discuss A worldwide shift away from .com

[MapleDots]

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.

 

[sumbini]

Show attachment 104853


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.

"ccTLDs" are Popular and are Trusted by Consumers in their Home countries

".com" is the Most Popular and the Most Trusted by Consumers in the US and Internationally.

Therefore, any National Business wanting to do business Outside of their Home country will want to Secure the ".com" version of their ccTLD.

This is the reason that ".com" is currently, and will remain, the Gold Standard for all "Global" Brands doing business Nationally and Internationally.

 

[Innoverge]

Here is an example for you....

Take the top 10 biggest companies that do COMMERCE without MIcrosoft and Apple.

Let's take electronics, office supplies, home building supplies etc.

BestBuy, HomeDepot, Lowes, Staples, etc etc
They all use ccTLD's for commerce instead of the .com. Sure they have a single .com but in most cases they have the matching .ccTLD for each country they do business in.

If you use that as an example it is only a question of time before ccTLD's will totally dominate over .com because each company needs multiple ccTLD's per one .com.

Now factor in that another extension like .global could also encroach and we will eventually see the end of the .com dominance.

Now that's just wishful thinking.

I believe a domain has more to do with mass mindset and no brand/business with plans of leaving a global footprint can circumvent this factor.

'.com' has been etched into people's vocabulary and widely accepted from the very beginning and beyond doubt the optimal choice over any other extension.
Even though .global might be the logical alternative to .com, that's not gonna get a similar traction since, it is not in the best interests of any business to experiment on this front, especially if they could afford the exact match '.com' and ride the waves more seamlessly.

ccTLD's may be widely adopted in certain countries but, when it comes brands and businesses that want to go or have gone mainstream, acquiring the '.com' is the irrefutable requisite while, owning the ccTLD unique to where their business's operate would be more of an additional/proactive measure to cover all their bases.

Alternatives to .com will be just that, 'an alternative' and a low hanging fruit, which i doubt any businesses want to settle for, at least in the long-term.

 

[carob]

interesting discussion...

prompted me to do some quick research

hosterstats.com and domainnamestat.com are my sources

no data on brazil but find in looking at the fifteen largest markets .com's vs. .cc's :

first third a draw - china 20% more .com's; germany 60% more .de's; france 15%

more .fr's; spain 15% more .com's; denmark 25% more .com's - these 5 tied........

second third love .cc and shun .com - russia over 16x; czech over 10x; uk over 5x

(and english is their language); netherlands over 5x; australia over 3x (another

traitor to the mother tongue); italy over 3x - these 6 many times more .cc than .com

the mostly english-speaking king kom krew - usa over 30x (twice as gung ho

on .com as russia is on .ru); canada over 3x; india over 2x; finally japan over 2x

The Internet and World Wide Web started out in USA English but then sucked

the rest of the (non-English-speaking-except-for-tech-english) World in -

most interesting idea here has been two internets, one run by USA and

the other by China...

A thing only needs some good promo : .co=company .tv=television .ws=website

.us is the Ultimate Solution (for planet earth)

The Ultimate Solution in Domain Name Acquisition

I just reg'd ChicagoFamilyStyle.Pizza, ChicagoFamilyStylePizza.com,

ChicagoFamilyStylePizza.US (for Uber Slice), ChicagoFamilyStylePizza.Top,

ChicagoStylePizza.Top, ChicagoPizza.Top, and CFSP.Top - my biggest four

word domain bet yet.....

(Chicago is the only place that hasn't sold out to Corporate yet, 100's of mom

and pop Family Style Pizza shops and the only place you'll find truly great pie.)

Great research, thanks.

That is more evidence of what people keep not reading or understanding in this thread: in many CCs a given word is more desirable, more effective, more used and often more valuable than the .com. That does not mean .com will go away or lose value - no need to panic and post here, as some have done, broadly claiming that .com will always be everyone's first choice. It's not.

I regularly see .co.uk in use where the business has not registered the .com and does not want to.

Looks like otismo's research backs that up with numbers, with five times more .co.uk sites hosted in the UK than .com:

uk over 5x

(and english is their language)

 

[Croc]

Currently on vacation in New Zealand and I can confirm that many local businesses here are advertising .co.nz domain names on billboards and on the side of their buildings and cars.

 

[otismo]

the key word in this thread is SATURATION

in the last century my fav hobby was/still is stamp collecting

it seemed that every stamp collector was also a top notch PROMOTER as well...

it is nice to see so many here giving names away FREE as it is always best promotion, help beginners...

but I would still like to see some kind of FOREVER one-time-reg-fee promo and I mean REALISTIC

electronic form-filing and you even do all the work filling out the form - exactly what kind of WORK

do these registrars do to EARN these HUGE REG FEES - it is EXTORTION and everybody wants

a pizza dat action - look at huge number of registrars competing today - fees need to come DOWN

140 million .coms X $10.00 avg annual reg fee = ONE - TWO BILLION $$$$$ in ANNUAL reg fees

just for .com alone.....

now, can anyone tell me exactly how many money making websites there are

which is the only relevant number in your domain name universe.....

box.com had better start showing us the $$$ or its curtains

 

[xynames]

OP created this thread about how dot com is supposedly losing its pull and yet not long ago he offered a couple hundred K to buy Canada ... dot com!

https://www.namepros.com/threads/100k-domains-are-you-a-buyer.1104236/

 

[Brands.International]

OP created this thread about how dot com is supposedly losing its pull and yet not long ago he offered a couple hundred K to buy Canada ... dot com!

https://www.namepros.com/threads/100k-domains-are-you-a-buyer.1104236/

And ? Those things are not mutually exclusive .. one can still try to buy .com for right price...

 

[Lucian Hodoboc]

PS....

Ohhhh, Rick Schwartz is not going to like me for this article

Why not?

 

[TRY]

Rick Shwartz Said
"A REAL Domain Name Investor knows that before an end user gets to .Crap-----.net, .Info, .Org, .TV, .Biz and ccTLD's will all be considered FIRST. Oh did I mention .com?"

I agree with rick with the exception of .biz and .info.

 

[MapleDots]

The entire topic was written to evoke conversation and it certainly has done that.

So lets just say IF - IF, IF, IF and one more IF

If all the ccTLD's in the world were to surpass .com would that be the end of the world?

Not at all, it would still speak volumes for .com because it would take all the ccTLD's combined to overpower the king.

ccTLD's are never going away and will always get stronger but the king is also not going away although it may be inevitable that the ccTLD's eventually surpass .com's.

Again, instead of flaming please look at the article in the spirit it was written, I am a domainer, I pay for .com's and I buy .com's yet I also buy ccTLD's. I have a few select new gTLD's but tend to pursue them very carefully and with caution. I'll bet you a lot of domainers fit into a similar business motto.

Anyways..... Happy new year, I'm off on a trip for a couple of days and depending on where I land I may or may not have internet access.

 

[MapleDots]

Why not?

Rick Schwartz is the domain king and the defender of the .com kingdom.

Everything else sucks and there is no money to be made outside of his kingdom of .com.

He might be right but a lot of people can survive off table scraps just fine

 

[White Fang]

".Com is meant for international businesses, and companies in USA mostly (maybe some also in Canada or other english speaking countries"
This post from above tangentially states what I believe... Most non-domainers don't know or care about country codes, dot club, dot whatever...what they hear is dotcom and even if they don't know a dotcom from a donut, or what it is, they remember it. I think domainers often are too close to the trees to see the forest.

 

[-AR-]

I think this is being over complicated for no particular reason. ccTLDs will continue to serve local markets and this trend will continue to grow in each individual country. As many others have stated a business serving only nationally then their ccTLD will be sufficient however if they have international ambitions then the .com is definitely necessary. The .com does not feel threatening, it is seen as neutral. However if a branded French vehicle drove to Germany with their .fr domain printed on their vehicle, their service would be automatically dismissed by the German consumer simply based on the TLD they have chosen to use. Using the .com would have provided more positive results (this would be only if they are interested in serving the German market in the first place).

The importance of .com is not going away any time soon. Most (if not all) international businesses use the .com, shifting to a TLD such as .global is a major inconvenience and no business would make that move. Secondly any business owner using .global would probably be thinking about how to move to the .com.

Using the .com and especially a short .com is seen as a Trust Mark online in my opinion. With so much fraud that goes on, online users are becoming more educated and in my experience I have not seen any fraud happening with a premium .com and a short letter .com. The reason for this would is because is too expensive for the scammers to get their hands on a .com in the first place while this is not the case for other TLDs.

Simply associating .com with the USA from a global prospective is not right in my opinion. The US global influence may be slowing but international brands are built on the .com and will continue to remain regardless of what happens, Trump is a temporary situation but the US still has a lot of wealth so it will continue to dominate. The last three .com sales I had were to Brazil, France and Saudi Arabia and not the US.

Finally demand for premium .com domains will continue to grow as more people with start to see .com's as a solid store of value.

 

[JudgeMind]

.com will be the preferred extension for a long time.

 

[Oblivious Fella]

Doesn't matter how much we support alternative(s) of .com, everyone out here knows in his/her heart that .com will continue to rule the industry for many years to come.

 

[Lucian Hodoboc]

Rick Schwartz is the domain king and the defender of the .com kingdom.

Why is he so fond of the .com extension?

 

[TRY]

Why is he so fond of the .com extension?

It should be obvious to anyone in this industry with no debate that .com is the number one extension. He had invested early and can afford its premium pricing.
Other extensions are alternatives, keyword being "alternatives".

 

[LeDomain]

The way I look at this , if you can't get Cars.com or Jobs .com etc, Would you rather own Cars.de, Cars.co.uk, Cars.co.in , particularly if you are selling in those countries. Its a no brainer ..

Now from a valuation standpoint, I would rather own Cars.de or Cars.co.in etc than a 2 word .com, that's a no brainer for me. Potential for price appreciation with a category killer cctld is much better IMHO

Its really a question of 1 word premium category killer cctlds vs 2 word .com's . Since most can't get their hands on category killer 1 word .com's .

Agree people are making this way too complicated, just observe how cctlds are being used in these countries. If you want to invest in a growing economy or another country, category killer cctlds are still affordable - like early 2000's for .com . These countries are not fly by night operations - which we can't say about ngtld operators

 

[Beep.IM]

It also depends on the niche. Take for example, Adium .IM is an instant messaging software. If you had a chat website with a .IM extension then it would fit very well. Also Spot .IM is replacing fakebook comments so newer companies will shed light on ccTLDs.

 

[LeDomain]

To add to my earlier comments :

DNJournal reported that Honor.in sold for $28,999
Apparently for a mobile brand in India.

Large countries, big and growing economies - cctlds have a captive audience for all niches

Its not necessarily a shift away from .com , but using the most effective way to reach a target audience.

 

[DOMAIN ILLUMINATI]

.com is king but don't forget that the king is not at the top in hierarchyyy

 

[Smiles76]

Dot com is still king. Over 90% of companies still use dot com versus any other extension.

I think OP has made a very thoughtful post but some of what he posted is offered as fact when it is rather mere opinion. Also as recons.com pointed out - OP’s facts are skewed. The OP’s post makes it seem like the country specific extensions are overtaking dot com in individual countries - this is not the case. As recons.com alludes, Dot com remains #1 in each country the OP listed - it’s only perhaps when considering all the listed countries together that it may appear that dot com is not #1.

OP mentions Canada. I recently sold a domain dot com of course for high five figures to a Canadian company that paid...reg fee (just some months prior to buying my domain) for the exact same domain in dot ca. In case that wasn’t clear...they paid basically nothing for the dot ca and just a few months later still viewed it as mandatory that they spend high five figures for the dot com. Those are high five US dollars not Canadian by the way.

People need food yet 95% of restaurants fail. I think it's silly to look at the .com's overall popularity and project that onto your personal chance of success. The only thing that matters is your personal portfolio of .com domain names and if people want those names.

 

[dande]

As long as

Google is on .com
Facebook on .com
Twitter on .com
Instagram on .com
Amazon
Baidu
VK
CNN
Apple
Reddit
NYTimes
etc, etc, etc.

As long as these giants are on .com, every startup's dream will always be to own the .com. That guarantees the popularity of .com even in 100 years to come.

 

[xynames]

People need food yet 95% of restaurants fail. I think it's silly to look at the .com's overall popularity and project that onto your personal chance of success. The only thing that matters is your personal portfolio of .com domain names and if people want those names.

That’s not really the point is it?

The point is that no matter how good your, say, .xyz portfolio is, it’s still merely the cream of the sh*t of the earth. Ya’ follo’?

So do you want to draw from dross or draw from what contains the best?

 

[FrankDomain]

Which doesn't explain why more and more Swedish companies are buying up .coms and using them with their .se domains redirecting to the .com addresses.

Purely depends on the org's presence, if they're a domestic focus then .se is king in Sweden. Similar to .co.uk in the UK. .Com is really the king of groups that focus on multiple countries for the most part and for those who simply want a .com but obviously it's cheaper to be a domain related in to the specific country you operate if you want a good name.