The CENTR association of European country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registries has convened a meeting in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The meeting was attended by experts from 25 registries, including Russia’s Coordination Center for TLD RU. One of the main issues on the meeting agenda concerned interaction between country code domain registries and domain name registrars.
Registry experts pointed out the need to raise domain registration prices in the current situation to spur the development of national domain markets. The domain market is also seriously influenced by new top-level domains that launched large-scale registrations last year, by the rapid growth of social media and several other factors. This is the reason why many European registries, including in Sweden, the UK and Belgium, have raised their prices for registrars. The meeting participants agreed that the increase of domain name prices for registrars was becoming a global trend.
Furthermore, representatives from nearly all European domain name registries complained about the registrars’ inactivity. Speaking about the influence of registrars’ activity on the registries’ profits, a Japanese representative (the .JP domain registry is an associate member of CENTR) said that 33 percent of the Japanese domain names market is served by 5 percent of the national registrars, but they are the most active participants of the registry’s events. The other registrars seldom respond to the registry’s proposals and hence receive smaller revenues from their business.
New marketing strategies should be considered to encourage registrar activity, as the existing programs obviously don’t produce the desired effect due to changes in user preferences. Users are no longer enthusiastic about texts, increasingly more often opting for visual content and non-standard solutions. These trends should be considered when planning events aimed at attracting new users and spurring the growth of national domains.