poll Is there a future for new GTLDs?

[Leo Angelo]

I was surprised to learn today that a non-domainer friend migrated his website to the same name .blog because "for a blog, .blog makes more sense than .com." What about the renewal fee? "$29/yr. Not enough to be a deterrent."
He is an intelligent person who appreciates using the best and the fewest words. Using the self-explanatory TLD makes sense and is worth the extra money, in his opinion.
Maybe the new GLTDs are making inroads with public awareness and will keep gaining market share. What do you think, how do you feel about it?

 

[garptrader]

While a common misspelling please keep in mind that Columbia is the capital of South Carolina, a Southeastern Conference team.

COLOMBIA is a country in South America with tourist destinations such as Cartagena, Medellin and Santa Marta.

During my trip to Cartagena in November I saw far more .Com and .Com.Co than .CO.

 

[Rob Monster]

Leo - I think the horsepower for new TLDs will come from bundling TLDs with specific hosted applications.

The .BLOG is interesting. You have WPEngine charging $290 per year for Wordpress hosting. It is a nice business. Wordpress or others could easily compete there by bundling .BLOG with high performance Wordpress, e.g. enhanced with BitMitigate.com for CDN, DDoS mitigation and site optimization.

The same can apply to most of the other new TLDs. Some registries understand this and are starting to put serious efforts behind platform innovation. In particular, I believe that Donuts will do this following the controlling investment by Abry Partners last year.

I thin niche TLDs like .HEALTH are great candidates for innovative solutions, e.g. around cloud-hosted personal health records where the patient is in control of their data and can share that data with anyone they want, e.g. other caregivers, family members, insurance underwriters, etc in a GDPR compliant way.

Also, keep in mind that if .COM, .ORG and others lose their price caps in the coming years, the gap between TLD prices will go away regardless which will set the stage for accelerated adoption of new TLDs. All that said, I do think the window is closing for this.

There is plenty of room for innovation in this space. The industry should see TLDs acquiring operating companies and moving from primary dependence on registrars for distribution. It is the only real way forward but most registries lack the courage to embrace that reality.

 

[jmcc]

These numbers are not necessary accurate. I mean that there may be something (not forbidden etc.) shown to human visitors.

There is an inherent danger in extrapolating your own experience to the wider Web. 21.83% have no website in their DNS record. 6.79% have no response. Just because a domain name has a website IP address listed in its DNS record, it does not necessarily mean that that there is a webserver running on that IP address. Most of the No Response sites that have previously been active are basically sites being pulled because the domain name has not been renewed or the hosting is expired. They are typically lander operations rather than developed websites.

The 403 results are far more likely to be seen on sites where there's an empty web root directory. The 404s are common where there's no content uploaded. Soft 404s (that's where a "no content" page will be displayed rather than the more accurate 404 HTTP result code being issued by the server is quite common now because hosters and registrars use these soft 404s to advertise their services. The number of HTTP 403 results was 361,492. The number of HTTP 404s was 585,193.

The majority of the web is on shared hosting. The set-up of websites is highly automated and often outsourced as ordinary businesses do not build their own websites.

Regards...jmcc

 

[Grego85]

the com part is like a weird growth at the end of a name. com means nothing, why is it there?

 

[MapleDots]

I was surprised to learn today that a non-domainer friend migrated his website to the same name .blog because "for a blog, .blog makes more sense than .com." What about the renewal fee? "$29/yr. Not enough to be a deterrent."
He is an intelligent person who appreciates using the best and the fewest words. Using the self-explanatory TLD makes sense and is worth the extra money, in his opinion.
Maybe the new GLTDs are making inroads with public awareness and will keep gaining market share. What do you think, how do you feel about it?

The biggest point about the new gTLD's is not the renewal price. Most successful entities or businesses will spend money on a decent domain.

The BIG problem I see here is basing my business on one of the new gTLD's only to have it shut down in the future.

Just imagine the mess if a business uses the domain everywhere from pylon signs to business cards. Imagine a hugely successful website and then BAM the TLD fails.

OMG what a mess this will become!!

There are far too many new gTLD's and a number are doomed to failure, I would not stake my business on one.

That said, as long as you have a backup and are only using the new gTLD as a forwarder or something then I am all for it.

There are going to be a lot of businesses caught with their pants down when some of these new gTLD's fail. Country codes and .com's have security, you know they will never shut down. The same cannot be said of ANY new gTLD.

So, are you a gambler?

 

[Fancy.domains]

I am pretty sure that domainers still will be able to make good (or great) profit from really good new gTLDs.

And in my opinion, a really good gTLD is a combination of keyword and extension that really makes sense. Example: Biz (dot) community or Book (dot) club.

 

[Leo Angelo]

Leo - I think the horsepower for new TLDs will come from bundling TLDs with specific hosted applications.

The .BLOG is interesting. You have WPEngine charging $290 per year for Wordpress hosting. It is a nice business. Wordpress or others could easily compete there by bundling .BLOG with high performance Wordpress, e.g. enhanced with BitMitigate.com for CDN, DDoS mitigation and site optimization.

The same can apply to most of the other new TLDs. Some registries understand this and are starting to put serious efforts behind platform innovation. In particular, I believe that Donuts will do this following the controlling investment by Abry Partners last year.

I thin niche TLDs like .HEALTH are great candidates for innovative solutions, e.g. around cloud-hosted personal health records where the patient is in control of their data and can share that data with anyone they want, e.g. other caregivers, family members, insurance underwriters, etc in a GDPR compliant way.

Also, keep in mind that if .COM, .ORG and others lose their price caps in the coming years, the gap between TLD prices will go away regardless which will set the stage for accelerated adoption of new TLDs. All that said, I do think the window is closing for this.

There is plenty of room for innovation in this space. The industry should see TLDs acquiring operating companies and moving from primary dependence on registrars for distribution. It is the only real way forward but most registries lack the courage to embrace that reality.

Your input is much appreciated, Rob. The strategies you mention are real and will gradually succeed.
But to force the new GTLDs matter and accelerate the increase of public awareness, it would help to see registries combine resources and conduct a sustained "dot others" marketing campaign.
Visible mass media ads about new GTLDs would go a long way not only with the public but with domainers as well, IMO. The results may even show up sooner than expected.
The challenges of creating such a registries assembly are significant but not unbeatable. If only one major player took the initiative, created a manifesto, etc.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

As of today, I sold 10 nTLD domains to endusers...
~$1K per domain on average.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

As of today, I sold 10 nTLD domains to endusers...
~$1K per domain on average.

Buyers from the following countries:
Australia
India
Philippines
Germany (2 domains)
Russia (2 domains)
USA (3 domains)

 

[johnnie018]

need i say more?

Please say less! You flood forum with trash names.

 

[jmcc]

Leo - I think the horsepower for new TLDs will come from bundling TLDs with specific hosted applications.

The .BLOG is interesting. You have WPEngine charging $290 per year for Wordpress hosting. It is a nice business. Wordpress or others could easily compete there by bundling .BLOG with high performance Wordpress, e.g. enhanced with BitMitigate.com for CDN, DDoS mitigation and site optimization.

It is a good example of a tied TLD, Rob,
The .BLOG is an unusual one in that it has a natural market that ties in with the dominant software in that market.

The same can apply to most of the other new TLDs. Some registries understand this and are starting to put serious efforts behind platform innovation. In particular, I believe that Donuts will do this following the controlling investment by Abry Partners last year.

The main concentration of a lot of registries is now on renewal rates. This is how TLDs live and die.

Also, keep in mind that if .COM, .ORG and others lose their price caps in the coming years, the gap between TLD prices will go away regardless which will set the stage for accelerated adoption of new TLDs. All that said, I do think the window is closing for this.

The .ORG registry made a decision to stop discounting offers (or curtail them) last year. It is beginning to work out. It is getting rid of a lot of noise from the zone and it is stabilising renewal rates. The price cap issue is very tricky. With NGTs with high renewal fees, the renewal rate is quite stable. Low registration and renewal fee NGTs have lower renewal rates. Unlike a lot of the NGTs, the majority of registrations in the NGTs are new. The bulk of registrations in the legacy gTLDs are veteran registrations that have been renewed for a year or more.

There is plenty of room for innovation in this space. The industry should see TLDs acquiring operating companies and moving from primary dependence on registrars for distribution. It is the only real way forward but most registries lack the courage to embrace that reality.

Consolidation is inevitable. The problem is that there are some NGTs that do not seem to be viable in terms of gaining new registrations each month (hundreds rather than the necessary thousands a new TLD needs in its launch phase).

Some of the registries completely underestimated the marketing requirements for new TLDs. Unfortunately there were a lot of spoofers passing themselves off as experts when the NGTs were being dealt with at ICANN level and the ICANN predictions were pure Numerology/Astrology by people who were completely ignorant of the dynamics in the domain name market. The registries cannot bypass their registrars. The number of active registrars in NGTs varies and registars generally limit the shelf space for TLDs. If they are not making money from them, they won't carry them. A large registrar like Godaddy has scale but most of the smaller registrars tend to concentrate on the NGTs that are targeting their markets. If there is to be a big marketing push on the registry side, it will probably focus on the registrars with their own reseller/white lable operations. There are only about 2,500 ICANN accredited registrars but there's around a million or so hosters in the gTLDs. Many of these hosters are small operations that will never spend the money on becoming a fully accredited ICANN registrar. There was a discussion of this kind of outsourcing in the African market at one of the ICANN sessions a few months ago. The market is changing and the gTLDs are no longer the blue chip TLDs in many country level markets as the focus is switching away from .COM towards the local ccTLDs. Unfortunately ICANN's registry-registrar model is about twenty years out of date and needs to be overhauled.

Regards...jmcc

 

[jmcc]

Does anyone see stats that support mass end user adoption other than mass speculator adoption?

Yes.

Also, Giving away .88 cent domains is a desperation move, and like then what happens with .loans filled with Spammers according to Spamhaus.

The problem NGT is .LOAN not .LOANS. In terms of usage, the ex-Famous Four .LOAN NGT is rather low as most of the sites are either adult or gambling affiliates. There are actually some genuine on-topic websites there dealing with loans. Over the next few months, if the new registry management does not resume the discounting model, the .LOAN NGT will lose approximately a million or so registrations. That is a good thing as most of these registrations are problem registrations and damage the credibility of the TLD. The Spamhaus stats apply to e-mail rather than usage. What has happened with these problem registrations is that they have almost completely moved from the legacy gTLDs to the new gTLDs (NGTs) that were running discount operations.

“Schilling informed me that GoDaddy will stop offering Uniregistry top level domain names. This isn’t the first time GoDaddy has dropped Uniregistry names, but it seems they now have put a permanent transition in place.

Basically Frank had to stop thinking like a domainer and start thinking like a registry operator. What he did, as unpleasant as it sounds, was the right thing. A new TLD cannot depend on domainers for all of its registrations. It needs Mom and Pop operations that will develop websites and get the TLD noticed and encourage others to use it.

Regards...jmcc

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Nothing more I can add to it, really

I only can add:

Try to live without NameBio... and without various idols and kings.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I have seen using the newer extensions, an obvious reg fee.
To-cleaning.solutions
Wow! So does that domain name inspire you to contract their services?

I think it is illustrative of the fact that the vast majority of small local businesses are currently choosing a handreg rather than consider purchasing a better domain name (or actually most of them are not even getting a domain name, but using Wix or similar or even a FB page). That is the challenge for our industry, to find a price point and service model where they will consider aftermarket at prices that still make sense for domainers.

In this particular case it does not resonate with me (although to cleaning does have sense). The company name is T&O Cleaning Solutions, so they mean the front to I assume as TO. The name is available without hyphen as hand register, so I presume they deliberately did not like the look without a hyphen.

By the way they previously were on TO-cleaning.com and at least currently they are using that for email although they seem to be using the solutions as their main web presence (it does not redirect to the .com).

Bob

 

[MapleDots]

I have a sense you are a bit biased to .com yourself :P
"Nothing to worry about"?
Now, why would one worry if newtld penetrate? Ppl should know there's a lot of pie, more than enough for newtld and .com and more.
Why does it have to be terrible for .com lover if ntld investors succeed too? What's there to worry about one way or another?

Namebio goes way back.
1.5 million sales totaling $1.7 billion.
-PATHETIC Domaining is still in infancy IMO.

I know ntld will have huge sales in the future, many millions for great names.

If you're talking to me, I am not at all biased because I am open minded but I am also a realist. Fact is there have already has been a number of failures in the new gTLD market and fact is that a number are scheduled to shut down.

Now just imagine your domaining business ran entirely on that new gTLD and that you had thousands invested in signs, business cards, etc.

I don't think any big business will risk that at the moment. The security of old is worth it's weight in gold.

So no, I am not biased but I am a realist and in reality a number of new gTLD's are probably in trouble. This means any business running on those gTLD's are in trouble too.

 

[MapleDots]

It would also make me nervous to own my business on another countries ccTLD

Can you just imagine if Columbia ever had an election and the new person in charge said I am taking back .co for the people of columbia. A lot of businesses would be in a hell of a spot.

 

[HotKey]

Is there a future for new GTLDs?

Of course there will be. And the future is now, it is just not happening on a such large or quick enough scale for people to stand and take notice. It will be one of those processions that one day, we'll all be like.. "holy crap, when did this sneak up on us??" and we'll be virtually surrounded by new G usage everywhere.

I think though, the real question is, is there a future for new GTLD investing? Because this is where the waters are murky, and one must tread with precautions in place.

 

[JayT]

Most sensible people biased to .com!!

When you walk into phone shop are you biased to Apple or Nokia? You are wishful thinking and putting new tld on equal pedestal to .com, you will lose your shirt because these extensions are dirt! Look around you, walk on the street, do you see new tld? Grandmas know what most new tld investors still haven't learnt!

@johnnie018 is full of it. He is bashing newtld at every chance. Now he's wasting our time with presumably FAKE WTB newtld to try trolling us: https://www.namepros.com/threads/new-tld-domains-wanted.1134017/ Don't trust this snake!

 

[jmcc]

And, by increasing prices, Frank actually saved his NGTLDs. From what? From what is hapenning with .xyz or .top : cheap registrations, $0.01 promotions and the like = TONS of spam and other questionable activity = bad reputation = no future.

Higher registration and renewal fees mean that people are less likely to drop domain names and will keep renewing them. It almost kills new registration rates for a few months (and maybe a year or so) after a price rise but the higher cost also means that people might be more inclined to develop sites or use the domain names for e-mail or branding. The higher prices also discourage domaining. That flattens the demand in the first six months of launch (the land rush period) because domainers are not registering and selling domain names and promoting the NGT.

The XYZ zone stuffing was brilliant marketing despite the negative aspects. Discounting is always a tradeoff. The new registrations have to keep ahead of the deletions. The renewal rate for discounted registrations varies according to the discount and can be around 5% or lower. But XYZ targeted the most blue chip registrar first. Many of the registrants who got the free XYZ domain names automatically renewed them so that group of registrations renewed better than most of the registrations on the Chinese registrars (a completely different market and a highly speculative one). The heavy discounting also shifted much of the questionable registration activity away from the legacy gTLDs but XYZ isn't as bad as some of the other NGTs that have been using discounting. There is actual usage taking place on the gTLD because it provides a cheap entry to hosting for businesses and web developers outside the US/CA/EU/AU/NZ markets. They may eventually graduate to a .COM but this is is a market with many country level markets and a cheap .COM registration in one country might appear expensive elsewhere. A cheap .XYZ or whatever might be the most cost efficient way for people to get their business online.

Regards...jmcc

 

[Brands.International]

I also voted for "there is a future for new gTLD names".
Although I think some members here are very impatient...instead of forever discussing whether new gTLDs are worth it or not, I would say just focus on building your own portfolio, so you have at least few great names with low renewals. Nothing more I can add to it, really

 

[jmcc]

Thanks. Would be nice to know who these end users with websites are, then separate out how many redirect to their real company name in a .Com or .ccTLD.

From the March 2019 survey (non-IDN 23,031,257 ):
3.85% Active/unclassified (887,724)
0.025% Brand protection
0.23% Clone (sites from other TLDs)
0.15% Framed redirect
2.40% External TLD redirect
7.46% Not found/Forbidden
17.41% Holding page
2.88% Internal redirect
0.86% Empty
4.45% Affiliate lander
0.9% Exact match redirect (external TLD)
11.01% PPC
3.27% Sale
5.08% HTTPS redirect (1,171,056)
1.56% Unavailable
0.11% Video affiliate/streamer
7.52% Adult Affiliate
0.01% Compromised/hacked
0.04% Social Media
0.43% Same TLD redirect
27.62% No site/no response

Some categories are not included. The external TLD redirect are sites redirecting to a site in another TLD. The exact match redirect is a site redirecting to the same name site in another TLD.

The level of Sales and PPC varies by gTLD. In US/CA, PPC parking is more common. In the Chinese market PPC parking is not as common and many sites are using affilate landers. The 3.85% Active development percentage and the HTTPS percentage are the important ones. Again, the usage varies across the NGTs. Some NGTs tend to use HTTPS by default. It hasn't worked out well with the Google NGTs because of the problem of people using one certificate for multiple sites.

Here is Rick's recent comments:

Show attachment 117419

The NGTs are bleeding registrations are the moment and that's largely due to heavily discounted registrations not being renewed and, in the case of the ex-Famous Four NGTs, not being replaced. There's still a lot of them to drop yet and the next five months or so will be really bad for some of these NGTs. The real problem with the NGTs isn't that domainers and speculators (whether the registry or other large players) own large numbers of domain names in the NGTs. They don't. The real problem is that discounting in some of the larger NGTs obscures development and usage. The NGTs are a set of generic TLDs, domain hacks and geographical/regional gTLDs. The only thing they have in common is that they are gTLDs.

Regards...jmcc

 

[tonyk2000]

7.46% Not found/Forbidden

27.62% No site/no response

These numbers are not necessary accurate. I mean that there may be something (not forbidden etc.) shown to human visitors. With tons of bot-powered traffic looking for vulnerabilities or simply grabbing content, I myself pay special attention to block it either on webserver level (403) or even firewall level (no response), and the bot who run "the March 2019 survey" is likely blocked on my servers for example. I simply do not like to waste resources (such as running php as the result of such a visit) for something that I'm not considering as beneficial... (An example of something I carefully blocked would be bots run by various domainer-servicing businesses). Bots are trying to change useagents or ips, but it does not really help Many site owners are doing the same.
So, there may be noticeably more live websites in a block included into "the March 2019 survey".

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Regarding Ukrainian buyers...
The highest sale I have seen publicly: ALL.BIZ (~$62K) in 2011.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

"for a blog, .blog makes more sense than .com."

As we have seen, differing viewpoint on the topic of the thread, but I think this quote encapsulates the key issue. I think increasingly discerning organizations will select the domain that is the right fit for their operation rather than a one TLD fits all. A middle sized or larger business for their main website will select .com, because that is the right fit. As we have seen, many developers are seeing .dev as the right fit for them. A cooperative will select .coop. I think increasingly organizations will use .org instead of .com. I think this is all positive - in elegant design all parts of the domain name, including the extension, should have meaningful role beyond being a sign of distinction due to cost.

Thanks for starting the thread, @Leo Angelo!
Bob

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Regarding Russia and nTLDs...
Had a few inbound offers + 2 domains (.top & .work, Russian word) sold to the same buyer from Moscow ($973 cumulatively).