Domain Name Tasting Down 84%
Domain tasting is down 84% since ICANN implemented its 20 cent fee.
In June ICANN approved a budget measure designed to curtail domain name tasting (registering a domain, checking it for traffic, and then deleting it within the first 5 days for a full refund if traffic wasn’t high enough) and domain kiting (registering a domain and then serially deleting it and re-registering it every 5 days to avoid paying registration fees).
The budget measure called for the 20 cent ICANN fee to not be refunded to a given registrar if more than 10% of that registrar’s domains were deleted during the 5 day “Add Grace Period” in a month. The purpose is a stopgap until a full Add Grace Period policy can be implemented.
The results are in and the fee is working. ICANN’s latest registry notes show that in June there were 17.6 million domains names deleted during the add grace period. In July, following the fee was implemented, add grace period deletions fell to only 2.8 million. Of those 2.8 million deleted, 2.6 million were subject to the fee.
ICANN anticipates the number of add grace period deletions to continue to fall. Registry notes are made public three months following the end of the month, so more data will be available in early December.
