The Next Big Internet Market?

[sashas]

I know that .cn and .in have taken off

.mobi is looking good too

.info seems to be growing stronger also

but what would you say is the next big TLD?

I'm gonna put Europe and North America out of the picture. They've already happened.
Africa will take 25 years to even become 10% of North America.

So that leaves us pretty much with Asia and South America

India, China and Japan are three obvious markets. But other than this, and seeing the population and Internet usage trends, Phillpines, Pakistan and Malaysia look good (All have approx. 14 million users. Not a lot, but still decent - and bound to go up only)

I'm actually surprised to see the lack of interest in South American domains. Brazil has as many internet users as India, and Argentina has 14 million+ users too. Even though the the penetration of english is pretty low in both the countries, Spanish and Portugese are pretty common.

I haven't seen much Australian names either, even though Australia has roughly the same number of internet users as Philipines (14mil) and an english speaking population coupled with 70% internet penetration.


So what would you pick as next big internet market? Not now, but perhaps 5 years from now (so that I have a small fortune by the time I graduate!).

 

[Spade]

I think the next big TLD to do very well, especially in the future is....

<drum roll>

dot com

=)

 

[sashas]

lol

btw I just checked...
.com.br has reg fee of 350 bucks!

and .com.au has fee of 50 AUD

thats a lotta money...no wonder most aren't interested in Australian and Brazilian names

 

[hmcintyre]

lol

btw I just checked...
.com.br has reg fee of 350 bucks!

and .com.au has fee of 50 AUD

thats a lotta money...no wonder most aren't interested in Australian and Brazilian names

There are LOTS of people interested in Australian names, but you have to be a registered Australian business to buy a .com.au name, which is what is keeping most people here from doing so.

 

[AussieDomainer]

There are LOTS of people interested in Australian names, but you have to be a registered Australian business to buy a .com.au name, which is what is keeping most people here from doing so.

Yes, I am an Australian and can verify that .com.au names (the main Australian extension) are very heavily regulated and those that register a .com.au without proper authorisation eg. business name, product name etc. can be prosecuted heavily.

 

[VURG]

.com.au has a company only policy. They also have policies against parking and trading domains. .au is a very successful domain extensions in terms of influence within a country as most Australian companies will prefer to use .com.au over .com.

 

[sashas]

.com.au would've been very very successful if it perhaps had more lenient policies. 70% internet penetration means a LOT of customers...and rich customers, to add to that. It would be more successful than .ca for sure

 

[wot]

I have no doubt that IDN will be the killer punch in the coming years particularly China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam etc.

 

[VirtualT]

.com.au would've been very very successful if it perhaps had more lenient policies. 70% internet penetration means a LOT of customers...and rich customers, to add to that. It would be more successful than .ca for sure

what are you talking about?
.com.au is a very successful and respected extension.

 

[Broker]

Personally I think .Tv is going to explode in the next couple years with the mobile devices coming out today.

 

[nrmillions]

The mobile internet is the next big internet market. I would start developing mobile websites now whether they are .mobi or .com.

 

[sashas]

i agree with the .mobi thing
i checked out the iphone...if that is how the future phones are gonna be made, then mobile browsing will actually be popular
the browser is smooth and slick. and since mobiles usually have different standards than regular computers, the .mobi might just sound like a 'different' extension for a different activity (than web browsing)

.tv is good too
and IDNs..I've never been able to understand how they're used. I'm a complete noob at IDNs. Are you supposed to type in the code (say xx---abc.com) when you go to an IDN website?
I think the fact that IDNs will require a set of new learning skills will stop people from using them
and also, especially in China, native languages are taking a beating, even to the point that not knowing english has become something of a 'social outcast/work hazard' phenomenon. i'm still betting on english.cn names.
japan seems a bit different though. its already an established market and doesn't need to change itself for the rest of the world. IDNs will work pretty well there because I don't see english really booming there.

 

[wot]

and IDNs..I've never been able to understand how they're used. I'm a complete noob at IDNs. Are you supposed to type in the code (say xx---abc.com) when you go to an IDN website?
I think the fact that IDNs will require a set of new learning skills will stop people from using them
and also, especially in China, native languages are taking a beating, even to the point that not knowing english has become something of a 'social outcast/work hazard' phenomenon. i'm still betting on english.cn names.
japan seems a bit different though. its already an established market and doesn't need to change itself for the rest of the world. IDNs will work pretty well there because I don't see english really booming there.

Which part of China are you referring too? Chinese (Mandarin) is what most of asia ,and many in the west - is trying to learn as a second language- it is where the majority of the world's business will be directed to in the coming years - even now.

And usage - it's simple you type your own language, you know- like Chinese ,Japanese, Thai etc. Just the same as you type in english now.

Think about this simple question - "what language would you prefer to use on the internet , your own or a foreign one you don't understand?"

And we were all newbs once - IDN's offer a massive opportunity for domainers with a little vision- that said the pickings are somewhat slim nowadays - many people already realised the huge potential particularly the locals in the various countries. Chinese IDN forums are booming.

 

[sashas]

the problem I see with IDNs is the constriction of the market. A domain in Chinese can and will only cater to the Chinese. I wouldn't want to have any kind of informational website in Chinese. It'll simply mean that ANYBODY who does not speak the language won't be able to access the site. Sure, China is a big market, but isn't that too much localization in a Globalized world?

All the Chinese people I've talked to in my University have told me how the Chinese government wants to make english the second language of the country. One told me about Beijing 2008 and how that has made the government rapidly increase the penetration of english.

Fact remains that in 10 years, the only people not speaking/understanding (at least some of it) will be the ones in small towns and the rural areas. But these users are of no use to the online market anyways, since they do not usually have access to the internet. That's what I've seen in India too. It'll take 15 years for the internet to fully reach to the smaller, hindi/other local language speaking areas. And then too this market will be very small due to their lack of disposable income

 

[frank_view2008]

I'm waiting for .asia

 

[sashas]

me too!

any ideas when the people like us can register? and is there any pre-registration available?

I know I probably won't be able to get sex.asia, but maybe I can bag remix.asia and anime.asia!

 

[Alex]

Afaik, if there will be more than 2 people wanting to register a domain in .asia, that domain will be auctioned off. So I don't think that you will be able to get trully premium domains for registration fee.

Alex

 

[Olney]

Guys I live & work in Tokyo in a Japanese internet company.
Believe me, the stories in these countries that they "want" people to be bilingual & have English as a second language is just that... stories.
The same feelings you guys have about not wanting to surf in other languages is the same way non English speakers think.

Even confident English speakers don't want to put credit card info into English sites.

This discussion is good I actually like .mobi for the US market because it can spur interest for mobile development.

In general ccTLDs that you can identify as large markets would be good to invest in. Just make sure you only buy commercial terms that cater to the average user in that country.

There are dot com owners that have held out for 10 years & concentrated on monetizing their investments. I believe I can wait at least 5 years for the market I got in early in to be mainstream.

If Australia's domains would be more open that would be a good healthy market. I run a few online ad campaigns for clients targeting Australia & it's a pretty healthy market.

I relate domains a bit to Hip Hop in the 80's. Everything was about New York. To book New York Rappers it started costing a lot & places like the West Coast, Texas, Down South started to use their own people who had their own following eventually. The market started to diversify.

My little brother who grew up in Georgia told me about down south rap for years. For him & his peers what was local was mainstream already, even if it wasn't seen the same by the East Coast crowd.

I used the same concept investing in international domains. I have pretty good mixture of dot coms, dot jps in English letters & native Japanese.

Find a market you might be familiar with & start small one that you can see has real potential. Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Portugeuse... ccTLDs, IDNs, Latin letters, there's a wide variety.

Stay away from ccTLDs where you never heard of the country before & have no clue what they speak.

 

[wot]

the problem I see with IDNs is the constriction of the market. A domain in Chinese can and will only cater to the Chinese. I wouldn't want to have any kind of informational website in Chinese. It'll simply mean that ANYBODY who does not speak the language won't be able to access the site. Sure, China is a big market, but isn't that too much localization in a Globalized world?

All the Chinese people I've talked to in my University have told me how the Chinese government wants to make english the second language of the country. One told me about Beijing 2008 and how that has made the government rapidly increase the penetration of english.

Fact remains that in 10 years, the only people not speaking/understanding (at least some of it) will be the ones in small towns and the rural areas. But these users are of no use to the online market anyways, since they do not usually have access to the internet.

Oh gawd, you guys are our future. You have convinced me that domain names in native languages/ characters will be useless particularly in China. :bah:

 

[dnk]

In Japan , Korea and most parts of East Asia, most people don't know English. When I needed clarifications from our Japanese equipment suppliers, I had to wait for weeks if the translator was on leave. It is always safer to invest in a market you are familiar with.