What if a gTLD fails?

[ttfan]

There's so many new gTLDs coming into the market, what happens to the extensions that fail to gain traction, and are not longer profitable and the company no longer wish to offer them (or the company goes bankrupt)?
Will the extension simply be removed?

 

[mad409]

There's so many new gTLDs coming into the market, what happens to the extensions that fail to gain traction, and are not longer profitable and the company no longer wish to offer them (or the company goes bankrupt)?
Will the extension simply be removed?

I would think it would be sold to another company offering gTLDs that could support it in the long term. JMO..

 

[itsmeyall]

Not sure ... But i would imagine if any one held one there would be made a way to continue to renew it and it would be a more rare name than the others!

 

[nvdomains]

Two options. One is acquisition to save the face by another registrar who bet heavily on these new GTLDs (as domain king said) or just wiped out from system.

 

[Kate]

In case of an emergency (major technical failure, registry going awol) EBERO kicks in, whois escrow is also available. Some of those measures date back to the registerfly fiasco.

As per the icann contract 3 years of continuity must be provided. But nothing more, there is no perpetuity clause of course

What can happen:

• another registry takes over and relaunches the TLD or decides to just keep it on life support (like .name .mobi .tel etc, you know, those dead extensions)
• nobody wants to operate the string, then yes it will ultimately be deleted. This will happen. People shouldn't be surprised.

 

[silentg]

Think twice before developing websites on new gtlds.

 

[wot]

Without doubt there will be a lot more failing than succeeding.

Caveat Emptor

 

[Kate]

BTW some TLDs have already been deleted. For example dissolved/renamed countries like Zaire, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and more recently the Netherlands Antilles (.an). It is not a routine move but is an operation like any other.

 

[WorstName]

Still .su haunts the internet like some kind of zombie TLD when it hardly had a chance to see the soviet union dissolve.