5 ms·

What's the reasoning or history behind why domain prices A) vary between TLDs and B) are allowed to be sold at any price (think huge markups from domain specula

by aimor 5y ago

What's the reasoning or history behind why domain prices A) vary between TLDs and B) are allowed to be sold at any price (think huge markups from domain speculating)?

tyingq 5y ago
There were always different entities in charge of different TLDs. ICANN, for example, has no leverage over CCTLDs. Basically because "no central authority". Then, within a TLD, some allow resellers, so competition.
WhyNotHugo 5y ago
Once you have enough users, you can raise the price and they can't easily flee. For example, I (regrettably) have a .io domain with my own email, and moving away from it would be super painful. I'd have to make sure that I update my email *everywhere* (or risk my accounts getting hijacked), and even reach out to people with whom I communicate very infrequently. TBH, I _should_ do it, but I can image that taking around a year.
- donmcronald 5y ago
  If you have a good .com that's tech themed you basically have to eat the cost on the matching .io for brand protection even if you don't use it for anything.
- Sebb767 5y ago
  > TBH, I _should_ do it, but I can image that taking around a year. And even then, it will probably feel bad to let it expire just because you might have forgotten an account. That's why I still have my very first email. And it's a lot of effort for saving a few bucks a year (at least in the US and the EU, for poorer countries the story might be different). Unfortunately, that's exactly what Ethos is exploiting.
  - WhyNotHugo 5y ago
    Yeah, it's not purely about the money, but also knowing where it's going. I might spend that much money on takeout in a week, and it's fine cause the money goes to the kid who biked it over, and the chef who cooked it, etc. But the same amount of money going to a corp trying to squeeze as much money as possible giving no extra value in return, and depriving the original owners of that revenue... that does tend to make me feel dirtier.

by aimor 5y ago

What's the reasoning or history behind why domain prices A) vary between TLDs and B) are allowed to be sold at any price (think huge markups from domain speculating)?

tyingq 5y ago

There were always different entities in charge of different TLDs. ICANN, for example, has no leverage over CCTLDs. Basically because "no central authority". Then, within a TLD, some allow resellers, so competition.

WhyNotHugo 5y ago

Once you have enough users, you can raise the price and they can't easily flee. For example, I (regrettably) have a .io domain with my own email, and moving away from it would be super painful. I'd have to make sure that I update my email *everywhere* (or risk my accounts getting hijacked), and even reach out to people with whom I communicate very infrequently. TBH, I _should_ do it, but I can image that taking around a year.

donmcronald 5y ago
If you have a good .com that's tech themed you basically have to eat the cost on the matching .io for brand protection even if you don't use it for anything.
Sebb767 5y ago
> TBH, I _should_ do it, but I can image that taking around a year. And even then, it will probably feel bad to let it expire just because you might have forgotten an account. That's why I still have my very first email. And it's a lot of effort for saving a few bucks a year (at least in the US and the EU, for poorer countries the story might be different). Unfortunately, that's exactly what Ethos is exploiting.
- WhyNotHugo 5y ago
  Yeah, it's not purely about the money, but also knowing where it's going. I might spend that much money on takeout in a week, and it's fine cause the money goes to the kid who biked it over, and the chef who cooked it, etc. But the same amount of money going to a corp trying to squeeze as much money as possible giving no extra value in return, and depriving the original owners of that revenue... that does tend to make me feel dirtier.