We’re closing in on 200 top level domain names being released in general availability, and there have been quite a few surprises.
Some domains have done better than I expected and others have done much worse. I’ll list a few here, and I’m curious what you think.
Let’s start with three that have done better than I expected:
1. .Guru 67,322 registrations (zone file)
Would .guru have this much momentum if it wasn’t released at the beginning of the program? I doubt it. .Guru benefited from the novelty of new TLDs and its somewhat generic nature.
That’s not to say .guru isn’t a good domain. It’s pretty good. But I never would have guessed it would be #2 in paid registrations at this point. I’m sure Donuts would concur.
2. .Wang 47,543
I haven’t analyzed who is registering what in .wang, but it seems to have a couple meanings that appeal to a broad audience. First, it’s the hanyu pinyin transcription of Chinese for website or portal. Second, it’s a common surname.
.Wang registry Zodiac Leo Limited anticipated 104,098 registrations in the first year. All laughing about the specificity of that forecast aside, it might not be too far off.
3. .Today 33,356
“Today” is a great ending for a domain name. It’s a great option for a TLD because there are so many things you can put to the left of the dot.
Still, I’m surprised to see this domain name in the top 10.
OK, now here are some domains that are off to a slower start than I expected.
1. .Gripe 481
I know this domain hasn’t been out long, but it isn’t growing at all, either. Only one domain was added to the zone file yesterday.
This is a perfect example of the type of domain name trademark holders said they’d be forced to register. A shakedown domain.
So where are they? They aren’t all customers of Donuts’ DPML.
2. .Democrat 984
.Democrat’s low numbers must be merely an awareness issue. Politicians are slow to catch on. But haven’t they learned anything over the past 15 years about not securing relevant domain names?
My guess is a few high profile cases of .democrat name squatting will help this domain name grow in the future.
3. .Recipes 2,942
Massive search volume + Lots of sites related to the topic = a big success?
Not necessarily.
Agree with my selections? What did I leave off?
Meyer says
One more variable that effects new tld purchases. COST.
Just looking at enom – it appears the range is anywhere between $9. and $99. for a new .??? domain.
Moreover, it also depends if the domain is being priced at the premium level. Or, is the registry holding it back for future release at much higher price which turns off some potential buyers.
As they say, “not all tlds are created equal.”
Andrew Allemann says
That’s true. Some of the domains also have a large list of domains that are restricted (for now) due to name collisions.
EM @KING.NET says
Excellent post Andrew.
I have invested in .guru and .zone because of generic use of extension. And some for .ninja don’t ask me why.
Glad to know that you did not include .xyz to your review.
DonnyM says
Google could send one email about one out of their new extensions and get more Regs than any of these guys.
It’s simple. They give you a domain for $12 then follow up with a 150.00 adwords credit to use with your new domain name. You can’t compete with that. Also who’s hosting you want google or godaddy. lol Free Hosting or Paid Hosting.
The danger will be when google offers you a .99 cent transfer to move your domain names. Branded gmail with your domain and GD charges for extra storage and email… I think it is stupid.
It is going to be a slaughter. I guarantee you the back-office of google domains will be more easy to use in 3 months than anyone.
The bottom line here is none of those extensions above have nothing to offer after the sale is done.
Donny
EM @KING.NET says
@Donny,
If Google will provide reseller pricing. I will move all my domains 🙂
I’m using Google Apps since the beta, no major problem to report.
Free branded email is a really nice offer.
Eric Borgos says
Great article. I had no idea which TLDs were doing well and which weren’t. I was especially surprised by the 3 you listed that did well.
Tim says
What would it cost to register a single domain in all 200 (or however many are available to the general public)?
Acro says
Since you didn’t include .XYZ are you indicating you *were* expecting the current (heavily massaged) numbers? 😀
EM @KING.NET says
@Acro I agree, can’t use xyz numbers. Not a good baseline to show real registered domains. No matter how they market the domains.
Policist 2 says
What did you leave off? Ok, I’ll tell you.
You forgot to mention that every single damn one of these, and all of the other gtld’s, has an extremely high likelihood of dying a miserable, painful and expensive death. And that anyone who is foolhardy enough to invest in one, either as a registrant or as a registry, will end up getting clobbered.
jane says
Or you can go the other way and claim that anyone that fails to jump on board is doomed to failure.
Both claims are idiotic at this point….
In a year from original launch when renewals become a factor, then we will have a better idea of where various GTLDs stand…
Eric Borgos says
Even though I am a die hard .com fan (I owned 9000 .coms a few years go), and never would use any other domain for a site I build, lately I have warming up to .info domains. There have been a lot of .info sales in the $X,XXX range, and compared to all the confusing and silly sounding new extensions, .info looks much better to me in comparison. I still own 0 GTLD domains though. As Jane said above, I think it is too early to make surefire predictions about the success and failure of the new GTLDs. I don’t think they will replace .com, but if many don’t completely go out of business, then that might be considered a success by some people. A few may even catch on like .info and .tv have.
Raider says
Its always interesting to see where domainers choose to spend their money, or in the case of GTLD’s “waste” their money.. I don’t see the benefit of these numbers when you consider the majority of registrants are domainers and not end users, The names will eventually expire and the numbers will look completely different when a new round of GTLD’s are released and well be discussing those.
As you may have guessed, I’m no GTLD investor, not even for the .Republican TLD.
Su Amigo says
gtld=good to lose money
Su Amigo says
er…sorry…gtld=good to lose DINERO
I see no value in that worthless gtld .crap and certainly do not see it ever catching on with the mainstream. Soon you will find yourself with an obsolete and expensive novelty name that no one cares about or wants. Good luck recovering costs when you try to sell it.
I have a .mobi and a .xxx that I’ll give you for a good price. Any takers?
Oden the God says
No
Jacques says
Indeed a good initial anylse at the point we are out ; As far as I am concerned, I would put (a good ) part of my money on Geographic’s, as Community sense might be at it’s top there. And indeed .BERLIN is already doing well with 137,000 registrations …
Andrew Allemann says
Jacques, most of those .berlin domains were given away for free.
Raider says
I read a post on a Forum today where a newbie expressed how happy he was about GTLD’s, that unlike dot com he has the opportunity to register so many domains… What he was doing is holding the same candle up to dot coms, almost treating them as equals where they too will become valuable like dot coms did.
For a newb or even the savvy GTLD investor, they cant possibly believe the resale value will grow anywhere near dot com values, and if they do, then that would explain the high registration numbers for crappy GTLD’s like dot wang…
WTF is a Wang BTW?