Registrar Connections

April 2009

In this issue

Post-Event Update: 2009 Asia Registrar Days

“It was a valuable and productive meeting with diverse information…. The topics were especially useful for our business,” said one of the attendees at the recent Registrar Days held in Beijing, China and Seoul, Korea.

Attendees representing 70% of the combined China and Korea registrar base participated in the two events to benefit from the Naming Services reports on trends, research, products and services affecting the domain name industry. The events’ topics focused on the particular dynamics of the Asia region, specifically China and Korea, and were designed to assist registrars in maximizing opportunities for “Broadening [Their] Business,” the event’s main theme.

Feedback from the attendees indicated that 88% found the event valuable, with the top ‘most useful’ ranked presentations being (1) Channel Management, presented by Kun Qian in Beijing, and June Seo in Seoul; 2) How To Grow Your Business, presented by Kun Qian in Beijing, and June Seo in Seoul; 3) Policies to Help Your Business and Customers, presented by Pat Kane; and Broadening the World of TLDs and What It Means, jointly presented by Jill McNabb and Pat Kane.

Upcoming VeriSign Registrar events in North America and Europe will be scheduled in the Fall. Please expect alerts as soon as more information is available and registration is open for interested attendees.

Back to the top

Update: 2009 New Unit Rebate Program

The Q1 performance period for the VeriSign 2009 New Unit Rebate Program has ended, with credits to enrolled participants who achieved certain levels, to be posted to accounts in early May. In March, VeriSign also announced the extension of the New Unit Rebate Program through May 31, 2009. Participants in the current new unit rebate program were automatically enrolled, with the ability for other registrars who met the requirements to enroll for the extension also. As before, monthly updates on new domain name registrations are available thus enabling participants to maximize their acquisition and marketing program efforts. For enrollees who achieve discounts for the extension program, credits will be posted by the end of the month following the program's conclusion, in this case by June 30, 2009. We encourage you to continue to leverage this program by extending any current marketing initiatives you may have in place, and where applicable, by reinvesting the equivalent of credits earned in the first quarter program into incremental efforts to get new domain name registrations and customers. View the January issue regarding specific customer acquisition efforts that registrars can employ to help optimize their new unit growth.

For questions on this program, email namingmarketing@verisign.com or you may contact customer service at info@verisign-grs.com or 703-925-6999.

Back to the top

.name Transition Update

By Suzanne Yerks, Contract Administrator

As most of you may be aware by now, VeriSign acquired Global Name Registry (GNR) on October 1, 2008. Previously, GNR was the registry operator for the .name top level domain (TLD) while VeriSign has been providing the backend support for GNR for at least seven years. As a result of this acquisition, VeriSign’s Customer Affairs Office (CAO) has taken on the contract and compliance responsibilities for .name registrars. The process involves transferring close to 150 registrars and hundreds of thousands of domain names under the GNR management, and the three areas most impacted by this transition are identified below:

On-Boarding Process:

For New ICANN-accredited .name Registrars -- The registrar on-boarding process for new .name registrars will be changing to make it more consistent with .com/.net registrar on-boarding. For example, VeriSign’s process includes several steps that were not part of the GNR on-boarding process, such as the ACP authentication and the submission requirement for Corporate Formation Documents.
For Existing .com/.net Registrars -- Many aspects of the .com/.net on-boarding process that were completed at that time can be leveraged in the .name on-boarding process. For step-by-step instructions on how to become a .name registrar, click here.

File Assessments:
Recently, all physical .name Registrar records were sent from GNR offices to CAO’s offices. We are currently in the process of reviewing and organizing these files to ensure all documents are complete and compliant. Any registrars with missing agreements will be contacted and requested to resubmit them. We will also reach out to registrars who have been accredited for .name but have not completed the on-boarding process.
Internal and External Reporting Requirements:
All .name reporting duties are now the responsibility of CAO. These include: internal Business Unit reports as well as the monthly ICANN Registry Operator’s Report.

The transition of .name from GNR to VeriSign has been an exciting time for us in CAO. We look forward to reaching out to all .name accredited Registrars in our new capacity as the .name registry. Any registrars with questions about the Name transition to VeriSign should contact the Customer Affairs Office at cao@verisign-grs.com.

Back to the top

VeriSign’s Webinar Series

Thanks to those of you who joined us for the April “IPS for Registrars: A Marketing Tool” Webinar, the fourth of the 2009 webinar series. It was a well-attended session and a popular subject with business development managers and marketing professionals. The IPS presentation was conducted by Lenn Orentas, Naming Services Senior Product Manager, who identified many business opportunities available with the Internet Profile Service for targeted marketing efforts within the registrars’ existing customer base. Lenn also demonstrated how to use and take advantage of the data pulled from monthly VeriSign Internet Profile Service reports to help improve domain renewal rates, and help effectively cross-sell and up-sell to the registrars’ existing base.

For those who were unable to attend, click here for archive materials: https://knowledge.verisign.com/support/registrar/index?page=content&id=SO11699 or email namingmarketing@verisign.com with any questions. You can also find the latest IPS information on the VeriSign site.

Upcoming: The next session in our monthly webinar series will be on Thursday, May 21 on Emergency Credit Policy for Registrars. For a complete listing of dates and times, click here for the webinar calendar. A separate email from Naming Marketing will be sent out with dial-in and log-in details. We look forward to having you join us then. If you have any issues logging into the archive or have questions, feel free to contact Naming Marketing: namingmarketing@verisign.com.

Back to the top

Customer Service FAQs: What Your Should Know

Q: How can I determine the number of gross adds compared to add grace period deletes I have done this month?
A: Since April 2, 2009 VeriSign has been providing Registrars a daily report showing the month-to-date grace period delete summary. This report is available in the COM/NET FTP server ftp.verisign-grs.com

File Name: YYYYMMDD.grace_period_delete_month_to_date.daily.core.GURID.txt.gz

Description: Month-to-Date Grace Period Delete Summary for Registrars – COM / NET

Purpose: To report to the registrars the month to date deletion of .com/.net Domain Names during the Add Grace Period.

Q: What top level domain names that VeriSign manages will implement the Add Grace Period Limits Policy?
A: The VeriSign-managed top level domain names in .com, .net, and .name are subject to the Add Grace Period Limits Policy established by ICANN. Inquiries about how the Policy affects .jobs top level domain names (for which VeriSign serves as the back-end registry provider) should be directed to the .jobs Registry Operator, Employ Media at +1 216 426 1500 or ray@goto.jobs.

Q: How often is the .cc, .tv and .jobs WHOIS updated?
A: The .cc, .tv and .jobs WHOIS is updated twice a day at 8 am/pm ET.

Back to the top

eMarketer: Men Online

Published: April, 2009

Males are in the minority in the US population, both online and offline. In 2009, 95.9 million males are Internet users, compared with 103.2 million females. eMarketer estimates that 2013 will see 105.9 million online US males—but they will still be in the minority.

Yet, once men are online, they visit more sites and stay longer than female Internet users. They are avid search engine users and participate in all forms of social media, particularly watching videos. They are more mobile, with greater use of laptops, wireless broadband connections and mobile phones.

Gender, more than race or ethnicity, is a distinguishing factor for Internet use, since it does inform some online behavior and attitudes. For men, online shopping behavior is more goal-oriented, much like offline trips to a store. They are not as bothered by Websites cluttered with ads and do not abandon such sites as quickly as women do.

Marketers may be overlooking a valuable demographic if they target only 18-to-34-year-old males. Advertising messages steeped in college humor and sex do not resonate with the millions of male Internet users who are researching products and services—and jobs—while shopping and connecting with friends and family. Ads that respect their roles as fathers, partners and friends will get the attention of men and women.

To read the full report, please contact Jennifer Moore at 212.763.6046 or send an email to jmoore@emarketer.com.

Back to the top

In the News

This section contains a selection of articles pertaining to the Domain Name Industry compiled by Information, Inc.

"Average Online Video Viewer Watches 5 Hours a Month"
Center for Media Research (04/01/09) Loechner, Jack

The average online video viewer watched five hours of videos in February, according to the February 2009 comScore Video Metrix. Viewers watched 13.1 billion online videos in February, a decline of 12 percent from the previous month. The decline was mostly due to the fact that February has three fewer days than January. Google Sites, which includes YouTube, had the largest share with 41 percent of online videos viewed and almost 100 million unique viewers. YouTube contained over 99 percent of the videos viewed on Google sites. Fox Interactive Media, Yahoo Sites, Hulu, and Microsoft Sites followed Google Sites in the rankings. Hulu jumped the most spots and had the largest boost in unique viewers compared to January. Other notable survey findings include the fact 75.5 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online videos in February. The survey also found that 41.2 million viewers watched 384 million videos on MySpace.com (8.5 videos per viewer). The average online video lasted 3.5 minutes. (Web Link)

"Domain Roundtable 2009 to Be Held in Washington DC"
Business Wire (03/24/09)

Thought Convergence will host the fifth annual Domain Roundtable conference from June 14-17 at the Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington, D.C. The theme will be "Reaching Beyond: Shaping our Future Together." The event will focus on legal and legislative policies, technology trends, online tools, domain and portfolio assessments, and various monetization procedures. There also will be networking and a domain auction hosted by Aftermarket.com. "Attendees can look forward to insightful and education sessions, unparalleled networking opportunities, and unforgettable social functions," says Thought Convergence's Laura Schmidt. "This year's event will have something for new and veteran domain owners alike." (Web Link)

"Web-Domain Name Companies Still Doing Top Business"
Telegraph.co.uk (03/17/09)

Web-domain names are still as popular as they were in the 1990s. NBT CEO Geoff Wicks says there are 177 million domain names registered in the world, up 16 percent increase from the previous year. He says this is because companies release new products or find new markets, and domains are then made as a result. "People even register deliberate misspellings of the names," Wicks says. "There's real value in these names and they have to be locked up because companies can't afford to lose them." Large FTSE 100 companies can have more than 1,000 domain names registered, and a domain name can cost anywhere from $100,000 to more than $1 million. "Internet domain names are basically intellectual property," says Anil Ahluwalia with Bank of Scotland Corporate. "They're a bit like trademarks. Companies don't necessarily want to use them all themselves, but don't want other people to use them." (Web Link).

Back to the top