Yahoo Increases Domain Renewal Price by 351.3%
Effective July 1st, many webmasters who were perfectly content with Yahoo's services are now scrambling to find a new host before they have to pay an extra $25 for renewal. According to CNET's Holly Jackson, the price increase is, "...primarily being instituted to match the cost of doing business [because] registration is not the core of Yahoo's small-business site."
While Yahoo is seemingly oblivious to the impending customer base suicide, domain owners and tech bloggers are livid, especially those with 10, 20, or more domains to their name. Many angered users are banding together to file a joint complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about the unfair price increase.
Yahoo is gambling on the fact that their less savvy customers will either take on a passive c'est la vie attitude, or that current registrants won't want to leave the cozy womb of an Internet giant and decent customer support.
Yahoo is greatly underestimating the web-savviness of even the most basic users these days. Search engines and countless webmaster support forums are full of information regarding who has the best deal for new domains.
While switching hosts can be a dreaded process due to the potential for service disruption, no one wants to be stuck with an insulting $25 price increase per domain name, especially with the recent inflation and high gas prices. Over the next year, Yahoo's sales will plummet, and once loyal customers will be lost forever to hosts such as Go Daddy, Namecheap, Hostgator, and Bluehost - all of which have cheap renewal prices and more software support for website scripts.
As a loyal Yahoo customer for the past couple years, I was appalled at this 351.3% price increase. Despite some of Yahoo's shortcomings (lack of common server-end software such as ImageMagick, plus I've also heard others complain about billing issues), I was always satisfied with their hosting service as a whole. Luckily I only have one domain name with them but I plan on leaving when I receive my first renewal notice from them.
Raising prices like this is nothing but bad business, especially now when money is tight for the nation as a whole. I wouldn't be surprised if this move forces Yahoo to abandon domain registration altogether.
Published by Alicia White
Alicia is a former air traffic controller who lived in Japan for several years. She's currently a freelance writer in California, and a full-time student majoring in digital media/graphic design. View profile
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6 Comments
Post a Commenti just found out, via my credit card statement! i called to ask them to cancel it, they said they couldn't refund my money. anyone hearing of a class action lawsuit? i want to join.
I didn't receive ANY notice from Yahoo, I was just doing my period review on upcoming billings when I saw the amount. I supposed they expected me to find out when I got my credit card bill. With all domain transfers now underway, I wonder how long it will be before Yahoo blames the increase on rising fuel costs. It must take a bunch of diesel fuel to move a truckload of domain names across the country.
I had heard about this - but didn't believe it. This is marketing suicide. Yahoo! makes its money through service provision AFTER the domain and website are up. Maybe Google is behind it. Yahoo! (and Google) should remember 'there's more than one game in town.' This has no immediate impact on me, as all my domains are good for at least a year - but come next summer...(smile). Be well, Michael
I think that Yahoo find no profit for this business and they find the way to close it. I personaly have some domain names with them. Last 2 months (after the first increased) I transfer my domain names to http://www.luckyregister.com/ (the same family with Godaddy but cheaper). It is really too much increase!!! imagine, I can register 6 domain names from my actual registar now and paid the same for only one from Yahoo?
That's a big increase! I wouldn't want to stay with them either!
Sophie
Great information ~! Thanks