ICANN has publiched the estimated amount that applicants will have to pay to submit an application for the Next Round of New gTLDs Program. This amount is $220,000. In this regard, Domain Incite reminds us that in 2012, the application cost was $185,000 at the first stage of the program. However, we cannot discount inflation, which has not stood still for the last 12 years. In addition, a tangible plus of this news is that the amount named by ICANN turned out to be much closer to the lower, rather than the upper, limit of the price range that was announced at the corporation’s recent conference in Rwanda: at that time, the cost of the application was estimated in the range from $208 to $293,000.
If the truth be known, the stated amount is only the price of the "entrance ticket". In addition, there are 10 different types of additional fees that applicants will have to pay depending on the nature and fate of their application. For example, applications for brand domains and "geographic" domains will apparently cost more. It should also be understood that the new domains program is by definition focused on self-sufficiency. Its cost for the corporation is estimated at 70 million dollars. Therefore, the amount of $220,000may increase if some preparatory processes carried out by ICANN now require more expenses than those provided for in the project budget.
On the other hand, there is a certain advantage to this. ICANN is currently expecting 1,500 applications to be submitted. This is less than at the first stage of the program, when their number was 1,930. And if at the next stage the number of applications turns out to be significantly higher than expected, the corporation will return to the applicants part of the funds they spent on applications.
