discuss Here's why .XYZ will fail

[william]

There has been a lot of hype lately for .xyz because of a small number of big sales. I see a lot of people overextending themselves and pouring a lot of their budget in this extension. Personally, I believe .xyz is doomed to fail. Maybe I'll eat my words, maybe I won't. Here is my case for why I think .xyz will fail:

1) Low number of sales

According to Namebio.com, in the last two years there have been only 867 sales. Only 359 of those have been over $1,000. Yes, these are only reported sales, but unimpressive none the less. Now, compare this with the number of .xyz registered in the past two years, and this number will seem even more minuscule. Most of the names that sold were also premium one word names.

2) No space for innovation

Which brings me to my next point. Because domainers are rushing to register every single available .xyz domain that is decent, it leaves little space for businesses to set up under the extension and promote the extension. This exposure is crucial in order for the TLD to grow. It's getting to the point where you can't find a decent two word .xyz and that's not because they are taken by businesses. Which will certainly stunt its growth.

3) It's ugly

Aesthetically and phonetically .xyz is ugly. It's three syllables, unlike .com, .me, .net, .co... Which makes it harder to say. It looks horrible when it's part of a design or even just typing it. It feels cheap.

4) People don't trust it

Because of all the reasons above and the cheap initial registration costs, there aren't enough legitimate businesses using the extension and there are lot of spammy sites. Starting to type in Google "is .xyz" gives a first suggestion of "is .xyz safe". Same goes for ".xyz domain" (third suggestion).

5) It's not early

I know many of you will say that it's still early for .xyz. But it isn't. It has been around since 2014. It had some initial hype because of Google using it and that hype hasn't materialized. I don't think it ever will.

That's just my two cents. What do you guys think?

 

[jedaprin]

They probly dont know how to play Pinball
Watch this pinball machine go off

 

[jedaprin]

I like how it says heres why Xyz will Fail
With my name under it

 

[william]

@william, to make your essay more comprehensive and convincing, I suggest you to mention the end user side (especially the crypto and web3 end users) which is the real driver of success or failure of a domain extension, any special feature that .xyz has, the sales trend in the recent years (i.e. year-on-year comparisons), and 3rd party credible research to support your arguments.

Just a friendly suggestion to enhance your essay.

It's not an essay, I'm just sharing my opinion, others are welcome to pitch in with theirs

 

[william]

Do you know something @DNGear , Michael Krell and other experienced domainers don't about xyz?

I stated my reasons for my opinion. You can agree or disagree with them. As far as Michael Krell, I have no idea who that is. And @DNGear pitched in saying this post is "trolling" and offered 0 reasons why .xyz is in fact a good extension. Plus, we have to take her opinion with a grain of salt when she has 20,000 .xyz domains and it's 90% of her Dan portfolio. That's $200,000 in renewal fees by the way. I'd much rather trust a domainer that holds a balanced portfolio and hasn't over-leveraged themselves one way or another. I'd also trust someone who can make a logical argument for why that extension will succeed. But that's just me.

Regardless, I hope everyone has the chance to make some money. And DNGear already hit the jackpot many times. I also believe there is money to be made in almost any extension. However, what I don't like seeing is people throwing their money away by registering garbage domains because they've seen a few high ticket .xyz sales. These few sales clearly don't reflect the overall market. What's selling after 8 years is still generic one word domains. The same domains that have been unavailable 7-8 years ago. If you can't get your hands on those, it's not worth it.

 

[DNGear]

Negative marketing is a technique that involves painting your business competitors in a bad light. It is a ploy that is often used by companies and businesses at large to make their products look better than their competitors' in the eyes of consumers.

 

[william]

Negative marketing is a technique that involves painting your business competitors in a bad light. It is a ploy that is often used by companies and businesses at large to make their products look better than their competitors' in the eyes of consumers.

Once again, you could have taken the time to reply with reasons for disagreeing with my opinion. Instead you are quoting something irrelevant. People that own .xyz are not my competitors, I own a few names myself and overall my portfolio is quite balanced. Also, this is a forum for domainers, this applies to consumers. So your response makes zero sense. Trying to dismiss everyone who doesn't share your opinion is a dangerous game. It makes your input that much less valuable and biased.

 

[Henry Y]

It's not an essay, I'm just sharing my opinion, others are welcome to pitch in with theirs

No matter you admit or not, by definition it is an opinion essay because your opinions were written in an organized and structured format.

Anyway, it is not the main point. The main point is that it is extremely not convincing if you only mentioned the cons but completely ignored the pros and then drew a conclusion that .xyz will fail.

I suggested some directions for you to include the pros, but I think you will never do so because they contradict with your belief and you will find that your arguments are weak.

 

[william]

No matter you admit or not, by definition it is an opinion essay because your opinions were written in an organized and structured format.

Anyway, it is not the main point. The main point is that it is extremely not convincing if you only mentioned the cons but completely ignored the pros and then drew a conclusion that .xyz will fail.

I suggested some directions for you to include the pros, but I think you will never do so because they contradict with your belief and you will find that your arguments are weak.

This is not an analysis of pros and cons of xyz. This is my opinion of .xyz and the reasons why I think it will fail. As stated in the title. Do you speak like this in real life? "I love ice cream. It's delicious. However, ice cream is also very unhealthy. It has a lot of sugar." It doesn't support what you are trying to say and it's irrelevant to the opinion you are trying to convey. If I was posting a detailed analysis of .xyz, it would be another story.

 

[william]

Negative marketing is a technique that involves painting your business competitors in a bad light. It is a ploy that is often used by companies and businesses at large to make their products look better than their competitors' in the eyes of consumers.

Also, this almost helps confirm my opinion. The fact that the person who owns probably the largest .xyz portfolio doesn't even have logical reasons for it succeeding in the future. Many of the people in these forums hear about the few .xyz sales that you make and rush to register these bottom-tier keywords in hope of also making a buck. But here is the very person making these sales, and she cannot suggest any reasons that would disprove what I am saying.

 

[Jimmysun]

I stated my reasons for my opinion. You can agree or disagree with them. As far as Michael Krell, I have no idea who that is. And @DNGear pitched in saying this post is "trolling" and offered 0 reasons why .xyz is in fact a good extension. Plus, we have to take her opinion with a grain of salt when she has 20,000 .xyz domains and it's 90% of her Dan portfolio. That's $200,000 in renewal fees by the way. I'd much rather trust a domainer that holds a balanced portfolio and hasn't over-leveraged themselves one way or another. I'd also trust someone who can make a logical argument for why that extension will succeed. But that's just me.

Regardless, I hope everyone has the chance to make some money. And DNGear already hit the jackpot many times. I also believe there is money to be made in almost any extension. However, what I don't like seeing is people throwing their money away by registering garbage domains because they've seen a few high ticket .xyz sales. These few sales clearly don't reflect the overall market. What's selling after 8 years is still generic one word domains. The same domains that have been unavailable 7-8 years ago. If you can't get your hands on those, it's not worth it.

Calling this post is trolling is of an opinion nothing wrong about it and instead obviously you’re spreading the most negativity in comments that is very clear to see, the reason had been saying for so many time in the main .xyz thread and that is getting so tired to mention again and again there is no need for that in this thread.

 

[william]

Calling this post is trolling is of an opinion nothing wrong about it and instead obviously you’re spreading the most negativity in comments that is very clear to see, the reason had been saying for so many time in the main .xyz thread and that is getting so tired to mention again and again there is no need for that in this thread.

If someone has a different opinion than you, does that constitute it as "spreading negativity"?

 

[Henry Y]

This is not an analysis of pros and cons of xyz. This is my opinion of .xyz and the reasons why I think it will fail. As stated in the title. Do you speak like this in real life? "I love ice cream. It's delicious. However, ice cream is also very unhealthy. It has a lot of sugar." It doesn't support what you are trying to say and it's irrelevant to the opinion you are trying to convey. If I was posting a detailed analysis of .xyz, it would be another story.

It is not about your personal preference. What you are writing is about if a domain extension will succeed or fail.

There are no pros that make the extension successful? Will a domain extension fail solely because of your mentioned cons?

If you want to predict the destiny of the extension, both pros and cons should be analyzed. Otherwise, it is useless and meaningless.

The logic is that simple.

 

[DNGear]

Have you contributed anything to this forum? Any sales? Any acquisitions?
All of a sudden you started a thread and claiming you are a saviour of the domaining community and posting .a thread xyz will fail.
I dont wanted to waste my time arguing with this trolling.
Period.

 

[william]

It is not about your personal preference. What you are writing is about if a domain extension will succeed or fail.

There are no pros that make the extension successful? Will a domain extension fail solely because of your mentioned cons?

If you want to predict the destiny of the extension, both pros and cons should be analyzed. Otherwise, it is useless and meaningless.

The logic is that simple.

The title of this thread is "Here's why .XYZ will fail".

 

[Henry Y]

The title of this thread is "Here's why .XYZ will fail".

Therefore you should also mention the pros. Compare the pros and cons. Then say cons outweigh pros and draw a conclusion that it will fail (if you can).

 

[william]

Have you contributed anything to this forum? Any sales? Any acquisitions?
All of a sudden you started a thread and claiming you are a saviour of the domaining community and posting .a thread xyz will fail.
I dont wanted to waste my time arguing with this trolling.
Period.

Once again, you have done nothing to address my points, instead of just dismissing it as trolling. I have shared my opinion and that seems to trigger you. I've been a member of these forums longer than you have been domaining. But I can understand why it triggers you, because each year, you pay $200K to keep your .xyz domains relevant.

How is sharing my opinion that doesn't agree with yours, less valuable, than you sharing your opinion of the same thing (while having a SIGNIFICANT conflict of interest) any different? I don't care if .xyz succeeds or fails. It does nothing for me.

 

[william]

Therefore you should also mention the pros. Compare the pros and cons. Then say cons outweigh pros and draw a conclusion that it will fail (if you can).

Sorry, you're grasping onto straws here, Henry. No one writes pros/cons along their opinion. Not in real life, not in the media, not in these forums. But if you disagree, feel free to list the pros and cons of why you disagree with me.

 

[Henry Y]

Sorry, you're grasping onto straws here, Henry. No one writes pros/cons along their opinion. Not in real life, not in the media, not in these forums. But if you disagree, feel free to list the pros and cons of why you disagree with me.

As I know, @Bob Hawkes and some others do so in this forum.

 

[Jimmysun]

If someone has a different opinion than you, does that constitute it as "spreading negativity"?

My opinion is: This thread looks like a trolling nothing personal.

 

[william]

Guys, let me ask you this. Let's say you own 20,000 domains in .xyz. There are 50 different threads in these forums praising .xyz and how it's the next big thing. Then, there is one that says it isn't. Do you:

A) Ignore the thread
B) Respond with why you disagree with the post and provide some good points, as you have extensive knowledge with that particular extension.
C) Reply 3-4 times how the thread is trolling and how you won't respond to trolling, all the meanwhile responding to "trolling". Without contributing a single logical point.

Before posting this, it was just an opinion I had in the last few years watching .xyz. But after sharing this opinion, and seeing how the very same people who are pushing this extension reply, I am more than ever convinced that this is a house of cards that will fall. I am yet to see any good points made otherwise.

 

[Escanor]

What's the big deal about .XYZ hype/sales.
As the saying goes....
"the person who says it cannot be done, should not disturb the person doing it"

 

[pinkdragon]

Sour grapes?

 

[Jasonn]

Yes and it’s almost always older folks who are deeply invested in .com and think “.com will be king forever…”

Yeah, ok

The only thing you can do is look at past history of other released gtlds and see that they all failed. Anything else is just speculation.

 

[Jasonn]

This is why I don't understand why people continue investing in these alternative extensions. The renewals are crazy expensive and are variable with no control over pricing. I finally dropped my last .mobi. I think the renewal was like $20. Even that was too much for a crap extension.

Take your money and invest in a few solid .com's - way better for long term investing. At least the renewal each year isn't going to kill you.

I still can't bear to drop .mobi domains I spent thousands on in 'landrush' auctions when they came out in 2006. I should of known better and stuck with .com but I was new to domaining and thought new extensions were my chance to get decent keywords and hopefully would take off. Sounds like the same old story..

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Much could be written, but here is short form of my response to the 5 points made by the OP.

According to Namebio.com, in the last two years there have been only 867 sales. Only 359 of those have been over $1,000. Yes, these are only reported sales, but unimpressive none the less.

It is true that still way fewer .xyz sales than .com. However, on forums people tend to discuss largely trends and changes. In just the first 3 weeks of 2022 the sales dollar volume (a better measure of retail than number of sales) in .xyz is about the same as .net and .org TLDs combined, or in all country code domains, both generic and national, combined. I do not agree it is an unimpressive sales record, but we each can have our own opinion.

Because domainers are rushing to register every single available .xyz domain that is decent, it leaves little space for businesses to set up under the extension and promote the extension

I disagree about the hand-registration availability of 2-word or brandable .xyz, but even if that premise was true, is that not exactly the situation we want as domainers? We are seeing startup owners paying 4 and 5 figures for strong .xyz single-word domain names on the aftermarket. Surely we want that?

Aesthetically and phonetically .xyz is ugly.

I know you are not alone in saying that, but one advantage that .xyz has is that it is not sector (like many new gTLDs) or language (like almost all gTLDs) specific. Only about 4.8% of the world speaks English as their native language. It is always important to judge aesthetically in a broad way. Some find the the simple order of .xyz aesthetically pleasing. Not everyone does.

4) People don't trust it

I think this is the most important point. The adoption by Alphabet and especially the rebranding of Block.xyz (Square and other allied businesses) will help build trust. Nevertheless there are definitely some bad actors on .xyz, and a general lack of familiarity with the TLD, especially in the USA. IF the payment processor used by millions of tiny businesses stress that they are part of block.xyz, it will help the TLD build trust. But time will tell. I personally think the TLD would be better if they did not discount first year so extensively.

But it isn't. It has been around since 2014. It had some initial hype because of Google using it and that hype hasn't materialized. I don't think it ever will.

It is not particularly new, agreed. It has gone through various phases - the initial premium surge, then the penny offer years ago, gradual adoption in some markets but limited aftermarket, then in last couple of years, and especially last year, strong growth in significant aftermarket sales and rapid development of many of those sales, mainly by web3 companies.

Just my opinion.

Bob