Registrars: The new travel agents? (was Re: [GTLD-WG] Amazon, Google And Others Going After Generics)
On 15 June 2012 11:23, "Michele Neylon :: Blacknight" <michele@blacknight.ie
wrote:
I think a couple of the mainstream media outlets picked up on this, but this really worries me and probably others:
http://www.internetnews.me/2012/06/14/big-brands-trying-to-corner-generic-na...
I think that the entrance of the Big Brands is the best possible "unintended consequence" of the TLD expansion for content providers and end users. It blows wide open the ICANN domain industry bubble and exposes it to the real world. Verisign goes from being the big guy in the room to one of the small ones. And the influx of radically different business models is indeed the introduction of true competition. New players in the domain space (such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple) means: - Who needs the middleman of registrars? All of them have their own well established retail mechanisms, and registrars offer them no value that they don't already have. - Since these companies already have strong global Internet infrastructures (and at least one has already been playing<https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/>with domain name infrastructures), they have no need for any of the service providers who currently control the name space and think they control ICANN - The Verisign "market power" problem evaporates, but for different reasons than expected. (It wouldn't surprise me if they were a buyout target soon) - Registries who make their money from advertising, or data, or sales of other things, will have the freedom to give away domains for free (and not just in those cheesy hosting/domain-name bundles), or to lease/rent them as needed - The big brands will likely offer more stability and be more vigilant (for example, about WHOIS data) than the status quo; they -- unlike ICANN -- have corporate reputations, other business lines and valued government relationships to protect - At the registries that give away domains, there is no incentive for domainers or speculators; as a result their namespace is far cleaner (and genuine content providers are more likely to find the names they want), and thus more trusted by end users than the domain-for-sale registries - The free offerings at new registries will have a positive (to end users and registrants) side-effect of dramatically lowering the value of speculative domains in new AND existing registries (especially the ccTLDs masquerading as gTLDs -- I'm looking at you, Colombia) Michele, you know I love you. But I think you're right to be concerned. If the rollout happens as you fear and I hope for, registrars face the same future as travel agents. But just as some travel agents still survive by servicing the hell out of clients and being far more than mere middleman in a financial transaction, so will be the case for registrars that thrive in ICANN's post-expansion era. I've always been cynical about the gTLD expansion because all I'd seen from it was ICANN's usual suspects engaging in their little power trips, shell games and speculation plays. And indeed many of the gTLD applications appear to indicate simply a higher-stakes form of domaining. But now that a bigger picture is emerging, I'm happier to see the expansion take place, and welcome the new big players into the family of registries. The gTLD expansion was at the outset a play mainly of pure greed and vanity, designed to satisfy demand that was mostly manufactured, or non-existent. It's gratifying to see the end results playing out in "be careful what you wish for" fashion. - Evan
Evan, The enemy of your enemy isn't necessarily your friend. It's great that Amazon and others are entering this area, and it will indeed herald a new age of services for consumers. I hope you will read the applications and think about what they will mean for them though. The current registration industry may have many flaws, but bypassing them isn't necessarily better; we just may find ourselves exchanging one set of flaws for another. If Amazon makes domain names available under .SMILE, it will own all the second-level registrations. This certainly makes whois accuracy easy. Amazon will be your one point of contact for everything. I certainly expect that this will make life easier for law enforcement. If Amazon decides to make .SMILE names available to its users, they will use them solely at Amazon's pleasure under Amazon's terms of service. I would argue that highly distributed assets like we have under the current registration model provide more power and long-term stability to users who want to have ownership interests in their Internet assets. So now we may have a more diverse group of registration spaces, with highly distributed open models competing with single-registrant, highly controlled models. But the new model is like trading home ownership for a tenancy in an apartment building. Of course, if you have a benevolent landlord, you might never notice the difference. Nevertheless, I hope you, and the rest of the ALAC, give the newcomers the same scrutiny you give to the applicants from the registration industry. Bret
I think that the entrance of the Big Brands is the best possible "unintended consequence" of the TLD expansion for content providers and end users. It blows wide open the ICANN domain industry bubble and exposes it to the real world. Verisign goes from being the big guy in the room to one of the small ones. And the influx of radically different business models is indeed the introduction of true competition.
New players in the domain space (such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple) means:
- Who needs the middleman of registrars? All of them have their own well established retail mechanisms, and registrars offer them no value that they don't already have.
- Since these companies already have strong global Internet infrastructures (and at least one has already been playing<https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/>with domain name infrastructures), they have no need for any of the service providers who currently control the name space and think they control ICANN
- The Verisign "market power" problem evaporates, but for different reasons than expected. (It wouldn't surprise me if they were a buyout target soon)
- Registries who make their money from advertising, or data, or sales of other things, will have the freedom to give away domains for free (and not just in those cheesy hosting/domain-name bundles), or to lease/rent them as needed
- The big brands will likely offer more stability and be more vigilant (for example, about WHOIS data) than the status quo; they -- unlike ICANN -- have corporate reputations, other business lines and valued government relationships to protect
- At the registries that give away domains, there is no incentive for domainers or speculators; as a result their namespace is far cleaner (and genuine content providers are more likely to find the names they want), and thus more trusted by end users than the domain-for-sale registries
- The free offerings at new registries will have a positive (to end users and registrants) side-effect of dramatically lowering the value of speculative domains in new AND existing registries (especially the ccTLDs masquerading as gTLDs -- I'm looking at you, Colombia)
Michele, you know I love you. But I think you're right to be concerned. If the rollout happens as you fear and I hope for, registrars face the same future as travel agents. But just as some travel agents still survive by servicing the hell out of clients and being far more than mere middleman in a financial transaction, so will be the case for registrars that thrive in ICANN's post-expansion era.
I've always been cynical about the gTLD expansion because all I'd seen from it was ICANN's usual suspects engaging in their little power trips, shell games and speculation plays. And indeed many of the gTLD applications appear to indicate simply a higher-stakes form of domaining. But now that a bigger picture is emerging, I'm happier to see the expansion take place, and welcome the new big players into the family of registries.
The gTLD expansion was at the outset a play mainly of pure greed and vanity, designed to satisfy demand that was mostly manufactured, or non-existent. It's gratifying to see the end results playing out in "be careful what you wish for" fashion.
- Evan _______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org
On 15 June 2012 15:10, Bret Fausett <bfausett@internet.law.pro> wrote:
If Amazon makes domain names available under .SMILE, it will own all the second-level registrations. This certainly makes whois accuracy easy. Amazon will be your one point of contact for everything. I certainly expect that this will make life easier for law enforcement. If Amazon decides to make .SMILE names available to its users, they will use them solely at Amazon's pleasure under Amazon's terms of service.
So why is this suddenly a problem because it is Amazon behind it? I had heard numerous complaints from people that purchased a hosting service that came with a "free" domain name -- only to find out later that ownership of the domain remained with the hosting company and wouldn't be ported to any other hosting service. You were beholden to that hosting company, that owned the name and allowed its use it only so long as you hosted with them. If you left for another hosting service, they would not only hang onto the domain but had the potential to offer it to a competitor of yours who hosted with them. All nicely legit, buried in the click-through Terms and Conditions. There are other, murkier instances in which a web developer does the name registration and holds the client hostage to it, trying to have a job for life (or big payout). I see the scenario you paint above as no different, except that the awareness that the domain doesn't belong to you between is known up-front. As for "easier for law enforcement", I see that as simply a negatively-tainted euphemism for "more transparent". I would argue that highly distributed assets like we have under the current
registration model provide more power and long-term stability to users who want to have ownership interests in their Internet assets.
Well, yes, compared to *one* scenario painted by just one of the applications. But arguably the status quo serves the needs of those who crave such power, and the new models may serve those who don't. In any case, I'm concerned by any blanket warnings about the newcomers based on one extreme example. So now we may have a more diverse group of registration spaces, with highly
distributed open models competing with single-registrant, highly controlled models.
... and hybrids of the two, which I see coming from the likes of Microsoft and Google and perhaps others yet-unknown. Let's not describe the whole field in terms of its two extremes.
But the new model is like trading home ownership for a tenancy in an apartment building.
As stated above, there are already examples of "domain tenancy" under the status quo, most notably in name/hosting bundles, and they have existed without concern by ICANN or the industry. So I'm not sure why there's suddenly concern about that now.
Nevertheless, I hope you, and the rest of the ALAC, give the newcomers the same scrutiny you give to the applicants from the registration industry.
Well, the newcomers have the goodwill advantage of not having shouted us down at meetings, blocked policies advancing the public interest, or refused members of the public entry into ICANN-funded meetings and "open" negotiations. In this respect, a clean slate is probably a benefit. Having said that, I don't expect that At-Large and ALAC will stop serving the public interest just because of the new entrants. - Evan
On Fri, Jun 15, 2012 at 2:10 PM, Bret Fausett <bfausett@internet.law.pro>wrote:
If Amazon makes domain names available under .SMILE, it will own all the second-level registrations. This certainly makes whois accuracy easy. Amazon will be your one point of contact for everything. I certainly expect that this will make life easier for law enforcement. If Amazon decides to make .SMILE names available to its users, they will use them solely at Amazon's pleasure under Amazon's terms of service.
I would argue that highly distributed assets like we have under the current registration model provide more power and long-term stability to users who want to have ownership interests in their Internet assets.
Yes indeed, another worry.....and an entirely rational view on existing model. - Carlton ============================== Carlton A Samuels Mobile: 876-818-1799 *Strategy, Planning, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround* =============================
I'm drawn to Evan's very insightful analysis......and speculation on end game. The only caution I would have here is that while new players head of the stream + the probability of new business models in play likely mean game change, not all the business models proposed might be benign to the public interest. Take, for example, Amazon's .kids and the other Applicant Support maybe .kids application? Looking at the details certainly raise a few 'hmmmms'. - Carlton ============================== Carlton A Samuels Mobile: 876-818-1799 *Strategy, Planning, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround* ============================= On Fri, Jun 15, 2012 at 1:06 PM, Evan Leibovitch <evan@telly.org> wrote:
On 15 June 2012 11:23, "Michele Neylon :: Blacknight" < michele@blacknight.ie
wrote:
I think a couple of the mainstream media outlets picked up on this, but this really worries me and probably others:
http://www.internetnews.me/2012/06/14/big-brands-trying-to-corner-generic-na...
I think that the entrance of the Big Brands is the best possible "unintended consequence" of the TLD expansion for content providers and end users. It blows wide open the ICANN domain industry bubble and exposes it to the real world. Verisign goes from being the big guy in the room to one of the small ones. And the influx of radically different business models is indeed the introduction of true competition.
New players in the domain space (such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple) means:
- Who needs the middleman of registrars? All of them have their own well established retail mechanisms, and registrars offer them no value that they don't already have.
- Since these companies already have strong global Internet infrastructures (and at least one has already been playing<https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/>with domain name infrastructures), they have no need for any of the service providers who currently control the name space and think they control ICANN
- The Verisign "market power" problem evaporates, but for different reasons than expected. (It wouldn't surprise me if they were a buyout target soon)
- Registries who make their money from advertising, or data, or sales of other things, will have the freedom to give away domains for free (and not just in those cheesy hosting/domain-name bundles), or to lease/rent them as needed
- The big brands will likely offer more stability and be more vigilant (for example, about WHOIS data) than the status quo; they -- unlike ICANN -- have corporate reputations, other business lines and valued government relationships to protect
- At the registries that give away domains, there is no incentive for domainers or speculators; as a result their namespace is far cleaner (and genuine content providers are more likely to find the names they want), and thus more trusted by end users than the domain-for-sale registries
- The free offerings at new registries will have a positive (to end users and registrants) side-effect of dramatically lowering the value of speculative domains in new AND existing registries (especially the ccTLDs masquerading as gTLDs -- I'm looking at you, Colombia)
Michele, you know I love you. But I think you're right to be concerned. If the rollout happens as you fear and I hope for, registrars face the same future as travel agents. But just as some travel agents still survive by servicing the hell out of clients and being far more than mere middleman in a financial transaction, so will be the case for registrars that thrive in ICANN's post-expansion era.
I've always been cynical about the gTLD expansion because all I'd seen from it was ICANN's usual suspects engaging in their little power trips, shell games and speculation plays. And indeed many of the gTLD applications appear to indicate simply a higher-stakes form of domaining. But now that a bigger picture is emerging, I'm happier to see the expansion take place, and welcome the new big players into the family of registries.
The gTLD expansion was at the outset a play mainly of pure greed and vanity, designed to satisfy demand that was mostly manufactured, or non-existent. It's gratifying to see the end results playing out in "be careful what you wish for" fashion.
- Evan _______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org
participants (3)
-
Bret Fausett -
Carlton Samuels -
Evan Leibovitch