Biggest Threats to Domain Name Industry: Survey
Changes in pay-per-click market, fresh registry contracts threaten industry.
The domain name industry is worried regarding changes in the pay-per-click market and fresh registry contracts that allow for wholesale domain name price increases, as stated by the 2007 Reglike survey.
36% of respondents rated “changes in the pay-per-click market” as the top concern when asked “What do you think is the biggest issue facing the domain name market in 2007?” Domain professionals are concerned that click fraud, a tightening of parked page rules, and fluctuations in online advertising may take a bite out of the strong market. This concern is not fresh; last year 34% of respondents rated this as their top concern.
The second biggest concern is fresh registry contracts that allow registries to increase prices. Registries set the wholesale price of domains. The wholesale price of a .com, managed by registry VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN), is right now $6.00 but will increase 7% later this year. Prices of other domain extensions, such as .net, .org, and .info, are also increasing this year. 24% of respondents stated these fresh contracts are the biggest threat to the industry.
Other concerns remain domain theft, reverse domain name hijacking, and malevolent domain name registrars (e.g. RegisterFly).
