discuss What are your predictions for domains in 2017?

[168]

Margins in .com will decline
High end sales will decline
New Regs in .com will decline
Total Regs in .com .net, .org will decline


New "G"s will be promoted more often by end users.

Regs for New "G"'s will net increase by 10 +million

Ave. sales price for .Club will increase 30+%

Start-ups using extensions other than .com will increase to 35+%

Marijuana portfolios will be in high demand. no pun intended

Happy Hunting!

 

[Kate]

My own outlook is slightly different, but it's just predictions Hopefully there is something for everyone
In no particular order:

• New extensions will continue to underperform. Numbers will shrink after overdue purges.
  
• More registries in trouble financially. Shares plummeting further.
  
• Shake-up in the parking industry: I wouldn't be surprised to see one or more parking outfits shut down.
• .com will continue to grow
• LL/LLL.com will remain hot commodities
  
• ccTLDs will not be affected by geoTLDs, that will continue to struggle
• More ccTLDs releasing short domains (1- & 2-character domains)
  
• Registries will attempt to sustain registrations with freebies like .shop or penny offers (.xyz), consolidating the belief that new extensions are good mostly for cheap projects or disposable sites
  
• awareness about new extensions will grow nonetheless but it will be through outlets like Spamhaus when they release statistics about spam and abuse
• The Internet will continue to fracture along national lines (ie China maintaining tight control, Russia banning companies like Linkedin that refuse to store user data on Russian soil)
• creeping Internet censorship
• there will be more and more interest from the public in alternate networks such as Tor, Zeronet, I2P. Tor will become more mainstream.
• The shift to mobile Internet will foster demand for short domains (eg LL/LLL), QR codes, short domains for redirects will be common. Good domain names will remain strategic branding assets though.
• Uneducated Chinese investors will lose their shirts
• many newbies will leave NP after making bad investments (as usual)

 

[Ategy]

I'll add a few of my own more TLD specific .. as for me I don't like to generalise as I think each TLD is very different and shouldn't really be lumped together. New and rebranded TLD's will polarise. Meaning some will continue their eventual path to eventual mass acceptance (.club, .co, .blog if they get less greedy with premiums) ... While others fizzle out.

- .com: Will continue to rule .. and will continue to grow .. but I do see it very slowly losing overall market share as the combined sales of non-.com will grow a bit faster as the general public slowly catch on to the fact that there are other TLD's out there.

- .net: Unlike most people I see .net really hurting. If it hasn't already it will lose it's status as "second favorite generic TLD after .com". However I do see it actually remaining strong more as a niche TLD for pretty much anything technology. So similar to what .io has become .. although obviously on a much much bigger scale building upon it's already huge existing base.

- .co: After seeing a few small/medium businesses use .co in their TV ads this year I really am starting to .co seriously (have registered quite a few single-word single-terms this year). LLL.co's are liquid, and there are some decent sales coming in consistantly. I also think the slightly higher renewal price keeps this TLD out of trouble from spammers etc (relatively speaking obviously).

- .club: In all honesty I don't own a single .club .. but this is exactly what the entire new TLD program should have been about. A good solid wide niche upon which to build upon and a decent marketing team/strategy.

- .io: I'm concerned that .app could hurt .io quite a bit. That being said .io is pretty much limited to new tech companies. So while I see good tech words doing very well .. the rest will likely soften.

.xyz: Wihle this TLD has the most registrations .. 99.9% of them are garbage bought at a cent .. later next year when renewal time comes around the numbers are going to melt to nothing. Spam is a concern here as well. .xyz will still be a little better than others .. but still more or less junk. I'd rather have a premium .biz than a .xyz.


I'll add more general predictions later ... Happy New Year to all of you in the meantime!

 

[deez007]

Are you sure they even still have their shirts left after 2016 ??? lol

Off course... They manufacture the shirts remember ....lol

 

[joro001]

I agree with some of the points above.

To keep it very simple I think that .com will rule as the extension of choice for most businesses and premium short, short numeric and generic .coms will continue to perform well and possibly continue to rise in price both in the west and in China etc.

I agree that margins in .com will fall so unless you have really good names you are in trouble IMO. I think average and even good .coms will continue to be harder to sell and when they do sell will tend to sell for less in $ than they used to. Long .coms and anything else is not worth the time and effort anymore unless it's a really catchy 2/3 word domain or an exact match .com in a competitive niche, (loans, insurance etc.)

I agree with someone above that .net is likely to continue falling in demand and are 99% of the time not worth investing in, I think that will continue. New GTLD's will in some cases sell for big money and make domainers ROI but will be hard to achieve (I am more bullish on carefully selected GTLD investing than I was).

Aftermarket is fierce and more competitive than ever and I expect this to get worse pushing out most small domainers and only people/Companies with big pockets will be able to compete and survive. In many cases aftermarket buys are above what end users will pay.

In short the rich get richer and everyone else domaining full time I wish good luck, sounds like most other industries nowadays i'm afraid. If I was doing domaining full time I would be very worried right now to see where a real sustainable ROI would come from in 2017 (without spending big on the top 1% of domains).

Sorry to sound so bleak!

 

[johnn]

Trump will be the President.
Everyone will be one year older - Including my wife.

 

[NPer]

Before making predictions about what will happen with domains, we first need to know what we can expect from the global economy this year... that will determine the level of spending by domainers and end-users.

So far, many analysts are upbeat of what's to come... some countries are looking forward to better growth prospects, there's also an expectation that funding for small business and start-ups will improve this year, the list goes one and on, etc, etc. Based on that type of sentiment, it does seem like things are going improve this year, with 2018 going full steam.

Anyway, with the expectation of more money moving around in the global economy, one way or the other, domaining will be affected indirectly in a positive way this year... domainers and end-users will be more inclined to spend compared to last year. Registrars and domain sellers should benefit.

Basically, just look forward to bright and successful 2017.

 

[vickyhunter]

2017 will be very good year for Domaining industry in general.

.com will undoubtedly remain the King.

LLLL.com will outperform every other category by the end of year.

LLL.com and NNNN.com will climb higher.

LLL.co will make a comeback.

They are my predictions, of course

- V

 

[domainerelite]

My 7-Predictions for Year 2017 is Quite simple:

1.) Most Domainers Will make Sales in region of $X,XXX including Me.

2.) Some will loose Money.

3.) Some lucky Domainers will hit Jackpot with 6 figure sales.

4.) I see lots of Renewals coming up, A lot I'm telling you.

5.) Brandable Name Sales will Continue to move up the Ladder, As new start-ups Enters Market.

6.) Some Hardworking Domainers will turn millionairez while those who Watch and do nothing will continue to Observe from the Stands.

7.) Finally, Some New TLDs will Join the Bandwagon while Some will fade off, but dot Com will Continue to Reign As TDL King.

GodBlessDomaining.

 

[Ategy]

Great Wall of China (tm):

Note that by wall I'm talking about a divide between:

Group A: Up to 4L .com & up to 5N .com & up to 3L non .com & up to 4N non .com
Group B: 5L .com and above & 6N .com and above & 4L non .com and above & 5N non .com and above

People seem to saying a lot of conflicting things about "Chips" (Chinese Premiums) .. some saying Cihps are still amazing, while others say they are going to crash (and a few of the sensible ones saying it's going to go somewhere in between .. lol).

My prediction is that the original Chips (Group A no A,E,I,O,U,V,0,4) are going to do OK. But will soften only slightly in relation to the same short non-chips as those will catch up as people wake up to the fact that the Western Market still is bigger.

Group B (5L and 6N Chips) are going the way of the dodo bird. These domains are dropping like flies and never had any business being registered in the first place (aside from serving a collateral for crazy chinese p2p-loan ponzi schemes that have nothing to do with domaining fundamentals).

Side-note: What I hate even more about these names dropping en mass is that they make going through expiring lists a royal pain in the but. You have to comb through so many to find the rare diamond in the rough.

 

[deez007]

lol....2017 predictions:

@dordomai will continue to hate nGTLD's

 

[FNet]

prediction from a newbie:

- .com domains will continue to shine (next to other gTLDs I mean)
- Many .com names will drop
- ccTLDs will get strengthened a bit (I agree with Kate here)
- Public will be more aware of ngTLDs
- ngTLDS will steal market share from legacy gTLS (including .com)
- .com portfolios will trim. I see a heavy drop on 3word names, 5L,6N and various meaningless/misspelled/crap domain names on .com.
- Some domainers will exit the game.
- .com end-user prices will drop. Some (not many) will use the newTLDS. Most will use them as a weapon to bargain for better .com prices
- many registries will change pricing policy. Mature (meaning not very fresh) ngTLDS will cut the crap about ridiculous "premium" prices. Also, renewal fees will drop A LOT. Maybe at the end of 2017.
- Struggling extensions will try to survive following the less-than-one-buck registration fee for the first year.
- HugeDomains will change the high pricing policy for their domain names. If note, their inventory will continue to growth with alarming rate. The "Huge" will really have a meaning for them. Not a think that they will like.
- If .com prices do not drop much then the .net TLD will "awake" again (this is a wish actually, not a prediction. I just like dotnet more than any other gTLD, including the new ones).
- Huge drops will come to .xyz and all other ngTLDS that followed the "register me for one penny for first year"
- More .commers will realize that .com domains will lose value over time. There is not such think as supply increases but "quality domains" become even more valuable.
- Some domainers will diversify their portfolio adding nGTLD domains. Hand reging I mean (and no premiums)
- Dordomai will stay with no supporters (just kidding).

Well, many of the above will probably not take place so soon (in 2017). But this is my prediction for the next years to come.

 

[garptrader]

Older alternative extensions such as .Net, .Co, .TV, .Info will continue to suffer from the myriad of new TLD options available. Low budget developers and small businesses just don't have to pay a premium price if they don't want to.

The hundreds of new TLDs will continue to affect .COM sales to an extent.

The CHIP and numeric bubble will continue to deflate.

Now that many new TLDs are facing their third renewal cycle, either end users start buying them in the aftermarket or we will see considerable drops.

The massive number of $1 or less promo regs will not be renewed in meaningful numbers.

The increasing effect of HugeDomains and BuyDomains etc in the expiring domain market will push investors to consider buying from each other as they can no longer easily acquire good domains for a mere backorder.

 

[Cdomains]

Dot com will continue to reign.

cctlds will continue to gain ground and do well.

Some new gtlds will gain ground, but not much.

Many new tlds will falter and fail by the end of the year or into the next year.

The average price an end user will pay for a domain will continue to fall, except for the most premium generic domains.

Mr Shilling and many other top domain investors will generously sell me some of their top premium domains at incredibly, huge discounts (because I am such a nice person), and I will flip them for huge profits and retire by the end of the year.

 

[marcm]

So many other things have been said and so instead of repeating I will add:

1. Disciplined hand registering of domains in emerging niche areas will pay off for those who speculated on domains relating to marijuana, self-driving technology, the shared economy (e.g. car-sharing), robots, mixed reality,virtual reality and augmented reality.

2. An upswing in start up businesses in 2017 will add some umphh to the brandable domain market.

3. The market for good domains remains liquid but the profit you receive from sales to end users moves closer to that earned by selling to other domainers.

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

happy new year

2017 is the year of Climate Change ( domains )

simple :
Donald Trump deny CC but he is very picky and he even don,t like Handshakes
but
he will get smart people on the table ( bill Gates and other ) and they are investing Billions in Energy Innovation

so here we go

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-model-investing-energy-innovation-bill-gates?trk=prof-post

 

[Grade8]

I think 2017 will be a good year for us. Certainly better than 2016

• All non-CHIP LLLL.com will be higher than they are today.
• We will see signs of death for some of the more moronic & overpriced gTLDs.
• Two word generic keyword domains will gain back momentum and shake the "new distaste towards generics".

 

[Toptrade]

VR (virtual reality) and VRE (virtual real estate) domains would boom in 2017

 

[namezest]

Com sales decline along with prices.
New extensions will rise and fall.
.web does well
So called premium prices will decline.
More end users will find the right domains for them that have not been registered already.
Over half of the .xyz & .top registered will drop.

 

[VRdommy]

Just for 2017...

Generic TLD's will continue to rise with investors, NOT END USERS.
.COM will continue to be able to hide it's strength though the higher percentage of NDA sales.
Virtual Reality & 3DPrinting names will show up on the radar with end-users in a big way in 2017

 

[JayT]

It would be nice if registrars were more regulated. the original intent was to manage data bases not hoard valuables and fix pricing.

I think the escrow.com rules are tied to the money system more than the domain system.

Happy Hunting

Ya, almost every 'service' is taking advantage of their position...beyond just being straight forward.

Look at hugedomains.com + their dropcatchers. They could bid on their own 'service'. They let domainers (us) find the best names dropping, then they would come bid it up. They can bid it up to crazy high prices without ever losing. They can 'pump' a price up as high as they want, make us pay even higher than retail (ever wonder why weird names go high price?). If they do mercy everyone, they still won a great domain, and would only pay ~$8. Everyone bidding showed them that it was worth that attention.

Do you think this happens a lot?

 

[deez007]

Predictions for 2017 (might no be directly related to but still does impact domaining):

Global intelligence firm Stratfor - 2017 predictions...

 

[Ategy]

Uneducated Chinese investors will lose their shirts

Are you sure they even still have their shirts left after 2016 ??? lol

 

[Kate]

- .com: Will continue to rule .. and will continue to grow .. but I do see it very slowly losing overall market share as the combined sales of non-.com will grow a bit faster as the general public slowly catch on to the fact that there are other TLD's out there.

For the record .com has been losing market share for many years... to ccTLDs. But growing nonetheless in numbers. Alternate TLDs haven't been catching up.

- .net: Unlike most people I see .net really hurting. If it hasn't already it will lose it's status as "second favorite generic TLD after .com". However I do see it actually remaining strong more as a niche TLD for pretty much anything technology. So similar to what .io has become .. although obviously on a much much bigger scale building upon it's already huge existing base.

I like .net too but I think it has eroded somewhat. At one point (early Internet) it was nearly as popular as .com.
Nowadays I see fewer popular sites on .net. For example Euronews had long been on .net.

 

[deez007]

Hmmmm I get spam from .com's , I get spam from .net's and .info's ... as far as nTLD's ...I get a little spam from .xyz domains too...

I have yet to get a single spam mail from .club/.online./.global ... ...just saying