How come .co.nz domains are so expensive, compared to other countries

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TechnoGuy001

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#317903 25-Nov-2024 17:43

Maybe just anecdotal, but recently I've seen local businesses register .com domains like businessnz.com, instead of like business.co.nz or business.nz

Maybe they don't do it because of cost, idk, but why is .co.nz so expensive to register and renew?

Like the cheapest I can find is Porkbun at ~$28 NZD, more commonly seen at $33-35 with local companies.

You can get .com for ~$17 NZD at cloudflare (also please cloudflare add .co.nz support), .com.au ~$23, .co.uk ~$5

BlakJak

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#3312821 25-Nov-2024 17:46

Economies of scale? The only income InternetNZ has is from the sale of .nz domain names, which is represented by a wholesale rate recovered by them and a margin retained by the Registrar.

I don't consider $35 per annum to be particularly expensive relative to the benefits of working within .nz (one of the most trusted ccTLD's out there).

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amanzi

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#3312826 25-Nov-2024 17:56

I was about to type the same thing. :-) "Economies of scale"

mattwnz

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#3312827 25-Nov-2024 18:01

The price isn't that different and it is a relatively small cost for any business. A lot of the cost is baked in , and companies selling NZ domains often only make a small margin on top. Some will sell as a loss leader or near to cost just do get other business or to provide a one stop shop to customers. So not much money to be made unless they are selling big quantities of them, plus they also have to provide support on top of that plus support for DNS if that is provided with the domain. If that company is supporting it from NZ then I can't see how many would be making a profit from them, especially as the price many are selling them for hasn't increased inline with inflation over the last 20 years.

TechnoGuy001

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#3312829 25-Nov-2024 18:20

True, you guys make good points. I guess I'm just not used to the new prices yet, with the relatively recent price increases.

I just have a personal .co.nz which I can't really get rid of since it has my primary email on it 🙃

richms

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#3312848 25-Nov-2024 19:58

If your business cant afford the cost of a .co.nz domain then I doubt you have a business.

Look at some of the more niece TLDs renewal costs for a wake up to what a domain could cost.

Richard rich.ms