When will ICANN stop approving new GTLD extensions?

[Lite]

When will ICANN stop approving/ accepting new GTLD extensions? It will be catastrophe if they don’t stop. There are already good extensions for every department/ category. The only people who make money with countless extensions are ICANN and registrars.


What are your thoughts?

 

[gustave]

What I was trying to say is that the only catastrophe "possible" is that .com owners may lose money in "several" years. But it's just a possibility, I don't see any catastrophe right now, like the OP was saying, by having more choice. For who is it a catastrophe to have more choice? The only people I can see that it is a catastrophe for is the .com owners. No one can predict what will happen, .com might still be worth the same or even more. I was just stating a possibility, I'm not native english so maybe I didn't express it correctly.

 

[JB Lions]

For who is it a catastrophe to have more choice? The only people I can see that it is a catastrophe for is the .com owners.

That's a simple one. Other alternate extensions. .net, .biz, .us, .co etc. Investors in new extensions because they're a poor investment because you have more choice, of alternatives.

Ok.., but what does any of this matter to the success of an extension, new or old? .Tel may live in the twilight zone, but the extension is still out there, and used by those that want to use it. .Mobi is considered a 'failure' extension by domainers, yet is used heavily in Africa and other countries. And how or why one runs a registry, or whether or not they meet their 'expectations', again, has nothing to do with an extensions viability. If they F-up the biz and belly up, someone else takes it over and it's still out there being bought and used. (ala .mobi) So is it the extension that failed, or the people that ran it failed?? What I usually see, is that it's the extension that is not the one 'gone'!

This whole "..whatever....proof of doom" scenerio braggadociosing, is that some feel if an extension doesn't have big reg numbers, ala .com/.net/.org etc., or is not popular enough to be re-sellable, then they are failures and people that buy/use them are chasing fools gold (or whatever derogatory term that's thrown at them), and are/will be failures. Yet, I'm hard pressed to think of an extension that 'failed and was decommissioned' and taken away to no longer be used.

Perplexing...

Usually we talk about this in the sense of investing as domainers. .mobi is going backwards. I think there were up to 1.2 million, and now down to under 800,000 and dropping. In 2007, you had 43 out of the top 100 non .com gtlds as .mobi sales, now zero.

Scroll down and look at all those .mobi sales:

http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2007/ytd-sales-charts-2007.htm

A year after it was launched. It's why people say wait 5, 10 years etc. well the bigger sales tend to happen at the beginning. There is more hope and excitement, potential. Then reality comes a knockin'. So if you were an investor in .mobi and still holding, you screwed up, should of let them go when there were buyers.

 

[mad409]

When will ICANN stop approving/ accepting new GTLD extensions? It will be catastrophe if they don’t stop. There are already good extensions for every department/ category. The only people who make money with countless extensions are ICANN and registrars.


What are your thoughts?

Hopefully they will stop at some point, giving all that's been released time to grow.

It would make no sense for anyone involved, even ICANN to let this go on forever.

I think there will be a stopping point at some juncture just not sure when that will be.

 

[Kate]

Yet, I'm hard pressed to think of an extension that 'failed and was decommissioned' and taken away to no longer be used.

It's coming. Just wait. The proliferation of new extensions without merit makes this scenario not only possible but likely.
On the other hand this could be a moot point. When a TLD is already dead, you might as well retire it from the root.

I am quite positive on my statement, because we already have registries being run by people that have no clue about domains.
The rules of the game are completely changed: these days all you need is money to have an extension. You do not need to have a justification or a bullet-proof business plan. In your opinion does that increase or decrease the risk of failure ?

I don't see any catastrophe right now, like the OP was saying, by having more choice. For who is it a catastrophe to have more choice? The only people I can see that it is a catastrophe for is the .com owners.

You are right, it's not a catastrophe as such to have more choice. But I think it is more a problem for adopters of new extensions, than for .com holders.

What are the problems ?

1. Pricing: some extensions have tricky pricing provisions in place. Read the fine print carefully: they might very well jack up the price and you will have no recourse. Remember: extensions are not regulated all the same. More choice is nice to have in theory, but not if you pay a lot more. Moreover the registries have their own idea of consumer choice: they cherry-pick names and leave you with second-tier names available to register.
   
2. I think the new gTLD program creates uncertainty and potential instability. Some people might be be tempted to use and even set up a business on a new extension, that may be terminated in 5 years. Of course, that leaves ample time for planning, but I predict that we will also witness unexpected registry failures. If you are not an old member and don't know I mean, just research the registerfly meltdown to get an idea...
   In theory there are contingency plans in place but you know, it's a like a disaster recovery plan or a backup - it's only in a real life situation that you know what your plans are really worth.
   I will say it out loud: for serious business I will only use extensions that are proven, regulated, trustworthy and monitored.
   
3. Confusion: suppose I set up a website in the .pics extension, but other redundant/overlapping TLDs already exist, or will be released later, like; .pictures, .image, .image, .photo, .photography and variants in foreign languages. It's ridiculous. Should I a. cope with confusion, or b. buy multiple defensive registrations or c. avoid that kind of confusion altogether.
   
4. TM issues and defensive registrations: as said above: more strings = more potential for TM issues, more efforts and increased costs to defend your brands.
   
5. Phishing and abuse: more strings = more possibilities for scammers to mimic known URLs for phishing purposes.

When I consider all this, my conclusion is that it's not .com holders that are being gamed here.
I am sorry that domainers are even wasting money in the pipe dreams of new extensions but it's their choice.

 

[NVI]

When will ICANN stop approving/ accepting new GTLD extensions? It will be catastrophe if they don’t stop. There are already good extensions for every department/ category. The only people who make money with countless extensions are ICANN and registrars.


What are your thoughts?

Come to think about it, you are right. There are enough extensions on the internet already.

 

[NVI]

There are some good .coms out there. Why do they not make it easier for owners of .Coms to sell what is owned and then make the extension changes they ICAN need.

 

[ramkumaritrvs]

They won't stop unless they got complaints / errors / issues in new gtld's.

BTW: i'm waiting for .worst tld :P

 

[Badawia]

as long as they get profit from it, they wont stop it.