analysis Domaining trends. Hype then and now. In remembrance. OFFICIAL THREAD

[MadAboutDomains]

Anyone who's been domaining for any amount of time will realise that domaining trends come and go. Anyone who's new thinks that their pet trend of the moment is a gold mine. It's just the nature of the business.

An event happens or some news comes out that people get excited about, people spend lots of money without a second thought, they hype it up into oblivion, everyone that's invested thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread (and vocally, too) and then a new thing comes along and the cycle continues.

Everyone pats each other on the back every single time, showing off their soon to be realised future riches because they got in early, but that momentum eventually fades and everyone forgets or would rather pretend it never happened. Old members don't mention it again and new members didn't get to experience the hype... that is, until now!

I wish for this thread of remembrance to serve as a nostalgic look to the past and a light hearted warning to those who are new around these parts so that they can see the trends that have been and gone.

I'm not exactly sure of the format, but I do know that in order to collate such a list it needs a lot of people with a lot of experience of prior hype trains.

Suggested format:

• What was the trend?
• What was the trigger for the trend?
• What were the keywords or extension at the heart of the trend?
•  Rough dates (from and/or to) or year?
• Any additional context to give us a better idea about the conditions at the time that meant this was a trend.
• What is the current state of the trend now (dead /alive )?
• What was the fate of this trend in your view and why?

Possible extras:

• Interesting/amusing Namepros posts exhibiting hype around the trend
• Did you invest in this trend and did it go well/badly, why?
• Best and/or worst registrations that you saw during this this trend.
• Notable publicly reported sales at the time that got people excited.

I'll try to collate a high level list of trends if possible within this thread so that any future venturers can have some fun...

 

[Future Sensors]

.mobi is a good start, I think.

 

[bmugford]

The 3D trend was the best example IMO, though there have been many others.

It basically started around the time Avatar came out, then every other stupid movie was in 3D also...you know because watching a romantic comedy is so much better in 3D.

Even at the time all the great domains had been registered for years. The threads related to that show thousands and thousands of registrations, largely from new investors, who were convinced it was going to take over the world. Spoiler alert, well over a decade later it did not.

Even then 3D put up some solid sales, but nowhere near the hype.

Brad

 

[AEProgram]

nano

namebio shows about 100 sales over 1k for nano keywords.

 

[Kainazarov]

now web5 domains, Since June 10 I analyze an abnormally high number of registrations

 

[karmaco]

Tao
Sto
Diem
Libra

 

[MadAboutDomains]

• What was the trend?
  Launch of .mobi TLD
  
  
• What was the trigger for the trend?
  Release of the new TLD .MOBI.
  
  
• What were the keywords or extension at the heart of the trend?
  .mobi TLD
  
  
•  Rough dates (from and/or to) or year?
  2005-2006
  
  
• Any additional context to give us a better idea about the conditions at the time that meant this was a trend.
  The .MOBI application for the TLD was submitted by Nokia Corporation, Vodafone Group Services Limited and Microsoft. The registry operator selected Afilias Limited to provide back-end registry services.
  I believe it was one of a few new TLDs that were allowed to be delegated by IANA based on the view that mobile versions of websites were becoming increasingly popular.
  
  This was at a time where there were far fewer choices of extension, before .co etc, so everyone got excited at the prospect of any new TLD.
  
  There was a push to improve accessibility for websites on mobile devices, but as I noted at the time the official website for the TLD mtld.mobi didn't pass the W3 validator.
  
  
• What is the current state of the trend now (dead /alive )?
  Dead... imho, or is it... it was in the Donuts top 10 TLDs May 2022 list surprisingly.
  Only 4 reported .mobi sales this year on Namebio.com, all under $500 USD.
  The official website for .mobi has since been taken down, but sat for years until 2021 with showcases for domains that were no longer registered.
  
  
  
  
  
• What was the fate of this trend in your view and why?
  It didn't gain widespread adoption. It was usurped by better web standards that made mobile websites redundant as a separate entity altogether (responsive design), faster internet speeds made low bandwidth versions of sites less appealing or needed.
  
  
• Interesting/amusing Namepros posts exhibiting hype around the trend
  .Mobi showcase forum (now deprecated)
  
  

  And i agree with Badger i have seen a lot of crappy names being registered that has hardly any end user potential and was basicly a waste of money.

  
  

  Ive never used Mobile internet... does anyone? No wunder there are so many LLL.mobi's available

  
  

  .Mobi has a viable shot at being an alternative to .com on the mobile web. Not a replacement by any means... a viable alternative.

  
  

  Mobi is the hottest thing since sliced bread. It's gonna be bigger than the moon one day. One day every mobile phone will have a dotmobi default button and mobi will be BIGGER than dotcom.

  
  

  I think it's acceptable for me to put this argument forward, because it is the reality surrounding this extension. It is currently a huge percentage of wasteground of redirects which these companies have bought to protect their trademarks... not because they are ecstatic about this new extension and boosting their Mobile accessibility. etc.
  
  There seems to be no passion! Big companies aren't spending alot of time on the .MOBI extension.

  
  
• Did you invest in this trend and did it go well/badly, why?I
  I think I bought a couple, but not many because I didn't believe in it and at the time I wouldn't have had the money to anyway...
  
  
• Notable publicly reported sales at the time that got people excited
  Poker.mobi $150,000
  Ringtones.mobi $145,000
  News.mobi $110,000
  Hosting.mobi $101,000
  Taxi.mobi $75,111
  Dating.mobi $73,000
  Download.mobi $51,000
  Email.mobi $50,000
  Motels.mobi $47,000
  Hotel.mobi $46,000
  Insurance.mobi $42,005
  Chat.mobi $42,000
  Date.mobi $40,000
  Traffic.mobi $36,008
  Books.mobi $33,510
  Buy.mobi $32,500
  Free.mobi $31,500
  Loans.mobi $30,000
  Adult.mobi $30,000
  
  Thanks to this list... https://www.namepros.com/threads/reported-mobi-sales-since-landrush.257711/

 

[biggie]

What was the trigger for the trend?

Hi

i think what triggered the trend was phrased here;

labrocca said:
Mobi is the hottest thing since sliced bread. It's gonna be bigger than the moon one day. One day every mobile phone will have a dotmobi default button and mobi will be BIGGER than dotcom.

the thought before iphone was released, was that .mobi would be the default on the iphones.
"celeb" domainer at the time "Pinky Brand" wrote article in Modern Domainer about how .mobi.
predicting all the applicable uses for it.

but when iphone was released, there was no .mobi default.

soooo, down goes .mobi !

there have been other attempted hypes, like:
.pw, when they tried to promote as "professional web"
.info, wasn't a hype, but i remember when they were free to register for a brief period.

"CHIP's" or Chinese Premium domains.
chips had good 2 > 3 year run, and during this time one could off-load many of their so-called non-premium letters to "chinese buyers" and other domainers as well.
chips phase was special in that sales transcended down the extension line from .com to .org in some cases.

.us had a pretty good landrush in beginning and lasted a couple of years, then feel off.
but now i think it is finding it's niche`

there are others i can't recall right now, but the hype continues.

imo...

 

[D Haynes]

The worst I saw was emogi domains. Its funny how people are so hardcore about something that is so obviously doomed to failure.

 

[kite26]

The worst I saw was emogi domains. Its funny how people are so hardcore about something that is so obviously doomed to failure.

In the name of "if".

 

[topdom]

You will miss most trends, because whoever is creating the trend, or aware of it in early stage would take its position accordingly, and not leave much room for you. But by luck, you may benefit from them.
I'm not good at detecting which trends are real which ones are fake, because logic doesn't apply.

some "past" trends
mortgage
pokemon
dragonballz
emule
paintball
bitcoin
cannabis
esports

Trends are 3 dimentional. Width, depth, duration.

 

[PurpleMan]

Thanks for this thread. I hope domainers will share their experiences so we can always remember that trends doesn't always translate into success. Grab only the best you can from every trend and hope someone FOMOs in to take the loads off your hand.

 

[Andreas B.]

Thanks for this thread. I hope domainers will share their experiences so we can always remember that trends doesn't always translate into success. Grab only the best you can from every trend and hope someone FOMOs in to take the loads off your hand.

so, if you would have bought something like metaverse(name).com in 2017,

and someone would have told you in 2019:
There is no metaverse trend, it's just something niche-style, only very few people buy Vr headsets,
its like that Samsung phone you put in front of your eyes (who does want that?!)

And you would have thought "Yes, 9 letters + keyword is a little too long for a good domain - who does want that?" and would have dropped the name after 2 years paying fees....

and then, 2021 occurs, facebook rebrands to meta and metaverse names skyrocket.

Would that be such a non-existing trend ?!


Clearly not, right.

So, what makes a trend not being a trend?!?!?!

Can you say that after 1 year? - As it seems you can't.

There are guys who bought metaverse domains back in 2015, and hold them for 6 years in a row to sell them.


So, as I see it there are 2 styles of trends:
One, that is kick-started by a community of like-minded "geeks",
like a specific sport art, or a hobby, etc.

And one, that is being started by a company.

Those, started by communities, are of course much more reliable,
and sometimes it's just a matter of time until they become a broad trend.
Best example: bitcoin (crypto)

But sometimes it disappears
(think about the ice-bucket challenge).


If a company gives a shout out about a specific name/ word, its always questionnable whether it may survive or not...

facebook's libre as ex.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Thank you for a superb topic @MadAboutDomains and for an excellent framework to analyze the trigger, analysis and fate of a trend.

With respect to .mobi I would not say that the release of the TLD was the trigger, but more it was, as you mention a bit further down in further context, the consortium that decided that every website would need two versions, one mobile friendly. Had that view prevailed, which tech experts of the time seemed to all be on, then overnight .mobi would be essential, in a sense as important as the other TLDs combined once mobile took off.

• What was the trend?
  Launch of .mobi TLD
  
  
• What was the trigger for the trend?
  Release of the new TLD .MOBI.

What killed the trend was Apple not signing on, coming out with the iPhone, and favouring adaptive websites as opposed to dual websites.

This shows how a trend can live or die as a domain name based almost entirely on issues that have nothing directly dependent on the TLD.

Thanks for a great topic, and I look forward to people discussing other trends.

Bob

 

[branding]

There are some obvious ones but I remember .co lifting restrictions maybe about a decade ago?

It was marketed kinda badly at the start but they've done all right eventually

 

[branding]

With respect to .mobi I would not say that the release of the TLD was the trigger, but more it was, as you mention a bit further down in further context, the consortium that decided that every website would need two versions, one mobile friendly. Had that view prevailed, which tech experts of the time seemed to all be on, then overnight .mobi would be essential, in a sense as important as the other TLDs combined once mobile took off.

This brings back some memories... of the time I was building WAP 'websites'. WAP never really took off but had to have it, just in case

Most were just using wap.domain.com for mobile view.

How things have changed

 

[Ariff BD]

I Think
DAo might be dead
We have had many quality dao domains but none sold.

Wondering XYZ will survive or die.
Scared.
I have heavy investment like

Ev.xyz
partner.xyz
wallets.xyz
clouds.xyz

 

[niamodsnod]

There are some obvious ones but I remember .co lifting restrictions maybe about a decade ago?

It was marketed kinda badly at the start but they've done all right eventually

I remember in I am guessing 2011 Schwartz having maybe 200 or so LLL.co and he was offering them maybe for what he paid or possibly double? So $40 a piece maybe? Nobody wanted them and he even made it out like it was a bad move. Wish I wasn't so vague but it definitely happened. Some of those names today could bring the bag although I don't do .co

 

[MadAboutDomains]

I suppose we can add bored apes and web3 domains to this list now.
As well as .xyz names