back to article Over 1,200 dot-word bids flood ICANN at $180k a pop

Web baron ICANN has braced itself for at least 1,200 applications for new top-level internet domains in the first round of its controversial gTLD expansion programme. CEO Rod Beckstrom said that the organisation's beleaguered TLD Application System (TAS), which is still offline more than two weeks after a data-leaking security …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    $234 Million?

    Nice racket - $234 Million+ in application fees alone. Nice (non) work if you can get it I suppose. I'm in the wrong business!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's an absolute joke - who actually get's this cash??

    How did they decide on $180k - surely if they receive more applications the costs would go down.

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Re: who gets this cash?

      Indirectly, we do. ICANN performs a useful service. It may not do it well, but it is better than nothing. We don't pay for ICANN. It gets its money from idiots dumb enough to think it might be worth paying $180k to get their name on the wrong side of a dot.

  3. Alan Brown Silver badge

    It's not about cost + margin...

    It's all about "what the market will bear"

    Just like running a telco.

  4. Gary F
    Unhappy

    They are idiots, the buyers are idiots

    I'm selling a fart in a jar for $180K. It might not be as ludicrously hilerious as buying a gTLD for $180K, but at least I'm not asking for $5K to register before I fill a jar for you.

    Both products stink, are a load of hot air, and a waste of breath.

    ICANN has gone one dot too far! They have done this to line the pockets of their directors, many own or have a stake in a domain registration business. They are not doing this to benefit the Internet, they're simply abusing their position and cashing in. :-(

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "ICANN performs a useful service."

    ... are you trying to suggest it 'costs' them over $200 million to setup these TLDs - the cost bears no / little relation to the cost of providing the service - they may as well have said $280k or $80k.

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Not in the slightest. Everything to do with gTLDs is purely a stupidity tax. No, the useful services I was thinking of would be whatever they do to maintain the existing TLDs. It probably doesn't require that much money, but as long as someone else is paying I don't really care. Life is too short to worry about whether *everyone* else is getting value for money.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Just like running a telco."

    Telco's have competition at least and if you look at them most only make similar margins to other normal companies.

  7. oldredlion
    Facepalm

    As Barnum apparently said

    there's a sucker born every minute.

  8. Bill Posters
    Coat

    Reinvest

    So will they 'buy' .icann and .icant?

    Bet they don't charge themselves the admin fee...

    mines the .coat (nearly put a '.' at the end there as well, silly me.)

  9. Bill Posters
    Alien

    Apple

    .i ?

    .eye?

    (martian? The eyes obviously)

  10. Robert Heffernan
    FAIL

    Oh Crap

    Well that's just great. I knew this was going to be a stupid idea from the start.

    .com, .net, .org, .edu, .biz, .co, .xxx, etc are very simple to remember and they aren't really all that obtrusive

    but an EXTRA 1,200! of them from .music to .kitchensink seriously, why? It's nothing but a cash grab!

    I am not opposed to extending the gTLD pool but not as a vanity exercise, it needs to be carefully thought out to provide the best value to the users of the internet.

    1. Richard 12 Silver badge

      Re: Oh Crap

      The fun part is that it doesn't matter.

      Nobody will actually use these gTLDs, and the only people who may be affected are browsers who might get asked to alter the heuristics for the autocomplete.

      If they don't bother, no end user will give a damn if they never see a .marketing domain.

      The weird part is really that marketers think they are valuable. The most valuable part of a URL is clearly the first few characters, becuase that is what a user types first. If your site comes up top of autocomplete...

  11. Peter Murphy
    Joke

    What about .fubar?

    No - .fubar is reserved for ICANN!

  12. Sheherazade

    Offer vs. Demand curve

    There is a whole theory about where is the sweet pricing spot when launching a new product that actually has no competition (like a luxury item). It's just a matter of maximizing profit, not maximizing the number of sales. The cost does not even matter. And you just can not counterfeit their product. So, getting 1200 bids at 180k each is an amazingly good performance.

  13. PeterBrady
    Pint

    And don't forget that on top of the $185,000 to apply, you also have to pony up $300,000 as a guarantee or cash in escrow in case you fail

    So that's $485,000 you've got to pony up in order to apply

  14. Senior Ugli
    Devil

    so with the .spam domains actually carry any SEO power?

    Surely this will just be buying out the market if you are stupid enough to afford it

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