What is your forecast for the next couple of years when it comes to domaining.

[oldtimer]

What is your forecast for the next couple of years for domaining and what are you doing to adjust to the new landscape of the domain Industry.

It used to be that first tire .com domains were fetching six or even seven figure prices on a regular basis, even second and third tier domains in .com were selling for a hefty sum up to just a couple of years ago. But now it seems like the million dollar sales are all but gone and the average selling price for .coms has fallen to the low to medium four figures.

In my opinion .com is always going to remain popular and most people are probably going to prefer it over all the other alternatives, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the average price for keyword .com domains dropping down to the three figure range in the near future especially if some of the big companies start giving away free domains (in their New gTLDs) to their customers and clients as a means of attracting and keeping more visitors.

Even the .com traffic domains that have enjoyed a steady level of traffic in the past might lose some of their value as people start typing in New gTLD combinations out of curiosity instead of the many popular keywords in .com that they have been used to typing before.

At this time I have come to believe that one of the domaining categories that has the best chances going forward even in the new landscape of the domain Industry is Brandable domains especially those that are suitable for broad use and that can be sold in the low to medium four figures.

IMO

What is you forecast for the next couple of years.

 

[biggie]

:talk:

two types of domainers:

domainers who want to invest in gtlds, will seek out those who tend to be in agreement, so they can lend support to each other


domainers who know better, aren't concerned with finding or seeking out folks who agree with them


imo...

 

[mjnels]

"There are other examples too that might become the first logical choice for many internet users such as Product.CompanyName"

Nah, those companies already have their .com, the marketing behind it etc. It works, they're not going to introduce confusion. Talking about already established companies.



If you have 1 person trying to sell air conditioners in the Arctic vs. 100, still not much of a market. I'm not sure where all these people are supposed to come from, it's going to be mostly domainers. I've heard the old argument earlier about price, but that's just short term. Long term it's better to go ahead and spend the money on a .com. Once you factor in marketing, confusion etc.

so wait: "those companies" (the ones who exist now) already have their .com's.... then nobody would be selling domains to anyone, c'mon now..

two types of domainers:

domainers who want to invest in gtlds, will seek out those who tend to be in agreement, so they can lend support to each other


domainers who know better, aren't concerned with finding or seeking out folks who agree with them

nah man theres a third kind..

domainers who think 1,000+ TLD's being released in a short amount of time is comparable to 10 TLD's being released in the last 10 years..

 

[JB Lions]

"so wait: "those companies" (the ones who exist now) already have their .com's.... then nobody would be selling domains to anyone, c'mon now.."

That was in reply to - "Product.CompanyName"

And again, my bookmark challenge. My Stores folder, has about 50 sites. Every one of them a .com. It could have been .biz, .info, .net etc but it's not. You can find the random example, the exception. But most smart businesses, even new ones coming up, understand marketing and why .com is the one to go with.

 

[GiftedDomains]

:talk:

two types of domainers:

domainers who want to invest in gtlds, will seek out those who tend to be in agreement, so they can lend support to each other


domainers who know better, aren't concerned with finding or seeking out folks who agree with them


imo...

And then we have type 3 domainers who don't seek any advice or read anything and who will not only register a lot of these new gtlds, but also the names which they chose will be worthless (no matter which extension we talk about). I think this group will be the biggest group as usual and the group which will make most of the money the operators of the new tlds are hoping for. The number of good keywords are limited anyway, so they need quantity to compensate the costs. Quantity = crap.

 

[DU]

:talk:

two types of domainers:

domainers who want to invest in gtlds, will seek out those who tend to be in agreement, so they can lend support to each other


domainers who know better, aren't concerned with finding or seeking out folks who agree with them


imo...

You're confusing domainers with people that have too much spare time talking nonsense on forums.

 

[Jasonn]

so wait: "those companies" (the ones who exist now) already have their .com's.... then nobody would be selling domains to anyone, c'mon now..




nah man theres a third kind..

domainers who think 1,000+ TLD's being released in a short amount of time is comparable to 10 TLD's being released in the last 10 years..

with so many tld's coming out at once one thing i think we can bank on is that none of them will be a "hit" there are simply too many and registrations will be spread among them. it will probably take 10 years or more for a single tld to hit half a mil registered simply because there is too much selection.

i know you hate comparisons to previous tlds but if even they couldn't do anything being the only new tld at the time, how do 1000 at once stand a chance of doing any better?

 

[mjnels]

with so many tld's coming out at once one thing i think we can bank on is that none of them will be a "hit" there are simply too many and registrations will be spread among them. it will probably take 10 years or more for a single tld to hit half a mil registered simply because there is too much selection.

i know you hate comparisons to previous tlds but if even they couldn't do anything being the only new tld at the time, how do 1000 at once stand a chance of doing any better?

doing better for who? people are getting ahead of themselves and talking in circles. the first step is obviously for these to be used a ton to erase the stigma of "so you couldnt get the .COM huh"

the reason 1,000 TLD's could erase that stigma when 10 couldnt - 1,000 is a much larger number thats why. its not my money or your money being wasted on whatever failed registry. the amount of noise all at once is what matters..

so we can debate whether or not that will happen but all this talk about "which one will get closest to beating .COM" is completely ridiculous and 9 steps ahead of the real conversation.

You're confusing domainers with people that have too much spare time talking nonsense on forums.

sounds like the talk of one of them upper-class pants wearers..

 

[JB Lions]

"the amount of noise all at once is what matters"

That's where me and you mainly differ. .co and .me, had the spotlight to themselves, they have x amount of regs. I think it's easier when you have that spotlight to yourself.

Now, you're going to have many. For me, that's a scattered spotlight, too much. More like a little flashlight. You're thinking that with all this, the public will take notice. They might here a story that a bunch of new tlds's are coming but that's about it. Quiz them afterwards to name the new ones. That's where it falls apart. And there is a history, even tho you want to discount it. Alternate extensions have always been available for anybody to use. Now there'll just be more, that's it.

 

[mjnels]

"the amount of noise all at once is what matters"

That's where me and you mainly differ. .co and .me, had the spotlight to themselves, they have x amount of regs. I think it's easier when you have that spotlight to yourself.

Now, you're going to have many. For me, that's a scattered spotlight, too much. You're thinking that with all this, the public will take notice. They might here a story that a bunch of new tlds's are coming but that's about it. Quiz them afterwards to name the new ones. That's where it falls apart.

easier for what? to sell domains as a registry... yes.

to get people used to "oh .anything isnt weird" no.

its much easier to do that with 1,000 options and more coming...i dont see why people dont understand this. they're acting like they're declining to invest in the registries IPO or something..

 

[Jasonn]

doing better for who? people are getting ahead of themselves and talking in circles. the first step is obviously for these to be used a ton to erase the stigma of "so you couldnt get the .COM huh"

the reason 1,000 TLD's could erase that stigma when 10 couldnt - 1,000 is a much larger number thats why. its not my money or your money being wasted on whatever failed registry. the amount of noise all at once is what matters..

so we can debate whether or not that will happen but all this talk about "which one will get closest to beating .COM" is completely ridiculous and 9 steps ahead of the real conversation.




sounds like the talk of one of them upper-class pants wearers..

i'm not talking about any tld beating .com. i am talking about expectations for earnings of the new tld's falling very short. if only 20k per tld get registered in the first year thats 20 million domains which seems very unlikely to happen. what are these registries projecting? i don't know but i hope they have some kind of plan on how to profit if people don't race to register these things. the idea that people will be used to dot whatever with release of so many tld's will not result in the success of said tld's in my opinion.

 

[GiftedDomains]

the reason 1,000 TLD's could erase that stigma when 10 couldnt - 1,000 is a much larger number thats why. its not my money or your money being wasted on whatever failed registry. the amount of noise all at once is what matters..

.

I think after an initial hype (big or small i don't know), these 1000 new tlds will simply ruin eachother over time and many will simply go bust fighting over small pieces of the cake and crumbs. And Mr .com will probably just watch the show with a big smile on his face. Thats probably the only consequence from the 'power of numbers' flooding the market and fighting for customers you are talking about. Of course no one can predict anything with certainty, but for me thats just logical.

 

[JB Lions]

"to get people used to "oh .anything isnt weird" no."

Yes. If people are more apt to see a .co or a .me. If you have the spotlight, you're bound to have more regs. More regs means more of a chance of a site, that's what people see. Low regs, because of so many extensions, spread out/thinned out. Less of a chance. It's just numbers.

 

[mjnels]

some registries will probably fail or the cost will get cheaper to run one.. consolidation will probably happen overtime but who knows. its likely some will fail but what happens to a registry if it fails and nobody else wants it

.travel was in danger of shutting down a while back i think.

---------- Post added at 03:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:01 PM ----------

"to get people used to "oh .anything isnt weird" no."

Yes. If people are more apt to see a .co or a .me. If you have the spotlight, you're bound to have more regs. More regs means more of a chance of a site, that's what people see. Low regs, because of so many extensions, spread out/thinned out. Less of a chance. It's just numbers.

no. i dont know how to explain it any more clear.

you're talking about "more regs" which is success for the registry. im not talking about that.

 

[GiftedDomains]

I think the only player who can really threaten the dominant position of .com and change peoples online habbits faster than anything else is google, not other tlds.

Because google itself is the ".com" and king of search engines and has the power to do that with radical changes. Now that google itself is also participating in the gtld game, one could think about possible consequences and possible long term and short term plans. But i doubt that we will see such radical changes in the algorithm, rankings and search results.
Again, no one can predict anything with certainty. I am just talking about likelihoods based on past experience and personal feeling

 

[Kate]

nah man theres a third kind..

domainers who think 1,000+ TLD's being released in a short amount of time is comparable to 10 TLD's being released in the last 10 years..

Raises hand :blink:

Well actually, it's not exactly the same.

It is the same in the sense that the layman will still be uneducated about domain names. Even when there are 2000 extensions people will be unable to quote more than a few that they know ie .com/.net/.org + the ccTLD.
So it's just like today.

The majority of new extensions will have zero mindshare, so for practical purposes it's like they don't exist.
Shelf space is limited, registrars cannot promote all of them at the same time.
When you visit nodaddy the combo defaults to .com but there are dozens of other extensions in the list too (even .jobs !). So people are already aware that plenty of different extensions do exist. It's not the problem. But they don't care. If they don't find them appealing or relevant they won't touch them, at least not for serious development.

Will all that make people more neutral as to the right of the dot: I think it doesn't matter. If the critical mass isn't there nothing happens.

Bottom line, this is what happens soon: say a bunch of 1000 extensions (or more) are released next year. It's going to be major news for a few weeks, then it's back to normal.
People might actually pay less attention because new extensions have become so common they have lost the novelty factor.
A number of TLDs will fail and shut down, so people will get burnt in the process and learn their lesson. Others will take note.

Yet I'd like to play the devil's advocate.

 

[Name Trader]

I predict that .web will be the most successful launch of all these .gtlds, with the exception of what Google might have planned.

 

[alien51]

If no one wants it I will take Hotels.nyc,

According to this news article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23150658

It says:

"....in order to register, applicants must have a physical address in New York City."

 

[urlurl]

also note, some extensions may be used for something other than web addresses.

example Facebook may use .FB for their user names

instead of: Facebook.com/username

Maybe use: username.FB

google, twitter and othe social media companies may follow suite to do the same.

---------- Post added at 09:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:08 PM ----------

According to this news article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23150658

It says:

"....in order to register, applicants must have a physical address in New York City."

do PO Boxes Count, lol

 

[oldtimer]

also note, some extensions may be used for something other than web addresses.

example Facebook may use .FB for their user names

instead of: Facebook.com/username

Maybe use: username.FB

google, twitter and othe social media companies may follow suite to do the same.

I don’t believe that two letter extensions are allowed for the New gTLDs because they interfere with the two letter ccTLDs.

But you are probably right as far as some New gTLDs being used for certain purposes only.

IMO

 

[alien51]

do PO Boxes Count, lol

According to the official .NYC registry website, the .NYC domain extension will be controlled by the City Government of New York. So since the policy enforcer would be a government entity, i am assuming they would be stricter.

The requirement also says:

1. "New York City businesses and organizations with a NYC address, individuals with a primary residence in NYC".

A P.O. Box therefore, will not qualify as a primary residence. And if you are a business entity, you probably have to register your business with the city of new york atleast for tax purposes, and getting a business permit would have required a physical address.


2. "those offering products or services to New Yorkers can register a .nyc domain name"

I am not exactly sure, whether offering the domain itself for sale will qualify as an "offering of product", so that domainers can grab as many domains as possible for resell. I would imagine Mayor Bloomberg would be very upset if he learns most .NYC premium domains have been grabbed by domainers. lol

 

[DU]

sounds like the talk of one of them upper-class pants wearers..

For the record, I wear a tuxedo top and no pant.

I just think that domainers have too much of a fortress mentality (whether a fan of King Com or otherwise)

 

[equity78]

I don’t believe that two letter extensions are allowed for the New gTLDs because they interfere with the two letter ccTLDs.

But you are probably right as far as some New gTLDs being used for certain purposes only.

IMO

They are not, there will be no two letter new tlds.

 

[biggie]

I just think that domainers have too much of a fortress mentality (whether a fan of King Com or otherwise)

:talk:

to a degree, one should have a fortress around the mind



as there is a lot of bullshit that must be kept out



and you gotta know when to open the drawbridge...

to let the good shit in




imo...

 

[Fonzie]

I'd venture that 95% of 'domainers' don't even begin to understand where we are, or even where we've been.

They stand little chance of guessing where we're heading.

 

[mjnels]

c'mon folks... nothing to see here.. just a bajillian TLD's... we've seen this before with .biz dont worry about it...nothing to see here....move along.

.........right guys...right... can i get a reassuring high five and a pat on the back?