Monopoly and regulation. Rather, monopoly is why it costs so damn much. Regulati... | Hacker News

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zellio on Dec 10, 2013 | parent | context | favorite | on: Ask HN: Why do we pay for domain names?

Monopoly and regulation. Rather, monopoly is why it costs so damn much. Regulation is necessary because we need to have one internet, not many.

t0 on Dec 10, 2013 [–]

Exactly. Most of that $15 goes directly to ICANN and Verisign. http://www.hostly.com/hosting-info/much-domain-names-cost-15...

gacba on Dec 10, 2013 | [–]

Not quite.

ICANN Fees

ICANN charges a fee for each domain name registered. The fee is 20 cents per domain.

The domain registrars pay additional fees to ICANN, but it's hardly anywhere near the 90+% you quoted.

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