[AfrICANN-discuss] AfriDNS - Internet governance at the local level

Fri Nov 17 11:03:32 UTC 2017

Some time ago, the ZACR was invited to attend with local government
people to tour around Gauteng townships. The primary objective was to
have as many businesses become registered as possible, give them VAT
numbers - etc. The ZACR was invited along to talk about Domain Names and
their value. I was contacted because the ZACR does not sell Domain Names
to the public but I as a Registrar can. I looked at what I sell and
realised I had no suitable product, so I created one - which I call my
Entrepreneur Package. This gives the customer three e-mail addresses and
a template driven website. Its a very simple CMS - it takes already
created contact info , creates a map image of the persons location,
allows them to choose some backgrounds and add two boxes of information,
one for "about me" and one for "what I sell". Thus - including
purchasing the Domain, to creating a simple website - time invested
should be under 30 minutes. For this I charge R16+VAT a month - or with
the Domain Name, just under R300 for the year - just over US$21 for the
year.
(Example at https://dark-theme.posix.co.za, displays reasonably well on
a smart-phone, tablet or laptop, complete with free "Let's Encrypt" SSL,
DNSSEC and DANE service)

The exercise was for some reason, futile, as soon as unregistered
businesses saw that it was the Tax ministry that was trying to get
businesses to register. =-O

Having completed the great DNS Africa Study (https://dnsafrica.study),
one now obvious reason that renewals of domains do not happen is because
many people have no value attached to a Domain, that is, no Website or
e-mail.

I believe that many more businesses would register domains - but its not
just the cost of a Domain, its Web Hosting and Web Development costs.
Also, content needs to be periodically "refreshed" - which also costs.

Perhaps more Registrars could offer such packages?

Remember, once a user has an e-mail address - its pretty much there for
life.
Registrars then get repeat business, Registries then get repeat business...

On 17/11/2017 11:25, Dewole Ajao wrote:
> This statement right here is insightful but again nothing is ever as
> simple as it appears, right?
>
> /"... A domain by itself is of no value. If you are trying to
> encourage content then it’s a very different conversation" - Mr. Michele/
>
> The process probably starts with a (potential) customer having content
> that they want to share;
> At some point, there is a crowd and they decide they need their own
> identity to stand out (of course they will pick the domain name
> extension that's least stressful and most affordable to acquire);
> Then the registrars had better hope they are vain/rich enough to grab
> many extensions of their chosen name from Day 1;
> Again, hopefully they get big/vain enough to care about identity
> preservation/protection and grab a few more popular extensions and
> hopefully keep renewing them.
>
> Personally, I believe that while content might be the starting point,
> vanity and profiteering are the amplifiers of the global domain name
> industry.
>
> Some other pointers might be the state of Internet connectivity - how
> significant are the connected populations in these places? Do business
> owners think it's important to acquire unique Internet real estate?
> Not unless they view it as being significantly revenue-impacting. I
> know of a Nigerian gossip blogger who for many years was reportedly
> raking in thousands of dollars in daily advert revenue and all she had
> was a .blogspot.com subdomain. When she finally had to setup a domain
> name to reduce Google's control over her visibility on the web (only
> in the last 2 years or so), she opted for a .com even though she could
> afford a .ng domain.
>
> While stable infrastructure, pricing, ease of payment, and registry
> automation are important considerations, I think the younger ccTLD
> operators have a lot of enlightenment and hoping to do (if the local
> markets are their targets). Unless they can figure out ways to
> influence local development in areas like connectivity, web hosting,
> online payment and e-commerce in general, there is still a long way to go.
>
> Dewole.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From: *"Michele Neylon - Blacknight" <michele at blacknight.com>
> *To: *"AfrICANN Community List" <africann at afrinic.net>
> *Sent: *Thursday, November 16, 2017 6:58:33 PM
> *Subject: *Re: [AfrICANN-discuss] AfriDNS - Internet governance at the
> local level
>
> Alan
>
>  
>
> Do you mean wholesale price or retail?
>
>  
>
> And either way it’s not just Africa
>
> The Latin American market is as bad if not worse, with many ccTLDs in
> the region looking for $50+ per year.
>
>  
>
> Also, if you look at the African ccTLDs there are still quite a few
> that don’t offer any level of automation or a proper registrar system
> so it’s hard to see how they’d scale.
>
>  
>
> But why do you want them to buy African domains? A domain by itself is
> of no value. If you are trying to encourage content then it’s a very
> different conversation
>
>  
>
> Regards
>
>  
>
> Michele
>
>  
>
>  
>
>  
>
> --
>
> Mr Michele Neylon
>
> Blacknight Solutions
>
> Hosting, Colocation & Domains
>
> https://www.blacknight.com/
>
> http://blacknight.blog/
>
> Intl. +353 (0) 59  9183072
>
> Direct Dial: +353 (0)59 9183090
>
> Personal blog: https://michele.blog/
>
> Some thoughts: https://ceo.hosting/
>
> -------------------------------
>
> Blacknight Internet Solutions Ltd, Unit 12A,Barrowside Business
> Park,Sleaty
>
> Road,Graiguecullen,Carlow,R93 X265,Ireland  Company No.: 370845
>
> *From: *Alan Levin <alan at futureperfect.co.za>
> *Reply-To: *"africann at afrinic.net" <africann at afrinic.net>
> *Date: *Thursday 16 November 2017 at 09:52
> *To: *"africann at afrinic.net" <africann at afrinic.net>
> *Subject: *[AfrICANN-discuss] AfriDNS - Internet governance at the
> local level
>
>  
>
> Hi,
>
>  
>
> I've been studying African cctld for many years. 
>
>  
>
> The cost of registering an African cctld in Uganda / Nigeria / Ghana /
> Botswana / Angola, etc appears to remain totally out of kilter with
> the global market rates.  To buy a .ke for a local is around USD6, but
> for a foreigner it's >USD17 and they appear to be one of the cheapest.  
>
>  
>
> In South Africa a domain goes for less than USD5, and they are
> available globally at the same price. We have over 1.2m
> registrations... significantly more than any other African cctld...  
>
>  
>
> How can I encourage our clients to buy African cctlds when there is so
> much more to chose from nowadays? 
>
>  
>
> Sincerely
>
>  
>
> Alan
>
>
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-- 
Mark James ELKINS  -  Posix Systems - (South) Africa
mje at posix.co.za       Tel: +27.128070590  Cell: +27.826010496
For fast, reliable, low cost Internet in ZA: https://ftth.posix.co.za

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