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?

 

[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.

 

[Grego85]

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

 

[Leo Angelo]

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

.com was created for commercial websites, .org for mostly non-commercial organizations, .edu for educational institutions, .mil - military. There is little doubt in my mind that .com will always be the king of commercial domains.

 

[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.

 

[johnnie018]

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

Good luck to you, no chance in domains.

 

[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?

 

[JayT]

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.

 

[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.

 

[JayT]

The failures are mostly overplayed. These are private, non open for public reg that are shutting down, for the most part. I am not afraid of something like .horse shutting down, personally. Even if it did, it's easy to diversify as a DOMAINER. Even an enduser, and developer, if you're into it all.

A lot of others are touting some of the new TLD like googles being MORE secure. I have no opinion on that, but maybe.

 

[MapleDots]

Even if it did, it's easy to diversify as a DOMAINER.

Domainers are the least of the issue, we are probably the most adaptable.

I know a business completely running on .associates
Everything in every ad, the website, everything is on .associates and they have no backup domain. They do not own their name in any older extensions.

Personally that would make me a bit nervous.

 

[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.

 

[johnnie018]

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.

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!

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

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

 

[JayT]

Nice. the .com ppl best argument is it will never be .com lol. It doesn't need to be .com. It can have 100,000 regs and sell a few for 5,6,7 figure and be a smashing success for the domainer. It doesn't need to be on 'the pedestal' at all...not at all.

Look at them like tuna. Some get put in a can, a few are worth millions. You just have to be good enough! Who here can differentiate a million dollar tuna from a canned one? Probably no1 lol!

 

[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.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Yes, they traditionally use .com.co since the beginning...
Just in 2010 .co was opened... and it mainly used by foreigners...

 

[offthehandle]

There are so many of these threads, and many angles to consider.

Does anyone see stats that support mass end user adoption other than mass speculator adoption? History with price increases in 2017 does not support market confidence. History does repeat itself. Also, Giving away .88 cent domains is a desperation move, and like then what happens with .loans filled with Spammers according to Spamhaus.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/88-cent-domains-how-many-are-you-buying.1021822/

https://www.namepros.com/threads/16-new-tlds-will-get-price-increases-of-up-to-3-000.1005439/

Godaddy delisted some of them for awhile. And then back pedaled.

“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.

GoDaddy stopped offering new registrations of Uniregistry TLDs in March due to Uniregistry’s planned price hikes, but then added them back in with high prices. While new registrations are available as of today, this will soon be switched off.”

https://www.namepros.com/threads/go...-all-uniregistry-strings-permanently.1036335/

 

[tonyk2000]

Imho, only some of "short" new gtls may survive in a long run. Such as dot club or dot web (should it become live someday). "Long" extensions like .horse and the like - will unlikely survive. Current registration numbers are poor if the extension is long. Moreover, "short" extensions like .xyz or .top, even though gained many registrations due to cheap or free giveaways, did not yet gain any reputation and are frequently 100% blocked in corporate firewalls both for web and, most notably, incoming emails (from)... too many spam. So their future is questionable.

 

[Leo Angelo]

China. Besides the usual criteria, such as previous sales, renewal fee, number of registrations, I also check if the TLD is approved in China when considering a new GTLD investment. Not a show stopper if it's not, but it weighs, especially if the SLD is short, or numeric, or even a pinyin.

 

[dotappguy]

you guys do realize that 80% of the world isn't connected to the internet. As technology penetration increases, so will the demands for digital real estate.

 

[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]

you guys do realize that 80% of the world isn't connected to the internet. As technology penetration increases, so will the demands for digital real estate.

Hope people in Ethiopia buy your .app? How about people with antenna in ghetto?

Stat wrong also, now only 40% not online.

 

[dotappguy]

Hope people in Ethiopia buy your .app? How about people with antenna in ghetto?

Stat wrong also, now only 40% not online.

the people in the ghetto will be connecting to .app domains through my service satellite.app

 

[dotappguy]

people in the ghetto will also be buying and selling electricity from electricity.app