discuss Generally...Are New gTLD's Becoming Mainstream?

[Silentptnr]

I think there is progress!

Couple of large sales suggest that people may be getting used to the new gTLD's.

Do you agree?

 

[Arca]

Since the new gTLD launched I have seen 0 advertised in the real world - not even one on a billboard, sign, magazine, business card, etc.

Brad

I've seen several used in the real world in various print advertising/billboards/side of vehicles. I was surprised at how difficult it was to recognize them as domain names, and even as a domainer I still struggled to recognize them as domains. Never saw anyone use WWW. in front, which I think is essential for indicating that a dot whatever is a domain. I forgot the domains, but extensions were obscure ones like .audio and .museum.

If you simply put say super.audio or head.audio, or heritage.museum or art.museum on a poster, with no indication that it is a domain, I think 99% of people won't even think of trying to type it into their browser. Seems like a huge waste to run advertising campaigns around new gtlds in this way.

 

[Brands.International]

Well (as a person who is heavily invested in new gTLDs) I can tell you following:

As for 2018, imho:

a) New gTLDs are not yet mainstream, but are heading to this direction - you can like it, or not.

b) Number of offers/sales are getting larger year by year - I can feel it myself in my portfolio. End users like unique and cool names.

c) We see some record sales of new gTLDs publicly announced, and this is just a beginnig - I would not be surprised to see some new gTLD sales larger then 1 mil until end of 2018.

d) Registrars, registries, ICANN, new gTLD investors AND END USERS - they all find gTLDs beneficial. No end user will ever complain that there are more options to name their business. If they do not like those options, they can ignore them, no problem.

e) If you builded large .com or ccTLD portfolio over the years you can naturally have some issues with new gTLDs - it is not fun for them to see part of the money redirected to new gTLDs. So this is the only group of people who can complain, which is fully understandable.

f) New gTLDs are just another investment instrument in domain space - as for private investors, most profit will be done, imo, by pre-mainstream investors. Logically, no one can seriously expect to get great name for $1 AFTER they becomes fully mainstream. In the process of investing there will be (are) some losses too, as everything is still in process and we need to learn everyday.

g) It is not true that all good names are hold by registries as stated by one of OPs above - you can see TONS of amazing names in private hands, with regular renewals or very reasonable smaller premium renewals attached to them - people who do their analysis and work are doing well. When you study in WHOIS who owns great gTLDs combos, you will find people from all around the planet, PLUS some clever and rich .com investors as well, who have diversified their domain portfolios.

Just IMO

 

[gilescoley]

No, there are always decent sales with new extensions..the good sales just get fewer and fewer and then stop.

 

[Ategy]

There is no doubt mainstream end usage is going up.

The real question however is whether it's going up fast enough to make any significant changes in the market?

There really needs to be a critical mass for public awareness to really reach a tipping point. I don't think we're there yet .. but I also think that it's simply a question of time as usage continues to grow (at a pace I think most ngTLD investors would say is too slow).

Despite tales of doom and gloom there are SOME ngTLD's with large numbers .. but I'm not really seeing many used in the wild.

If anything I'm seeing more end usage of repurposed ccTLD's than anything else. I've sold a few .co's (the only reason I even bought them is because I saw them used by large businesses) .. and .tv has had slow but steady sales for years.

Recent "HOT" TLD's have been .io and .ai

If ICANN actually used a percentage of the ngTLD auction revenue to do a serious promotional campaign for all the alternate TLD it could transform the industry. But who knows what they have planned with their millions?

 

[Recons.Com]

I am seeing some domain investors with seemingly steady sales of new gTLD domains. I know @kerala regularly sells them.

You have to define "mainstream" then. If 97% of businesses are still using .com, .net, .org, .io, .co, .tv, .me, .cctld, then the remaining 3% cannot be "mainstream" regardless of how many Kerala and few others sell.

 

[Silentptnr]

Here's some interesting sales data I read today. This is a list of the Top nGTLD Sales Of 2017:

Domain Name Price Currency Date Venue
home.loans 500000 USD 31/12/2017 Registry sale
the.club 300000 USD 12/12/2017 brandaisy.com
casino.online 201250 USD 20/3/2017 Sedo
video.games 183000 USD 28/2/2017 Rightside
travel.club 67500 USD 31/12/2017 .Club Easy Payment
auto.club 67500 USD 31/12/2017 .Club Easy Payment
18.vip 36676 USD 8/6/2017 GDS 2017 Auction
29.vip 35838 USD 16/3/2017 eName
Shop.nyc 33500 USD 28/2/2017 Snapnames
2.XYZ 30606 USD 11/1/2017 West.CN
8.club 29382 USD 15/6/2017 eName
bitcoin.casino 28000 USD 26/2/2017 Sedo
shop.link 25000 USD 19/9/2017 Uniregistry
star.house 24980 USD 19/9/2017 Uniregistry
tt.vip 22006 USD 8/6/2017 GDS 2017 Auction
op.media 20500 USD 21/2/2017 Private
act.today 20000 USD 19/2/2017 DomainAgents
bs.vip 19942 USD 16/3/2017 eName
hh.global 19000 USD 15/5/2017 .Global Registry
Seniors.club 18000 USD 31/3/2017 .Club registry
Pet.club 18000 USD 31/3/2017 .Club registry
ip.global 18000 USD 25/10/2017 Global Registry
web.club 18000 USD 31/12/2017 .Club Easy Payment
bc.vip 17605 USD 8/6/2017 GDS 2017 Auction
privilege.club 17000 USD 31/12/2017 .Club Easy Payment
jd.global 16000 USD 25/5/2017 .Global Registry
virtual.network 15000 USD 7/6/2017 Private
web.media 15000 USD 13/9/2017 Webquest
v.photo 15000 USD 19/9/2017 Uniregistry
g.rich 13750 USD 5/2/2017 Sedo
BTC.exchange 12500 USD 11/11/2017 Private
learn.wine 12000 USD 15/5/2017 GoDaddy brokerage
sherpa.group 12000 EUR 30/7/2017 MagnumDomains
am.vip 11736 USD 8/6/2017 GDS 2017 Auction
room.tech 11467 USD 30/6/2017 Radix Registry
bird.dog 11000 USD 15/9/2017 Private
gun.dog 11000 USD 15/9/2017 Private
best.creditcard 10900 USD 15/1/2017 Sedo
Blade.shop 10000 USD 29/1/2017 Private
photo.club 10000 USD 31/3/2017 RegistryGate GmbH
container.shop 10000 EUR 19/11/2017 Sedo
our.place 10000 USD 19/9/2017 Uniregistry

Source: https://onlinedomain.com/2018/03/01...17-home-loans-club-casino-online-video-games/

 

[Silentptnr]

It almost seems like soon people will be asking each other, "I got dot whatever, what extension did you get?" and not "What domain did you get?".

 

[Recons.Com]

I think there is progress!

Couple of large sales suggest that people may be getting used to the new gTLD's.

Do you agree?

To become mainstream, you'd need to start seeing those on business cards, corporate cars, billboards etc. And that is not happening.

 

[bmugford]

Since the new gTLD launched I have seen 0 advertised in the real world - not even one on a billboard, sign, magazine, business card, etc.

Brad

 

[Kate]

a) New gTLDs are not yet mainstream, but are heading to this direction - you can like it, or

In 100 years ? Mainstream should mean they are commonplace and part of daily life, I think not everybody has the same definition of mainstream. I don't think it's happening, .com and ccTLDs are outpacing nTLDs. Registration figures in nTLDs are actually declining

d) Registrars, registries, ICANN, new gTLD investors AND END USERS - they all find gTLDs beneficial. No end user will ever complain that there are more options to name their business. If they do not like those options, they can ignore them, no problem.

Not everybody is happy. TM holders are not all happy. Sysadmins are not happy. Some registries are downright shady and engage in predatory practices. Examples: the racket business model of .sucks. Some TLDs seem to exist for the sole purpose of spamming and rogue pharma (it's not me saying that).

Most end users don't care and don't find them beneficial, they find them useless.

No, personally I have not seen many people praising new extensions for their contribution toward a better domain name ecosystem. Those praising new extensions are the registrars and the registries, and a few branding companies. The insiders. And most of them are on .com anyway.

e) If you builded large .com or ccTLD portfolio over the years you can naturally have some issues with new gTLDs - it is not fun for them to see part of the money redirected to new gTLDs. So this is the only group of people who can complain, which is fully understandable.

Redirect is a bold keyword, trickle-down maybe ? But if there had been a shift then we should be seeing a lot more reported sales of nTLDs. There are maybe 3 sales in DNJ this week and this is considered a great week. They are virtually absent there rest of the time.

And domainers like to boast about the big sales they make. Again, there is no reason why nTLD sales would be reported less often than .com. The big sales are almost all reported by registries, there must be a reason.

How many sellers of nTLDs run a real-life business on a new extension ?

 

[dordomai]

There are 2 main reasons imo why new gTLD sales are publicly reported in lesser extend atm, comparing to legacy extension sales, and why my guesstimate is that 95% are unreported:

a) competition is atm huge - people are backordering, dropcatching and trading good new gTLD names massively. By good names in this context I mean: good name PLUS reasonable renewal.

b) when new gTLD investor (private person) make larger sale, they usually think twice if to go public. If you do not understand why, read comments by some 'experts', usually anonymous profiles, towards buyers of new gTLDs, mainly when sale is larger - it is lot of transhing and lot of trolling, name calling, buyers are 'advised' to buy only legacy extensions, sales are called fake, etc. Personally I decided not to report ANY of my sales until there is a change of this - I do not want to report it and then have my buyers reading some troll comments. It is not necessary and I am sure many new gTLDs investors decided the same.

Registries are in different position - it is their business after all, and they should inform about larger sales as much as possible, as it directly supports their further business. But private investors have almost no incentive to report anything. As what would they get in return ? Trashing of their buyers by couple of profiles in the forums, so called 'experts' , and competition knowing what sells and registering quickly similar names in the niche. And what positive new gTLD sellers can get, maybe some ego boost? No thanks, I guess it is reasonable to pass that for now

most large sales are without any doubt made by registries which do report everything they can and even more than that sometimes

most small sales in .com are never reported by domainers too. why should they?

Most small domain sales are reported when they sell on platforms like Sedo Flippa they report all extensions.

A lot of auction data is also public. If competition is huge we would see this in auction report prices.

there is no bias in reporting. This is wishful thinking to say the nGLDs do not sell often on Namebio that must mean sales are secret because they sell so well.

If people think they become mainstream they should first worry about beating .io

I do use sites with .io but not one single site with .whatever.

Strangely I never hear .io investors about .io taking over the world. I wonder why this is?

 

[Silentptnr]

No, there are always decent sales with new extensions..the good sales just get fewer and fewer and then stop.

Just seems like I'm seeing them promoted more.

For example (which is driving me crazy), recently Dynadot changed their domain search function where it now shows ngTLD availability on top, then mixed in are the legacy extensions.

 

[Silentptnr]

If ICANN actually used a percentage of the ngTLD auction revenue to do a serious promotional campaign for all the alternate TLD it could transform the industry. But who knows what they have planned with their millions?

Agreed...1 million percent.

 

[Silentptnr]

I'm getting offers pretty frequently on some of mine. Typically low, but I get that on legacy extensions too.

It seems a logic may be developing in favor of considering a new gTLD, at least until there is a budget, especially when you can get the exactly what you want lotd.

People sit in front of the computer and think "Darn...it's taken. Well..what about this other extension?"

Might look sh*tty at first, but after a while (or a few drinks), it doesn't seem so bad.

It will be interesting to see what happens down the line.

 

[dordomai]

I think there is progress!

Couple of large sales suggest that people may be getting used to the new gTLD's.

Do you agree?

No. what counts is development not sales. .xxx had a couple of monster sales compared to these but it never saw development.

as an internet user I do not use a single web service, sites on a daily weekly basis that use .whatever. I do rarely use an .io, to me this means, .io is seeing real world usage as .com alternative instead of .whatever.

thus I would see .io having investment potential, .whatever is pure speculation on future usage that might never materialise.

my impression is that the mainstream world does not care, they do not hate the new extensions they simply do not care much about them. people who do care have invested in them, that is why they want to see them have potential.

people who do care are mostly domain speculators who bought them, registries who sell them and registrars who sell them. the rest of the world does not care, they do not even care much about domains in general. try to see things from the perspective of an internet user, web developer, business owner not as a domainer.

 

[mad409]

Just to be clear this is a 2014 survey and only 1000 U.S. shoppers. Some might not read the very fine print.

 

[mad409]

I know it's from 2014, find a current one, you'll see the same results.

Throw out all domainer's opinions. Simply look at brand new startups/businesses. They have all these new gtlds to choose from. Tell me why they still pick .com overwhelmingly? Maybe that have somebody on the team that understands marketing, consumer behavior.

Here's the latest one - https://dngeek.com/2018/01/88-newly-funded-startups-domain-names-rootcloud-com-firstagenda-com/

3 out of 88 picked a new gtld, 3.4%

Every time I check, low single digits. We're in year 5.

Hahaha, dude I've been out of these gTLD vs. .com threads for quite some time, got old. All extensions have a use if there's a buyer.

I just posted out its a 2014 survey and a whopping 1000 Shoppers.

 

[Silentptnr]

I guess the new extensions are in fact making progress in the way of awareness.

The thread really had nothing to do with comparing to other extensions. Mainly wanted feedback.

As I search for names to hand reg, it is apparent that there are many domains registered with new extensions.

They might not have a strong, consistent aftermarket yet, but people/Domainers/whoever...are registering them.

Not sure about renewal rates, but they are getting regged.

 

[BrandMart]

It's on the rise. Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day.

 

[cooljub]

The thread really had nothing to do with comparing to other extensions

You know that's impossible

 

[sofiapartner]

They will never go mainstream. Mainstream is "com".

However I must admit that some extensions as "club" have great branding potential. But it will be small niche. Nowhere near "mainstream".

 

[-AR-]

I think the gTLD marketing machine will probably keep going for another couple of years and there will be some massive sales to keep people hoping for a big sale so that they renew their domains but ultimately the truth will come out and people will lose hope. I remember paying a lot of money for some LLL.biz about 10 years and had to sell them half price to just get rid of them a few years later, still good considering the current prices. Prime example is a gTLD like .travel which has been around for a while, how many websites or companies with .travel do you know? I personally know of none.

Companies use .com because it offers security and customers are educated about .com. I use a .net address for my business (I couldn't acquire the .com or the cctld when it started out, have them now though) and when i give out my email and say .net, a lot of people say dot what? They want me to repeat it. Now .net has been around for a very long time and is a good TLD imagine if I was using .life, I would probably have explain myself every single time and I don't have time for that because I don't sell domains to my customers. I would have to get paid an annual fee by the people that own .life to use it because I would be advertising their tld. People do not like change and most people do not like to learn new things, this is normal human nature.

Using a gTLD would just confuse 95% of the population, why would anyone want to confuse their customers when they can stick to .com or the country cctld? I don't want to spoil anyones dreams but I would be very careful because I have lost money in the past taking chances with random tlds. My advise is if you don't have the money to buy 10 quality .coms then buy 1 or invest your money in quality cctld depending on the local market.

If you do decide to deal in the gTLD market then flip them fast and keep doing that, you will sell a lot to confused people who think they are getting a good deal or getting a premium domain until the music stops.

Anyway, this is just my opinion and I may be proven wrong however I will stick to this for now.

 

[garptrader]

Dude -congrats on your sale but you are readng WAY Way too much into it. Even you admit it was one of your lower-quality domains. Remember the guy who sold Work.space for like $50 thousand but then a year later there is no development there. Until this domain is used for a real business you just got lucky. Yet you do not see that. So you will continue to register poor-quality domains like the .TOP guy. The reality is most nTLD portfolios are in the red. There is more money to be made in development or just working a regular job than in selling domains.

 

[bmugford]

As for hype, I do not see any. I wish registries made much more PR everywhere. Until know, we see usually only comments by new gTLD investors, which are private entities - this is as far from hype as I can imagine...maybe we have very different definition of HYPE

Are you serious?

Lately there might be less hype as there is not much going on, other than some rather well timed sales like Home.Loans. Just phenomenal timing right around Namescon...

But I mean from the very start registries were making absurd predictions about the death of .COM.

Throw in Daniel Negari and all his nonsense with .XYZ, Frank Schilling pushing his garbage extensions (.COM is AM radio), absurd projections that were not close to reality, talk about paradigm shifts, new extension fanboys (.TOP for example), etc.

The rhetoric has certainly not matched the reality. There is hardly any hype now because there is limited interest in the real world. Most registries no longer have the money to pay marketing costs and those that do have not found it worthwhile. Their theoretical sales projections don't pay the bills.

Brad