The party was over the moment the Registry started to charge the $100 fee per two years of domain registration. It was free until then.
Nowadays, the registry fee makes up for a small portion of the total fees imposed per domain, resulting in a small profit margin for the Registry.
“We have kept our expenses down to a minimum and we have squeezed water from a rock, so to speak”, said Thomas Aquinas Jr. of Verisign.
“Obviously, domainers need to understand that our newest logo cost several million dollars, as the font was hand-crafted by Bell-Specter of London, a very expensive branding house. So we have to recoup the cost quickly.”
Verisign‘s new fee will range between $0.25 and $0.99 and will be called “Domain Resolution Fee“. The charge works like this: any domain that resolves to a live DNS will have to pay this fee; otherwise the Verisign page with the brand new “V” logo will be displayed.
Verisign has not ruled out the display of ads as well, in true GoDaddy style.
For members of the UDF - the 2010 fee will be waived!
The new domain resolution fee will also be assessed retroactively for 2010 – in other words, your 2011 renewal fees will be somewhat higher.
However, Verisign has decided to donate the fees for 2010 to the Unprivileged Domainers Fund – an organization created to promote domaining in countries of the so-called “Third World”. If you are not a member of UDF the time is now to sign up and see if you qualify for the discount.
