Quote:
Originally Posted by dynadot
Happy Friday, everyone!
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Hey Dynadot, you said you were meeting with Verisign at the end of October.
Here's some data you might want to bring to the table regarding Japanese IDNs, "premium" IDNs and sales thus far. Perhaps you already have it or are aware of it in real time.
This is from about a week ago.
My only reference is your retail price and Japanese .コム, so that's how I've divided these, and the revenue total is registrar gross, since we don't know the wholesale price of these names.
Note that the largest premium tier is the sixth, which comprises over 26,000 names and is roughly 70% ASCII. I have no idea how many have been registered, since you'll only allow me to search 1,000 at a time.
I think that this quick breakdown will give you a decent idea of where the breaking point is for valuing these things going forward. When less than 2% are being sold at a premium price, then the price is too high.
Tier 1 ($30,000):
Total: 656 (All ASCII)
Registered: 13
Revenue: 390,000
Tier 2 ($14,400)
Total: 246 (74 ASCII / 171 Japanese)
Registered: 12 (5 ASCII / 7 Japanese)
Tier 3 ($1,440)
Total: 528 (All Japanese)
Registered: 22
Tier 4 ($720)
Total: 1,123 (All Japanese)
Registered: 52
Tier 5 ($360)
Total: 10,616 (7,632 ASCII, 2984 Japanese)
Registered: 198 (25 ASCII, 173 Japanese)
Gross Revenue: $703,200
ASCII Revenue: $471,000
IDN Revenue: $232,200
ASCII revenue far outpaces native language, but Verisign can't conceivably build its brand on mixed-script names like sex.コム ($1,440). And native-speakers and investors simply aren't willing to pay at these prices.
$360 was the price of some very desirable Japanese premiums that I decided to drop at a loss. (I, in fact, purchased NO names in either Japanese or Korean at premium prices, except for one that was later pulled from me and refunded).
Verisign is right to price ASCII and numbers investors into the stars, but all signs point to us IDN investors (even in a developed market such as Japan) cutting our losses if premium pricing is this high going forward.
It is important to note that Japanese .コム was a great success, largely because it has the most developed economy of all of the countries being represented by Verisign's IDNs. It would be silly to expect the same sort of investment in languages where per capita GDP is 1/3 that of Japan (China - 1/3, India - 1/6, Thai - 1/3). Further, noting that only 1/3 of premium revenue came from IDNs might dissuade them from the tactic in the future.
I have a strong hunch that Korean native language premium numbers are far worse, but I have no list to check.