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discuss A worldwide shift away from .com

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A worldwide shift away from .com?


Could it be?


I'm going to say that ccTLD's as a single entity are now the most relevant extensions period.
If you look at the UK, Germany, China, Russia, India, and Canada the ccTLD's are more widely used than the .com's.

There are a few exceptions like apple who will use apple.com/ca instead of apple.ca but the vast majority of companies like BestBuy.com will use BestBuy.ca for Canada. It absolutely shocks me at how dominant .ca is in Canada.

As the oldest extension .com's continue to have the biggest resale value but if you were to add up the sheer number of all ccTLD's they would easily surpass .com registrations.

So because each country code is unique the ccTLD's can never have the same numbers of registrations as the .com's but if you were to consider all the ccTLD's as one extension they would comfortably surpass .com registrations.

I think the trend of ccTLD's will continue on an upward scale, I think .com has plateaued and will only see nominal growth moving forward. ccTLD's will continue to grow as each countries economy grows and becomes more connected.

As a Canadian, when I do a google search I don't even look at .com's because I want to shop in Canadian dollars and same goes for people from Russia, China, UK etc.

As the Trumps of the world alienate other countries you will see more of a shift away from .com as other countries try to distance themselves from the USA.

Take Canada as a for instance.... the greatest ally the USA has ever had and Trump blew off Canadians as if they were yesterday's news, slapping tariffs on their goods and basically saying very inappropriate things about their leader. By comparisons other countries have been very reserved to bring any criticisms towards the USA. It is undeniable though that the populations of each country are feeling more and more alienated by the usa and because .com is perceived as being dominantly U.S. the entire future of the extension will see limited growth as other countries bring in protective measures for their economies.

So I personally think the future growth of the .com industry is directly linked to how open the US economy is. With Tariffs on other countries there will be repercussions and the .com's will slowly start to erode as other countries shy away from anything that could even remotely be considered american.

Please try to keep this a civil discussion and understand that you cannot look at the .com from yesterday, we are looking at times that are very different where most countries are looking seriously at protecting their own economies by asking the population to shop local products. A .com will NEVER be a local address unless it is in the USA.

In closing..... it is entirely feasible that another extension like .global could eventually become the new international extension for companies as the world distances itself from the USA. Will it be .global, .international, .business etc.... that is anyone's guess but I can tell you for sure, a lot of companies will second guess relying on a .com for local commerce.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
That is unusual, because most cctlds are stagnant or falling, especially the established economies. Over the last few year they have grown at around 1% per year compared to about 3% for .com. Recently that has changed to overall decline for cctlds.
I don't know where you got your stats. But even 1% growth is not stagnant or falling.

Eventually .com may go into decline as well but it is by far the only investment grade extension.
This is incorrect. But probably you have never bough a ccTLD, let alone sold any.

But we are talking about two different things here: usage and investment value from a domainer POV.

And the discussion here is around 'pure' ccTLDs, not repurposed extensions like .me .tv or .tk that are effectively disconnected from their home countries.
 
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And the discussion here is around 'pure' ccTLDs, not repurposed extensions like .me .tv or .tk that are effectively disconnected from their home countries.

It's only @Kate and a few select members that understand what I'm trying to say with my article. A lot of the commenters here are replying without reading the full topic and they are responding from a domain investors point of view whereas we represent only a small vocal group of the entire domain industry.

I have NOT said ccTLD's have higher value, I have not argued against .com's, I have not said .global is replacing .com. So it would be nice if some of the more general commenters would take the time to actually read what is being said.

I have said that ccTLD's as a group will, and probably has, outgrown the volume of registrations of the .com extension. I have said that ccTLD's (as a whole) either have, or will, displace .com as the dominant growth extension.

I understand that I am comparing all ccTLD's to one extension but it is valid comparison because the INFLUENCE of .com is losing ground to the ccTLD's as a whole.

I hope that clarification can focus us back on to the topic as it was intended.
 
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It's only @Kate and a few select members that understand what I'm trying to say with my article. A lot of the commenters here are replying without reading the full topic and they are responding from a domain investors point of view whereas we represent only a small vocal group of the entire domain industry.

I have NOT said ccTLD's have higher value, I have not argued against .com's, I have not said .global is replacing .com. So it would be nice if some of the more general commenters would take the time to actually read what is being said.

I have said that ccTLD's as a group will, and probably has, outgrown the volume of registrations of the .com extension. I have said that ccTLD's (as a whole) either have, or will, displace .com as the dominant growth extension.

I understand that I am comparing all ccTLD's to one extension but it is valid comparison because the INFLUENCE of .com is losing ground to the ccTLD's as a whole.

I hope that can focus us back on to the topic as it was intended.

You seem like you are getting upset with some of the feedback you are receiving here...

Many people here are reading your thread with your crazy sounding title,
(that seems a little like clickbait like one member said)...

A worldwide shift away from .com

A very attention seeking title for sure.

I think many here are just thinking Yeah, here we go again. Another self-serving thread by a new domain member here at NP who is largely invested in a ccTLD, trying to sell everyone on his new investment in ccTLD's and talking $hit about dot com again.

ccTLD's have been around forever. Nothing has changed. Yes, They are not going to go away and as the online world gets bigger, naturally the ccTLDs will get bigger as well. Natural progression.

Saying the world is shifting away from dot com though, lol.
Well you sure got your views you wanted now! Now you have to deal with the feedback from domainers here who are not as impressed with your big purchase - red.ca, as you are.

Good luck with your sales in your domaining, just tone it down a bit if you want to be taken seriously here.
 
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It's only @Kate and a few select members that understand what I'm trying to say with my article. A lot of the commenters here are replying without reading the full topic and they are responding from a domain investors point of view whereas we represent only a small vocal group of the entire domain industry.

I have NOT said ccTLD's have higher value, I have not argued against .com's, I have not said .global is replacing .com. So it would be nice if some of the more general commenters would take the time to actually read what is being said.

I have said that ccTLD's as a group will, and probably has, outgrown the volume of registrations of the .com extension. I have said that ccTLD's (as a whole) either have, or will, displace .com as the dominant growth extension.

I understand that I am comparing all ccTLD's to one extension but it is valid comparison because the INFLUENCE of .com is losing ground to the ccTLD's as a whole.

I hope that clarification can focus us back on to the topic as it was intended.

It is because the "replace .com as a dominant extension" kinda implies .com will lose value.

Worldwide move from dot .com to cctlds

The com military has taken this as a act of war!

We are prepared to defend against all terrorists at all costs! :xf.laugh:

This thread will be on homepage for a long time. :xf.grin:
 
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You seem like you are getting upset with some of the feedback you are receiving here...

It's 9:18 am where I am and I am sitting in my bathrobe with a cup of glorious coffee, I can assure you I am not upset in any way. I am quite calm looking at my Christmas tree.

That said, members can argue ,and declare war, or read into what was not said, as long as it creates thought out structured responses I am all for it.

I did write the article to evoke a response and I am glad it has. I did intend to give some members, who have not looked at ccTLD's, some insights to what is actually happening in that space.

Even more than that.... I am very much enjoying some of the well thought out responses from the members who even though they sell .coms are understanding the competition the ccTLD's are bringing to the table. Some of them have posted some very compelling data that is important and should not be overlooked.

So I'm going back to sipping my coffee and enjoying my tranquil morning.

Upset? .... hehehe.... could not be further from it, I am enjoying the reading.
 
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It is because the "replace .com as a dominant extension" kinda implies .com will lose value.

Am I really implying that or have you gone back and read where I specifically mentioned I was not implying the value of .com's has gone down.

Gold was replaced as the dominant currency

Has it lost it's value?
 
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Saying the world is shifting away from dot com though, lol.
Yet it is happening. This has been a ongoing process over the last two decades.

But I think it needs explaining. It doesn't mean the world is 'shunning' .com. It simply means that ccTLDs are displacing and taking over .com in national markets (where this is not already the case). If you visit for example Sweden, the Netherlands or Germany and many others, you won't see a lot of .com used by local/national businesses. A lot of countries prefer to use the local extension, but .com is the vehicle for the larger companies, those that do business abroad etc.
There is some measure of coexistence, but in countries that have strong ccTLDs .com is in retreat.

In America of course, .com is the de facto ccTLD.

That means that in mature markets, the demand for ccTLDs is often going to be higher than the demand for .com domains. Again, that does not include America.

It is because the "replace .com as a dominant
extension" kinda implies .com will lose value.
Not really.
The global market share of .com has been steadily declining to ccTLDs over the last two decades (nTLDs do not even count, their share is marginal). At the same time, .com has been growing.

So it's win-win. .com is growing, ccTLDs are growing. But the distribution patterns have not remained the same.

I have always been a strong advocate of ccTLDs but a .com investor too. I don't think there is an immediate threat to .com.
 
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If you visit for example Sweden, the Netherlands or Germany and many others, you won't see a lot of .com used by local/national businesses.

I will add to @Kate 's response...

That in Canada almost every major company that retails to the public is running on .ca's.
Off the top of my head I cannot think of any of the larger companies running on a .com because they are using them in the states.

So again I say... if you look at BestBuy as an example they own only one .com and many many ccTLD's

Therefore using that as a base measurement the ccTLD's will vastly outpace the .com's in growth.

NOTICE HOW I DID NOT SAY IN VALUE!
 
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It is because the "replace .com as a dominant extension" kinda implies .com will lose value.

@MapleDots opening post doesn't clarify so I was referring to the hordes of .com'ers that will find your hot thread pinned on the homepage lol.
It was informative though.
Ps: we are only 24hours in.
Everyones understood your position.
Except the hordes.
 
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There's one word to explain most if not all of this for .com: Saturation.

In my humble, naive point of view, there are only two reasons why it feels like a "shift" is occurring:
1) The .com is taken
2) For large companies with ccTLD footprints in different countries, it is for common sense, because you can't stuff everything in one site when you can segment users of a country by its geography and target your message to them accordingly.

There is no correlation or causality between the above reasons too, just as that the more people set up sites and can't find the .coms, they either use repurposed extensions (.io, .co) or .coms but with weird sounding or spelled names in .com (intentionally wrongly spelt homonyms, double consonants, etc.) -- and even those run out).

So naturally it "feels" like people are switching to non-dot-coms (and it will seem like there's a flood going into other TLDs, ccTLDs or otherwise) when really, the only reason is that the one they want (in .com) isn't available and they have no other choice.
 
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the only reason is that the one they want (in .com) isn't available and they have no other choice.

The .com is irrelevant for commerce in a lot countries other than the USA. In fact a .com would hinder your commerce in a lot countries outside of the USA. By comparison the ccTLD will target your audience in the country of commerce and the big retailers are very much aware of this.

Look at my BestBuy example again.

They already have the .com but also numerous ccTLD's.
 
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There's one word to explain most if not all of this for .com: Saturation.

In my humble, naive point of view, there are only two reasons why it feels like a "shift" is occurring:
1) The .com is taken
2) For large companies with ccTLD footprints in different countries, it is for common sense, because you can't stuff everything in one site when you can segment users of a country by its geography and target your message to them accordingly.

There is no correlation or causality between the above reasons too, just as that the more people set up sites and can't find the .coms, they either use repurposed extensions (.io, .co) or .coms but with weird sounding or spelled names in .com (intentionally wrongly spelt homonyms, double consonants, etc.) -- and even those run out).

So naturally it "feels" like people are switching to non-dot-coms (and it will seem like there's a flood going into other TLDs, ccTLDs or otherwise) when really, the only reason is that the one they want (in .com) isn't available and they have no other choice.

Great points here. Saturation would be the #1 reason.

Here is a graphic showing the actual saturation online, the amount of sites added online year by year all the way thru 2017.

Screen Shot 2018-12-16 at 8.48.26 AM.png


There are close to 2 Billion sites online now.
From 2015 to 2017 the amount of sites online have doubled.
The increase of sites coming online are increasing each and every second.
There are only so many domain names available before we end up approaching only 4 and 5 word domains available in dot com. Of course people are going to look for alternatives to a 5-worder .com that is available to hand reg. This means all tlds will eventually gain in numbers, of course as well as dot com.

I can see people looking at an alternative who do not have the funds to buy their exact keywords in dot com. But if I want to be taken seriously as a Business, Service, etc I am going to ultimately get that dot com as I grow my Business from my initial site on the dot net, info, tv, me, io, de, whatever.
 
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The .com is irrelevant for commerce in a lot countries other than the USA.

Seems that OP is determined to have us not take him seriously. So be it.

just tone it down a bit if you want to be taken seriously here.

There are members here willing to give him the benefit of the doubt but he keeps coming back with the same skewed - not even opinion - more like conjecture - and then falsely stating it as fact.

At this point it’s like - well even worse than - the thread when JBerryHill esq kept incorrectly claiming that the UCC applied to a deal that wasn’t between merchants - you suddenly realize that it’s not misreading, it’s that this guy genuinely doesn’t know what he’s talking about. And isn’t willing to listen.
 
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Great points here. Saturation is the #1 reason.

Here is a graphic showing the saturation, the amount of sites added online year by year all the way thru 2017.

Show attachment 104922

There are close to 2 Billion sites online now.
From 2015 to 2017 the amount of sites online have doubled.
The increase of sites coming online are increasing each and every second.
There are only so many domain names available before we end up approaching only 4 and 5 word domains available in dot com. Of course people are going to look for alternatives to a 5-worder .com that is available to hand reg. This means all tlds will eventually gain in numbers, of course as well as dot com.

I can see people looking at an alternative who do not have the funds to buy their exact keywords in dot com. But if I want to be taken seriously as a Business, Service, etc I am going to ultimately get that dot com as I grow my Business from my initial site on the dot net, info, tv, me, io, de, whatever.
@Vito @nicholas you are confusing ngtlds with cctlds.
Saturation can drive people to ngtlds. Not cctlds
Cctld are country tlds. Those are not driven by saturation. Its rather a need within a country where that tld is established. Businesses cant do business without a cctld in some countries.
 
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@Vito @nicholas you are confusing ngtlds with cctlds.
Not at all, Saturation drives people to cctlds and ngtlds, and any other option available that best suits their needs when the .com is unavailable. This happens all the time, almost on a daily basis in my own sphere and client base.

Also, don't forget the main point of all this: look at the thread's title.
 
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@Vito @nicholas you are confusing ngtlds with cctlds.
Saturation can drive people to ngtlds. Not cctlds
Cctld are country tlds. Those are not driven by saturation. Its rather a need within a country where that tld is established. Businesses cant do business without a cctld in some countries.

In a situation where a Business cannot do business without their specific ccTLD, then that is a non-issue. That is a done deal I guess. Actually, I would love to hear of a FEW examples of Countries that will NOT let you do Business within that Country without you having your online Biz on their specific ccTLD.

I am not confusing ccTLDs with newG's at all.

When someone can not get their dot com, then they may resort to a dot whatever until they grow and ultimately they will seek that dot com for their end game.

Basically what I am saying is the polar opposite of the misleading point of this thread.
The implied "shift" away from dot com is not out of preference at all.
 
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Seems that OP is determined to have us not take him seriously. So be it.

Out of curiosity... what country do you live in?

Have you visited Canada?
The large .com commerce websites are very very limited in canada

Amazon.ca
Google.ca
BestBuy.ca
Staples.ca
Walmart.ca
Lowes.ca
CanadianTire.ca
Apple redirects the .ca to apple.com/ca

It goes on and on with almost all of the top commerce sites exclusively on .ca

.com is not near as relevant in Canada as it is in the USA

Multiply that by China, Russia, UK, Germany and many other countries worldwide and you will see that the .com extension has limited viability for commerce in those countries. The ccTLD's make much more sense.

Not made up but a fact

Check out e commerce retailers outside of the USA!

Of course I understand I am fighting an uphill battle with pros like you selling .com's for years but you cannot deny who is doing commerce on what extension.

Call me wrong all you like, all members have to do is go to e commerce sites outside of the USA and see what ccTLD the commerce site is using. Most of the big impact sites will be running on a ccTLD's.

Still want argue and say I am wrong?

Go to amazon for each different country!!
 
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@Vito @nicholas.
In countries like Canada. All you see is .ca.
If you are a business, you need a .ca, otherwise you are screwed when it comes to reaching Canadian customers.
I dont know for Germany and .de, like if theres a mix of .com and .de, but in Canada, theres no mix of .com and .ca. No .ca, no business.

In other countries where the cctld is not established, yes the cctld as well as ngtlds can be used when the .com is saturated.
 
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@Vito @nicholas.
In countries like Canada. All you see is .ca.
If you are a business, you need a .ca, otherwise you are screwed when it comes to reaching Canadian customers.
I dont know for Germany and .de, like if theres a mix of .com and .de, but in Canada, theres no mix of .com and .ca. No .ca, no business.

In other countries where the cctld is not established, yes the cctld as well as ngtlds can be used when the .com is saturated.
The same in countries like Czech Republic. No one here use .com, everyone use only .cz, national ccTLD (or sometimes .eu as well, but pretty infrequently).
 
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@Vito @nicholas.
In countries like Canada. All you see is .ca.
If you are a business, you need a .ca, otherwise you are screwed when it comes to reaching Canadian customers.
I dont know for Germany and .de, like if theres a mix of .com and .de, but in Canada, theres no mix of .com and .ca. No .ca, no business.

In other countries where the cctld is not established, yes the cctld as well as ngtlds can be used when the .com is saturated.

The same in countries like Czech Republic. No one here use .com, everyone use only .cz, national ccTLD (or sometimes .eu as well, but pretty infrequently).

That has been stated by numerous members in numerous countries and that is an undeniable fact.

Yet the old schoolers that see only .com instantly feel threatened even though I have clearly stated I am not talking about the monetary value of a .com

How can this fact even be argued with one member being very vocal that I am wrong. Has he visited the countries in question? The countries that we live in every day! Has he seen what we see when we actually visit commerce websites?

Who want's to add their country to the list where the top commerce sites are NOT running on .com?

IT CANNOT BE ARGUED AGAINST

That is why I say there is a worldwide shift away from .com

There will be many many more businesses opening up with ccTLD's than .com
Now you can argue it's only because of availability but so what! Regardless of the reason, whatever it may be, .com is losing ground to ccTLD's.

I did not say .com is losing resale value to the ccTLD's
 
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The same in countries like Czech Republic. No one here use .com, everyone use only .cz, national ccTLD (or sometimes .eu as well, but pretty infrequently).

If you take a look here
http://www.janrezab.com/list-of-top-czech-technology-companies-and-start-ups-updated/
Not only do many of the tech companies and start ups in Czech Republic use dot com (or used it until they were bought out by US dot com using companies :xf.laugh:) but the Czech blog listing the companies is a dot com itself!

Using terms like “no one” marks you for the same ridicule that MapleDots is experiencing here although he’s so stubborn that he keeps mindlessly repeating the same incorrect fallacies. There is no “worldwide shift.”
 
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I also want to add that up until this point I have not even addresses gTLD's

When you factor those in as well the proportion of new registrations will continue to outpace .com.

One member even mentioned there are only so many words to register and my response to that is EXACTLY. The growth in .com cannot continue and it will be overshadowed by the other extensions. Personally I think the biggest competitor to the status quo .com is the ccTLD because it is the defacto norm for each country.
 
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Using terms like “no one” marks you for the same ridicule that MapleDots is experiencing here although he’s so stubborn that he keeps mindlessly repeating the same incorrect fallacies. There is no “worldwide shift.”

Some of the top e commerce sites in Canada

Amazon.ca
Walmart.ca
BestBuy.ca
Lowes.ca
CanadianTire.ca
eBay.ca
newegg.ca

They all have .com's for the USA but not for Canada and not business.com/ca or ca.business.com
Now multiply that by similar countries and millions of sites.

And yet here you are denying the undeniable


TSK TSK
 
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Not at all, Saturation drives people to cctlds and ngtlds, and any other option available that best suits their needs when the .com is unavailable.
nTLDs yes.
ccTLDs no - most of the time. That is why many domains registered in ccTLDs are still available in .com.
That's what we said earlier in this thread, Dutch, Polish names etc are relevant in their home extensions, not much in .com.

Anybody who doubts the power of ccTLDs should travel more, and look at what extensions the locals use in their daily life.

What is true though, is that there are ccTLD holders who want to acquire the .com at some point, for example because they are expanding overseas or need to raise their profile. But it's not the majority. A good number will register the .com if they can because it's nice to have, many don't bother.
Even the big (US) companies that use .com have to use ccTLDs to serve the markets where they are active.
 
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That in Canada almost every major company that retails to the public is running on .ca's.

Remember there are huge exceptions... Like in Comsumer Banking:
ScotiaBank, the .CA is a redirect. They are multi national though. Nearly A triilion in assets and 88,000 employees. Or TD, RBC, BMO, CIBC. All are dot com’s. I would say these are major entities on dot com.
 
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