businesses. New gTLD operators face a challenging task of building consumer awareness and this can and may take significant time and effort." But he goes on to point out that the $25,000-a-year fee was known to all applicants before they applied, and had been subject to numerous rounds of public comment before the Applicant Guidebook was finalized.
Weinstein wrote, in a letter [PDF] published today: "We sympathize with the financial challenges that some new gTLD registry operators may be facing in the early periods of these new businesses. New gTLD operators face a challenging task of building consumer awareness and this can and may take significant time and effort." But he goes on to point out that the $25,000-a-year fee was known to all applicants before they applied, and had been subject to numerous rounds of public comment before the Applicant Guidebook was finalized.
So I looked it up. They're located in Manhattan. One of the most expensive places to operate on earth. If $25,000 a year is prohibitively expensive, as far as business costs go... where are they renting their office space? Have you seen what office space costs in Manhattan? Anywhere in NYC? They couldn't even rent a place in Brooklyn for $25,000 a year.
And what about salaries? They have to pay people. Do you honestly mean to tell me that the entire staff costs less than $25,000 a year? Shit dude, how are they pulling that one off? Are they running the whole company with interns? My guess: No, probably not.
What about marketing? This is the first I've ever heard of these guys, so I'm guessing that they haven't done any. But if you look at their "partners" section, there's some muscle there. There has to revenue.
Anyway, I suppose my point is, that they're completely full of shit.
They're trying to pull a fast one, and they're asking you to believe a story that either paints them as utterly incompetent, or impossibly small.
I'm not buying any of it.
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