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domains Verisign says it needs .web because .com is running out of names

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In legal documents released by ICANN yesterday, Verisign’s lawyers say: “The undisputed evidence is that Verisign needs a TLD like .WEB for growth given the decreased name availability in .COM”.

The admission/claim/lie (delete according to preference) came in a joint post-hearing filing by Verisign and Nu Dot Co, the .web applicant to which Verisign loaned $135 million to bid for the gTLD on its behalf at a record-breaking ICANN auction in 2016.

Afilias, now owned by Donuts, was the second-highest bidder and since November 2018 has been trying to get the auction result cancelled via ICANN’s quasi-judicial Independent Review Process.

The IRP’s final hearing was held over seven days last June, and we’ve been waiting with baited breath for a ruling ever since.

At some point over the last 48 hours, ICANN published three sets of post-hearing arguments — one from itself, one from complainant Afilias and an amicus (non-party, friend of the court) filing from Verisign/NDC.

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".com is running out of names"

:xf.confused:
 
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.com is not running out of names people don't want to pay aftermarket prices.
 
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Let's GoGreedy take over .com from Verisign
 
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Are you asking me or telling me to buy your domain name?
No, this domain name (domainnamenews.top) isn't for sale (it's used for a website).
 
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It implies that more and more end users adopt new gTLDs.
 
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.com is not running out of names people don't want to pay aftermarket prices.
yeah, I agree this, I feel not too many end users accept to pay names from investors
 
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Hang on... the .web debate has been running for as long as I can remember - since around 1995?

It's clearly a logical domain extension that could heft some serious weight and alter the landscape if it becomes reality.

NOT so good for long term .com investors
 
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Hang on... the .web debate has been running for as long as I can remember - since around 1995?

It's clearly a logical domain extension that could heft some serious weight and alter the landscape if it becomes reality.

NOT so good for long term .com investors

The only thing .web will do is two-fold:

1) Will give Verisign another cash cow to milk. Yeah .com cannot grow fast anymore, although trust me it still grows but not that fast. Look at reg stats. .Com is still growing. So again its' for business growth purposes.

2) Will shift a good portion of the ngTLD sales to .web

That's it.

Whoever thinks .com will be dethroned by .web doesn't understand how this world works.

Taking a random name, do you think users will suddenly prefer cnn.web over cnn.com? Do you think domains worth millions of dollars will suddenly become worthless?

Nope. On the contrary - just like the old seasoned wine, .com will become more and more expensive and not for anyone. This means, again on the contrary, far better yield for .com domainers. Just like bitcoin has not been dethroned (and will not be despite its shortcomings) .com will never be dethroned by another tld.

I have names from all sorts of places. .com represents about 25% of my portfolio, the rest other tlds. The plan next is to reduce my ngTLD exposure and focus more and more on .com.

I can already tell where this goes, by simply observing where ALL new tlds have gotten to during the last 15 years or so. They cover a good portion of the market, but the market is growing far faster than new gtlds will be able to cover, including upcoming .web.

.com is still king and will continue to be. Even if a new contender tld would replace .com by whatever strange market shift that is, I'm afraid it will take decades to do so. Like generations changing and new generations being mostly unaware of .com. (edit: that in itself is also very hard to believe) Meanwhile, again for decades (at least) .com investors will continue to enjoy rising profits.

I'm afraid .com long investors are not to be pitied, but rather to be envied.

Edit: Oh, and if you did not know, .com names represent 51% of the market - see these stats and here is some breakdown on tlds from DomainTools. Believing this much stake will be taken away and some .web or .whatever is a significant judgement error.
 
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The only thing .web will do is two-fold:

1) Will give Verisign another cash cow to milk. Yeah .com cannot grow fast anymore, although trust me it still grows but not that fast. Look at reg stats. .Com is still growing. So again its' for business growth purposes.

2) Will shift a good portion of the ngTLD sales to .web

That's it.

Whoever thinks .com will be dethroned by .web doesn't understand how this world works.

Taking a random name, do you think users will suddenly prefer cnn.web over cnn.com? Do you think domains worth millions of dollars will suddenly become worthless?

Nope. On the contrary - just like the old seasoned wine, .com will become more and more expensive and not for anyone. This means, again on the contrary, far better yield for .com domainers. Just like bitcoin has not been dethroned (and will not be despite its shortcomings) .com will never be dethroned by another tld.

I have names from all sorts of places. .com represents about 25% of my portfolio, the rest other tlds. The plan next is to reduce my ngTLD exposure and focus more and more on .com.

I can already tell where this goes, by simply observing where ALL new tlds have gotten to during the last 15 years or so. They cover a good portion of the market, but the market is growing far faster than new gtlds will be able to cover, including upcoming .web.

.com is still king and will continue to be. Even if a new contender tld would replace .com by whatever strange market shift that is, I'm afraid it will take decades to do so. Like generations changing and new generations being mostly unaware of .com. (edit: that in itself is also very hard to believe) Meanwhile, again for decades (at least) .com investors will continue to enjoy rising profits.

I'm afraid .com long investors are not to be pitied, but rather to be envied.

Edit: Oh, and if you did not know, .com names represent 51% of the market - see these stats and here is some breakdown on tlds from DomainTools. Believing this much stake will be taken away and some .web or .whatever is a significant judgement error.

I think that given time, it could very well become the second most popular option after .com
 
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I think that given time, it could very well become the second most popular option after .com

That is indeed possible. It just will still be well beyond .com, I'm afraid.
 
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I think that given time, it could very well become the second most popular option after .com

Why do you think it will beat its close alternatives .net, .site, .website and .online?
 
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Why do you think it will beat its close alternatives .net, .site, .website and .online?

I don't consider .site, .website and .online to be in the same league as .net

.net is an established TLD, but I think .web is a very logical extension that could give it a run for its money if given the chance.

We use the term in common usage, eg: we surf the net, or we surf the web.

It's short and sweet, and says what it is.

And it could become another popular extension to dilute the .com namespace value.
 
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I don't consider .site, .website and .online to be in the same league as .net

.net is an established TLD, but I think .web is a very logical extension that could give it a run for its money if given the chance.

We use the term in common usage, eg: we surf the net, or we surf the web.

It's short and sweet, and says what it is.

And it could become another popular extension to dilute the .com namespace value.

ngTLDS do not dilute the .com namespace value. Instead they push it up by adding more underneath it.

The pyramid is still rising, pushed up from the bottom.

Have you seen .com prices decreasing or sales decreasing in any year so far...?
 
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ngTLDS do not dilute the .com namespace value. Instead they push it up by adding more underneath it.

The pyramid is still rising, pushed up from the bottom.

Have you seen .com prices decreasing or sales decreasing in any year so far...?

Yes, the .com values are rising, but I'm seeing a lot more gTLD sales in the sub-$10,000 bracket because the .com is out of reach for many.

It's the old argument of buying word.com for XXXXX or word.web XX.

It could dilute .com value for the short term, and I think all alternate extensions do to some extent.
 
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I don't consider .site, .website and .online to be in the same league as .net

.net is an established TLD, but I think .web is a very logical extension that could give it a run for its money if given the chance.

We use the term in common usage, eg: we surf the net, or we surf the web.

It's short and sweet, and says what it is.

And it could become another popular extension to dilute the .com namespace value.

Based on your logic, it can beat .com as well because we don't use "com" in common usage, e.g. we don't say "we surf the com".
 
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Based on your logic, it can beat .com as well because we don't use "com" in common usage, e.g. we don't say "we surf the com".

No. That's a strawman argument.

You're applying my statement where I had no intention of applying it.
 
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ngTLDS do not dilute the .com namespace value. Instead they push it up by adding more underneath it.

The pyramid is still rising, pushed up from the bottom.

Do you have any evidence or statistics to show that ngTLDs increase .com value? Or is it just your own belief?

Have you seen .com prices decreasing or sales decreasing in any year so far...?

According to Namebio, the .com average prices are decreasing: $1,396 (2019) -> $951 (2020) -> $820 (as of today in 2021)
 
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No. That's a strawman argument.

You're applying my statement where I had no intention of applying it.

Your logic does not fit your belief.
 
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Verisign seems to have changed their view on another topic.

Are we running out of good .com names? Clearly there are many more letter combinations possible, even in names less than 9 characters. However, at current registrations there are about 230 .com domain registrations per word in the Oxford English Dictionary, so pretty heavily registered.

What fraction of the good words are available in aftermarket? A lot, although at prices outside the range of many businesses, some would argue. Not saying outside the range they would think its worth, but literally outside the range of available resources to a small business. Some such businesses have adopted new extensions and repurposed country codes.

I see Verisign point (even though they do handle some other TLDs already) seeing slow growth potential in legacy extensions (that is not to say aftermarket will slow, just total number of registrations must not have a lot of growth room). So they have tried hard to get .web.

I see .web as a good extension, that will enter the top 10 of new gTLD registration wise, but personally do not see it as in a different class than .online, .site, .website, .link and some others in terms of quality of word (yes I agree .web bit better than .website).

Be interesting to see how this resolves, with two well-funded companies on opposite sides.

Bob
 
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Verisign seems to have changed their view on another topic.

Are we running out of good .com names? Clearly there are many more letter combinations possible, even in names less than 9 characters. However, at current registrations there are about 230 .com domain registrations per word in the Oxford English Dictionary, so pretty heavily registered.

What fraction of the good words are available in aftermarket? A lot, although at prices outside the range of many businesses, some would argue. Not saying outside the range they would think its worth, but literally outside the range of available resources to a small business. Some such businesses have adopted new extensions and repurposed country codes.

I see Verisign point (even though they do handle some other TLDs already) seeing slow growth potential in legacy extensions (that is not to say aftermarket will slow, just total number of registrations must not have a lot of growth room). So they have tried hard to get .web.

I see .web as a good extension, that will enter the top 10 of new gTLD registration wise, but personally do not see it as in a different class than .online, .site, .website, .link and some others in terms of quality of word (yes I agree .web bit better than .website).

Be interesting to see how this resolves, with two well-funded companies on opposite sides.

Bob

Whether .web will be a success or not, renewal fees will also play a significant role.
 
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