Hello Mark,

> 
> Regarding who is likely to end up with the role of renewing 
> domain names, my
> guess is that a decade or so from now it is likely that for 
> many businesses,
> their accountants will probably be the ones renewing their 
> domain names,
> just as they manage the business names / company names.  That 
> is, I reckon
> over time the 'techo' element of domain names will subside, 
> and they will be
> treated as just another part of business administration.

Agreed.

 For example, 
> while gTLDs are
> going for something like $15 per year, they don't appear to 
> have a similar
> problem.
> 

Actually gtld are going through the same renewal practice scams in various
countries around the world.  This has become particularly prevalent since
the  domain names registered in the rush of late 1999 and early 2000 are now
up for renewal.

One of the differences in ".com.au" is the WHOIS data relating to the
registrant information (e.g company name, and address details) (as opposed
to the admin/tech contacts that is often out of date) is far more accurate
as the domain name has passed through policy checks, than the WHOIS data
associated with speculators in the ".com" market.  Thus companies sending
out faxes or paper mail have a far higher hit rate than they do in the
".com" market.  Also generally ".com.au" names have a high renewal rate as
they are real companies using the domain name for busines purposes.  In the
".com" market, the renewal rate is much lower as many domain names are owned
by speculators that will not renew if they haven't been able to sell the
name.

It is not so much the lowest or average price that matters, so much as the
consumer awareness of what the price should be.  If we talk about the prices
of mobile phone or PC services, in every newspaper there will be an
advertisement with a price of these commodities somewhere.  In the USA
companies like Register.com spent vast sums of money on broad consumer
advertising which helped consumers get an appreciation of the appropriate
price.  That hasn't stopped companies charging higher amounts though,
particularly when the domain name is bundled with other services.  We see
this in the Australian market with some resellers charging up to three times
the "recommended" retail price.

So I don't see the new competition model changing the potential to earn
money from the renewals game.  Of far greater impact is restricting access
to the WHOIS information to make it more difficult to send email/faxes.
Note however that once you know the name of the registrant, there are other
ways of finding their address and contact details.

Regards,
Bruce Tonkin

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