This does not address the point raised by William that you will be directly
competing with your RSPs as you add these additional services nor does it
address the point that your RSPs will lose additional clients to you as you
add the services that we currently provide to our clients that you do not
currently provide.
Instead you gloss over these points with your response.
Of course clients will go to the wholesaler and buy direct if they can do
so. A reputable wholesale company does not allow this to happen or makes it
very difficult for it to happen. Instead your company makes it very easy
for a client to buy direct from you instead of the RSP and now you are going
to make the add on services that many of your RSPs have been providing
directly available to your RSP's clients through your company. This
eliminates any need for a RSP's clients to use them when they can go direct
to the wholesaler and get the same services at a lower price.
Up till now, your company's response has been for RSPs not to depend on
domain name registrations as their business model, but to add value added
services to domain name registration.
Now you are going to directly offer these valid added services as part of
what you offer and compete even more directly with your RSPs.
What will you tell the RSP's now?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ross Wm. Rader" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "ecs" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: "William X. Walsh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Marc Schneiders"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2000 10:47 AM
Subject: Re: Re[2]: New services: forwarding/DNS?
>
> My only response to this is that in all wholesale models, when customers
> get big enough, they tend to go direct to the supplier. This is inherent
> in the model and certainly not something that we have ever attempted to
> hide or gloss over.
>
> On the other hand, we are very up front about what we won't consciously do
> - directly go after your bread and butter customers. We do make every
> effort to grow our reseller channel, but at the end of the day, we have
> very little control over who becomes a reseller and who buys from an RSP.
>
> I used to buy computer monitors directly from Ingram Micro. One-sies and
> two-sies. Ingram didn't make it a point to solicit my business, but I was
> smart enough to realize that if I jumped through their hoops and became a
> "VAR" I could get computer equipment cheaper from them than if I bought
> from Future Shop.
>
> > This is not quite true. You already compete for our clients by making
it so
> > easy to become an RSP and allow non-RSPs input to these discussion
lists.
> > When one of our clients visit your site they are immediately told how
easy
> > it is to become an RSP themselves. We have lost several large clients
to
> > you this way.
> >
> > Many that remain do so because of the services that we offer that they
can
> > not get from you as an RSP. Once you start offering these same type of
> > services to RSPs that I currently offer to my clients, we expect to lose
> > many more to you. This is why we say no in every survey.
> >
> > We also expect to more to you once you may it easy for RSP to RSP
transfers.
> > Many have register domains with us and are now RSPs themselves. We
expect
> > that they will transfer those domains to their own account once you make
> > such transfers easy to do.
> >
> > So you are directly competing with your RSPs who make the public aware
of
> > OpenSRS now and will compete even more directly as you make these
additional
> > services available to RSPs.
> >
> > So for once William is correct. Does not happen very often, but in this
> > case he is correct and you are expanding the ways that you will directly
> > compete with your RSPs once you make these additional services
available.
> >
> > You may knock these other Registrars, but you are doing the same thing
in a
> > more subtle way. How do you think you expanded the number of RSPs so
> > rapidly, had it not been for the clients of your RSPs discovering
OpenSRS
> > through your RSPs' selling actions and then discovering from your site
and
> > these discussion lists how easy it was to become an RSP themselves and
> > bypass the RSP that introduce them to your service?
> >
> > So you have always competed with your RSPs for the clients that the RSPs
> > introduced to your company. And not just with Domain Direct, but
directly
> > through your advertising, your site design and your mailing lists. You
just
> > have not been upfront about your competition with your RSPs.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Ross Wm. Rader" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > To: "William X. Walsh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Cc: "Marc Schneiders" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Marc Schneiders"
> > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2000 6:54 AM
> > Subject: Re: Re[2]: New services: forwarding/DNS?
> >
> >
> > > >
> > > > The only time I saw it discussed at all recently, was when I made
note
> > of the
> > > > open sourced third level domain registry package I am getting very
> > > > close to releasing, which has those services bundled into it. Other
> > > > than that, just the always present newcomers asking if anyone has a
> > > > way to provide those services for them.
> > > >
> > > > I for one would be greatly disturbed if OpenSRS started offering
those
> > > > services. That's an issue for the RSPs to handle on their own, and
is
> > > > encroaching on the services of the RSPs.
> > >
> > > We are actively engaged in developing a number of what we refer to as
> > > "APS" - Ancillary Products and Services.
> > >
> > > Our prime motivation with releasing these APS is in providing
additional
> > > potential revenue streams to our RSPs and business partners. Specific
> > > examples that we may or may not release might include email services,
> > > usenet, storage space etc. However, the underlying mechanisms behind
> > > provision of these services almost identically resemble what we are
> > > currently doing with .com etc.
> > >
> > > I completely understand what you are saying William, but I think that
the
> > > fallacy in your logic may lie within the fact that we would be
potentially
> > > providing these services directly to your end users. In fact, the this
> > > couldn't be further from the truth.
> > >
> > > About 4 months ago, we embarked upon a process to expand the breadth
and
> > > depth of the wholesale products and services available from us for
resell
> > > to end users by our RSPs. Nothing that we are looking at will ever be
> > > so directly to end users by Tucows, with the exception of what we are
> > > already doing with Domain Direct.
> > >
> > > The decision to offer these APS is very much left to the individual
RSP.
> > > We perceive a number of benefits for our RSPs in this model, primarily
the
> > > fact that you can deal with a single source provider for a number of
> > > essential services. One technical support contact, one account balance
> > > etc.
> > >
> > > I'd love to talk more about this, feel free to keep the convo going. I
> > > mainly wanted to make sure that everyone involved was distinctly aware
> > > that in no way were we contemplating a business model similar to NSI,
> > > Register.com, Bulk etc. where we would be competing directly with you
for
> > > your end customers cash...
> > >
> > > -rwr
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Ross Wm. Rader
> > > Director Product Management,
> > > Channel Platform Group
> > > Tucows Inc.
> > > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > t. 416.535.0123 x335
> > > f. 416.531.5584
> > >
> > > "Embrace the cow, love the cow.
> > > And remember, Winsock means love."
> > >
> > >
> >
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> -rwr
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Ross Wm. Rader
> Director Product Management,
> Channel Platform Group
> Tucows Inc.
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> t. 416.535.0123 x335
> f. 416.531.5584
>
> "Embrace the cow, love the cow.
> And remember, Winsock means love."
>
>
