London-based GNR has formed PersonalNames Ltd as a wholly-owned subsidiary. Like dozens of domain registrars, PersonalNames will sell annual .name registrations directly to end users, paying GNR a wholesale fee for each registration.

GNR said in a statement sent to its registrar partners that its board has been disappointed with the results posted by Global Name Registry, adding that .name registrations now trail other new gTLDs [generic top-level domains] by a dramatic amount.

The company pointed out that in the nine months to September 30, GNR sold only 85,633 registrations, compared to the 768,857 .biz registrations clocked by Neulevel Inc and the 951,019 .info registrations won by Afilias Ltd.

Neulevel, Afilias and GNR all won the rights to run gTLDs in contracts in November 2000, with GNR coming to market later than the others. GNR now blames its tiny sales on the registrars that sell registrations directly to the end user.

The registrar community has not even captured 2/100ths of 1% of the global market opportunity, the firm said. We have come to the conclusion that we do not have a sustainable business model if we continue to rely on the current approach to .name.

Many registrars do not know how to communicate with or sell to consumers, GNR said, pointing out that registrars go for the SME market, and have not come up with ways to sell .name services, primarily email addresses, to consumers.

The .name namespace comprises two levels, with users registering names at only the third level. Users register firstname.lastname.name, which allows them to have email addresses such as firstname@lastname.name or name@firstname.lastname.name.

Because of the technical aspects of this structure, the GNR registry has to be involved in the running of the email systems, which makes its wholesale price to registrars the highest in the business – over $13 a year compared to the $5 to $6 standard.

GNR admitted that this price had scared off registrars, which need to offer buyers, particularly consumers, an attractive price while maintaining a healthy markup, and has reduced its annual registration fee to $7.

Despite this apparent lack of interest by registrars, some of them spoke up last week over concerns that GNR could be creating a conflict of interest by launching a registrar division. GNR executives could not be reached for comment on this matter.

Source: Computerwire