Average price of dot.ie domains drops
A price war has begun between the leading players in the area of dot.ie website address sales – resulting in the average price of a dot.ie domain name being reduced by 50%.
The move is being driven by the Irish market’s two leading providers, LetsHost.ie, which has dropped its registration fee from €19.99 to €9.99, and Blacknight, which has lowered its main price by €8 to €16.95.
LetsHost’s director, Graeme Conkie said that while the company’s price offer will run until the end of December and that in the new year, the €19.99 price will be its base level, it will ultimately be led on price by what its competition is doing.
“We’ll basically start at €19.99 – with that we were already the cheapest on the market – but are prepared to match whatever the competition may be offering below that level. We’re looking to maintain our market leading position – we have a 21% share of the dot.ie sales market – but it’s close at the top,” he said.
“Our mission is to provide small-to-medium sized businesses with the infrastructure, knowledge and power to create an online presence for their business – effectively, reliably and affordably,” he added.
While there are close to 100 domain name sellers in the Irish market – LetsHost, Irish Domains, Register 365 and Blacknight are the leading providers. According to Mr Conkie, since LetsHost lowered its prices, earlier this month, it has sold more addresses than most small sellers would shift in a month.
According to the IE Domain Registry (IEDR) – the body which manages the database of Irish registered web addresses – the number of parties registering for dot.ie domain addresses increased by 41% last year. In the space of the last five years, the average price of a dot.ie domain name registration was over €100.
