Imagine having 900 houses and renting them out to a community of like minded folks.
Whether it is at cost or slightly above, it is "rent seeking" in the sense they own, you borrow.
While it isn't rented, they are squatting on it.
Whether it is at cost or slightly above, it is "rent seeking" in the sense they own, you borrow.
While it isn't rented, they are squatting on it.
> "Rent seeking: the fact or practice of manipulating public policy or economic conditions as a strategy for increasing profits."
A simple test:
Would all of FolioHD's domains being rented benefit their business or not?
They are subsidizing the cost of buying those 900 domains into their overall pricing as a line item.
Now the registrar is trying to push out squatters. Sounds like the housing and renting markets. Insert surprise Pikachu face.
They buy 900 domains. They hold 900 domains.
Anyone who wants that domain cannot use it but must rent through them (whom they rent through someone else)
This is textbook rent seeking behavior.
It's same as any other domain registrar, except that have small markup (couple of dolars per year) but they provide additional service, i.e. customer doesn't have to deal with DNS.
- you create portfolio, but it's by default served as a subdomain
- then you decide that you really want to use "mchichol.com". You register through them instead of buying it yourself.
That's it. It's customer's domain, not theirs. They also specify that domain is yours if you ever want to move your site elsewhere.