I am interested in SMP. Not as a form of additional new revenue, and not to create a sense of perceived value in domains.
The reason I am interested is primarily defensive, to prevent erosion of market share. For anyone who hasn't carefully reviewed the SMP documentation, basically it makes buying and selling existing domain names a registry function. I know most people will feel strongly that Verisign has no right to take over yet another portion of the domain name market, and I agree. I'm not going to argue the benefits of listing, buying, and selling existing domain names at the registry level (there are some, but you can read the docs for yourself). But I do want to make the points that a registrar who offers existing domain names for sale to potential registrants along with unregistered domain names has an advantage in the marketplace, and a registrar who does not offer its existing registrants the ability to list their domain names for sale through the registry is at a competitive disadvantage at renewal time (if not before). SMP will have to be successful before it can result in additional revenue. But its mere existence, successful or not, could spell trouble for any registrar (or reseller) who doesn't offer it. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Katsiroubas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Chuck Hatcher" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 10:45 AM Subject: RE: Verisign Name Store ??? > I would be more then happy to respond to this. > > We at Tucows are well aware of VeriSigns Secondary Market Program and we > have had discussions with them with respects to offering this through > OpenSRS. We are still exploring this and there is nothing officially decided > yet. > > I would like to pose a couple of questions to all our Resellers: > > Firstly, is this program something you would be interested in? > > Secondly, do you see this as a form of additional new revenue or is this > something that you believe would create a sense of perceived value in the > domain and help increase renewal rates? > > Thanks, > > Tom Katsiroubas > TLDs Product Manager > Tucows Inc. - [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Chuck Hatcher > Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 9:11 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Verisign Name Store ??? > > > Would someone from Tucows care to comment on whether Verisign's Secondary > Market Program will be offered through OpenSRS, and if so will it be during > the initial rollout? > > > > More information at: http://www.verisign-grs.com/namestore/smp/ > > > > Is OpenSRS planning to participate? > >
