Nominet AGM - price rise likely

[rob]

'scene setting' as they say on prices going up from today's AGM.

I asked:

DUM is dropping, renewal rates are basically static, dot uk take up has been poor - I would agree self created shocks could impact that. Public Benefit spend was £9.9m (24) then £11m (25). With the discussion on price rises earlier in the presentations is Public Benefit spend being reduced, and would that be looked at first before passing pain on to registrants?

It seems Public Benefit funding will continue as is, Nominet has huge reserves, so to whittle them down reserves can be used to fund PB stuff.

Prices though look likely to go up due to inflation / costs up etc. My feel is that is sooner than later as the Chair was keen to point out a few times that batting that further down the line in one hit (for that I think 30% was given as example) would be a shock to the system and probably mean less renewals / DUM lowering more in one go.

To be clear generally speaking I support the Public Benefit outputs and it is a Good Thing. What I don't agree with is no fresh debate with the membership on what Public Benefit should look like, how it should be funded, and what the future should be on it.

The world has moved on in many ways and unfortunately I don't see how Nominet can operate in that new world yet have a section entirely off limits.

 

[astutiumRob]

Immediately on opening the AGM they launched into prepping you for the pending price rises. PessimistIc graphs ( missing key data ), dropping '30% in real terms' into the discussions - benchmarking against other TLDs and keeping their half-a-million salaries makes upping the reg/renew fee innevitable

 

[Jeff]

And even more likely now:

https://nominet.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nominet-UK-NED-Election-Result.pdf

To coin a phrase, there can be only one. It's a shame he's never deigned to post here, despite being a member.

 

[Ree]

Immediately on opening the AGM they launched into prepping you for the pending price rises. PessimistIc graphs ( missing key data ), dropping '30% in real terms' into the discussions - benchmarking against other TLDs and keeping their half-a-million salaries makes upping the reg/renew fee innevitable

Someone seems a little peeved at Nominet! Maybe the extra, unforseen, expenses being incurred by Nominet at this time should be taken into consideration before slagging them off!!! I personally hope they push up prices by at least 1000%!!!

 

[Jeff]

I personally hope they push up prices by at least 1000%!!!

How to win friends and influence people on a domainer forum.

 

[GreyWing]

How to win friends and influence people on a domainer forum.

I know Rees is talking about other things here, he's also a domainer with a very decent domain portfolio so I don't think he means it literally.

I do sometimes think there is a fair debate to be had on prices rises and whether or not they are good for the domain extension.

If prices were 1p a year, all domains would be stockpiled, never dropped and the extension would become stale. If they were £1000 a year, few would buy domain names to develop on the off chance they could make a decent business.

Somewhere in-between those numbers is the sweet spot for domainers, where that spot is is debatable, raising prices may not always be a bad thing for domainers in the long run.

 

[Ree]

Somewhere in-between those numbers is the sweet spot for domainers, where that spot is is debatable, raising prices may not always be a bad thing for domainers in the long run.

Ha ha... I'm with you all the way on this, brother; between those figures you quoted is good for me @ £500 per reg/renewal. I'll personally take the hit if it fucks up AssPukeiumSlob and his band of merry followers!

 

[astutiumRob]

I do sometimes think there is a fair debate to be had on prices rises and whether or not they are good for the domain extension.

Price matters to Registrants of course, as it's a direct expense.
It matters to Registrars far less, as invariably it is just passed on to the registrant.
Whether it should matter to a Registry ( that has no requirement to make a profit ) beyond a value needed to run the operation is to me the debate that gets overlooked.

That .uk is relatively cheap has historically been why it grew to the 10M level, their own research projected exponential growth if it came down, which at the time would have increased the profits significantly - an interesting exercise in what constitutes 'success' in ccTLD terms.

My concern on pricing remains the justification of why, and the planned uses of the funds - previous rises have been for building war-chests, expansion into non-core areas, CV enhancing twaddle and so-on.

Do members really want Nominet going that way again and extending their services to yet more things that compete with their members ?

If the baseline costs of running the tld have outpaced the income, then yes, basic business would indicate price increases are needed - although realy that's what reserves are supposed to be for, not ringfenced for feelgood projects.

However the detailled financial slides did not indicate that, unlike the sky-is-falling graphs shown by the chair to prep the agm watchers for increases.

 

[Ree]

This must be the AGM everyone is talking about. Wish I could have been there. Looking smart, Andrew. Well done to the Nominet board, who took part in the presentations. I hear you were fantastic. Great job with the safeguarding initiatives, long overdue in my opinion and of course, I will be shooting over some of my ideas to make our industry safer and more productive for everyone. Shame everyone doesn't have the same dress sense as Andrew and the other board members, who were kind enough to give up their time to attend.

 

[Nigel]

I am strongly opposed to any reg fee price rise. As Rob said there doesn't seem to be any justification for it. Now I've only taken a brief look at the 2025 Report and Accounts so if I get some of these figures wrong then please let me know.

It appears that the only reason for a loss this year is because 20% of revenue was spent on 'Public Benefit'. Approx £11m from an income of £55m. I've never been a fan of taking fees from registrants and distributing a portion to causes Nominet deems to be of 'Public Benefit'. I think registrants would rather decide themselves what good causes they give to. Does anyone ever tell customers reg fees are higher because of this.

So let's say 'Public Benefit' is capped at a maximum of 5% of revenue (say £2.5m this year) and there you go - all sorted! - Nominet would have made a healthy profit (approx £3m). In addition they are sitting on investments of £88m. In fact they could afford to bring reg fees down and spend a few quid on marketing the .uk domain.

 

[Lucy]

I dare say, (ref. 'Articles of Association') there’s a fair bit of diplomacy baked into the numbers that has so far failed to be considered here, even from a government and/or trade perspective, knowing objectives, personally - I really wouldn't 'rock the boat' over an increase that's likely negligible...

 

[temp123]

if anything, there should be a price decrease - the only costs i can envisage increasing are those pesky salaries and expansion into non core activities. but what do i know.

 

[Jeff]

So let's say 'Public Benefit' is capped at a maximum of 5% of revenue

I disagree. It should be done away with altogether for two reasons:

(1) The board have proved that they can't be trusted to select the beneficiaries "objectively". As @whois-search revealed last year (before he changed his name to Brian), some of the beneficiaries of Nominet's largesse have been the directors' own pet projects. This is wide open to abuse.

(2) Charitable giving should always be a personal matter. What one person regards as a "good cause" could well be regarded as a very bad cause by someone else.

Regarding price increases, this is what Kieren had to say in his candidate statement:

"If any [price increases] are proposed in future, I will only support them if they are backed by a clear, transparent process — with proper member input and advance notice."

In other words, he'll support them provided they do a fancy Powerpoint presentation? Nothing about whether they are strictly necessary to cover the core costs of running the registry, which I find very disappointing.

As Brian said in the same post linked to above, it seems that firing half the board wasn’t enough to change the culture of Nominet.

 

[Ree]

'rock the boat'

'Rock the boat' is interesting; that you would use that phrase. I remember some years ago, Rick Schwartz losing it and posting, I think, on his blog. Some 'domainer' was slagging off Verisign for their nominal price increase. The domainer was saying some very horrible things about Verisign (a company that bears a grudge and seeks revenge) threat to destroy ICANN with a $40m lawsuit if they did not back track over something Verisign wasn't happy with . Anyway, Rick said he was pissed off about some idiots rocking the Boat and provoking Verisign into responding with huge price increases, which they were entitled to do if they wanted, and no one could stop them. Lucy, this forum is mainly made up of Nominet members, and like most self-serving individuals, will only see the preferred picture and whine if something is going to be detrimental to their own wallets. The picture I see here by some of the folks is 'Screw the Public', and the phrase 'I'm all right Jack' springs to mind. There are certain gobby little smartarses that have a proven track record of failure in business and don't have a clue about anything; however, their posts help me massively in proving a point. Hell, there are instances of incompetent pricks thinking they have a right to interject opinion on Nominet policy. I have an issue with dropcatching and Nominet's lack of action quashing the practice, but I will admit that I have benefited from the practice because I have very limited competition within ecom, thanks to all the best domains being put out for reach to new startups and businesses that cannot muster a strong enough web presence to take me on. Imagine the reviled 'Public Benefit' would bring if the perks certain minority members get were fairly distributed to the masses. I can think of many things where the so-called members/Nominet are failing in the ethical arena! My advice, if a few penny increases is a problem and is causing hardship to you or your business, then I think a career change might be in order, which should lower the stress levels and stiffle the pointless and toxic crap a certain incompetent wanker keeps spouting, which seems rooted in bitterness and jealousy when he doesn't get his own way.

PS: Real-world individuals with a sound understanding of both domain names and business, with a proven track record, might be the remedy to fixing what is wrong with how things a currently managed. Those born with a Silver spoon embedded in their shitholes are not the best types to represent the masses.

 

[Lucy]

Alas, 'rock the boat'...

('diplomacy baked into the numbers' - not creative accounting, but rather relationally direct to the fact that Nominet’s financial and policy structure has now become intrinsically political... taking on the .gov.uk registry on behalf of the Cabinet Office’s Central Digital & Data Office? A role that naturally would bring additional costs, e.g, security, compliance, supply chain, resilience... ?

As we know, Nominet’s 'Articles of Association', requires operation 'for the public benefit,'; therefore, spending decisions are guided as much by diplomacy and governance expectations as by pure commercial reasoning... A growth in Public Benefit expenditure from £9.9m (FY 24) to £11m (FY 25), even in a loss-making year, reflects a clear balance between optics and obligation?

Given that, a modest price adjustment seems negligible in context.)

And with the above, why on earth, antagonise over a negligible price increase when the 'perks' (non-fundamental rights) e.g, yes, dropcatching for one (for which I, like Ree, benefit in some way or another if not directly involved in the practice itself) - far, far outweigh this increase?

In my view, 'benchmarking' and a relative increase deters speculative/throwaway registrations and attracts more serious 'developers' contributing to the asset '.uk' is and, by extention, our collective portfolios.

I do agree regarding marketing, though;- I think the e-commerce functions like at ExCel would be ideal starting point, even RetailTech could have benefited... would have been refreshing amongst the repackaged old tech with 'A.I.' labels on it.