.co/.me/.tv/.info's - Good article

[addz123]

Easy winners as a new gTLD in their own right:

.Online, .Site, .Web, .Law, .Eco, .Tech, .App and .Video (if made public), .Guide, .NYC

 

[Bailey]

First of all, I do appreciate your comprehensive response - not many take the time.

But now lets get down to the nitty-gritty. Of course there will be 'Capitalisation' of the new extensions. But, that doesn't make it a market to be exploited (which is what we do). It will be sustained by its identified users (or fail by lack of usage)

Those that are investing in the new Tld launches (As owners of the extension) have very little to loose -Sure the costs are high, but the rewards for even small take-up outweigh the costs.

I will give you a different steer, one that some late comers may not appreciate - but, there is a far greater chance that the new extensions may really consolidate the established extensions as being in the 'rightful place' Far more chance of that than there being room for whatever number of invented extensions muddying the waters

 

[Bailey]

PS - I personally listen to 'The Market' - I have the time (alongside my own perceptions ) and they haven't even blinked

 

[GreyWing]

Those that are investing in the new Tld launches (As owners of the extension) have very little to loose -Sure the costs are high, but the rewards for even small take-up outweigh the costs.

What? lol Get out your £500k to get to launch, including system and programming. That's not including the auction fees to get any of the good looking extensions, .loans etc. You don't get all the income, you need to give big commissions to registrars to sell them over those extensions of others.

At Nominet prices that is about 250,000 domains you need to sell to break even. Then you have to run it, burst out another £300k a year.

We've looked into it, the Registrars will be the winners, extension owners will die a death on these.

 

[sdsinc]

My take on it:
There are plenty of alternative extensions available on the market, if you don't want to buy a premium .com the options are infinite already.
There is very little demand for new extensions, remember it's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
Very few of the new TLDs will attain critical mass and they will all be diluted because there are so many.
So maybe, consumers will become more open to new extensions, but they will not remember them.

I also think the impact of gTLDs is overstated because the ccTLDs have become pervasive.

 

[addz123]

My take on it:
There are plenty of alternative extensions available on the market, if you don't want to buy a premium .com the options are infinite already.
There is very little demand for new extensions, remember it's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
Very few of the new TLDs will attain critical mass and they will all be diluted because there are so many.
So maybe, consumers will become more open to new extensions, but they will not remember them.

I also think the impact of gTLDs is overstated because the ccTLDs have become pervasive.

Agree with quite a lot of what you've said, all interesting points. The cctld vs. new gtld scenario has been on my mind too.

I disagree with notion that there's "plenty of alternative extensions". I think the fact that many domainers here are able to charge £xx,xxx - xxx,xxx for their domains shows the limited supply in a market that has conflagrated around .com or .co.uk.

I suppose you could use the following against me, but the fact that Donuts settled for Donuts.co, Twitter settled for Vine.co, shows how difficult it is getting the appropriate .com for your company.

If you have 100 companies in different industries called "green", only one of them can own Green.com or .co.uk. Where as with new gTLDs, the accountant can have Green.accountant, the lawyer can get Green.law, the sports team can get Green.sports, the environmentalists can get Green.eco etc.

Having an extension representing different industries and communities will only empower those sects and individuals.

.info/.biz/.pro etc never really took off with brands become they were trying to compete directly with .com. .Biz was trying to be an extension for business, .info was trying to be an extension for information (which most sites are anyway).

New gTLDs like .music aren't directly competing with .com, instead they're enlarging the internet and giving more options for those in the music industry. I think the reason Donuts LLC have applied for so many domains is because the more new gTLDs that become available, the more it segregates the internet and the less likely .com will be the catch-all domain for everyone.

I still don't understand the dilution argument. Again, 99% of these new gTLDs aren't designed to be catch-all extensions like dotcom. Hence, they aren't competing with one another as they all represent different markets. It's like saying building more synagogues will dilute the value of Mosques and churches.

 

[websaway]

Agree with quite a lot of what you've said, all interesting points. The cctld vs. new gtld scenario has been on my mind too.

I disagree with notion that there's "plenty of alternative extensions". I think the fact that many domainers here are able to charge £xx,xxx - xxx,xxx for their domains shows the limited supply in a market that has conflagrated around .com or .co.uk.

I suppose you could use the following against me, but the fact that Donuts settled for Donuts.co, Twitter settled for Vine.co, shows how difficult it is getting the appropriate .com for your company.

If you have 100 companies in different industries called "green", only one of them can own Green.com or .co.uk. Where as with new gTLDs, the accountant can have Green.accountant, the lawyer can get Green.law, the sports team can get Green.sports, the environmentalists can get Green.eco etc.

Having an extension representing different industries and communities will only empower those sects and individuals.

.info/.biz/.pro etc never really took off with brands become they were trying to compete directly with .com. .Biz was trying to be an extension for business, .info was trying to be an extension for information (which most sites are anyway).

New gTLDs like .music aren't directly competing with .com, instead they're enlarging the internet and giving more options for those in the music industry. I think the reason Donuts LLC have applied for so many domains is because the more new gTLDs that become available, the more it segregates the internet and the less likely .com will be the catch-all domain for everyone.

I still don't understand the dilution argument. Again, 99% of these new gTLDs aren't designed to be catch-all extensions like dotcom. Hence, they aren't competing with one another as they all represent different markets. It's like saying building more synagogues will dilute the value of Mosques and churches.

The problem will be that when the very best keywords on each new gTLd have been taken who will want the remaining options, which in turn means not many registrations, which means there will not be much awareness of their existence.

 

[sdsinc]

If you have 100 companies in different industries called "green", only one of them can own Green.com or .co.uk.

Where as with new gTLDs, the accountant can have Green.accountant, the lawyer can get Green.law, the sports team can get Green.sports, the environmentalists can get Green.eco etc.

Absolutely, each domain name is unique. There is only one green.com, only one green.co.uk. Only one party will own them. Possibly forever !

Right now I can have greenaccountant.me, is Green.accountant significantly better ? I don't think so.
Both are alternatives, not the first choice.
The so-called scarcity of domain names is a joke. Because the supply of domain name is infinite. But quality is in short supply. There is only one green.com and there is nothing you can do about it. Releasing 5000 new TLDs won't change the fact.

Why would .inc or .corp thrive if .biz and .pro are shunned today ? Yes, good marketing can make the difference. But only to a certain point. Remember, it's not like consumers are eagerly waiting for these little things to be released and made available for registration.

I still don't understand the dilution argument. Again, 99% of these new gTLDs aren't designed to be catch-all extensions like dotcom. Hence, they aren't competing with one another as they all represent different markets. It's like saying building more synagogues will dilute the value of Mosques and churches.

Without followers, synagogues will remain empty.
It's more like preaching scientologist faith in a country where people already have firm, long-standing beliefs and will be very tough to sway.

.com and ccTLDs of developed countries have tremendous mindshare and have been ingrained in the minds of consumers for two decades.
It is unlikely that a new TLD will attain the same level of mindshare and trust... and credibility... maybe that will happen one day but the process will be very long if it ever happens. No worries.

You are going to have hundreds, thousands of TLDs, many of which will be competing against each other while the pie to be shared among them isn't big to begin with.
Result: low registration numbers, no visibility on the radar screen, no traction.
Easy: end users won't set up their business in the ghetto.

One thing that is very important: the registrars cannot promote 1000 extensions at the same time, because shelf space is limited. So choices will have to be made, in practice only a few will be pushed to the front window and have some meaningful exposure.
For instance, most consumers still have no idea that TLDs like .pro, .travel or .coop even exist. Therefore they aren't going to buy any.
And let me remind you, it's been 10 years.

It's no different for new extensions. It's even more difficult now, because the landscape has consolidated, today's TLD now have a stronger foothold.

The challenge is not even to convince people they are as good as credible as .com or .co.uk. The challenge is to be seen and stand out and foster awareness. That is an uphill battle.

Finally, I don't see a lot of opportunities for domainers, only for people who are on top of the food chain and yet we will witness registry failures and some instability. Personally I think the DNS should not be a playground for marketing experiments but icann is in the game for money.
IMHO.