[kictanet] The KeNIC we want: Stakeholder engagement and Operations

Tue Oct 16 13:57:43 EAT 2018

The KeNIC we want is one that delivers, lives, breathes its mandate:
increase the uptake of .ke domains, full stop!

KeNIC is the largest player in the  Kenyan ccTLD market, setting the pace
of the local domain market. It is thus instructive that the body acts in
the best interest of growing the market. It must avoid any moves that run
counter to this goal.

There are 4 key factors in the success of any business: price, product,
place and promotion. The 4 P's of marketing. In our case, the product is
the domain, which for all practical purposes, is a commodity. The place is
'everywhere with an internet connection', meaning that you can now get a
.ke domain from all over the world. Promotion is generally Internet-based,
as the case with most other domains. The big P however, is the price -
which was kind-of okay until 2017, when it was doubled overnight.

In a commodity market, eg sugar, salt etc, the biggest determiner of a
successful sale is the price. Not allusion to patriotism or other such
ideas. A case in point; when at a supermarket, what drives the purchase of
a 2 kg pack of sugar? Country of origin, or price? What is your answer if
one 2kg packet is 250/- while the other is 500/-? This very scenario is the
current scene in the local domain market. And yes, to the non-attached
person, a domain name serves the simple purpose of translating a
human-readable name into an ip address. mydukakenya.com vs
mygeneralduka.co.ke inspire little difference to many - thus a commodity.

But why is this important? In your question, Bw. Kivuva, you posited that
South Africa has 1.3 million domains while Kenya has 80,000 domains. A
quick glance through the Internet (place, promotion) shows that the annual
renewal for a .co.za is 75 rand, roughly equivalent to 525 Kenya shillings.
Now, this is the price of the commodity in a South African market where the
GDP per capita is USD 7,500 (KES 750,000). In comparison, the wholesale
renewal price, as set by KeNIC, is a whopping 1,160 Kenya shillings -
double the South African retail price. For a registrar to sell this off at
a decent margin, the price set will be around KES 2,320! This, by the way,
is in a Kenyan market whose GDP per capita is USD 3,000 (KES 300,000).

In a nutshell, we are selling the commodity at *4 times the price* to
people with *half the economic power* and wondering why they are not buying
from us.The comparison is worse when considering the .com domains where
most buyers are in the American economy. Ditto the .de domains and the
German economy. *It is the equivalence of selling a loaf of bread for
400/- at a local Kenyan supermarket. A supermarket where other loaves of
bread are going for 50/-. *

This thus begs the question, what would push a body, whose sole reason for
existence is to encourage the adoption of Kenyan domains, make such a
clearly blinded move? The earlier conversations here about governance - how
we do things - come to the fore. As general knowledge, governance is the
glue that ties the organization to its mandate. When governance is poor,
the organization drifts away from its mandate. All decisions and movements
made by KeNIC must be to the benefit of the Kenyan domain market.

If the allegations made by one of KeNIC's members, DRAKE, are thus founded,
then one must draw a line of connection between this bad pricing situation
and bad governance. The inefficiencies and losses suffered through poor
governing systems must be covered by something, or someone. Inefficiencies
come up through bad purchases that bring little value back,
market-insensitive decisions, poor hiring and firing reasons - the list
goes on. These inefficiencies are covered by higher domain prices. As
discussed above, this is as short-sighted as it can be, market loss is
inevitable.

Regards,
--
Davis Waithaka

On Fri, Oct 5, 2018 at 10:12 AM Mwendwa Kivuva via kictanet <
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> The debate on revitalising our .ke ccTLD registry continues today.
> Yesterday, we tackled Governance issues. Suggestions were made, the major
> ones dealing with Transparency at the .ke registry, and Equality on
> representation. Thank you for contributing, reading, and listening. Please
> feel free to continue contributing to that thread, as we go to the theme of
> the day.
>
> Today we will tackle Stakeholder Engagement and Operational Issues.
>
>
> Public / Stakeholder Engagements
> 1. Should KeNIC hold Annual General Meetings? Is there value in holding
> the AGMs?
> 2. When was the last AGM held?
> 3. Can the annual reports, and deliberations of the AGMs be published on
> the KeNIC website?
> 4. Should the AGM be open to the public?
> 5. Accountability: How accountable is KeNIC? To whom does it account to?
>
> Operational Issues
> 1. A great effort has been made to popularise the .ke brand, including
> some popular advertisements, using patriotism to encourage Kenyans, and
> opening up the second level. But numbers don't lie. Currently, we are at
> around 80,000 .ke domains, while South Africa is at 1.3million. Is there
> more work that can be done to make .Ke popular?
> 2. What are the challenges in selling the .ke brand? What are the
> opportunities?
> 3. Is there a challenge in generating content for the KeNIC website? Some
> pages as noted yesterday have not been updated for some years now.
> 4. What support does KeNIC give to Registrars?
>
>
> Here are some statistics that I had shared on Tuesday, that may help  in
> stimulating the debate.
>
> Germany population 82.67 million
> .de domains: 16 million domains (one domain for every 5 people)
> Percentage Domain penetration: 19%
> .de is the third largest registry in the world and is ran by DENIC which
> is a non-regulated not-for-profit cooperative owned by registrars.
>
> South Africa Population 56 million
> .za domain: 1.3 million domains (one domain for every 46 people)
> Percentage Domain penetration: 2.3%
> .za is the largest ccTLD in Africa, managed and regulated by ZADNA which
> is an agency of South African government under the Department of
> Telecommunications and Postal Services.
>
> Kenya population 50 million
> .ke domain: 79,773 domains (one domain for every 627 people)
> Percentage Domain penetration: 0.16%
> .ke is managed by KeNIC which is envisioned as a Public Private
> Partnership (PPP) entity
>
> Looking forward to a fruitful debate.
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