new gtlds Mike Mann Thinks New gTLDs Will Confuse Consumers

[News]

The new gTLD domains can sound very good and their industry can grow a bit for a while, but in the long run the sites launched with these extensions will confuse consumers and make the site owners look like scammers or weak unintelligent companies that cant afford a .com.

Here is an objective metric for you, all the Fortune 500 companies with the worlds best marketing people use .Com and still will a year from now and the year following...

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[coconut]

Can't wait for ICANN to roll out hundreds/thousands more gTLDs.

 

[Jasonn]

I think domainers should not want ngtlds to succeed. The system is setup in a way that lets the registry act as a domainer without the need for a middleman.

Under the ngtlds domainers are mostly obsolete, dinosaurs if you want.

agreed. even if you think new gtlds are the future and you love the way they look or whatever, if you are a domain investor, their agenda is to replace you at the registry level.

 

[brindle123]

.online=.web
.pic=.picture=.photo
.tech=.technology
.cam=.camera
.accountant=.accountants
.car=.cars
.biz=.business

etc, etc, etc....
This is absolutely confusing to Everyone!! Plus the pricing on some of the renewals is confusing. These were rolled out not to help the industry. They were rolled out to fill the pockets of those that have been in the business long enough to know that domainers will empty their wallets to get a domain that they couldn't get in the .com!

Assuming my company's name is Data Tech and I check for name availability but discover name is already registered by anther company, what will come to my mind is to go for its accronym which is dt - a name already taken by another company. At thttps://www.namepros.com/threads/mike-mann-thinks-new-gtlds-will-confuse-consumers.922431/page-3his point, what am I supposed to do - to spell my company name backward or what? I certainly will not in the name of trying to share same extension with fortune 500 companies come up with any weird name.

So what DO you do? Do you buy DATATECH.xyz and lose business to DATATECH.com? NO!
Do you pay the ransom for DATA.tech or DATA.technology? And have to pay $1000's in renewal fees! NO!
You make up a brandable .com domain name or pay for one with regular renewal fees in the dot com!

Any decent keyword nGTLD is just as expensive as buying the dot com. Plus the nGTLD has crazy pricing pyramids that confuse everyone. If you as a domainer buys DATA.tech for $100,000 with $5,000 renewal fees, what do think will happen when you try to sell it to anyone else? You have to explain a Huge renewal fee to them. They will just look for a cheaper .tech with normal renewal pricing.

 

[Domain Galleria]

@brindle123 I totally agree with you but my own point is from the angle of being a business owner. Full time domainers can never be comfortable with the current trend as they are being made scapegoats. I bought some .online domains but being a businessman, I have plan B for them - online stores. If they don't sell as expected, i turn them to online stores and recoup my money (this is the primary reason I didnt buy into others as they may not fit into my plan B)
Some might see that as a dumb idea but to me it is a business strategy

 

[decode]

Ya, so consumers, aka human beings, are smart enough to understand how to type in a url.
People are smart enough to understand how to recognize a url.
The only confusing thing is why people think more choice is bad.
People think the new dn ext are unique and they give a nice value add.

Next gen of users don't associate online behavior with domains anyways. They associate online activity with apps and are mostly in the walled gardens of FB, Instagram and Snapchat.

If anything these new domains will help all domains retain and increase in value because it gives users choice. When the next gen of users start leaving the walled gardens and find all these choices it will be a major plus for the industry.

Choice helps the entire industry. Unless you are just sitting on a treasure trove of 1995 hand reg'd .com names, then by all means run from the future.

We will see alt ext. domains sell for more than the .com counterpart at some point.

It's not one vs. the other anyway. Some will choose an alt ext some will pick nothing but the .com

Anyone under 22 doesn't care, they will just want the coolest name, knowing if they do good work people will find their site.

Remember FB started off with a the in the front of the domain. Twitter started off as a misspelling. The new ext will see start-ups using them to get going and will likely see many staying away from .com for various reasons. Others like regular businesses with clients 30+ years old will need the .com for many years for understandable reasons.

Here is a great example of a co using .io and they have a totally awesome new concept disrupting the old school learning industry.
http://www.appacademy.io

 

[decode]

Just for all those still confused about the importance of google using
abc.xyz

This site (abc.xyz) houses all the shareholder docs, this is the most regulated part of their business.
So the fact that the internets top co is trusting it to .xyz is all anyone should need to understand how legit new ext are.

 

[Chris Rice]

The Fall of Dot Com (Verisign)

Feb 15, 2016
Pete Prestipino

Verisign, the registry operator for the .com top-level domain extension, reported strong earnings last week and in many ways they have China to thank; but the outlook isn't totally positive.

Domain names in the zone for .com and .net together grew 6.3 percent year over year (YoY) in the reported quarter to 139.8 million. Verisign processed 12.2 million new domain name registrations for .com and .net in Q4, an increase from 8.2 million in the year-ago quarter.

Verisign added just 4.6 million net new names in Q4 after deletions and its renewal rate for the fourth quarter was 71.9 percent, down 10 basis points (bps) YoY.

The registry warned that it might have a decrease in the net base in Q4 2016 as the Chinese registrations from last quarter come up for renewal.

- See more at: http://www.websitemagazine.com/m/bl...Name=the-fall-of-dot-com#sthash.Lr5IzWOS.dpuf

 

[Recons.Com]

The Fall of Dot Com (Verisign)

Feb 15, 2016
Pete Prestipino

Verisign, the registry operator for the .com top-level domain extension, reported strong earnings last week and in many ways they have China to thank; but the outlook isn't totally positive.

Domain names in the zone for .com and .net together grew 6.3 percent year over year (YoY) in the reported quarter to 139.8 million. Verisign processed 12.2 million new domain name registrations for .com and .net in Q4, an increase from 8.2 million in the year-ago quarter.

Verisign added just 4.6 million net new names in Q4 after deletions and its renewal rate for the fourth quarter was 71.9 percent, down 10 basis points (bps) YoY.

The registry warned that it might have a decrease in the net base in Q4 2016 as the Chinese registrations from last quarter come up for renewal.

- See more at: http://www.websitemagazine.com/m/bl...Name=the-fall-of-dot-com#sthash.Lr5IzWOS.dpuf

Wow! Way to go to put a negative spin on totally positive info for .com

.Com/.Net have increased their registrations by 4.6MM net in just a quarter, about 3% growth from already huge starting point and that is with 95%+ of registrations done at $8-35 range, differing from .xyz, .top and others where 95% or registrations are at $0-2 range and they still cumulatively didn't add that many names in the quarter.

 

[Chris Rice]

Wow! Way to go to put a negative spin on totally positive info for .com.

If you've read all of Verisign's recent press releases and filings, it's not totally positive.

 

[Recons.Com]

If you've read all of Verisign's recent press releases and filings, it's not totally positive.

Yeah, and being not totally positive is a very negative thing, right?

 

[Chris Rice]

Yeah, and being not totally positive is a very negative thing, right?

You said it was totally positive but you were wrong, it was not. I just posted a news article. I am not the author but agree that he made valid points.

Verisign: What goes up might come down

BY ANDREW ALLEMANN — FEBRUARY 12, 2016 DOMAIN SERVICES 5 COMMENTS

Strong end of 2015 could make for a challenging end to 2016.

.Com domain name registry Verisign reported Q4 results after the bell yesterday.

Thanks to Chinese domain name investors, the company had 12.2 million new domain name registrations for .com and .net last quarter, as compared to 8.2 million for the same quarter in 2014. This boosted its base of .com and .net by 4.6 million after deletions.

Verisign does not expect this surge to continue. It expects a return to normalcy in Q1, with net additions of 1.5 million to 2.0 million in Q1 2016.

It also warned that it might actually have adecrease in the net base in Q4 2016 as the Chinese registrations from last quarter come up for renewal. It’s hard to predict how many will be renewed, but the company noted that:

1. Renewal rates in emerging countries are usually lower than elsewhere.

2. First-year renewal rates are lower than domains that have been renewed before, about 50%.

Will these domains be different, given that the reason for their registration was very different than most domains? Maybe. But Verisign execs noted that if only half are renewed, this could easily push .com/.net into negative territory for the quarter.

If .Com finally goes negative, it might be just a one-quarter blip. It certainly will give new top level domain name companies the ability to say .com has peaked. If so, Verisign might have wished the Q4 2015 surge never happened.

 

[tomcarl]

Whoever wants to sell off/liquidate their Premium .coms which are doomed so they have more money to acquire gTLDs, feel free to PM me.

 

[GravityEleven]

Here's my prediction and I'll quote this post in a year or two from now to see if I'm psychic. Chinese are going to start taking interest in English keyword dot coms as international investments just like regular Real Estate. We'll see a huge aftermarket sales spike like never seen before.

This is actually my big bet for the next 2-3 years, still hurrying to position myself right

 

[Recons.Com]

You said it was totally positive but you were wrong, it was not. I just posted a news article. I am not the author but agree that he made valid points.

Verisign: What goes up might come down

BY ANDREW ALLEMANN — FEBRUARY 12, 2016 DOMAIN SERVICES 5 COMMENTS

Strong end of 2015 could make for a challenging end to 2016.

.Com domain name registry Verisign reported Q4 results after the bell yesterday.

Thanks to Chinese domain name investors, the company had 12.2 million new domain name registrations for .com and .net last quarter, as compared to 8.2 million for the same quarter in 2014. This boosted its base of .com and .net by 4.6 million after deletions.

Verisign does not expect this surge to continue. It expects a return to normalcy in Q1, with net additions of 1.5 million to 2.0 million in Q1 2016.

It also warned that it might actually have adecrease in the net base in Q4 2016 as the Chinese registrations from last quarter come up for renewal. It’s hard to predict how many will be renewed, but the company noted that:

1. Renewal rates in emerging countries are usually lower than elsewhere.

2. First-year renewal rates are lower than domains that have been renewed before, about 50%.

Will these domains be different, given that the reason for their registration was very different than most domains? Maybe. But Verisign execs noted that if only half are renewed, this could easily push .com/.net into negative territory for the quarter.

If .Com finally goes negative, it might be just a one-quarter blip. It certainly will give new top level domain name companies the ability to say .com has peaked. If so, Verisign might have wished the Q4 2015 surge never happened.

So them cautioning their investors that the big bump might be a one time thing is negative news, while .xyz totally inflated total number of sales is positive news?

 

[tomcarl]

This is actually my big bet for the next 2-3 years, still hurrying to position myself right

I edited it out because I didn't think it was time to give away the big secret

 

[Domain Galleria]

I edited it out because I didn't think it was time to give away the big secret

...already an open secret.

 

[Fancy.domains]

He has a point. I also think all these extensions are confusing. IMO, they should have been limited.

Mann has made loads of money from his dot com portfolio and still is. He was early into this game, and seriously, why should HE even consider a change?! However, if you spend a lot of time and have some knowledge, there are some money to be made from new gTLDs + ccTLDs as well. Ok, probably not even close to the amounts that these pioneers made and makes, who started investing in short .COMs 20 years ago, but still enough to make some extra cash or even your living.

Still, he has a point

 

[Recons.Com]

Mann has made loads of money from his dot com portfolio and still is. He was early into this game, and seriously, why should HE even consider a change?!

However, if you spend a lot of time and have some knowledge, there are some money to be made from new gTLDs + ccTLDs as well. Ok, probably not even close to the amounts that these pioneers made and makes, who started investing in short .COMs 20 years ago, but still enough to make some extra cash or even your living.

Kohsamui, you are one of the few who are honest and consistent regarding the new gtld and are doing it the right way.

You are not trying to hype them as a new coming of .com. You are pretty much focusing on either very short ngtlds or where it is a meaningful hack of a valuable keyword+keyword.com and you mostly make sure that the renewal fees are adequate/cheap.

Others are trying to mislead the public an investors to think that .com is dying, they should fast invest into gtlds. They are happy for others to invest and probably lose millions of dollars for them to make just fraction of that by hyping the value of more valuable ones they hold.

 

[TRY]

He should have sold his portfolio to GoDaddy like TheDomains did. Maybe his profit margin is top small?

Godaddy didn't want his newgtlds, Why?

 

[Chris Rice]

Godaddy didn't want his newgtlds, Why?

They have a different investment philosophy and are focusing more on established products like .com's.

I am sure they got a good deal since they purchased his whole portfolio (.com) but you have to admit, TheDomains would never purchase his portfolio for the price he sold it for (too expensive). In that sense, GoDaddy bought at an expensive price.

I am doing my best to be in the category of TheDomains, not GoDaddy. I am an investor, not a traditional business with upsells and add-ons. So when TheDomains sells his entire portfolio at the highest price peak in history, it is definitely a market signal. It's only one of the signals that you can find in the market but it is still a valid one.

 

[brindle123]

@brindle123 I totally agree with you but my own point is from the angle of being a business owner. Full time domainers can never be comfortable with the current trend as they are being made scapegoats. I bought some .online domains but being a businessman, I have plan B for them - online stores. If they don't sell as expected, i turn them to online stores and recoup my money (this is the primary reason I didnt buy into others as they may not fit into my plan B)
Some might see that as a dumb idea but to me it is a business strategy

If it makes you money don't worry what others think or say, get that green!

When .xyz renewal fees go up there will be tons of drops. They had to sell them at $1 each so people would buy them. It won't make any sense to renew most of them if they go up to $8 or $10 renewal fees. The only reason they had the numbers they did on registrations was because of the cheap initial pricing. You could get 100 domains for $100, but when you have to pay $1000 for those same domains, you will think twice. Plus there will be something new being pushed on us for a "great price".

 

[Recons.Com]

I think, actually, .xyz will not go for $8-10 straight away. Negara is smart. I think what he will do is keep providing $1-2 renewals. If he goes greedy and exposes the tld by killing 80% of renewals, he might make a bit more, but in the process of milking he'll kill the cow.

.xyz, .club seem to make business smarter way and they may survive as yet another alternative for niche uses.

 

[Fancy.domains]

I think, actually, .xyz will not go for $8-10 straight away. Negara is smart. I think what he will do is keep providing $1-2 renewals.

They have been available for more than 20 months already and the renewals is and has been about $9 - $11 all the time. Namecheap charge $9.88.

 

[Recons.Com]

They have been available for more than 20 months already and the renewals is and has been about $9 - $11 all the time. Namecheap charge $9.88.

1. No specials for .xyz renewals?
2. when did the registrations for general public open?
3. When did their $1-2 registrations start?

 

[Recons.Com]

I checked here:

https://ntldstats.com/tld/xyz

about 0.5MM regs mid Feb 2015, about 2.5MM regs mid Feb 2016. I assume first 0.5MM are better quality ones compared to the latter 2.0MM. Let's see how it fares come Oct 16 - Feb 17, when it grew from 1.1MM to 2.5MM