Reading through Nominet’s annual reports, I am struck by the role that registrars play in the success of .uk. Let’s take a look at some of the key value-adds that registrars provide for the .uk space.
1. Registrars operate at the coalface of the domain industry. They interact daily with endusers and enable them to acquire free-to-register domains for a lower price than if they registered directly with Nominet.
2. Registrars drive and then deal with the practicalities of a 71.3% domain renewal rate
3. Registrars contributed a massive portion of Nominet’s £18.2 million income. Nominet’s 2008 report does not give any details of the percentage generated by the registrar members, nor any breakdown of how the revenue correlates to the membership and its representation at Nominet.
4. Nominet registrars’ support is vital if ENUM is to be a success. ENUM was officially launched over 6 months ago.
5. Registrars in the UK have been subject to a round of consolidations, restructuring and downsizing, but the UK’s registrars, webhosts and IT services industry are massive employers in the UK.
6. Registrars and webhosts help the “wider stakeholder community” to find a voice on the web – many of them specialize in low cost registrations, or in packages that include hosting/websites/SEO. Without these important services, thousands of SoHos, SMEs, and sole traders would be without an online presence.
7. Registrars are the first point of contact for law enforcement agencies when illegal activity is spotted online – their cooperation in this regard is invaluable in ensuring the security and safety of the .uk namespace
8. Registrars’ marketing and PR teams play a key role in the popularity of the .uk extension. Their creativity, publicity and effective online marketing campaigns have been one of the most forceful drivers of .uk’s continued growth.
9. Registrars keep .uk moving – they handle nameserver changes, ownership changes, deletions, renewals, WHOIS updates, email forwarding services, etc. for the vast majority of .uk users who do not have a direct relationship with the registry
10. Registrars contributed the vast majority of the revenue that made the £5 million donation to the Nominet Foundation possible.
And yet it could be argued that….
UK registrars gain no direct or fiscal benefit from best practice challenges, employer awards or Nominet trust donations. They don’t see much of the 17p in every £1 spent online. Even as “key channel to market for .uk”, their margin and operating profit is not positively impacted by the work that Nominet does with UK IGF, IANA, ccNSO, ICANN and working groups at international debates.
Much is being done to develop the interaction between Nominet and registrars – the registry held their first .uk registrar conference this year, which was very successful and unveiled new backoffice tools that allow registrars to include their brand and CI on renewal notifications. However, as registrars struggle with consolidation, squeezing margins and a slowdown in primary registrations, how can Nominet, limited as it is by its current constitution, work out a way to reward its main revenue generators in some way and support their key income providers through meaningful financial measures?
How do you feel about the role of registrars in the success of .uk? Have you ideas or proposals on how registries can share reward with registrars? As always, would love to hear your feedback…
Best wishes,
Nora
