Ok, ok. New rule. No substantive posts that require ME to respond after 3:00 pm est on Fridays!
I have a number of things I want to say to this, but will have to do it over the weekend as I still have a bunch of work and will be late for dinner at my Mother-in-law's. I love you all, but know what is good for me. Response over the weekend. Regards Elliot Noss Tucows inc. 416-538-5494 > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Chuck Hatcher > Sent: Friday, January 10, 2003 12:46 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Future of Tucows/OpenSRS > > > I have been an OpenSRS reseller and a member of this list since > April 2000. > Although domain name registration is not my primary business, it continues > to be an important part of my overall plan. My account has brought 4,931 > domain-years of business to Tucows so far. > > Those of us who have been here for awhile can recall dozens of reseller > issues that have come up, arguments pro and con, statements by Tucows > addressing the problems, and eventually a resolution. If you look back at > the responses in the early days and compare them to those of more recent > times, you can't help but get a sense of a change in attitude at Tucows. > The focus now seems to be more on "the numbers" and less on the merits. > > Now, don't get me wrong, I am a capitalist through and through. > The job of > every business is to be profitable, and you cannot ignore the > numbers. But > there is a difference between observing good results from focusing on > customer needs, and focusing only on the results. The earlier approach at > Tucows seemed to be to provide what customers asked for, to do > business in a > fair manner, and to listen to constructive criticism. The approach was > successful, at least from the measure of the number of domain names > registered. But as seems inevitable as companies grow, the link between > customers and management has grown weaker. > > I have stayed with Tucows as my primary registrar even though other > registrars continue to offer more attractive pricing. (My effective > wholesale price at OpenSRS is actually higher today than it was > in the early > days when there were rebates.) I made this decision consciously > based on my > experience with Tucows, my concern that a registrar needs to make > a certain > amount of money to stay in business for the long term, and the > overall "good > feeling" I had from being an OpenSRS reseller. But the domain > name business > is in a constant state of flux, and each of us must constantly re-evaluate > our supplier relationships. The big question for me is whether or not > Tucows actually wants to keep my business. And if they do, how are they > showing it? > > The referral list has been discussed periodically over the past couple of > years. The list itself is not an issue for me - I don't want to be on the > list because I don't actively market a retail registration business. But > seeing how Tucows responds to other "little guys" who do want to be listed > is very important to me. It's hard to find any indication that Tucows is > actively trying to promote the small reseller. I would think > anything they > could do to help the little guy to become more successful would > be good for > their business. (I would also think the biggest resellers are the more > likely candidates to become accredited registrars and leave the fold.) > > Recently I brought up Verisign's upcoming Secondary Market > Program, looking > for a committment from Tucows that it would be offerred through OpenSRS > resellers. I may be alone in my opinion that SMP will be a major > factor in > choosing a registrar in the year to come, but the fact is that it is a > wholesale registry product, and the business of registrars is to supply > registry products to their customers. I felt the choice to not > provide the > service could be a costly one for Tucows, but in a private email a Tucows > representative told me, "...we do not have the resellers that > would leave us > over not offering this product, and if the clients we do have in this > industry do leave, there would be little to no impact to our operations > whatsoever..." Would the "old Tucows" have responded in this manner? > > I realize a lot of Tucows' success can be attributed to Network Solutions' > disastrous business practices. OpenSRS was started at the right time with > the right message to catch a large part of the mass exodus from > NSI. And it > has been fashionable to trash NSI and Verisign, which has led to an > automatic disdain for anything coming from Verisign. But like it or not, > Verisign is the com/net registry, and every .com and .net domain name > registered or renewed is the sale of a Verisign product. The registrar is > selling a commodity item. Sure, there are things that > differentiate OpenSRS > from NSI, Register.com, and the over 100 other registrars that now exist. > But the core function of a registrar is to provide registry products > efficiently. And when a registrar decides not to offer a new registry > product, they force their customers to go elsewhere to buy that > product. It > is hard to understand a registrar willingly sending their > customers to other > registrars. It comes off as arrogant to say, "If you need that, then we > don't need you." Now it appears as though WLS is coming. Will Tucows > condemn WLS as another Verisign travesty of fair trade, or embrace it as a > new product some customers may actually want to purchase? > > Tucows, now with a stock price of 23 cents and a market cap of under 15 > million, has become the number two registrar in terms of com/net/org > registrations in less than three years. That's a fantastic > achievement. It > would be easy to think, based on that success, that everything is rosy and > future success is assured. Complacency is dangerous, and things > happen fast > in the domain name business. I hope someone at Tucows is watching the > trends, looking ahead at the winds of change, and making plans > for continued > success in the future. I know I am. >
