debate Is the value of .com about to be destroyed by Verisign?

[pfj]

It's rumoured that Verisign has won the auction for .web - paying $135m.

Verisign had to get this whatever the cost, to stop competitors getting hold of it - and, truly, Verisign is probably the only company that can TRULY monetize it effectively.

How will they recover their $135m?

Simple - they can extort existing .com owners (they probably call it leverage though...)

"Hey, we see you have example.com - you should secure example.web which Verisign has acquired, to help to protect the rights of existing domain name owners! Did you know that .web is the newest web address out there, and sure to be a hugely powerful marketing tool? No? Well, it is! So we can give you preferential pricing of $25 per year right now for the .web address that matches your .com address, or we can release it to the market, diluting the power of your existing name. Insure against someone else getting it by securing it today!"

If only 10% of the current .com owners go for this wheeze, then they've doubled their money straight away - and have recurring income of as much as $300m a year. And everyone who holds a valuable .com either has to pay up, or have their value diluted.

Has holding a portfolio of 1,000 .com domain names suddenly become a liability that could cost $25,000 a year on top of your existing costs? Scary thought.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

No and No

And did you write that little ad? Looks nice.

I dont think they will want to devalue their best product which is number one in the world

 

[pfj]

I dont think they will want to devalue their best product which is number one in the world

Why did they buy it then? It's what happened with .uk domains for existing .co.uk owners - seems a great way to recover the insane cost of acquiring .web to me.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

Why did they buy it then? It's what happened with .uk domains for existing .co.uk owners - seems a great way to recover the insane cost of acquiring .web to me.

.Web was bought to clear out the other .whatver gargabe that is all over the place , but in no way it is bought to replace or devalue .com


Also, is the company that won a Verisign onw?

 

[joro001]

Very smart of Verisign if you ask me.

They have taken out the single biggest competitor of the new GTLD's to .com and will ensure .com remains the number 1 extension.

Of course they want to make money from .web, but let's not play games part of the strategy was to take out a major and in fact what could have been the major competitor to .com. Whether they price them on a first come first served basis like they did with .com or more like .TV with high premiums/renewals is by the by.
.com has just gone up a notch in value in my mind after these results, no doubt about it.

Can domainers make ROI on .web when it's launched? Possibly, it will depend on the above and how Verisign launch it. However, for .com investors (like myself) they couldn't be happier.

 

[DOMAIN ILLUMINATI]

I think they wanted to get .web because they are desperately about the fact that they are not owning .top but it won't help - nothing* can beat .top from it's meaning because top means top and thats it.

*NOTHING

 

[Impaler The Vlad]

Hint: Versign just guaranteed another 8 year extension in 2018.

 

[Wass]

135 million for .web because new gtlds are the future...

 

[JB Lions]

It'll be the #1 new gtld. It was the most watched before these started coming out, they just paid more than 3x any other new gtld.

The only thing that will probably be destroyed is the value of a lot of these other new gtlds.

 

[Bram C.]

VeriSign's main reason to get .web was to make sure it would never be a serious competitor to .com. So I think this is a great defensive move by VeriSign (eventhough not official yet) and great news for the .com crowd. And yes $135M is a lot of money but paying $135M to protect a $9.41 billion empire is peanuts (and genius).

We all know VeriSign's stance on the gTLD program and we all know .com is their biggest cash cow. Sure they will try to get registrations for .web to get some ROI but under Verisign management .web will evidently never be marketed as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Their primary focus will remain to be .com. Donuts imo knew this risk so it tried all it could to postpone this auction (so they could get more funds to win the auction). But they failed and now here we are. .Web imo had the potential to make the new gTLDs more mainstream but I doubt that's going to happen now.

So the answer the title of this thread:
"Is the value of .com about to be destroyed by Verisign?"

I'm certain the value of .com will go up by this.

 

[Impaler The Vlad]

This has less to do about the new gTLD hierarchy and more to do with Versign covering its interests in the US elections by guaranteeing that if the Nationalists win, ICANN just got 135 million reasons to extend Verisign's contract for another 8 years. If the Globalists win, there is a distinct possibility that their contract to the legacy TLDs may not be renewed. If that happens, .web would be a strong indication to its shareholders that they will always have a future in domain names and .web might speak positively to their investors to hold course.

 

[Chris Rice]

No and No

And did you write that little ad? Looks nice.

I dont think they will want to devalue their best product which is number one in the world

Verisign doesn't make money on the aftersales market but I think we can figure out their stategy based on how many GTLDs they applied for.

If they start diversifying and applying for multiple GTLDs, .web will probably be marketed aggressively. But if they do not invest in any additional GTLDs, .web was probably a defensive purchase.

They might also be undecided since this is completely new territory. New extensions have always failed in the past (at least compared to .com) but there has never been this many internet users and extensions. A disruption might be in order but we have to wait and see.

 

[Michael R.]

ngTLD have been released a few years ago, and up to now, I never went to a website using one of them.Their usage is so marginal...

Speaking about ngTLD is consuming Namepros hardware resources for nothing lol

 

[Domainstore]

I found the following => Is that Verisign ????
Who won the auction ?
This article has a link of ICANN =>
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/28/someone_paid_135m_for_dot_web
The link is => https://gtldresult.icann.org/application-result/applicationstatus/auctionresults So the company that bought it is =>
NU DOT CO LLC*

 

[Chris Rice]

I found the following => Is that Verisign ????
Who won the auction ?
This article has a link of ICANN =>
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/28/someone_paid_135m_for_dot_web
The link is => https://gtldresult.icann.org/application-result/applicationstatus/auctionresults So the company that bought it is =>
NU DOT CO LLC*

It could be Verisign or it could be Alphabet. I am leaning towards Verisign but obviously hoping its Alphabet (probably not Alphabet since I think they submitted an official application - under their name).

 

[Mr Dobalina]

.com values have been falling for 5 years. .web will pull even more end users away from .com.

things are getting rocky for the commies.

 

[Impaler The Vlad]

.com values have been falling for 5 years. .web will pull even more end users away from .com.

things are getting rocky for the commies.

You are not in the know. There are public sales and private sales. I have been seeing many more offers than in the "boom" years. How many big ticket names have you sold? How many big offers are you getting? I didn't think so...

 

[wayne wooldridge]

I'm leaning towards the view that their acquisition of .web was motivated by the preservation of. com, rather than it's destruction.

They have simply bought out the competition and the residual income preserved by doing so alone earn their money back.

 

[Bram C.]

things are getting rocky for the commies.

If .web would have been purchased by any of the pro gTLD applicants you may eventually have had a point (in some distant future). But VeriSign is definitely not pro gTLD. It's officially not confirmed that VeriSign purchased .web but if they did then the future of .com is looking extremely good imo. After all, it makes perfect sense for VeriSign to do anything to ensure that .com remains their cash cow and with .web, the one gTLD that may have been a real competitor to .com at some point, in their control this may possibly be the final nail in the coffin for the new gTLDs.

Time will telll I guess.

 

[Chris Rice]

If .web would have been purchased by any of the pro gTLD applicants you may eventually have had a point (in some distant future). But VeriSign is definitely not pro gTLD. It's officially not confirmed that VeriSign purchased .web but if they did then the future of .com is looking extremely good imo. After all, it makes perfect sense for VeriSign to do anything to ensure that .com remains their cash cow and with .web, the one gTLD that may have been a real competitor to .com at some point, in their control this may possibly be the final nail in the coffin for the new gTLDs.

Time will telll I guess.

.web is more of a competitor to .net than .com.

Mike Berkins, Frank Schilling and every other big-time domainer will probably disagree and I obviously don't have as much credibility as them, but it is common sense:

1. InterNET
2. WEBsite

They are exactly the same!

 

[Chris Rice]

Why Verisign Bought The .Web Domain Extension And What NOT To Expect

So Verisign paid $135 million to get the exclusive rights to the .web new domain name extension. But why and you should expect or rather NOT to expect?

The price was very high but Verisign does not have a cash shortage and will eventually break even and begin making money of .web. .Shop was auctioned for $41.5 million in January 2016 to GMO Registry, Inc. and Google won .APP paying $25 million in February 2015.

Verisign ended the second quarter with cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $1.9 billion. Clearly they had no problem spending $135 million and overshadowing any competitor.

Verisign clearly went for a generic new gtld and the one that could be a direct competitor to its .net. They only went for the best New gTLD and got it. (They have a few IDN new gtlds but these were complimentary extensions to .com and .net. I doubt they will ever be making any serious money from these extensions if any.)

.Web was not destined to be a direct competitor to .com. Either with or without Verisign. And no, you don’t HAVE TO buy the corresponding .web to your .com just like you don’t own the .net, .org, .biz, .us and all the other extensions. You only have to buy it (in my opinion) if your company or service is located at ******web.com.

A lot of people think that .Net and .Web have similar target audience and they are mostly right. The extensions are both in a sense generic but also have a bigger appeal to online services and products.

So now Verisign will always be a domain name registry and now has better long term viability regardless of the .COM, .NET or ccTLD contracts. Verisign bought an extension that will operate for many years to come. It is not dependent on any registry contracts that mightexpire in a few years like the .com and .net contracts.

Verisign can control pricing for .web domains both for regular priced domains and the (numerous) premium names. Verisign controls pricing on .web unlikethe frozen pricing on .com and the regulated 10% increase on .net domains every 12 months. Verisign is allowed by it’s contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to increase the registry price for .net 10% every year. On the same day they Verisign bought .web they also announced an increase in the annual fee for a .net domain name registration from $7.46 to $8.20, effective Feb. 1, 2017.

Verisign bought a generic extension that they know how to operate and market AND they already have many potential buyers. They will for sure try to sell .web domains to all .com and .net registrants.

Verisign already has good placement agreements in various registrars for .com and .net. They can easily push .web to new buyers alongside .com and .net. Don’t be surprised if you never hear from Verisign the term New gTLD accompanying .web.

Here is what not to expect after the .web auction purchase by Verisign:

1. Don’t expect .web to rival .com. That ain’t happening. Not even .net did that and it is as old as .com.
2. Don’t expect .web to have cheap regular registrations and renewals. Verisign needs to make the money spend in the auction.
3. Don’t expect for all .web domains to be available at launch. Expect a lot of reserved and a lot of high priced premium domains.
4. Don’t expect .web to be cheap. Period. This is the extension that Verisign will use to make up for the lost .com revenue.
5. Don’t expect any other new extension to reach this price in auction. Not even .music if it ever reaches an auction. This was a power play. (that will also make money in the long run for Verisign) But New gTLD auction prices could be slightly higher (than what they would have been) in the future because of this purchase.
6. Don’t expect Verisign to market .web as a NOT-COM extension or the second coming but for what it is. A new generic extension that could be (but will not always be) a cheaper alternative to .com.

http://onlinedomain.com/2016/07/30/opinions/verisign-bought-web-domain-extension-not-expect/

 

[skyz21]

When are .web available to register?

 

[Silentptnr]

.web is going to be the same as the other ngTLDs.

My hope is that .web will bring more awareness to new gTLDs in general with end users.

I dont believe .web will compete with .com any more than any other ngTLD.