racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

There’s an ongoing discussion at the SEO Philippines eGroup (and quite an impassioned one, too) about the pricing of .PH domains. Having worked for dotPH, I’m aware of the issues and the arguments from all sides. Of course, with this disclosure, I also cannot just divulge any information I know of that other people might be interested in.

Still, you might find the thread over SEO Philippines a good read (membership to the e-group is required, but is as simple as sending email to seo-philippines-subscribe AT yahoogroups DOT com). Abe has also posted his response on his blog, and it’s from the perspective of his being a .PH reseller.

Also, another bit of disclosure: the company that I currently work with, Enthropia , has also been active in advocating the Use com . PH campaign. And part of this is our giving free com . PH domains to eligible bloggers. We do recognize the need for Filipinos to be able to carry the com.PH name with pride.

My response to the issue

Here’s my response, below.

Those of you know know me would be aware I used to work for dotPH. While I can’t divulge the exact details about the issue, I’ll share some general insights (the little that I actually do know of what’s been going on).

To tell you the truth, it’s a stalemate. Gov’t wants to take control—or even just reassign—the .PH ccTLD, but dotPH maintains that gov’t can’t just do that since they were first to be assigned registry status by ICANN. The Philippine government can’t do anything unilaterally since it’s also through ICANN that these issues have to be resolved, as it’s ICANN that assigns the administrative and technical management of the registry.

Frankly, dotPH claims ICANN will take their side on this matter. If the gov’t decides to sue, then it will take years and years for the issue to be resolved, especially given the slow pace of the legal system here and the lack of really solid electronic-commerce and IT laws (and do consider that one of the main proponents of e-commerce laws here is Joel Disini’s brother, Atty. JJ Disini—so there might be some difficulty trying to interpret the laws to gov’t’s advantage. Though arguably they’re not always on the same side when it comes to IT stuff, when it comes to business they seem to be a strong team).

Perhaps as IT professionals and businesspeople, we can lobby for better dialogue between gov’t and the .PH registry, if what we want is to have more competitive pricing. Do consider that other ccTLDs around the world also still charge $35 per year. The market is different. You can sell CNO domains at $5 and still earn, because of the sheer volume; in contrast, the market for .PH is considerably smaller. Of course, there’s also the basic concept of supply and demand—if dotPH sells for lower then there will be higher demand for .PH domains. The thing here is to find the optimal price at which everyone’s a winner ( i.e., domains are priced competitively and are affordable, and the registry/registrars earn even better than with the $35 prices).

(End of quote)

A bigger issue

Other SEO Philippines members who have far better background on the matter than I have pitched in their two cents’ worth, and there seems to be bigger issues cited, particularly about the .PH namespace not being a “business” and that the registry should be treating their appointment as a trusteeship. If you’re interested in reading about this, then I suggest you head on to the e-group message archives.