new gtlds Mike Mann: “Read my lips gTLDs are D*E*A*D, absolutely no demand!”

[lennco]

Mike Mann shared on Facebook my article about the bad landrush phase that .Blog domains had last week and also shared his views on the New gTLDs in general:

Read my lips gTLDs are D*E*A*D, absolutely no demand! This was the best out of thousands, along with .web and .app Better luck with other snake oil. .Com stays king. If you also voted for Hillary, rough week. TYVMI.

He also made several other comments about new extensions such as:

How about don’t but them at all, they serve no purpose and cause many problems, and waste a lot of time and money.

Now that everyone knows gTLDs are dead, please Google “Mike Mann gTLDs” and you will see I hit the predictions spot on.

He continued by quoting my article:

Ruggh ruoggh, too many scooby snacks: “So the .blog registry made more than $150,000 from the landrush phase. That doesn’t seem bad but the registry spent $19 million to get rights for the .blog new extension.” Not counting millions per year of overhead. Lesson learned, listen to the mann next time and stick with .Com

He then made more comments like:

“Don't renew your fancy new gtld domains. The experiment is over. No material resale market will take root.”

Mike replied to a comment made by Phil Harris

26 million registered and new sites being launched daily .. X.company being used by Google , Rightside stock just raised to buy status by zachs investment firm .. Awareness growing , secondary 6 figure sales being made , Mike I would say you should watch the movie God is not dead ..

by saying

sure sounds like a bubble

Mike today talked about Google and .soy:

Google spent some energy telling me how ".soy" domain extension was going to be the next big thing a while back, I tried to splain what was up….. Not to discount the fine folks, fancy offices, and great buffet. Googs, gimme a buzz, I’m still a know it all.

Drinking own Koolaid instead of listening to grassroots in the streets

Technically I havent checked the sales numbers but lets take a wild guess, dramatically lower than their expenses…….. like I told them nicely before they invested

Konstantinos Zournas November 14, 2016
http://onlinedomain.com/2016/11/14/...nn-read-lips-gtlds-dead-absolutely-no-demand/

 

[Eric Lyon]

(this is my personal opinion) - I have a lot of respect for entrepreneurs that have been in the industry as long as Mike and Rick have. However, as some have pointed out already, they built their empire primarily on .com.

Their public portfolios' confirm that. This means that their primary business model is based on promoting and converting their .com assets, which tends to make their public opinion slightly bias since it would effect their businesses to do otherwise.

It's a smart move on their part. That's in business promotion practices 101. Solid strategy!

New gTLD's may not have much value today, however, the more companies that brand with them and launch mainstream advertising campaigns, the more popular and adaptable they will become.

It's natural to fear change in all aspects of life. Humans get comfortable the way things are and tend to rebel against it.

The realty is that when businesses don't adapt to change, they end up left behind (eventually). Change should be embraced as technology, business platforms, and even domains advance into the future.

Eventually, everything changes and nothing lasts forever. That's a Cold, hard, fact! History proves it through advancements.

At the end of the day, one should keep an open mind and do their own research.

I'm not saying New gTLD's will have more value tomorrow, next year, or even in 5 years, but I am saying that it's inevitable. Eventually, with enough mainstream exposure, they will.

Embrace change!

Happy business building.

 

[deez007]

I think Mike Mann as much as he does have crazy skills with getting premium prices for domains that appear not to be superbly valuable, also needs to openly slate nGTLD's ... it's in his best interest to do so. He owns a massive portfolio of .com domains and he needs to make sure people don't start to consider the alternatives. I'm not saying that nGTLD's are worth more than .coms BUT they do offer alternatives and open up a few more options that people didn't have before. Like in the past if ShoesOnline.com/net/org/info was taken then thats it, if you really wanted that name you had to fork out whatever price the people selling it wanted....now you have the option of grabbing shoes.online or shoesonline.shop or whatever..... so Mike Man has to shout out from the rooftops that nGTLD's are useless waste of time and money in order to try and protect his inventory...... from a purely domaining perspective yes the .com does remain king and likely will not change...however from a business perspective (which is what most end users will be looking at) investing $150 000 on shoesonline.com might not be a better move than spending $10 000 on shoes.online - it comes down to return on investment and from a business perspective... $10k on shoes.online and spending the remaining $140k on marketing the business makes way more sense than dropping $150k on the stand alone .com domain,

Also, Google is obviously pro nGTLD's and they making a point of using them... they are pushing for people to become more comfortable with seeing nGTLD's ...now obviously we all know that Big G practically owns the Internet, if they want to promote something then you can sure as well bet it's going to get promoted to a level that would make the Oprah effect look like kindergarten.

 

[gilescoley]

I agree with him too....dont renew them unless you have a perfect name that makes perfect sense like Used.Cars.

 

[deez007]

Mike is more right then you may like

but its not about liking this time
if you need a second opinion then ask Rick Schwartz

Keep in mind that both Rick Schwartz and Mike have a vested interest in knocking nGTLD's as they are both heavily invested in their .com portfolios.

What I am trying to get at is that off course they will not be as valuable as a .com but this does not make them worthless. This doesn't apply to the people going out and registering stupid domain names that make no sense like forex.dentist or dumb@ss stuff like that. Im talking specifically of GOOD domains stuff like @gilescoley mentioned used.cars

People making the mistake of painting all nTLD's with the same brush... some of them are really good.. like .online / .club etc.. but some are not so good... its important not to put them all in the same bucket.

Lets use cars an analogy.

Mercedes/Audi/Bmw/Lexus/Jaguar/Infinity/etc.... are all luxury car brands, great quality cars and they have a model range wide enough to cater for just about everyones needs... so does that mean... all the other car makes are usless pieces of sh*t cars and there is no market for them at all and they should all just take a hike because the manufactures I mention above can cater for the entire market?

Off course not.... whilst everyone knows the brands I mentioned are the premier brands, there is still a massive market for people who don't want or can not spend that amount of money and are more than happy to drive around in a Toyota/VW/Hundai/Kia etc... does this mean they are cr@p cars? nope...they just cater for a different market....

 

[Fancy.domains]

So pointless with guys who do not invest in new gTLDs themselves to know all about that market. Just a fraction of the sales are mentioned at Namebio etc. I do report about 10-15% of my own sales. I am personally much more succesful with my new gTLDs than my .COM names.

Mann is one hell of a domainer, but he is obviously biased.

 

[deez007]

Mike Mann: “Read my lips gTLDs are D*E*A*D, absolutely no demand!”

I'm wondering how Mike wants us to "read his lips" when his statement was a text comment on a social media platform, if he wanted us to actually read his lips he should have uploaded a video.

See, Mike is not some almighty superior being who sh*ts ice cream, a highly talented domainer no doubt but still a human being who is prone to mistakes and being wrong.

Lets not forget that his is also open and often boastful of this constant TM infringing domains. So he has no problem squatting on an existing brand for the benefit of his own pocket. Why do people assume he wont deliberately make negative comments about gTLD's not because he actually believes it but to protect his own investments, protect his pocket?

 

[Fancy.domains]

maybe he is jst not interested in $500 USD sales...

No, with the massive number of names he has, he would be bankrupt in no time with XXX sales.

Mann has been a hard working domainer for more than two decades and he deserve all success. I have no problem if he is doing a hundred times more money than me, but still I make an ok profit from new gTLDs and I am not alone.

 

[d-e-x]

No, with the massive number of names he has, he would be bankrupt in no time with XXX sales.

Mann has been a hard working domainer for more than two decades and he deserve all success. I have no problem if he is doing a hundred times more money than me, but still I make an ok profit from new gTLDs and I am not alone.

Nope, you are not
Last two months - 9 gTLD sales, total ROI - $4100 Not bad

(If we count .info than much more)

 

[emile123]

I have more success with new gtlds too.
If others have more success with .coms thats good for them. I stick with the new gtlds.

 

[frank-germany]

maybe he is just not interested in $500 USD sales...

 

[disaac81]

Finally this trademark abuser says something that makes sense...well done Mann for stating the obvious. Think that makes you a guru? No sadly not.

I sold 2 names yesterday from my website, yet I have less than 200 names on there. Do I shout from the rooftops? No. It is business.

Mann has 300,000+ names and still feels the need to abuse trademarks. Desperate. Unprofessional. Lame.

 

[Melinda Cohea]

I think Mike Mann as much as he does have crazy skills with getting premium prices for domains that appear not to be superbly valuable, also needs to openly slate nGTLD's ... it's in his best interest to do so. He owns a massive portfolio of .com domains and he needs to make sure people don't start to consider the alternatives. I'm not saying that nGTLD's are worth more than .coms BUT they do offer alternatives and open up a few more options that people didn't have before. Like in the past if ShoesOnline.com/net/org/info was taken then thats it, if you really wanted that name you had to fork out whatever price the people selling it wanted....now you have the option of grabbing shoes.online or shoesonline.shop or whatever..... so Mike Man has to shout out from the rooftops that nGTLD's are useless waste of time and money in order to try and protect his inventory...... from a purely domaining perspective yes the .com does remain king and likely will not change...however from a business perspective (which is what most end users will be looking at) investing $150 000 on shoesonline.com might not be a better move than spending $10 000 on shoes.online - it comes down to return on investment and from a business perspective... $10k on shoes.online and spending the remaining $140k on marketing the business makes way more sense than dropping $150k on the stand alone .com domain,

Also, Google is obviously pro nGTLD's and they making a point of using them... they are pushing for people to become more comfortable with seeing nGTLD's ...now obviously we all know that Big G practically owns the Internet, if they want to promote something then you can sure as well bet it's going to get promoted to a level that would make the Oprah effect look like kindergarten.

Exactly. As a domainer, 90% of my portfolio is dot com BUT had it not been for the the new gTLD boom, I would have
never been able to acquire a good 3-letter domain like owe.tax
I've only been investing in domains for a couple years, and on a waitressing income at that. Of course all the good short dot com's we're taken light years ago... I would have had to have 6 figures to even get involved with any good short domains... So it gave new domainers like me great opportunity. Another good example: SelfPromo.com was taken 14+ Years ago, so I jumped at the opportunity for "self.promo", its shorter anyways. Any two words that go together well, especially when they are a frequently queried search phrase, separated by one simple dot are beautiful web addresses, that are being sold in mid 5-figures currently, so I agree with you, good gTLDs are by no means dead. To the contrary, they are the wave of the future. Dot com's will always be the wave of the future, that goes without saying. But new gTLDs are as well, when purchased carefully.

The possibilities in longer phrases is cool too, if you can find really good ones. While CyberRealEstate.com was taken 13+ years ago, a small town waitress such as myself can find and invest in something even shorter that displays very nicely: CyberReal.estate

While InternetSecuritySystems.com was taken 16+ years ago, I was able to acquire InternetSecurity.systems

I think the bottom line is, whether we're talking about dot com's or "everything else", only buy domains that make sense. Even dot com's are no good if the domain doesn't make sense.

 

[Adam h]

If you have spent 2 decades acquiring real estate of a particular flavour and hold as much stock as Mike does, you are hardly going to start telling everyone there is value anywhere else other than what you hold.

There is/will be value in gTLD's, maybe or maybe not on such a significant price structure but time will tell.....Individuals have plenty of room for making cash with them while the big boys like Mike are promoting what they have most of. It's not always about the domain, there are domains Mike has sold which everyone here would have given $50 valuation for, if you can sell Ice to Eskimo's then you will make money regardless.

Mikes banging of the drum has business interests in promoting his large stock-pile, there is no denying he's done amazing and has a world of knowledge and contacts in the business. But IMO his word advising the industry which direction it's heading should be taken with a pinch of salt.

.com is king don't get me wrong, but there is good money to be made elsewhere.

 

[briguy]

He sure sounds like a "straight shooter".

 

[frank-germany]

Mike is more right then you may like

but its not about liking this time
if you need a second opinion then ask Rick Schwartz

 

[Kate]

Also, Google is obviously pro nGTLD's and they making a point of using them... they are pushing for people to become more comfortable with seeing nGTLD's ...

Yet we can see that little progress has been made in 3 years. Remember what they said on NP a while back ?
"In 3-5 years new extensions will be mainstream"
"The floodgates are open"
"Unprecedented choice"
"Revolution"
"Backed by heavyweights" (so what ? .mobi was 'backed' too)
"It's the end of .com"

Keep in mind that both Rick Schwartz and Mike have a vested interest in knocking nGTLD's as they are both heavily invested in their .com portfolios.

I don't think that end users are listening to MM or even know him. They have figured out for themselves what they want to use for their business ventures.
IMO those who say that are precisely those who are heavily invested in new TLDs, and they are looking for validation of their choices because they are feeling insecure (not without reason though).

maybe he is just not interested in $500 USD sales...

So making XXXX per month from .com is good but bad from new gTLDs?

Seriously, I don't get it at all.

The problem with new extensions:

• they are harder to sell than .com, so the risk of no sale is high
• they often carry more expensive fees, so the costs of holding a portfolio quickly add up and eats at your bottom line.

Where I live (Europe), ccTLDs are dominant. So the .com vs new gTLDs debate doesn't even make sense. People are ignoring new extensions.

 

[Fancy.domains]

they are harder to sell than .com, so the risk of no sale is high

Not for me and obviously not for a few other guys in this thread.

Where I live (Europe), ccTLDs are dominant. So the .com vs new gTLDs debate doesn't even make sense. People are ignoring new extensions.

I am not 100% sure, but I truly think that I have sold more new gTLDs to Europeans, than to Americans and Asians combined.

I agree that ccTLDs are popular in Europe. I used to have a portfolio with mainly ccTLDs before.

 

[S-B]

if you would own "theIndiaStory.com" if you would have thought that this is a good domain
would you have priced it at $ 5K USD ????

Mike did and sold today

I want to learn rather from Mike then from you

That doesn't mean that he is smart. It just means the buyer was not smart.

 

[internext]

“Don't renew your fancy new gtld domains. The experiment is over. No material resale market will take root.”

I could not agree more. Com is king and there is no changing that any time soon.

 

[lennco]

That doesn't mean that he is smart. It just means the buyer was not smart.

Mann was smart enough to find a Not-So Smart buyer.

 

[Fancy.domains]

BUT for all the niched new gTLDs; bad keyword - new extention combinations will not sell. Not now and not later. These are probably just a waste of time and money.

 

[garptrader]

The breakeven sales price assuming 1% turn and $10 renewals with 20% marketplace commissions is an average sale of $1250 - an amount which would likely be reported by many nTLD holders. Many new TLDs have much higher renewals than $10 which would require higher average sales prices or higher turn. For example, a 100-domain nTLD portfolio with $40 average renewals would need a $5000 sale just to break even.

Let us assume 20 million aftermarket new TLDs

1% turn would translate into 200 thousand new TLD aftermarket sales annually - nearly 4000 weekly

We are now three years into the new TLD experiment - 34 months plus

Instead of dozens of threads of your latest new TLD registration, we should have a thread with new TLD sales with tens of thousands of personal (not registry) sales. Could someone point me to that thread?

Excluding reported registry sales which sometimes are dubious or merely brand protection registrations, how many domainer-held aftermarket new TLD sales do you see reported each week? Do you see thousands of aftermarket new TLD sales on each weekly DNJ report? Hundreds?

Those who learned a little about domain selection before new TLDs were rolled out may have some sales. However, we clearly do not see evidence that new TLDs are generating the sort of turn needed to maintain the portfolio with sales revenue. Yet renewal costs are often higher than .COM. Why would you pay higher cost for inferior results?

 

[Recons.Com]

Small percentage of .gTLDs are used for startups.. This could be evidence of how they will be consumed.
So, It's not completely DEAD but there is less significantly demand than it's expectation.. On the contrary ccTLDs are doing far better than gTLDs ... It's not worth to invest on gTLDs at the moment..But difficult to guess in 5 years from now..

Thanks for the illustration.

You can invest in .com and compete for a sale to a startup out of 818 in next period or you can invest in ALL gtlds to compete for a sale to a startup out of 25 in the same period.

And, of course, it is not about exact numbers of 818 and 25 and it is not about funded startups only, it is about ratios. For every .gtld sale there are 33 .com sales.

Now add on top that a .gtld normally has to be an exceptional quality one, differing from just made up .com very often, and those exceptional quality ones require exceptional renewal fees.

So what you are left with as a gtld investor? 33 times less chance of a sale with renewal costs that can be 10 times or more higher. And now also remember that chance of sale for .com is not very high either (0.5%-2% for most) and renewal costs add up to tens of thousands for portfolios of x,xxx size and you can see that, with the exception of handful, you are setting up yourself for a loss bigly.

 

[guillon]

One day, someone said cars would never replace horses.