The controversy over the price growth in the generic top-level domain .COM still continues. As you know, back in the era of Barack Obama's presidency, the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) froze prices for domain registrations in .COM. (the NTIA Cooperation Agreement with Verisign regulates prices in this domain zone.) Donald Trump, having come to power, canceled this restriction when renewing the Agreement, and since 2021, prices have increased annually. From September 1 of this year, the registration price will increase once again and reach $ 0.26. Thus, in four years, the price has increased by 31%. Of course, one can say that prices have not been raised since 2012, but Verisign has no merit in this: as stated above, prices were frozen by NTIA.
The current growth is causing concern among both public organizations and government officials. And although NTIA has once again extended the Cooperation Agreement, the Agency has separately emphasized that it is initiating a discussion of pricing policy in .COM. Verisign, trying to justify its position, cites the policy of registrar companies, which raise prices more often and significantly than the registry itself, as the main reason for dissatisfaction. But this argument is not very valid. This is evidenced by a small review of the dynamics of price growth at several leading registrars, published by the Domain Name Wire.
For example, the largest domain registrar, GoDaddy, registered names in the .COM zone for $14.99 in 2014. Then this price increased to $17.99 in 2019, to $19.99 in 2022, and finally to $21.99 this year. This gives a growth of 47% over 10 years, which is certainly higher than the wholesale price of Verisign. However, the indicated prices are nominal, while in fact the company provides various discounts. For example, now a client pays just under $45 for a three-year registration, which gives $15 per year. Large investors also take advantage of significant discounts by purchasing a membership in the Domain Discount Club program. And for them, the registration cost will be only $10.99 from September. In other words, GoDaddy cannot be accused of greed and irresponsible price increases.
The same is true for NameCheap, which is regularly among the leaders in the number of new registrations in the .COM zone. Until the end of 2021, annual registration of a name in .COM cost $8.88 here. With the beginning of the "era of increases," the situation has certainly changed, and at the moment the registration price is $13.98. But this company (like most registrars) has a system of discounts, incentives for first registration, etc. Of course, there are also companies that sharply and unreasonably increase prices. But there are also those that offer registration at prices as close as possible to wholesale. All this ultimately creates a picture of healthy competition, characteristic of a normal economy. But Verisign's ability to raise prices while retaining the right to manage the .COM zone and having no competitors does not really fit into this picture.
