WLS pricing proposal

[Lee Hodgson, DomainGuru.com]

Dear Chuck,   My name is Lee Hodgson. I have written the Domain Goldrush series of articles you may have heard of. I'm sure you are getting hundreds of e-mails so I'll keep this brief.   In principle I am comfortable with the WLS proposal. What I am not comfortable with is the current revenue sharing model i.e. splitting it between wholesale (which guarantees Verisign / Snapnames $40 per subscription), and retail, which if the 'competition' between ICANN registrars for domain registration business is any indicator, will lead to registrars fighting over a few dollars per subscription.   I myself have designed an innovative expiring names service which could generates thousands of WLS subscriptions. But with the prospect that this could generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for the registry, and just a few thousand for my company, the incentive to launch the service is just not there.   So why not guarantee registrars and their resellers a fairer split? Set the price of the service at $69.95 and give registrars a 30%-40% cut of that. It's all very well saying that competition is good for the market but of course as other registrars have pointed out, the registry is a monopoly, and can lecture about free economics without having to get its hands dirty. Competition without profit just leads to stagnation.   In closing, the current proposal will inevitably lead to thin margins amongst ICANN registrars and their resellers / expiring names services, and this will in turn kill off the innovation which should be an integral part of any market. Innoviation benefits everyone - consumers, registrars, and the registry! Thanks for your time, Lee Hodgson e: [EMAIL PROTECTED]