[CPWG] Some relevant stats on .ORG

[John McCormac]

On 05/12/2019 19:29, Nat Cohen wrote:
> John,
> 
> Thanks for the stats.  I expect that as you mention that the 
> registration momentum will continue with ccTLDs rather than with gTLDs.
> 

The gTLD to ccTLD shift is a subtle one, Nat,
Basically what happens is that people in the ccTLD's country begin to 
think of the ccTLD as "their" TLD. That's a very powerful dynamic and 
there is an element of that with .ORG. What also happens with ccTLDs is 
that the number of one-off domain names rises. These are domain names 
that only exist in that ccTLD and not in the gTLDs.

> Many of the national ccTLD domain authorities are effective managers.  
> They treat registries as service providers rather than as owners of the 
> name spaces.  They don't grant perpetual contracts on the rationale that 
> registry service providers won't be willing to invest in operating a 
> registry unless they are given a perpetual right to do so.  Instead, 
> like PIR itself, they put out registry operations for regular rebid.  
> This way the cost to operate a registry falls, and those savings can be 
> passed down to end-users.

Some of them are excellent operations and completely in tune with their 
registrants. They also build up a massive amount of institutional 
knowledge. The other aspect of ccTLDs, the non-repurposed ones, is that 
they are controlled by legislation and by the local government rather 
than ICANN. There were some cases where ccTLDs have been redelegated but 
the healthy ones tend to have a lot of these aspects in common.

> They create stable pricing environments where companies and nonprofits 
> can develop an online brand knowing that they won't face inflated, 
> unpredictable charges when it comes time to renew their domain names in 
> the future.  In short, they look out for the public interest.

Agreed.  Price sensitivity is not a major factor with some ccTLDs in 
that there are ccTLDs where the registrants will pay a higher than .COM 
registration fee without question. This is because people in the country 
expect that a new website will have a domain name in the ccTLD rather 
than another TLD.

What I've seen with some countries and the non-COM legacy gTLDs is that 
where registrars or the registry increases prices, brand protection 
registrations and other registrations drop because the gTLD is no longer 
considered relevant to the businesses or the registrant. At a country 
level, it is hitting .BIZ and .INFO hard. The impact of price increases 
can take about a year from the increase to play out on the TLDs. What 
will happen if .ORG starts to encounter problems is that the .ORG will 
be dropped from the registrar websites and the number of active 
registrars with new registrations in the zone will decrease.

Regards...jmcc
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