Support for New TLDs Still Limited Amongst Domain Industry
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
Survey finds little support among domain community.
Support for ICANNs “current plan” of introducing new top level domain names is still limited — although the ice may be thawing.
In the 5th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey, 26% of respondents said they were in favor of ICANN’s current plan to introduce new top level domain names. This is up from 20% last year. An additional 22% are in favor of the plan, but only with regards to IDN top level domains.
Although the survey was open to everyone in the domain industry, the majority of respondents identified themselves as “domain investors”.
ICANN has already started its “fast-track” process for IDN country code top level domain names, which allow certain countries to get a top level domain name in their native script. However, generic IDN top level domain names are currently slated to be rolled out with other generic top level domains.
As pressure mounts from all sides trying to mold the new top level domain debate, satisfaction with ICANN is waning. Will 2010 be the year applications are finally accepted for new TLDs? Don’t bet the house on it.
Further Reading:
Ahem – care to comment on the demographic of your respondents? That might have some bearing on interpreting the results.
Antony
Antony – I did:
“Although the survey was open to everyone in the domain industry, the majority of respondents identified themselves as “domain investors”.
Thanks – sorry not to have read more carefully.
Given that “domain investors” as a rule are not in favor of new gTLDs, and that as a rule they are completely invisible in the ICANN process, how predictive do you think the survey is?
Antony
@ Antony – I think it’s predictive of how domain investors feel. Obviously, if it were a survey of how people who will profit from it (you, registrars, registries, etc) feel it would be different. The real question — and the hardest to nail down — is how consumers feel about it.
That said, one thing I think everyone in the industry agrees with is that the process has been a clusterf*ck. More on that in a most soon…
These people submitting to ICANN for new gTLDs are banking that speculators (“domain investors”) are going to swoop up these names like they have in the past. Of course, they’ll tell you (and ICANN) that endusers and developers are their target audience.
Unlimited new tld’s brings obvious widespread problems. At best, the introduction of new tld’s should be restricted to only several new tld’s released per year. “Unlimited” is dangerous and unnecessary.
The gradual introduction of new names provides all the needed safeguards. Simple, do-able, low risk, and greater chance of success. Let 2 new domains come available in 2010. And perhaps 2-3 more in 2011. See if these even gain traction.
I would like to put a finer point on the exchange with antony.
it is the headline that is misleading. “domain investors” or “secondary market” would have been more accurate.
this goes two ways. I assure you that I spend more time correcting people at ICANN meetings or hostingcon’s who say “the whole domain name industry is here” and I correct them by pointing out that it is only the primary market.
the farmer and the cowman should be friends!
Well, for every segment of the vote, including domain registrars, less than 50% wanted to go ahead with new gTLDs. Registrar responses counted for about 10% of responses, and the survey was open to everyone. So I don’t think the headline was technically misleading. It would have been misleading if I said it was only domain investors or the secondary market.
That said, many domain registrars are also investors
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