VeriSign’s proposed Wait-listing
Service (WLS) would allow those seeking ownership of a particular
domain name – with .com or .net extension -- to pay a fixed fee
for the right to claim it, should the current owner/registrant not
renew it. The benefits of WLS to consumers, however, are very controversial.
Below is an outline of a possible service that
can drive VeriSign out of the business it is trying to create. Our
proposed service can be provided only by domain-name registrars.
If WLS creates value to shareholders, the major
registrars can easily create a competitive service. Here is how
it would differ from WLS:
-
A customized auction marketplace, instead
of a fixed fee, would determine the cost of the right to claim
an un-renewed domain name.
-
A series of actions would be taken by service
providers immediately before allowing a domain name registered
through them to go into REDEMPTION PERIOD (a period at the end
of which the domain would become available for anyone to register):
If an owner does not
renew the domain name after it expires and before it enters the
REDEMPTION PERIOD, the right to the expired name is temporarily
transferred to the highest bidder. Then,
- if
the owner does not renew the name before the last day of the
REDEMPTION PERIOD, ownership is permanently transferred to the
highest bidder.
- if
the owner attempts to renew it before the end of the period,
he/she will have to pay a fee, which can be divided between
the service provider and the highest bidder.
Registrars have at least two advantages over VeriSign:
-
They can potentially drive VeriSign out of
the business it is proposing, since they are involved with a
process that precedes the REDEMPTION PERIOD. Thus, if registrars
create a service similar to the one proposed above, there will be no demand for the downstream services of
WLS.
- They can provide
a market for other major extensions, especially in the country
domain names (ccTLDs), which are becoming an integral part of
a company’s digital-brand-protection arsenal. Moreover, maintaining
and monitoring ccTLDs is cumbersome, making the role of such registrars
even more valuable.
One disadvantage of these service providers is their
inability to generate any revenue from fees on domain names that
have a very small chance of ever expiring. There may be some people
who would pay $24 for a chance at owning the name IBM.com under
the WLS fee structure, but success in gaining the name is unlikely.
Under the auction system, payment would be conditional on delivery
of the product. |