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question Why did .BIZ never take off?

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I have been looking at .biz sale. It is a proper professional extension and looking back, I realize that had I been domaining 10 years back, properly, I would have heavily invested in this extension.

I mean what's not to like about it. The extension is like .com because it shows the business or commercial use case clearly. It is short for business.
I mean I don't see any reason why it should not take off.
In hindsight, what do you think went wrong with .biz?
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
failure owners

Neustar is as bad as they come.
 
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i think “.biz” looks awkward imo...

com is the first 3 L of commercial
net is the first 3 L of network
org is the first 3L of organization

there’s no “z” in “business” looks awkward?
 
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What means "never take off"? There are nice sales.
 
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it’s interesting since

.biz 100% owned and operated by Neustar

there are no “contracts” they have full control and failed so hard.
 
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it’s interesting since

.biz 100% owned and operated by Neustar

there are no “contracts” they have full control and failed so hard.


What does that mean?
 
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i think “.biz” looks awkward imo...

com is the first 3 L of commercial
net is the first 3 L of network
org is the first 3L of organization

there’s no “z” in “business” looks awkward?

Right from when I was exploring the internet at age 12/13, before I knew what domaining was, I never trusted a .biz as it just seemed tacky lol & I think a lot of scammy sites used .biz from what I remember in like 2009..

I remember going on a lot of .mobi sites as I was heavily browsing from my phone for Android apps/tutorials & .mobi did make sense as there was an actual use case for mobile versions of websites. And if I trusted a .com, I had no problem trusting a .mobi version from the same publisher. Works kind of like the .new extension by google. I think this what ngtld's could be used for. As shortcuts/alternative sites..
 
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It will be interesting to see how GoDaddy handles .biz as the new operator. I wouldn't write it off just yet.
 
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.biz took off, then it subsided
 
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But it is still a well-known extension. We´ll see...
 
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3 things:
  1. Does not offer enough precision;
  2. Business is a serious thing;
  3. Market is now crowded so it won't do better.
 
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I have only two biz names
NAMINGBIZ.com and BrokerageBiz.com
always go with a com.
 
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3 things:
  1. Does not offer enough precision;
  2. Business is a serious thing;
  3. Market is now crowded so it won't do better.

Good to know. But good domains are always searched
 
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failure owners

Neustar is as bad as they come.
You mean their customer support is bad? Or pricing? Or promotions?

i think “.biz” looks awkward imo...

com is the first 3 L of commercial
net is the first 3 L of network
org is the first 3L of organization

there’s no “z” in “business” looks awkward?
But it's a natural thing to pronounce it that way, I think. What else can we say - bus/bis? No!

What means "never take off"? There are nice sales.
Yes. But not a popular extension definitely. Not by the expectation one would have from such an extension. I was thinking something on the scale of .COM

Right from when I was exploring the internet at age 12/13, before I knew what domaining was, I never trusted a .biz as it just seemed tacky lol & I think a lot of scammy sites used .biz from what I remember in like 2009..

I remember going on a lot of .mobi sites as I was heavily browsing from my phone for Android apps/tutorials & .mobi did make sense as there was an actual use case for mobile versions of websites. And if I trusted a .com, I had no problem trusting a .mobi version from the same publisher. Works kind of like the .new extension by google. I think this what ngtld's could be used for. As shortcuts/alternative sites..
So trust was an issue initially with the extension. Wouldn't that be the case with people less knowledgeable about the internet, seeing a new gTLD?
 
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It will be interesting to see how GoDaddy handles .biz as the new operator. I wouldn't write it off just yet.
I think it has potential. Except, now it may have that reputation of not being mainstream and hence, no matter what, adoption would be low.
.biz took off, then it subsided
When was this? Like what years?

But it is still a well-known extension. We´ll see...
The question then would be, do investors invest in it, like properly?
Do people use it to build a website? When .COM is not available, is .BIZ an option people consider?
If not, that's an issue.

3 things:
  1. Does not offer enough precision;
  2. Business is a serious thing;
  3. Market is now crowded so it won't do better.
I didn't get the precision part

I have only two biz names
NAMINGBIZ.com and BrokerageBiz.com
always go with a com.
hahaha. Good way to put your point :D
But biz at the end of those won't be valuable
 
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i dont know how that came to be.
Perhaps, @jmcc would know.
Yes, he has a section in his book on it.

I think the most important point is that by the time .biz actually got released in 2001, the dot-com bubble had burst, so the exploding demand for domain names that had been anticipated was muted. It is one of several extensions that the timing worked out badly.

To me personally, it always felt a bit too informal for a domain name aimed at the business market. But I think it would have had way more success had the release been say 1998. It still does have some reasonable level of use, and also continues with some level of aftermarket sales. It might be argued that it fared better than some of the other TLDs released at the same time.

Bob
 
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You mean their customer support is bad? Or pricing? Or promotions?


But it's a natural thing to pronounce it that way, I think. What else can we say - bus/bis? No!


Yes. But not a popular extension definitely. Not by the expectation one would have from such an extension. I was thinking something on the scale of .COM


So trust was an issue initially with the extension. Wouldn't that be the case with people less knowledgeable about the internet, seeing a new gTLD?

I guess maybe..

I mainly trusted .mobi as for example facebook may self advertise a .mobi version directly on their site..

But .biz sites were independent + usually were used by spammers which attached a reputation + BIZ sounds very informal like internet slang talk like "wazzup, lyk, biz" etc. I think it's due to people trusting authorities & that extension sort of denotes amateur..

Kind of same reason less people may trust sites hosted on Google's .blogspot.com subdomain but would trust a good looking domain & website saying the same thing. You also see this with conversion rates on .myshopify.com, .bigcartel.com subdomain eCom stores. Or if someone uses a .mywixsite.com domain for their design portfolio.

I personally wouldn't get the same automatic negative associations with .tech or .pizza domains which just sounds like a totally fun, harmlessly brandable extension, unless maybe it was usually spammed to death or naturally looks wrong..

There's just something about .BIZ. I still feel weird looking at it lol..
 
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Anyone know how much is resale price for NNN .biz ?
Also in demand or not ?
 
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"z" kind of fell out of style.
 
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There's also the ICANN factor. It takes years for ICANN to approve a new gTLD and in the time between the new gTLD(s) being proposed and the gTLD launching, the market conditions can change dramatically. As Bob mentioned above, the DotCOM bubble burst just before .BIZ launched and millions of domain names came back into the market. The same problem hit the new gTLDs. in 2005-2007, Domain Tasting was keeping much of each day's drop away from the public and domainers. The solution, as far as ICANN and some registrars were concerned, was more gTLDs. This turned out to be the 2012 round of new gTLDs and over 1,000 new gTLDs were launched. The problem was that large-scale Domain Tasting ended in 2009 and that artificial scarcity was gone. This lack of demand is one of the reasons that .BIZ most new gTLDs struggled to gain registrations.

The bursting of the DotCOM bubble affected the prospects .BIZ but it still has approximately 1.4 million registrations. Many of them are brand protection registrations and these are automatically renewed each year. Neustar tried discounting to build volume but it has to be done continually (only around 5% of discounted registrations renew in some gTLDs). Neustar's discounting was sporadic rather than continual. This means that the spikes in new registrations and the troughs from non renewals are more apparent. Over the course of Domain Tasting, the ccTLDs began to take off and this hit .BIZ badly because it was initially competing with .COM and . NET. The ccTLDs took the country level markets away from .BIZ and it has been losing market share in most countries. It also used to be considered a "must register" gTLD for brands (a brand would register in .COM/NET/ORG/BIZ) and that is fading now.

It isn't a failed gTLD but it cannot compete with .COM for domaining and the lack of marketing means that the public is largely unaware of .BIZ. Now that Godaddy has taken over Neustar's registry business, that might change and .BIZ might gain some prominence on the Godaddy websites. If that happens, and it is successful in driving awareness, then the prospects for the gTLD might be better but it will take about two years or so of continual good marketing.

Regards...jmcc
 
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I am certain it made money and some and probably still turns a profit.
 
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The main reason is that the domain industry don't need another .com, every domains on its basic looking and meaning that has potentially similar with .com will be failed, and the .co will ends with failed eventually.
 
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