Domain Competition Clicks Into Place in Australia

The Australian domain registrar community will
watch closely the entry of a new company in February called ClicknGo! which could change the
dynamics of the small but lucrative industry.

Due to launch on February 1, the new company will be only the second
registrar to have direct access to the registrar operations of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN), albeit indirectly through a third party. The first was
Internet Names Worldwide, or INWW,
although some other Australian companies also use the ICANN accreditation
for the Council of Internet Registrars.

More interesting to the Australian industry is the promise on its Web site
that it will become the cheapest provider of generic top-level domains like
.com, .net and .org in Australia. Its list price for a two-year
registration of a gTLD domain name is AUS$80 (US$53), compared to the
charge of AUS$53 per annum (US$35) levied by incumbent registrars like INWW
and Network Solutions.

ClicknGo! is also trying to lure away domain resellers away from Internet
Worldwide with the promise that it will not charge upfront fees. INWW’s
policy of requiring up to a thousand dollars to be held in a neutral bank
account in order to gain maximum reseller discounts has angered some in the
industry in the past.

The new company said it would also halve its rates for the first week of
its operation.