Amazon.com can sell domain names

[Dave Farber <farber () trial danger net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Don Drake <don () drakeconsult com>
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Amazon.com can sell domain names
Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2003 17:03:24 -0600


Dave,

For IP, found this on WSJ.com today.  Add yet another tab to the 
Amazon.com
navigation bar!

-Don


http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1046476188963467263-email,00.html

Amazon Has Approval
To Sell Domain Names

By NICK WINGFIELD
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Amazon.com Inc. has quietly received the go-ahead to begin selling 
Internet
addresses to users who want a piece of cyberspace real estate.

The Seattle-based Internet retailer in early December was accredited as 
a
so-called "domain name registrar," making Amazon one of about 160 
companies
and organizations that are permitted to register Internet addresses, 
or
domain names, ending in familiar suffixes like ".com," ".net" and 
".org."
Amazon received accreditation from the Internet Corporation for 
Assigned
Names and Numbers, or Icann (www.icann.org), the nonprofit group that
oversees the administration of Internet addresses.

The development means that Amazon now has permission to register 
Internet
addresses for any individual or business that wants a distinctly-named 
Web
site or e-mail address. Amazon is not currently operating an Internet
registrar yet, according to a spokeswoman for Icann, adding that it
typically takes newly-accredited registrars several months to begin
registering Internet domain names. Amazon was approved to register 
domain
names ending in ".com," ".net," ".org," ".info" and ".biz," according to 
the
Icann spokeswoman.

An Amazon spokesman declined to confirm that the company received 
approval
to register domain names.

It isn't immediately apparent how Amazon might incorporate domain-name
registrations into its main business of selling books, music and other
merchandise. A research report by US Bancorp Piper Jaffray analyst 
Gene
Munster on Friday speculated that Amazon will offer Internet address
registration as a convenience for its online merchant partners. In 
addition
to its core retailing operations, Amazon is increasingly partnering 
with
large retailers such as Target Corp. and Gap Inc. to help them sell 
goods
over the Internet by operating their Web sites or providing traffic. 
Smaller
Web merchants can also sell merchandise through Amazon's site. 
Third-party
merchants were responsible for 21% of the items sold through the Amazon 
site
in the fourth quarter.

The financial hurdles to becoming an Internet registrar are negligible 
for a
company of Amazon's size. Icann requires that prospective registrars 
have at
least $70,000 in available capital and $500,000 in commercial 
liability
insurance. Icann charges a $2,500 application fee and $4,000 for the 
first
suffix -- such as ".com" -- for which an applicant wants to register 
domain
names, plus $500 for each additional suffix. That means Amazon's fees 
to
become accredited would likely have been around $8,500.

Registrars pay a wholesale fee of around $6 a year for every domain 
name
they register. It is up to registrars to set the prices they charge
individuals and businesses to register domain names, with fees ranging 
from
under $8 to $35 a year for each domain name. Registrars are also 
required to
pay Icann a quarterly accreditation fee that amounts to 12 cents a year 
for
each domain name registered through them.

-Don

----
 Donald Drake
 President
 Drake Consulting
 http://www.drakeconsult.com/
 p: 312-560-1574
 f: 312-896-5736
--farber

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