New gTLD Applicant Guidebook published today by ICANN: Fee is 185k $

[Developper]

Hi Folks,

I am pushing since almost 4 years for new gTLD's, and FINALLY today ICANN published the potential fees:

"The primary ICANN fee will be the evaluation fee. It is currently estimated that this fee will be $185,000. Applicants may face other fees (paid directly to providers) in case of technical issues or disputes. As with existing registries, newly delegated registries will also pay ICANN fees."

See the complete Draft RFP at: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtld-comments-en.htm

In my eyes: Way to cheap. Thats much less than any oneletter.com would cost, if they where released. I had hoped the fees are at least 250,000.- EUROS.

The final RFP will probably be published mid 2009, and until the evaluation of TLD's really start, I would guess its 2010. No single ICANN Timeline ever survived a period of 6 month. They change each ICANN meeting. I visited all ICANN Meetings since July 2004. And I sat during endless hours in most of the gNSO sessions, even at their in between meetings in Brussels and Amsterdam.

Do not close this thread. This IS news. Never before anyone knew that number "185k $".

Folks: Your comments?

 

[Sonny Banks]

Very interesting...

 

[Stian]

$185k + "other fees"... Not to forget all the $$$ the company have to spend in marketing to prevent people from typing in the .com equivalent.

 

[Developper]

$185k + "other fees"... Not to forget all the $$$ the company have to spend in marketing to prevent people from typing in the .com equivalent.

Oh, there is much more. The application itself will cost at least some 20 to 40k Dollars to be written. Legal fees to check the legal situation. And: ICANN Lobbying. You don't think, that you walk in ICANN's Ivory-Towers, claim a gTLD and have any chance to get it, unless you have visited at least some 5 ICANN meetings, and do some first class networking there. ICANN is like Washington. Outsiders are out. Nobody would dare to say so officially, of course. I had 11 ICANN Meetings. Unless you develop some lobby for your application, you have zero chance. Or grab someone, who has already established connections there.

 

[Sonny Banks]

A bargain lol

 

[moneydomains]

You forgetting will cost at least 1 million a year just to run a new a new gTLD's

You looking at $1-1,5 Million a year in cost.

 

[David G]

I doubt if it will cost much more than the estimated 185k which is basically just a spare change tax deduction for most mid size and large corporations. Big companies spend that much on a few media advertisements and marketing in a day or two.

 

[Developper]

You forgetting will cost at least 1 million a year just to run a new a new gTLD's

You looking at $1-1,5 Million a year in cost.

Well, I urge everyone NOT to run the TLD yourself, but hire a back end registry service provider instead. They charge PER DOMAIN. You can cut a deal at 4 to 5 dollars per domain, the rest is your money. For 4 to 5 dollars per domain they run the backend, rund the relations with the registrars, collect the money and man the hotline. If you aim at under 100,000 names per year, you will probably have to pay more than 5 dollars.

 

[moneydomains]

But how would one get the name known?
You would need a big advetsing budget also.
I am not saying you cant do it but still be very costly project

 

[Theo]

Let the tm lawsuits begin.

 

[Developper]

But how would one get the name known?
You would need a big advetsing budget also.
I am not saying you cant do it but still be very costly project

Well, 50% of all countries in the world are population wise smaller than Puerto Rico, or Berlin in Germany.

So you could for example go for .berlin! You would have at least the same success as .pr, most likely more, because the economy of Berlin is a little larger than that of Puerto Rico, while the population is the same.

Now, when you do .berlin, it's simple to market: Give all terms related to the government to them, like townhall.berlin and the like. For free! They just have to use it, the websites exist already, so they just have to route. Do so with some more "beacon" domains, such as tourism.berlin and the like. Then have the trade and industry chamber of Berlin ask all Berlin companies to get THEIR .berlin! And so on. It works, I have done it. Then get the three major newpapers to write about it, which they will, because it's real "Berlin" news. Soon everyone knows. And does it hurt, that only Berliners know? No. Because, do you know the TLD of Yemen? You don't, and are you confused, that you do not know? No, you are not. And WHICH Berliners? Germany or USA? Well: 98,5% live in Germany. The others can use .berlin as well, but since they even do not know the exitence of .us, their own ccTLD, its unlikely that they wanted to use .berlin.

In case you want to do .shop, you will face more problems. Nice that you have 6 billion potential customers, but: How to tell them? And will they learn a new conecpt just for ONE thing: Shopping? Unless you do not convince all the NIKES, Microsofts and Nissan Companies of this earth, it will not work. See what happened to .mobi.

You see, I told that story before ;-)

In other words: GEO TLD'S might work. Confuse no one, if targeted.
.shop, .shoe, .pet, .kids will be VERY difficuilt.

I spent 13 ICANN meetings with thinking about it.

 

[INVIGOR]

what's a gTLD???

 

[Developper]

what's a gTLD???

.com, .net, .info, everything not ccTLD! Generic Top Level Domain.

Are you a Domainer ;-) ?

 

[David G]

But how would one get the name known? You would need a big advetsing budget also. I am not saying you cant do it but still be very costly project

Rarely applicable in that I believe many of you are misunderstanding how this will go down as I believe most all of the new tld's will be registered by companies, organizations, cities, states, etc who simply want their own tld (typically the entity name, i.e. Berlin London Sears Ford GM Scottsdale Iowa Mass NY Dell IBM etc) for their own use, and with no intention of selling domains to 3rd parties.