■ Data source: Websites of the 30 top registrars of .fr domain names in terms of the numbers of names managed (checks carried out in September 2011).
The purpose of this chapter is to provide statistics on the services offered by the leading registrars of .fr domain names, and the prices they charge. The details were collected in September 2011 from the websites of the 30 registrars handling the largest numbers of .fr domain names.
Since the study concerned the French market, we have excluded from the statistical calculations those registrars in the sample that do not have a version of their website in French. In addition, some providers do not have detailed information on their websites and therefore have also not been included in the statistics (mainly on the corporate market). In all, the registrars included in the study manage 79% of the domain names in the .fr zone, so it seems legitimate to consider the results as being relatively representative of the overall supply.
It should also be noted that the database managed by AFNIC identifies registrars in charge of the management of .fr domain names, but none of the resellers who may be involved in the value chain as intermediaries to sell the names to end users. In this way, the results obtained only concern the offers made direct to end-customers by AFNIC service providers, and none of the offers made available through their respective reseller networks.
Services offered by registrars
Registrars’ offerings differ in many ways. Firstly, the number of domains available for registration is very variable. Some of the service providers offer only a limited number: the main gTLDs .com/.net/
.org/.biz/.info; the ccTLDs .fr and .re (Reunion Island) and the European domain .eu; also frequently .mobi (mobile devices), and other French language ccTLDs such as .be (Belgium). Other registrars have a wider range, covering dozens of TLDs. Lastly, there are far fewer which claim to offer registration under all of the available Top Level Domains (around 250).
Nearly 30% of the providers reviewed include a web hosting service in their basic domain name package; the amount of space varies considerably in size (from 1 MB to 5 GB). Others offer hosting as an additional service at an extra charge. E-mail hosting is likewise often bundled with the basic package (by half the registrars; the space provided ranges from 100 MB to 25 GB). Most offers also include Web and e-mail redirection services in connection with the registered domain name. On the other hand, security services associated with an e-mail address (anti-virus and anti-spam) appear to be included in only 40% of the basic packages.
Among the other services present in the core and / or complementary offerings, some primarily address individuals or small businesses, such as the availability of tools for creating websites, or anonymous Whois services allowing clients not to reveal their personal details in the Whois extensions directory (a default feature for individuals in the .fr namespace). Other services are more for professionals and large accounts: e-commerce features (online payment), SEO, portfolio management (name audit and background check before registration, monitoring and surveillance after registration, legal services and recovery in case of cybersquatting, etc.). Security services are also sometimes offered as an option (SSL, Anycast DNS servers).
Rates charged by registrars
The rate included in this study is the cost of renewal of a domain name for one year, excluding additional services, discounts or temporary promotional operations. It should also be pointed out that corporate customers will tend, through commercial negotiations for bulk purchase, to get better terms than those publicly displayed on the registrars’ websites.
The figure below shows the range of annual fees charged in September 2011 by the registrars studied for .fr domain names. As with services provided, there is a very wide range of fees charged:
from about €5 to about €70+VAT. The mean for the sample of the main registrars was still €12 plus VAT, which means there are as many offers less expensive than €12 as there are more expensive than €12. In addition, the weighted average market share of registrars this year is also equal to €12:
it has been steadily declining for three years (€-0.80 in the previous year, on a like-for-like basis).
Compared with the 2010 study, the rates charged by providers have remained stable in most cases (82%), but were down in 12% of the providers, and up in only 6% of them.
This diversity of fees applied can be explained by the market segments these offers address (e.g. mass market, SMEs, micro-businesses, corporations, domain name resellers) and by the added-value services that are sometimes offered in a package with the domain name, such as technical services (e.g. web hosting, e-mail accounts, etc.), legal services (e.g. background checks, surveillance, name recovery, legal assistance, etc.) and marketing services (search engine optimisation, etc.).
In addition, two-thirds of the registrars studied offered volume discounts for longer registration periods and/or the number of names purchased, particularly in the case of domain name resellers.
Figure 33 – Charges for .fr domain names
The median rates are now identical for all the extensions in the study, on the basis of
€12 per year, with the exception of the .eu TLD which continues to be a little more expensive (€13.20 / year). Most providers align their rates on those for the most common extensions, among other reasons, to make their offer clear. This means the rates for the .fr TLD are identical to those of the .com extension in 67% of the offers studied (corresponding to 80% of the domain names under management); they are lower in 22% of the cases (18% of the domain names) and higher for 11% of the service providers included in the study (managing only 2% of all the .fr domain names in the sample).
Median price: 12 € excl. VAT in 2011 (stable over the year on a like-for-like basis)
Average price: 21.70 € excl. VAT in 2011 (-0.35 € over the year on a like-for-like basis) Average weighted rate per registrar market share:
12 € excl. VAT in 2011
(-0.80 € over the year on a like-for-like basis) Pricing of .fr domain names in September 2011 per registrar
(Study of the top 30 registrars in the number of .fr domain names managed)
Registrars
Annual renewal fee in euros excl. VAT for the registrar (basic offer)
0 € 10 € 20 € 30 € 40 € 50 € 60 € 70 € 80 €
4.99 € 5.99 €
6.90 € 6.99 € 6.99 €
8.99 € 12.00 € 12.00 € 12.00 € 12.00 €
14.40 € 18.00 €
23.90 € 28.00 €
29.00 €
59.40 € 60.00 €
69.00 €