<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=Windows-1252">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style>
</head>
<body lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="#954F72">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal">Hello ICANN,<br>
<br>
Thanks to Namecheap I found out about this Proposed Amendment and since I’m also a customer as well as a developer I want to share my concern. First of, I’m guessing this comment/mail will be one of the many that will not be read but lets hope for the best.
Since ICANN registers most if not all domain names I partially understand why this proposal would be nice for ICANN however It would be a grave mistake in how I see it.
<br>
The .com domain name is the most popular domain name along the website owners and (web hosting) companies due to it’s low price, recognizability and therefor high value. When the ICANN fee will increase so will the price at companies such as Namecheap and that
will immensely lower the value of the .com domain name (or maybe even more domain names). Long term this will mean that less people will use this as it’s to expensive and it will lose the value among the biggest target audience; developers.
<br>
What happens when the .com domain loses this audience? It will lose the recognizability. More people will look for other, cheaper solutions that may even be subdomains under sites like Wix, Jimdo, Glitch, Heroku ect. To make a short summary, just keep it cheap,
play the long run. It will make the customers happy and make earn ICANN more money (thanks to the increasing amount of students / developers with a low<i>er
</i>budget).<br>
<br>
Kind regards,<br>
<br>
Ruben</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>