Why do you have to buy domain names?

Question:  I would just like someone to explain the domain name registry system. Why do I have to pay money to a company for something that doesn’t exist? Also, why can’t you BUY the domain, as opposed to rent?

Answer:

People come up with a name and then pay a registrar to register it to “put it in the system” so your site can be found on the web.

Someone has to be in charge, and manage things so that no two people try to use the same domain. The people that do that are The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) http://www.icann.org/

The money you pay goes to fund ICANN to manage all domains. Even if you pay for your domain through someone else, such as NameCheap, they have to turn around and give some money to ICANN and keep a small profit for themselves.