Domain names should not be a āfor profitā industry. Sadly, we have already started sliding down that slippery slope, so it is likely that there is no going back now.
Sadly there is no clean migration strategy like there would be if a hosting provider raised prices. They want money, itās guaranteed money. Thatās it.
Comment is justifiable in your case, because you provide commercial services with email, so wishing that domain is understandable in your case. But hey, you already have mxroute.email.
No. My comment does not highlight your point. I comment about functionalities and meaning, you write about preferences. Butā¦ meahā¦ I refuse to beat a dead horse.
If " .COM makes up 73% of all gTLD domain names" and ā40% of all domain namesā (I have not verified these claims but I have no reasons to believe they arenāt accurate), then you canāt simply play it down to a matter of your preference: usersā preference (or better: habit) is to fill in ā.comā if theyāre unsure about the TLD of the domain theyāre looking for. You may hate it, but thatās it. You may try to educate your audienceā¦ maybe, but only if youāre somewhat already established. People donāt like to change habits and be told what their preference should be (Iām still resisting the whole hostballs demise myself); also it wonāt be nice to have a competing domain with a .com TLD anyway, even if you havenāt set up a āCOMmercialā site. Competing āgeneral purposeā gTLDs are somewhat looked with suspicion from some (most?) users (ex: .xyz), they arenāt āperceivedā trustworthy even if technically nothing changes.
Exceptions do exist: specialized sites, regional sites, and ādomain hacksā too. Domain hacks are another example of how the original āintended purpose and meaningā of a TLD doesnāt really matter. The current main widespread usage of .CO and .IO ccTLDs should make it pretty clear
I, for one, would welcome a 70% price increase if domain squatting and forever parked domains were going to be effectively purged and persecuted in the .com realm.
ICANN is nonprofit + it is a monopoly
What this means is, with the more .com domains registered, the price should go down instead of up. If it does go up, it should be very clear what they need the money for.
There are 144mil .com domains registered atm. So the ICANN budget is huge as it is.
Verisign has been pushing this for at least a year, it isnāt exactly coming out of the blue; and it all started with the US Dept. of Commerce lifting a price hike ban. Domainnamewire also points to a form prepared by the Internet Commerce Association but I believe more in a revoked Brexit than in a revoked price hike tbqhfam