Brands voice objections to top level .au domain introduction
Industry figures and brands are warning the proposed top level .au domain changes by auDA, the organisation responsible for Australian internet domains, may result in increased costs and devalued brands.
In the proposed changes, which are currently open for public comment, brands would be able to register top level .au domains such as mumbrella.au, fairfaxmedia.au or news.au.
The changes would see existing .com.au domain holders competing for the top level .au domains, a situation which critics claim would add costs and provide little value to brands.
Former auDA executive director Josh Rowe: “There is no business case for opening up the .au domain name space.”
In its report recommending the changes, the AuDA’s policy panel said: “Direct registrations would create names which are shorter, more appealing and more memorable. They would make the domain name system simpler and easier to use.”
Former auDA executive director Josh Rowe disagrees with auDA’s claim saying: “There is no business case for opening up the .au domain name space for new registrations. In fact there are many issues which will affect every existing holder of existing .au domain names. The main issue which should concern readers of Mumbrella is the dilution of their .com.au brand.”
“The biggest concern for brands is their existing brand IP i.e. “acme.com.au” will suddenly be devalued by the introduction of the competing space of .au, where “acme.au” can be registered.
Rowe warns that if these changes go through, Australian brands will be forced to register the top level domain names just to protect their brands: “Three million current .au owners will have to cough up $100m in registration fees to defensively protect their brands.
“A hundred thousand .au names have conflicts … i.e. ‘acme.com.au and acme.net.au are owned by two different businesses’ … this will create a legal nightmare … something that organisations like REA Group and CarSales Ltd have both protested against in public submissions to auDA.”
Jason Blackman, the company’s chief technology officer, told Mumbrella: “We are not supportive of introducing new top level domains for .au.
“It seems the burden the introduction may cause to Australian businesses, who will need to protect their brand from cyber squatters, will far outweigh the limited benefits.”
Blackman and Rowe’s points are shared by Mark Crowe, managing director of Brand Finance Australia, who told Mumbrella: “Obviously domain names are integral to a brand’s identity.
“Any extension to the domain system will see brands seeking them for defensive reasons.”
When contacted by Mumbrella, auDA’s chief executive officer, Cameron Boardman, emphasised no final decision has been made on the idea as the organisation seeks further public comment: “auDA is not proposing anything at this stage. No model or implementation process has been decided.
“auDA’s board accepted, in principle, the Names Panel’s recommendation that implementation of direct registration be considered.
“The Policy Review Panel is considering the points raised in both the majority and minority reports, as well as submissions and input from a wide variety of stakeholders.
When asked why the organisation thought the proposal was worth adopting, Boardman said: “auDA considers direction registration to be worthy of consideration by the Policy Review Process because it could make the domain name system simpler and easier to use by creating names that are shorter, more appealing, and more memorable.
“Direct registration may provide a better option for entities that don’t fit neatly within existing second level domains (like .com.au or .net.au). Individuals, for example, may prefer to obtain a straight .au Australian domain name in a simple manner.
“Other jurisdictions, like the UK, Canada and New Zealand, have introduced direct registration.”
Rowe also criticised the auDA for not having an industry representative on the review panel, something acknowledged by Boardman.
“The Policy Review Panel contacted major business bodies in the country requesting nominees for a place on the consultation panel, however no one was put forward,” said Boardman.
“Nevertheless, the panel as it stands has received numerous submissions and other valuable input from business stakeholders from around the nation. The interests and views of Australian business will be a leading consideration of the panel as it formulates its recommendations.”
While the formal public consultations closed last week, Mumbrella understands there is a push within auDA’s administration to reopen submissions before the final recommendations are submitted to board in late August.
This is a cash grab against Australian small business.
The main motive is revenue raising because domain name registration growth is now slowing down. They can’t grow the space organically because everyone has their domains so now they want to charge people again for nearly duplicate domains..
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the failed .uk and .nz results
UK fact the .uk has failed and is NOT “remarkably successful” as claimed https://www.nominet.uk/news/reports-statistics/uk-register-statistics-2017/
NZ fact the .nz has failed and is not “remarkably successful” as claimed “Figure 3 shows the total number of domain names increased from 640,342 (at 1 April 2015) to 656,607 (at 31 March 2016) – a growth of 16,265, or 2.5 percent. The dip between February and March 2016 reflects the one-year anniversary of the end of the preferential registration and registration period – an important part of the registrations direct at the second level change.
It appears that some registrants, having exercised their preferential registration rights, have subsequently let the shorter version of their name drop. ”
https://www.dnc.org.nz/sites/default/files/2016-08/Domain Name Commission – Annual Report – .pdf
auDA seems to be ignoring the facts and is pushing on regardless with the un needed proposed competing additional .au extension.
auDA staff have engaged parties they knows personally to do the independent .au research”
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This introduction really is a rort. Little more than a cash grab for domain name resellers, causing extra expense and potential IP issues for businesses small and large. Especially SMEs.
@Scott Kilmartin
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AUDA has actively tried to exclude the business community. They are betting on this been too hard for business people to understand. Brands will be diluted and some weaker ones severely damaged in this process. Brands will also have to combat additional phishing attempts as well as data loss through email confusion. This is only good for one thing; filling the pockets of those selling it. Business is waking up, my 2 vids on the topic in the last 2 weeks have in excess of 20k views and the comments are mostly angry.
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Total waste of money and time for me as an SME to defensively register extra domain name extensions for my brands that I won’t use the extra domain extensions in advertising just so that my competitors do not try to steal from my brand’s equity. The only people to benefit from this are registrars and domain name squatters.
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If it isn’t broke don’t fix it
Are these people at auDA so selfish to put the businesses (domain sellers) they represent before our county?
I am totally opposed your move to designed make domain registers & lawyers money with zero benefit to Australia and Australian Business.
The .au proposal also is a security threat to business and individuals.
I hear they like shouting people down they don’t agree with (namely Jim Stewart, one of the most respected people in the industry globally)
Does anyone on the auDA board have online business experience other than selling domain names? = NO!
We have spent over $30K (as a small business) securing our brand globally in the past year alone. Now these money grabbing time wasting arseholes want us to spend more (time & $) defending our hard work. Why? So they can sell stuff we dont need.
The fact that we have to spend time fighting this action makes my blood boil.
Great work Paul…. Dont let them get away with it.
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auDA’s “Policy Review Panel contacted major business bodies in the country requesting nominees for a place on the consultation panel, however no one was put forward,” – Cameron Boardman.
auDA must consult with the multi-stakeholder community. If the auDA Executive cannot even get businesses to the table to discuss this critical change, then they are derelict in their duty.
The awareness which Jim Stewart and myself have driven about the issues for businesses have received more engagement. Yet we don’t have millions of dollars in the bank to spend on marketing compared to auDA’s wealth of resources.
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Is Joanna really Sean Fogarty copying his own posts from the crazy world of cyber squatters?
Sean says August 31, 2017 at 8:59 pm https://www.domainer.com.au/a-quick-and-easy-way-to-grow-au/
DomainNames says Apr 29, 2017
https://www.dntrade.com.au/threads/auda-au-survey-thanks-for-telling-members-not.11329/
This look like half a dozen crazy cyber squatters trying to protect their crappy little domain name investment portfolios.
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The video of a cat fast asleep has had more views than that. 310,000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNsX3K38br0
Domainers are the only ones calling it a cash grab because they are the ones if affects the most and will have to pay the most money to secure the .au version of their domain.
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What is interesting is that people like Ned O’Meara, Jim Stewart, Josh Rowe and Sean Foggerty are very vocally speaking out against the business case of direct registration, but very conveniently don’t ever mention that they are domain squatters.
Their large domain portfolios are not being used to represent a business, organisation, or charity, but instead exist only to line their own pockets.
Funny how their vested interests don’t get mentioned!
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Allowing direct registrations will also include relaxing the policy which means that everyday Australians, moms, dads, students, those with hobbies and interests, portfolios etc will be able to register a .au.
Why should Australian business be the only ones to benefit from having an Australian domain name. There are only 2.3 million businesses in Australia and a population of 24 million.
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OK.
I will feed the trolls that have flooded this comments section many days after the initial article.
I also do not need the artificial bravado that Internet anonymity can afford me.
For the record: I worked for the Australian Department of Communications for nearly nine years and spent about the same amount of time at auDA.
I don’t “own” any .au domain names.
I don’t have a financial stake in the Australian domain industry.
And I don’t support direct registrations.
Read that twice.
I will not support direct registrations until there is a compelling argument or business case.
“Why not?” is not compelling.
“More choice” is not compelling unless I can be shown that this outweighs the potential impact upon Australian businesses – and not just domainers.
“Individuals need it if they don’t have an ABN or ACN!” is not compelling. There is always “.id.au” and the lack of uptake there is proof positive that there is no demand for a “general purpose” namespace.
If anything, I am always apolitical and drawn to logical arguments. Instead of me having to prove “why?”, convince me that “why not?” is a stronger position.
This reeks of a solution looking for a problem.
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Hello anonymous troll,
Last time I checked both REA Group and CarSales Ltd are not “cybersquatters” – whatever that means.
REA Group and CarSales Ltd are against opening up .au to direct registrations because it will fundamentally damage the value of the millions of existing .com.au domain names.
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Hello anonymous troll,
There are existing domain name spaces under .au “everyday Australians, moms, dads, students, those with hobbies and interests, portfolios etc will be able to register a .au.”
For example: org.au, asn.au, and id.au.
There is no quantitative business case to open up .au – otherwise auDA or other proponents would have provided the hard QUANTITATIVE business case.
Quod erat demonstrandum.
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Hello anonymous troll,
The issues raised in the article above are about brands, they are not “domain squatters” – whatever that is.
If you have quantitive business case for the opening up of .au to direct registrations then please present it.
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Hello Josh Rowe,
For someone who was on the auDA board fro 14 years you would expect that you would have some idea of the rules.
The everyday Australian is not able to register a name in .org.au or .asn.au, only those who are registered organisations, clubs or associations.
.id.au was always a bad idea. Maybe it was one of yours. As you were on the board you are responsible for not making it succeed. [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] .
.au Domain Administration Ltd member funds used by Josh Rowe
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/au_domain_administration_ltd_mem
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Are you saying that individuals have no right to a .au domain name and the only option they have is to a “second rate” .id.au domain name?
The internet may have been driven by business 15 years ago but now it is part of society at all levels.
auDA is responsible for providing domains for the Australian community not just for business.
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Hey anonymous person attacking the messengers and not the message. I’m not a domainer. I own own a digital marketing company that will greatly benefit from this. It’s a grab for cash. Give us a good business case for introducing it and we’ll stop calling it that.
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Hey anonymous troll. Are you a lawyer that will benefit from this change or do you sell domain names. Do you have a business case that you’d like to share? I can only assume you will be grabbing some of the cash as you are anonymous.
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I’m a domain squatter? HAH! Is a portfolio of less than 50 large? Please tell us how much of the cash you will be grabbing or give us a link to you website.
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Hey Fat “cash grabber” Dog – how much $ will you be making when this goes through?
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The anonymous cash grabbers in this thread are saying it will be good to open up the domain space. This means you’ll be able to register westpc.au gooogle.au amazan.au etc. This is called typosquating and their usually used for phishing. No mention from AUDA on the increased cybersecurity risks
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Are you a domain seller or a lawyer that will benefit from this as you try to deflect from the conversation?
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Hello anonymous troll,
It appears that you’re suggest that by merely opening up .au there will be flood of individuals registering their domain names. Please provide evidence of such demand in Australia, and perhaps examples of where this has occurred in other domain name spaces.
Expecting silence or more qualitative babble.
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I would have thought if there was such a compelling reason to opening up .au for direct registrations then people would be more than happy to put their names to it.
Apparently not!
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More sensationalism from a self proclaimed security expert.
What about the increased security risks from the gTLDs such as
westpac.online
westpac.company
westpac.co
westpac.it
westpac.email
westpac.finance
westpac.group
etc etc etc.
Phishers and scammers are much more sophisticated today. How many people get fake emails from the ATO and other such organisations? Most of these don’t come from a particular domain but people are still fooled by them.
The .au namespace is one of the most regulated and secure in the world, with strict eligibility requirements unlike most other namespaces.
I also don’t see you complaining about how gTLDs are just a cash grab and campaigning against them because business has to register them as a defensive registration.
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According to those against .au the usual rhetoric is that those in favour are domain sellers or suppliers looking for a cash grab.
The average profit from registrars or resellers selling .au domains at retail prices is about $2. The average profit from domainers selling a domain is about $1000.
You wonder why these people shout the loudest because they have the most to loose yet represent a miniscule percentage of the population.
Now the trend to dismiss those who argue for .au is to call them anonymous trolls.
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Just pointing out the bull shit nonsense spouted by Sean Fogarty that has been proven by the Kiwi’s to be Sean’s fantasy that is plainly wrong.
Not deflecting any argument, just pointing out the anti .au domainers have no valid argument.
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Jim, you say “I own own a digital marketing company that will greatly benefit from this”
Why are you [edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] to be arguing against this proposal?
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Hey anonymous coward why don’t you tell us what registrar you work for? Or are you on the board of AUDA?
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Hey Fat Dog anonymous coward.
Which registrar do you work for? How much $ will you make?
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I am just an individual who wants to register a .au domain name. I remain anonymous because you intimidate me with your bully boy tactics and threatening rhetoric.
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True dat. The head honchos over at GoDaddy and Melb IT want infinite growth for their bread and butter. A sign of how capitalism can truly fail and greed can make one scratch my head and face palm.
Just give existing .com.au owners the .au addresses. Then get rid of the ‘com’ and then: it will be cheaper for brands longer term (less characters in their web addresses…)
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Really? I would have sworn you were a registrar or a current auDA board member. Certainly you would be the first individual I’ve known who is for it. Sorry for scaring you.
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