new gtlds The new city and geo gTLDs - A fiasco?

[Fancy.domains]

Hello,

I have noticed VERY FEW aftermarket sales of the new city and geo domains, except .NYC that have been doing good! Also .BERLIN sold a few ones just after it's release, but apart from that almost nothing. Personally, I've sold one .WALES, but not a single request for any other ones.

I thought that .LONDON would do ok, but no. None or just a few, few sales of .TOKYO, .MOSCOW, .CAPETOWN, .PARIS, MIAMI, COLOGNE, SCOT and so on...

Ok, it is still an early stage (maybe not many are aware of these yet) and aftermarket sales is not everything, but I've not noticed many developed sites either. Have you seen any good ones?

Any views on this?

 

[AMRO1001]

I strong belive in the value of geo domains....they are long term and do not have alternatives...the gtlds will be confusing with so many alternatives...but there is only one gtld per city/geo location...however [geo].gtld is competing somehow...

 

[Kate]

I think the problem (with exception of the US) is that the geoTLDs are more or less competing against the national extensions, that are strong. They are strong to the point that people are even shunning .com. Why expect miracles from geoTLDs ?

 

[Fancy.domains]

I think the problem (with exception of the US) is that the geoTLDs are more or less competing against the national extensions, that are strong. They are strong to the point that people are even shunning .com. Why expect miracles from geoTLDs ?

Personally, I didn't expect miracles, but was guessing that they at least would do better than "the worst" gTLDs. Seems not. At least not yet.

I agree about the ccTLDs. People are used to them and see very little reason to change.

 

[artstar]

Yes I've seen the traffic slow on my parked Miami domains but out of almost 300 dot Miami that are parked on sedo by various people one of mine gets the most traffic out of them all if that even matters. Its:

MiamiFlorida.Miami
:P​

Gets the most traffic to date for the little amount it is.

I'm hoping in time interest will comes around but I may just develop eventually.

 

[AMRO1001]

Yes I've seen the traffic slow on my parked Miami domains but out of almost 300 dot Miami that are parked on sedo by various people one of mine gets the most traffic out of them all if that even matters. Its:

MiamiFlorida.Miami
:P​

Gets the most traffic to date for the little amount it is.

I'm hoping in time interest will comes around but I may just develop eventually.

Maybe because the lucky number 8888

 

[Kuli]

I wouldn't say that those domains would perform bad. You have to compare the size of the market. Most of that geo domains are for markets with less than, say, Denmark has inhabitants. How many .DK domains have you sold? Is .dk performing well? Yes it is, but of course, Denmark has a population of only some millions, so the market is small. Same with the new city domains, whose market is usually even smaller.

And then, of course, Kate is right: These domains compete with the ccTLDs which are strong mostly. And they compete with .eu, .info, .biz, are whatever.

And then, some have the advantage that their name is the same in nearly all languages, but others don't. I'm not sure how many russians will be happy with the English TLD .moscow. And for .cologne, there is another TLD .koeln which is far more popular.

So, I would say that all these domains perform quite well. You just expect too much.

 

[asset.domains]

i don't think they are fiasco, i have tried to register the .paris and it was more difficult than register the N.fr

the Eiffel tower is in .paris

after the 13 november nightmare, a social network action was started to give blood to wounded people the address is dondusang.paris , the action was successful because the centers were saturated the first day.

 

[amirp]

what you guys think about the actual .city extension? example London.City ,LasVegas.city ?

there is this company who bought over 80% of .city domains, not sure what they have in mind.

 

[jmcc]

Ok, it is still an early stage (maybe not many are aware of these yet) and aftermarket sales is not everything, but I've not noticed many developed sites either. Have you seen any good ones?

Any views on this?

The city gTLDs are effectively ccTLDs and will develop as such. Their development rate will be slow and most will take a few years to gain momentum. They are not .COM and should not be considered in the same light.

In the first year of operation of a new TLD, there is no real aftermarket. There are domainers selling to other domainers and even some speculators. The guys to watch are the ones who registered good domains and are holding on to them for at least five years.

There is web usage in the city and geo gTLDs. It is low as befits newly launched TLDs.

Regards...jmcc

 

[Kate]

And for .cologne, there is another TLD .koeln which is far more popular.

What a mess.
You also have .wales and .cymru. Which one are you supposed to choose ? There is not one extension that clearly stands for the geo area in question... the TLDs do not strengthen the power of cities/regions as online brands, instead they dilute it. When in doubt, you stay out.

 

[amirp]

i think .City is the best choice.

 

[jmcc]

What a mess.
You also have .wales and .cymru. Which one are you supposed to choose ? There is not one extension that clearly stands for the geo area in question... the TLDs do not strengthen the power of cities/regions as online brands, instead they dilute it. When in doubt, you stay out.

Cymru is the Welsh for Wales and has activity. The .WALES gTLD also has activity. All are up against the much stronger local ccTLD of .UK.

The .SCOT gTLD is interesting because the Scots had an independence referendum there last year and they have a strong local identity. This might be why usage in the gTLD is slightly higher.

wales
Domains: 10,662
Websites: 9,336
Active/unclassified: 7.58%
Brand Protection: 0.92%
Clone websites (typically from other TLDs): 0.80%
In Page Redirects: 0.18%
External TLD Redirect: 7.17%
Forbidden/Not Found: 1.11%
Holding Pages: 12.36%
Internal Site Redirect: 4.46%
Matched External TLD Redirect: 3.21%
Duplicate Content (2 Sites): 0.36%
Duplicate Content (>2 Sites): 0.41%
PPC Parking: 44.12%
Redirects: 0.71%
Sales: 0.78%
Unavailable: 0.57%
Redirect to other in-zone site: 2.83%
No Response: 12.44%

cymru
Domains: 5,006
Websites: 4,089
Active/unclassified: 6.47%
Brand Protection: 1.72%
Clone websites: 1.22%
In Page Redirects: 0.22%
External TLD Redirects: 6.27%
Forbidden/Not Found: 1.10%
Holding Pages: 14.40%
Internal Site Redirects: 5.79%
Matched External TLD Redirect: 4.69%
Duplicate Content (2 sites): 0.54%
Duplicate Content (>2 sites): 0.30%
PPC Parking: 35.86%
Redirects: 1.36%
Sales: 0.26%
Unavailable: 0.46%
Same TLD Redirect: 1.02%
No Response: 18.32%

scot
Domains: 10,480
Websites: 8,670
Active/unclassified: 10.64%
Brand Protection: 1.61%
In Page Redirects: 0.77%
Clone websites: 0.28%
External TLD Redirects: 8.27%
Forbidden/Not Found: 1.73%
Holding Pages: 8.11%
Internal Site Redirect: 4.97%
Matched External TLD Redirects: 4.66%
Duplicate Content (2 sites): 0.31%
Duplicate Content (>2 sites):0.21%
PPC Parking: 38.52%
Redirects: 0.25%
Sales: 0.26%
Unavailable: 0.31%
Same TLD Redirect: 1.83%
No Response: 17.27%

Regards...jmcc

 

[Recons.Com]

if there would have been .houston, I'd still prefer HoustonWord.com or WordHouston.com to Word.Houston
People most of the time assume there is .com or .org or .net in the end (or cctld)...

 

[Fancy.domains]

if there would have been .houston, I'd still prefer HoustonWord.com or WordHouston.com to Word.Houston
People most of the time assume there is .com or .org or .net in the end (or cctld)...

I agree, at least for now.

It will be interesting to see if this will change (somewhat) in 10 years from now. No one can fully predict the domain industry and it's future. If someone would have said that a domain such as "XGZQ .net" could be worth $XXX just two years ago, most people would probably have laughed.

 

[Kate]

the Eiffel tower is in .paris

This is what I would call a 'trophy registration'. The .paris registry tried to get a hundred prominent end users on board to kickstart the extension. Which I think is the right approach: you need the backing of prominent companies in order to present an image of credibility.
But I've heard people are not really lining up in droves to take part in the experiment. Besides all those 'showcase' end users have URLs, and they won't be ditching them.

 

[asset.domains]

it's the same as xyz, same weight.

 

[jmcc]

Put the city and geo new gTLD web surveys into pie chart format.
http://www.hosterstats.com/nyc-website-usage-survey.php

There's about 42 of them listed but .NYC, .BERLIN and .LONDON are the top ones.

Regards...jmcc

 

[sOliver]

I think the problem (with exception of the US) is that the geoTLDs are more or less competing against the national extensions, that are strong. They are strong to the point that people are even shunning .com. Why expect miracles from geoTLDs ?

I think that is an excellent observation and tend to agree on that. The ccTLD sales have been strong for a long time. I just dont see the value in buying .berlin, .london or .hamburg aside from guerilla marketing. DE or the new UK are much better and shorter.

However, they will be valuable for one reason: SEO - Google announced they will rank .london and .berlin differently when a search originates in those cities. In essence, if you want to provide a service in those cities, you better buy one. That in turn will increase demand over time and increase prices ... will take time. 4 years from now we will see many .london and .berlin domains sell just like we see .uk, .ca, .de sell right now

 

[dataman]

I think .LONDON is doing great
http://siterankdata.com/show/extension/london (18 sites in top 1mil alexa) comparing
to .NYC which has only 14 http://siterankdata.com/show/extension/nyc

.TOKYO has 85! sites in top 1mil alexa
http://siterankdata.com/show/extension/tokyo

.PARIS and .MOSCOW with 14
http://siterankdata.com/show/extension/paris
http://siterankdata.com/show/extension/moscow

.SCOT has 9
http://siterankdata.com/show/extension/scot

.BERLIN has 10
http://siterankdata.com/show/extension/berlin

and the rest are not seeing any significant traffic.

I think that the best is to buy the extensions that are sure to sell and be useful to owners.

like limo.nyc wedding.london flowers.tokyo, hotel.berlin .. etc stuff that makes sense locally and these would be highly valued.

 

[Recons.Com]

I would not rely on Alexa too much for that.
If anything, alexa toolbar is mostly used by web industry professionals and you could say those extensions are doing well in that category.

 

[Argentum]

what you guys think about the actual .city extension? example London.City ,LasVegas.city ?

there is this company who bought over 80% of .city domains, not sure what they have in mind.

Which company is it?

 

[amirp]

Which company is it?

http://dotcity.city/

 

[Argentum]

http://dotcity.city/

Thanks for information!

 

[Recons.Com]

How much are renewals on .city?

Did they register bust.city too?