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/

 

[disaac81]

I


I sell a lot of domains that I don t talk about

So what ?


Thank you Mike for letting us know your mindset

So nothing.

You can learn from Mann if you want, your choice.

 

[dtagr]

Still ignoring the new gTLD's. Still making my money on .com/.ca

 

[Fancy.domains]

I own lea.name
I had a lot of .mobi and .tel and .biz

now tell me what better with a .club?

Personally, I think .club is great for clubs, just as .org is great for organizations and so on.

 

[tonyk2000]

It is of course always interesting to read opinions of industry veterans, like Mike Mann or Frank Schilling, on different business aspects. In this particular case, however, one can imagine some "parallel universe" where mr. Mann founded one or more new-gtld registries, while mr. Schilling did not. They both would say exactly the opposite. Since in our universe it is natural for mr. Schilling to support new gtlds and for mr. Mann to say they are dead, I'd give higher weight to more "independent" opinions. For example, while one can register .shop domains on Godaddy (if searched directly for some-term.shop), they would NOT offer such an alternative if "some-term" with no extention is searched. They would offer "some-term.store" variant though, at least for my IP-country. So, what makes GD think that .store is better (vs .shop)? And of course .xyz is right there in offers list.
If GD bothered to comment, this would be interesting

I really like new cheap gtlds in fact So many spam with these new extensions that are given away for $0.99 or so - which builds even less value in enduser eyes

 

[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.

 

[deez007]

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).

Thats the thing though, I am not heavily invested in n TLD's ...I do own a fair amount of them but not all heavily invested, I own more .com and ccTLD's so I am not biased to new TLD's. I simply see the value in them. Has the uptake been huge no, not as quickly as many expected...a slow start does not at all imply something is destined to fail. Bitcoin took a good few years to gain momentum... and investment "guru's" like Warren Buffet said it will NEVER take off, it will fail and people should be weary of investing in it. ... he is just one of the many financial and investment gurus who said bitcoin was waste of time...

 

[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.

 

[urlurl]

i think the new gtld's are only good for shorteners. ie; i have *****Club.com so i picked up *****.club

 

[frank-germany]

Personally, I think .club is great for clubs, just as .org is great for organizations and so on.

so then .name is great for names and .mobi is great for mobile webpages and .tel is great for businesscard type websites

but it is not !!

 

[frank-germany]

It is of course always interesting to read opinions of industry veterans, like Mike Mann or Frank Schilling, on different business aspects. In this particular case, however, one can imagine some "parallel universe" where mr. Mann founded one or more new-gtld registries, while mr. Schilling did not. They both would say exactly the opposite. Since in our universe it is natural for mr. Schilling to support new gtlds and for mr. Mann to say they are dead, I'd give higher weight to more "independent" opinions. For example, while one can register .shop domains on Godaddy (if searched directly for some-term.shop), they would NOT offer such an alternative if "some-term" with no extention is searched. They would offer "some-term.store" variant though, at least for my IP-country. So, what makes GD think that .store is better (vs .shop)? And of course .xyz is right there in offers list.
If GD bothered to comment, this would be interesting

I really like new cheap gtlds in fact So many spam with these new extensions that are given away for $0.99 or so - which builds even less value in enduser eyes

Mr Schilling, Mr Mann and Mr Schwartz

all of them are equaly able to register new tlds
as much as youn and me

so I think your argument is weak

 

[frank-germany]

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

 

[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.

 

[frank-germany]

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

come on

why can't you let him be smart?
it won't hurt you

 

[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.

 

[elevator]

Don't you know what ever a leading guy on sales always make sense to multitude and not because they are not smart. The world tends to listening to reach people rather than average person, simply, that is why he is able to sell "theIndiaStory.com" for such a price and many other domains that are less quality for premium price.

 

[elevator]

I


I sell a lot of domains that I don t talk about

So what ?


Thank you Mike for letting us know your mindset

But you should know that it is good to learn from the industry gurus rather than any one else. Yee!

 

[Fancy.domains]

so then .name is great for names and .mobi is great for mobile webpages and .tel is great for businesscard type websites

but it is not !!

Name is at least ok for name sites. Much worse than .com, but ok. Mobile websites do almost not exist anymore as responsive design has been standard for several years, so .mobi is dead apart from very short names that might interest other domainers. .Tel has never been a good choice IMO.

However, clubs and organizations are huge phenomenons and these will always be around. BTW, I sold a .club to a European entertainment venue just the other day.

 

[frank-germany]

Name is at least ok for name sites. Much worse than .com, but ok. Mobile websites do almost not exist anymore as responsive design has been standard for several years, so .mobi is dead apart from very short names that might interest other domainers. .Tel has never been a good choice IMO.

However, clubs and organizations are huge phenomenons and these will always be around. BTW, I sold a .club to a European entertainment venue just the other day.

I don't doubt you sell it and do OK

I doubt they do well

 

[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.

 

[Lysted]

Glad more people have realized it sooner than later and they still are springing them up by dozen. Who is pushing for these? Is there a public demand for these?

 

[ezcoms]

I said it a while ago. Especially, why would anyone type in these long domains plus their extension? If you establish a website or brand with .top or anything like that, make sure your SEO top notched. I make adult sites. I've never gone to a rival unless it was an adult pop up ad with .xyz --- that's it. .com, .net .org --- and even maybe a .so ...

 

[RU]

 

[garptrader]

There is limited demand but between many reserved names, premium prices and/or renewals and a general unwillingness to pay a premium even for a .COM, domain, investing in new TLDs is not going to work out well for most investors.

Domain investments come down to portfolio turn, average sales price and renewal costs. Compared to a .COM portfolio, a new TLDs portfolio will generally see lower turn, higher per domain renewal costs and average sales prices no better than .COM.

My experience with .Net is they almost never sell for more than low $XXX so it just does not make sense to hold many. With .TV, sales prices are comparable to .COM but the renewal cost is more than three times .COM so carrying costs make them too expensive. With .Info, noone wants them at any price. Why are a thousand .Whatevers going to garner a premium selling price when a potential buyer has hundreds of competing non-.COM TLDs to choose from?

Regardless there are a few domainers who have been extremely selective and beaten the odds. For me new TLDs are just too risky and most nTLD portfolios are going to burn to ashes in time.

 

[PoliticalVII]

What is a gTLD ? never heard of it, i only recognize .com

 

[Kate]

Somebody said GTLD = Good To Lose Dinero. Don't have the source handy.