Link To Full Story: domainnamewire.com
There has been a collective whine from the domainer community over the past 12 hours after news broke that VeriSign is increasing .com prices again.
I’m whining, too. But this is an expected and smart move by VeriSign.
VeriSign’s contract with ICANN allows it to raise prices 7% in any four years of its current six year contract. It raised prices in the first two years, bringing VeriSign’s take of a .com registration from $6.00 to $6.86. The assumption was that VeriSign would increase the price each year for the first four years to maximize its revenue. After all, not raising it in one year meant the registry would lose out on that increase every year until it hit its four price increases, and the compounding effect would also be lost.
In the third year (this year), VeriSign didn’t raise rates. Although the economy may have played a factor, the real reason was politics. VeriSign was being trotted in front of congress this year to testify about ICANN and the end of its Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. government. It was a politically untenable environment to jack up rates again.
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