According to ComputerWorld.com.au, on a conference call with media after reporting its financial results for 2012 resulting in revenue and profit declines, Melbourne IT CEO Theo Hnarakis said ICANN’s release of new gTLDs would generate a “huge dividend” for the company in 2013.
Mr. Hnarakins is quoting as saying:
“We have 3800 corporate customers, many of which are very defensively oriented in protecting their brand,”
“When these new extensions are launched, they naturally register that domain name to ensure nobody else can secure that name.”
“When the .xxx domain was launched in 2011, Melbourne IT had $2 million in sales in defensive registrations for the extension, the CEO said”.
“The year before, the company had almost $1.5 million in revenue from the launch of the .co extension”.
Not only does Melbourne IT hope to profit from defensive registrations of new gTLD’s but their clients also applied for new gTLD strings which the company says will generate a lot of money since Melbourne IT is also serving as the back end registry for many of the new gTLD;s
Mr. Hnarakins is quoting as saying:
“Of the 150 gTLDs Melbourne IT applied for on behalf of customers, 75 % of the brands have said they will use the domains, and 110 of them have committed to five-year registry contracts”
“Melbourne IT expects to charge $20,000 to $30,000 per name, he said. But some could generate “hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue per brand” as they become live and start generating second-level registrations, he said.
In addition, Melbourne IT expects a “spike in infringements,” increasing the “amount of brand protection work we do,” he said.
Compared to full-year 2011 results, revenue fell 5% to $170.6 million, while earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) dropped 21 per cent to $15 million and net profit after tax (NPAT) sank 16 per cent to $11.4 million.
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