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domains Why I have not given up on New gTLDs!

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by Jeff Neuman

"Why even have more TLDs when most of the ones from 2012 were "failures"?

This is what we hear the most. But they are generally from domain name industry insiders that have an interest in protecting their existing assets or from those that benefit greatly from the artificial scarcity of top-level domains. We also hear this from some intellectual property specialists that bear the burden of protecting their clients' trademarks and have more of a burden with each launch of a new TLD.

To them I say.....Who are you to judge the success or failure of the new gTLD Program? We shouldn't judge the success or failure of TLDs in terms of numbers of registrations or what the resale value of second level domains are within a TLD. For even if there is one registrant that depends on a domain name registered on a new gTLD domain name extension for their business or livelihood, then who are we to ever described that gTLD as a failure. Who are we to tell that registrant that their whole life's work is on a "failed" domian space. At the end of the day, we launch new registries for them and if the gTLD is secure, works, and does what the end users expect it to do, then all other opinions are just that....opinions.

New gTLDs were created, and are created, to give consumers a choice. The new gTLD Program is about removing the artificial barriers that exist in the creation of new TLDs while at the same time protecting consumers and preserving the safety and security of the Internet. It was not put in place to appease the existing market or preserve ...

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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
In fairness, when new extensions were created the operators expected much more.
They expected a paradigm shift, some said .COM is like "AM Radio" or ".COM is dead".

Almost a decade later none of that happened. It has not lived up to all the hype.

If anything .COM is stronger than ever, while .XYZ seems to be the only new gTLD with any real sales traction.

The "consumer choice" thing is a myth. If that was actually the case, the registries would not reserve the premium terms and charge premium prices and/or renewals for them.

It is about nothing more than making money.

There was never a demand for thousands of extensions. This was a solution looking for a problem.

Brad
 
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In fairness, when new extensions were created the operators expected much more.
They expected a paradigm shift, some said .COM is like "AM Radio" or ".COM is dead".

Almost a decade later none of that happened. It has not lived up to all the hype.

If anything .COM is stronger than ever, while .XYZ seems to be the only new gTLD with any real sales traction.

The "consumer choice" thing is a myth. If that was actually the case, the registries would not reserve the premium terms and charge premium prices and/or renewals for them.

It is about nothing more than making money.

There was never a demand for thousands of extensions. This was a solution looking for a problem.

Brad
artworks-000247733809-eqa743-t500x500.jpg
 
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In fairness, when new extensions were created the operators expected much more.
They expected a paradigm shift, some said .COM is like "AM Radio" or ".COM is dead".

Almost a decade later none of that happened. It has not lived up to all the hype.

If anything .COM is stronger than ever, while .XYZ seems to be the only new gTLD with any real sales traction.

The "consumer choice" thing is a myth. If that was actually the case, the registries would not reserve the premium terms and charge premium prices and/or renewals for them.

It is about nothing more than making money.

There was never a demand for thousands of extensions. This was a solution looking for a problem.

Brad

@Joe N @bmugford

Solution looking for a problem or a solution to the “forthcoming” inevitable ...

https://www.businesswire.com/news/h...tions-at-the-End-of-the-First-Quarter-of-2020

Verisign reported 366,000,000 domain registrations in 2020 ^ 1st quarter ...

Here’s the stats according to Domain Name Stat,

Mind you this is in essentially three (3) years ...

165.96 million domains were registered as of 31st, Dec 2019

201.6 million domains were registered as of 31st, Dec 2020 (+21% YOY)

Here’s where it gets really interesting 🧐

438.4 million domains were registered as of 31st, Dec 2021 (+117% YOY)

Now that # as of December 2022 was 628,500,000 domain names registered ...

And counting !

37% of those names are .com domains, which control the largest market share in the industry, this should come as no surprise to anyone here; since .com is the “foremost choice” when it comes to investing, it was the same way when original .com domain investors were making money during the mid - late 90’s selling single keyword .com domain names for millions ...

New extensions are driving up the value of .com domains and presenting a new marketshare to investors willing to invest in the future, ie .xyz etc.

But think about that ^ 165M >>>> 628M within 3 years ^ if you’re paying attention, then that should shock you and everyone

Yes .com will continue to go up, but seeking and investing in new .extensions that make sense will not bring harm to .com investors or their investments, if anything it’ll grow the value of the domain industry further.
 
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by Jeff Neuman

To them I say.....Who are you to judge the success or failure of the new gTLD Program? We shouldn't judge the success or failure of TLDs in terms of numbers of registrations or what the resale value of second level domains are within a TLD. For even if there is one registrant that depends on a domain name registered on a new gTLD domain name extension for their business or livelihood, then who are we to ever described that gTLD as a failure.
There are plenty of objective metrics to judge the "success" of a domain extension.

All these operators marketed these extensions like they were going to change the world.

Now if an extension only has one end user, who can say that isn't a success.

Man, talk about shifting the goal posts. :ROFL:

Brad
 
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@Joe N @bmugford

Solution looking for a problem or a solution to the “forthcoming” inevitable ...

https://www.businesswire.com/news/h...tions-at-the-End-of-the-First-Quarter-of-2020

Verisign reported 366,000,000 domain registrations in 2020 ^ 1st quarter ...

Here’s the stats according to Domain Name Stat,

Mind you this is in essentially three (3) years ...

165.96 million domains were registered as of 31st, Dec 2019

201.6 million domains were registered as of 31st, Dec 2020 (+21% YOY)

Here’s where it gets really interesting 🧐

438.4 million domains were registered as of 31st, Dec 2021 (+117% YOY)

Now that # as of December 2022 was 628,500,000 domain names registered ...

And counting !

37% of those names are .com domains, which control the largest market share in the industry, this should come as no surprise to anyone here; since .com is the “foremost choice” when it comes to investing, it was the same way when original .com domain investors were making money during the mid - late 90’s selling single keyword .com domain names for millions ...

New extensions are driving up the value of .com domains and presenting a new marketshare to investors willing to invest in the future, ie .xyz etc.

But think about that ^ 165M >>>> 628M within 3 years ^ if you’re paying attention, then that should shock you and everyone

Yes .com will continue to go up, but seeking and investing in new .extensions that make sense will not bring harm to .com investors or their investments, if anything it’ll grow the value of the domain industry further.
I am not sure those numbers are quite accurate. Here is what Verisign said in their latest update -

https://www.verisign.com/en_US/domain-names/dnib/index.xhtml?section=executive-summary

dnib_stat-box-exec-summary.png

A lot of these registrations seem to be COVID boom related. I expect many to drop and the total number to grow at a slower rate or even decrease over the next year.

With that said, no one can really deny that the rosy predictions of many registry operators have not come true in the many years since new extensions launched.

People can invest in what they want to invest in. There are certainly new extension combos that make sense and are valuable, but it was just not the paradigm shift we were sold.

Brad
 
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I am not sure those numbers are quite accurate. Here is what Verisign said in their latest update -

https://www.verisign.com/en_US/domain-names/dnib/index.xhtml?section=executive-summary

dnib_stat-box-exec-summary.png

A lot of these registrations seem to be COVID boom related. I expect many to drop and the total number to grow at a slower rate or even decrease over the next year.

With that said, no one can really deny that the rosy predictions of many registry operators have not come true in the many years since new extensions launched.

People can invest in what they want to invest in. There are certainly new extension combos that make sense and are valuable, but it was just not the paradigm shift we were sold.

Brad

I am not sure whose numbers are more accurate neither ... Verisign or Domain Name Stat ... I presumed both were reputable ^

That said, I believe the whole GTLD game was early, too early maybe, but early isn’t necessarily a bad thing, the time is very similar to how long it took .com to achieve its TRUE success ... and from what we have seen; the growth is astonishing for some .extensions and for others, not so much ... (as) noted many would and will fail,

But I have a different opinion related to registrations ... I believe that the number of registrations will continue to slope upwards given how reliant people have become on the internet, crypto, nfts, social media, ecommerce, banking, insurance, etc. and I also believe that new tech like ChatGPT and Ai tools will boost that number by a large degree ... I mean just look at how many people are on their phone nowadays ... some people are glued to the screen

Yes you are correct, the pandemic did startle business owners with physical fronts, and going digital was the solution, I believe many people understand this, especially business owners who now know their physical business’ can be closed within a days notice ...

And of course business’ want good domain names ^ but the majority that are willing to pay top dollar is a small percentage ...

we have seen new .extension registry owners charge insane premium renewals for certain domain names ^ and as you said, this is clearly a cash grab and not the right way to grow the value of the industry ^ development and reasonable renewals are where we will see the value go up ^ time will tell.

Time moves forward >>> internet and online users continues to grow ^^^

My partner and I pay $18 a piece annually to own wines.xyz and whiskey.xyz / but the difference is we got to the game early, now I hear some premium .xyz keywords that can be registered today carry crazy renewal pricing ... again a cash grab ...
 
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There are hundreds of new gTLDs, the question is are they profitable business for their registries, or are we going to witness many go bankrupt?

There are many new gTLDs with less than 10 registered domains:

Screenshot_20230121_025507_Chrome.jpg


https://domainnamestat.com/statistics/tldtype/new
 
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There are plenty of objective metrics to judge the "success" of a domain extension.

All these operators marketed these extensions like they were going to change the world.

Now if an extension only has one end user, who can say that isn't a success.

Man, talk about shifting the goal posts. :ROFL:

Brad

Jeff is CLO of dot Hip Hop ... by teasing (testing) their (automated) marketing efforts on Twitter, I lose interest in investing or by helping them develop healthy marketing habits.
 
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by Jeff Neuman

"Why even have more TLDs when most of the ones from 2012 were "failures"?

This is what we hear the most. But they are generally from domain name industry insiders that have an interest in protecting their existing assets or from those that benefit greatly from the artificial scarcity of top-level domains. We also hear this from some intellectual property specialists that bear the burden of protecting their clients' trademarks and have more of a burden with each launch of a new TLD.

To them I say.....Who are you to judge the success or failure of the new gTLD Program? We shouldn't judge the success or failure of TLDs in terms of numbers of registrations or what the resale value of second level domains are within a TLD. For even if there is one registrant that depends on a domain name registered on a new gTLD domain name extension for their business or livelihood, then who are we to ever described that gTLD as a failure. Who are we to tell that registrant that their whole life's work is on a "failed" domian space. At the end of the day, we launch new registries for them and if the gTLD is secure, works, and does what the end users expect it to do, then all other opinions are just that....opinions.

New gTLDs were created, and are created, to give consumers a choice. The new gTLD Program is about removing the artificial barriers that exist in the creation of new TLDs while at the same time protecting consumers and preserving the safety and security of the Internet. It was not put in place to appease the existing market or preserve ...
Lox....thanks for posting this piece about new gTLD's by Jeff Neuman. While I didn't know who Jeff was before now, I hope to catch up with him in person since he's just a few hour drive from where I live.....that is if he's not in Florida where so many Snow Birds from the north head for the winter.

I see where most NP members following this thread know me as well, and know that I've been a big supporter of some of the new gTLD's ever since I first accessed the domain PingPong.gives over five years ago. At the time I was 70 years young, and when I hesitantly clicked on the domain and saw what was behind it, I thought;

Cool!

I mean really cool! Well five years later some friends of mine who started the Ping Pong Charity have raised over a half million dollars for causes like Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimers behind their domain.

The bigger point I want to make here is that even an "old fart" like me Gets It and understands it.

Bottom Line, "end users" and the "consumers" they sell to just aren't familiar with any of the new gTLD's. They're simply UNINFORMED and UNEXPOSED!

However, that's about to change.......If It's To Be, It's Up to Me:xf.wink:
 
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Those are brand TLDs, like .Google. not open for registration.

There should still be an old thread around about failing ngTLDs. Think Kate ran that one.

I just took random screenshot visit the link and browse the name there are many generic new TLDs that have little registered domains like:
.music 17
.search 18
.data 21
.analytics 28

Unless these are new I am not sure
 
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I just took random screenshot visit the link and browse the name there are many generic new TLDs that have little registered domains like:
.music 17
.search 18
.data 21
.analytics 28

Unless these are new I am not sure

Most not open to the public for registration. If you encounter insanely low number of registrations they're either brand TLDs or not opened up yet.

.music is nice, not sure what's taking them this long, ran by music.us.
 
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I have a couple of issues with ngTLD:s.
  1. Premium renewal fees: Exorbitant registration and renewal fees for good SLD:s (see finance.online)
  2. Renewal fees: Even the bad SLD:s are held back by renewal fees of 2 - 5 times that of a .com.
  3. Unprofessional: People don't recognize website.online as a website, making it difficult to incorporate onto a business card and whatnot. Even the .net is seen as unprofessional in many cases.
  4. Upgrading: Your start-up is really successful, and you've invested a lot of time and money into your brand, but you feel that yourbrand.dev is clunky and you want to upgrade. What's you pick? .com, obviously.
4 is really important, because established franchises have an easier time justifying a expensive purchases.
 
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I have a couple of issues with ngTLD:s.
  1. Premium renewal fees: Exorbitant registration and renewal fees for good SLD:s (see finance.online)
  2. Renewal fees: Even the bad SLD:s are held back by renewal fees of 2 - 5 times that of a .com.
  3. Unprofessional: People don't recognize website.online as a website, making it difficult to incorporate onto a business card and whatnot. Even the .net is seen as unprofessional in many cases.
  4. Upgrading: Your start-up is really successful, and you've invested a lot of time and money into your brand, but you feel that yourbrand.dev is clunky and you want to upgrade. What's you pick? .com, obviously.
4 is really important, because established franchises have an easier time justifying a expensive purchases.

Slay.cool raised $2.63M - dot cool domain extension - sure, they want slaycool dot com but they don't give a .... and not having dot com , io, co, etc didn't stop them going viral.

.... nGTLD registries can do whatever they want. Versign, PIR & most of the ccTLD registries can't.

crunchbase | techcrunch

Regards
 
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Slay.cool raised $2.63M - dot cool domain extension - sure, they want slaycool dot com but they don't give a .... and not having dot com , io, co, etc didn't stop them going viral.
No one is contesting that you can get big without a .com.

But how much did slay.cool pay for their domain? They probably paid the $20 it took to register the domain. So how would you (as a reseller) take advantage of that? Do you think you'd be able to get even $200 out of them if you registered it first? Maybe you would. But who knows? Maybe they would've settled for another brand if slay.cool wasn't available.

But there's still a good chance they'll eventually acquire slaycool.com, and whomever owns slaycool.com is going to be in a golden position to negotiate the price. So again, the .com wins.

.... nGTLD registries can do whatever they want. Versign, PIR & most of the ccTLD registries can't.

Yes, but the majority of sites use .com, and all virtually all businesses use .com. Even on your mobile phone there's a [.com] button when you're typing in the browser. People are willing to pay for the .com because it's the top global position for a brand. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a buyer for a different TLD? It's just not worth it....

And that's not even touching on all the success stories that came with the acquisitions of .com, like with teamworkpm.net. Their profit had more than doubled in the first year of the acquisition of teamwork.com, and they saw a similar increase the next year, and even said that the acquisition of teamwork.com is the best decision they ever made.
 
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Premium renewal fees are killing the ngTLD market.
sex.xyz sold for just $2,150 because the renewal fee (10300$)
sex.com at the same time is for sale at xx million$
 
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Slay.cool raised $2.63M - dot cool domain extension - sure, they want slaycool dot com but they don't give a .... and not having dot com , io, co, etc didn't stop them going viral.

.... nGTLD registries can do whatever they want. Versign, PIR & most of the ccTLD registries can't.



Regards
Slay.cool raised $2.63M - dot cool domain extension - sure, they want slaycool dot com but they don't give a .... and not having dot com , io, co, etc didn't stop them going viral.

.... nGTLD registries can do whatever they want. Versign, PIR & most of the ccTLD registries can't.



Regards
Lox.....i just checked out Slay.cool, and how COOL! is that:xf.wink: My previous post on this thread referenced how Cool the website/business PingPong.gives is/was when i first accessed it over 5 years ago.

Knowing how so few "end users" even know what a new gTLD is, i feel it's up to the industry to educate them any way possible. I plan to form a "users group" for buyers of any of the domains I sell. While I don't see registries doing this for any of their users, I plan on doing it for users of domains I sell.
 
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Premium renewal fees is killing the ngTLD market.
sex.xyz sold for just $2,150 because the renewal fee (10300$)
sex.com at the same time is for sale at xx million$
It gets even worse when you consider the fact if the domain is up for auction or make an offer, you have no way of knowing what the renewal fee will be. So you might think you've lucked out when you found admin.dev for a few hundred dollars, but then it turns out that you'll have to drop it because you can't afford the renewal fee for it.

There are never any artificial issues like this with .com. That's why they're worth investing in.
 
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Premium renewal fees are killing the ngTLD market.
sex.xyz sold for just $2,150 because the renewal fee (10300$)
sex.com at the same time is for sale at xx million$
Yes, but that's just one example. However I own 1500 .link ngTLD's where 5% of the Premium renewal fees are just $118 per year, and the rest 95% like Varsity.link renew for just $8.59 per year.
 
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.... nGTLD registries can do whatever they want.
Which is not a positive thing in my view.

As an end user I think most people would prefer stability and not being at the whim of some random registry operator.

Building your business on an extension where the registry owner "can do whatever they want" is not comforting.

Brad
 
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Which is not a positive thing in my view.

As an end user I think most people would prefer stability and not being at the whim of some random registry operator.

Building your business on an extension where the registry owner "can do whatever they want" is not comforting.

Brad

ngtld registry owners/operators:

DNS tech
Ex and/or still Domain Investors or Domainers
Ex ICANN etc org
 
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