Interesting data about what domains are being registered in new top level domain names.
Early this year, as new top level domain names started to be released, I noticed something interesting while reviewing which new TLDs were being registered: most of them were available in .com.
I noticed that the second level domain (SLD) plus Top Level Domain (TLD) combination was usually available as SLDtld.com. For example, Something.Guru was available as SomethingGuru.com.
Verisign just published data confirming my initial observation, with a much larger data set. According to the company, 74% of new TLD registrations are available as SLDtld.com.
This might not be surprising when you look at specific examples. A lot of sld.tld registrations don’t make much sense as a continuous string. Rather than looking at it as a continuous string, the TLD is merely a category for the topic of the SLD. A lot of new TLDs also read “backward” and wouldn’t make much sense as SLD+TLD.com. Examples include .best, .top and .cheap.
Another reason this number is so high is because brands will register their trademarks in all top level domain names, even those that have nothing to do with their products. For example, TD Ameritrade registered TDAmeritrade.bike but doesn’t have TDAmeritradeBike.com (One must question this strategy; if someone would be duped by the first domain name, they’d surely fall for the second one. Or Ameritrade.bike, which isn’t registered.)
Perhaps more interesting is that Verisign discovered that 16% of second level domains registered in new top level domain names aren’t registered in .com.
couponpages says
This is pretty amazing information.
My guess is that many of the registrations like word.guru were people just investing based upon the potential value of the “word”, but have no intention of building anything or they would clearly want the wordguru .com version too.
If word.guru becomes a popular site, a lot of traffic will leak to the .com version
David Walker says
I find it odd that they would put out a report like this to defend .com over gTLD’s, unless Verisgn, Inc. investors are fearful of the potential future of gTLD’s and the “doom” of .com. This is reassuring to them, but for the most part, a lot of domain investors are already on the same page and understand this. Of course, we didn’t have accurate figures. Though, it’s well known to many that SLD+gTLD.com’s are available, and much less pricey.
This report in my opinion isn’t intended for domain investors, rather shareholders scared of other registries gaining ground over Verisign in the years to come. Some of the information may be included in the 2014 Annual Report.
Andrew Allemann says
I agree.
bul says
Most times, facts are as good as they get on their own without a need for hidden agendas. Reports are intended for that. Since verisign operates a competing business with gTLD’s, it would be crazy for them not analyzing their industry scope.
Andrew Allemann says
True, but Verisign has an agenda with each post/announcement it makes. Interesting data, but they wouldn’t release it if it didn’t help them as a business.
couponpages says
The main way they will benefit from this is that people will buy those .Com versions.
It’s a win-win for Verisign, they get more .Coms, and the new TLD versions diminish in value.
bul says
No lo se, a huge number doesn’t make sense in the .com so the returns are diminished. Probably investor confidence is the goal. I see yours and Andrew’s point though as most activities in a firm are geared towards value add.
couponpages says
It’s also a way to shoot down that the argument that new TLDs were needed because we were running out of .Coms.
They are making it very clear that by removing the dot before the new TLDs, the majority of the new ones could just as easily been .Com.
If we were truly running out of .Com, this wouldn’t be possible.
bul says
Uum thats an angle I hadn’t thought of @coupon. One thing is for sure, there is a lot of .com unregistered. And perhaps we are buying new gTLD’s for a rainy day; just in case things tip but sure .com competitors aren’t making things easier with all the premium pricing they are after.
Drake says
A anyone figure why nobody want anythingxyz.com maybe that skews figures…
Andrew Allemann says
Definitely skews the first figure. I’d say generics in general skew it. That said, I’ve looked at even the domains that “make sense” when you put the SLD+TLD together, and it’s still a small percentage.
Drake says
As well .xyz and their robo registrations really throw that number off, take xyz, and free registration extensions out, compounded with north sound you have a totally different figure.
Laszlo Toth, Jr. says
So, let’s see if I have this right.
* Verisign is saying 74% of the new gTLDs were available as dot COMs… and their potential customers turned up their noses at Verisign and registered the new gTLDs anyway.
* This exercise shows there’s no real shortage of dot COMs available… and their potential customers turned up their noses at Verisign and registered the new gTLDs anyway.
And this is supposed to be good news for Verisign how, exactly?
Alexander Schubert says
I think this is pretty much what is expected. THAT’s why we introduced the new gTLD’s in the first place! And that even 16% of the SLD’s are NOT registered in .com – well – might be very often from countries where .com is put in a place where it really belongs: an oddity of history – never REMOTELY designed to be abused in the way it is abused nowadays. A TRUCKLOAD of regs come from Germany (e.g. in .berlin) – and in Germany .com is a “lame duck”. If you only have a .com then it means that you have missed out in .de and now have to use a work-around.
My sincere hope is that .com one day simply goes completely away. Not needed. History. Time will show.
Ivan Ivanov says
I believe that the future of the New gTLDs is in 1-word.newgtld domains that make sense as a combination and no matter why things are changing, we need to be able to let go and move on.
name says
Keep dreaming while you can not even sell your thousands of .com // new gtlds are here and i have thousands of options. dot com game over. haahaaa
jack says
Dot com game over, keep dreaming, i rather have my perfect keyword+new gtlds. bye bye dot com, some domainers will miss you, lol
Bul says
Easy Jack. Give me one compelling reason as to why .com will go away and gTLDs will take over.
Harry says
I will give you a very good reason. when .xxx was introduced, did we find in google, No. after several websites adopted .xxx, you can see it in top reasults, so it only took few years to pop up in top. it is all for one reason, ONCE many sites are developed with new gtlds, they will be TOPPPPPP.. because they are simply the best keywords as 2 in 1..
Oh, example ? google EGYPT, you will find egypt.travel in top results. why ? because it is simply a developed website. new gtlds are not going to rank as they are parked pages. ONCE developed, you will say bye bye .com
I am more than happy for gtlds because of the greedy .com investors. look how hard they are trying to sell thousands of parked .com now. hahaa i am no longer interested to buy jack.com . i have thousands of extensions to choose from for my new site which will meet my requirements and will also meet my expectations for sure.
It is a matter of few years for gtlds to be as famous as .com and everyone will know that .com is just one of the extensions not the king.
Bul says
1. I doubt why Egypt is the only example I can think of. 2. don’t you think the popularity of .whatevers will create an exclusive class for .com owners?
Joe says
The goal of this article is simple; prop up new TLDS as a ‘unique’ commodity separate from .com’s; so that investors feel good about themselves. This of course is pure fodder as NOBODY was even using xyz in their domain name for any reason, and that goes for so many of the other new extensions. Renewals will tell the story, and it’s coming up real soon. Watch as the robo-registrations vanish, numbers plummet; and you are stuck with cash.horse. Not sure why anyone talks about this anymore; the new TLDs are already dead in the water.
Harry says
Keep on defending your stupid .com . new gtlds are not 1 or 10 or 100 extensions. they are plentyyyyyy. some MUST succeed. there is no way they all gonna fail, it does not make sense at all. forget about the renewal pricing. many gtlds are starting from $5 and normal ones are around $20 to $100 which is not a big deal for any medium size company or even a small shop.
About those premium ones with renewal of $$$$. it is not also a big deal for a big companies to renew them as they will be perfect keyword.
Renewal pricing could be an issue to domain investors yes, but it is not for anyone who is going to really develop gtlds into a real website representing their business.
lucy says
.com GREEDY domain investors are still living in their dream world. LOL
Anton says
I agree with Joe. Gtlds are Dead On Arrival and will never catch on. They are really stupid, make no sense and no one knows or cares about them and will never use them and will not want to buy them. And if someone were to stupidy use them as a primary site, they will leak more traffic then they will retain.
couponpages says
“…they will leak more traffic then they will retain.”
Based on Verisign’s data, they’re banking on it.
Regardless of what people think of the future of the new TLDs, the fact that 74% of them are available as .Com makes a strong case that every single success in that 74% will still be a victory for Verisign.
If a site like Shoe.Guru leaks, the leak will force them to at least register ShoeGuru.Com before somebody else gets the leaked traffic. Hence, Verisign gets a .Com registration.
Assuming that happens, the question is if you bought ShoeGuru.com as a defensive move to capture the leaks from Shoe.Guru, would you advertise both? No. So which would you advertise? Right now, the answer is still clearly the .com, making the .Guru pointless.
Holly Jin says
Someone is crying not able to sell his .com domains and trying to keep people away from gtlds. your message is the most stupid thing we ever seen. you acting like some old friend who said smart phones are stupid and expensive no one will want them. people are changing their smart phones yearly !!
gtlds are here and will remain. people are buying them and ignoring your .com so you are no longer in power to request high prices for the king .com domains.
gtlds are a bit expensive in renewal which will make them even more valuable and desirable in a short time ahead. it is only matter of few years for people to adapt to the new technology. but you rather stay behind the scene.
Look how many premium .com are for sale now even 2 letters that were always hidden. they know if they do not sell them within these 2 years, they will lose a huge amount and no one will want their .com because those investors are so greedy. they just want us to pay them a million $ for their stupid .com
I will use that million $ to register a new gtld and pay for its renewal 100 years a head.
As it was mentioned above, once gtlds are presenting real websites, they will rank TOP in search results. simply like EGYPT. i do not see Egypt.com , i only see Egypt.travel !!
Bye Bye stupiddddddddddddddd .com
MARK says
Agree with Holly Jin.. if Holly Jin wants to register a domain for his/her site/business.
Let us say. will you choose hollyjinCLUB.com hollyjinPUB.com or you will choose hollyjin.club .pub .shoes .company .farm .lawyer .trade .agency etc
What will be the difference ? first gtlds will be shorter and meaningful and it will really show and represent the intended business and distinguish it from other sites.
I must say i like new stuff and i am always after new fashion. lol
BTW. i am not willing to pay $1Mil for my name .com (mark.com) i rather buy Mark.company just as example. and pay whatever it cost for renewal. WHY ?
Because i do not have $1Mil and if i have it, i won’t throw it for .com domain. i will use it to for mark.company as example, register the domain, renew it 10 years, build the site, host and promote the site and even advertise it anywhere i like. and in the end i will only spend $10k for example. so i saved a lot, right ?
I will use the rest of the money to buy an office and establish the whole business and i will still have lots of money as a backup for my business. so i can play golf when i am free.
The ones buying your .com for $mil are the big companies that happened to have the same name as your domain and they really need it. i mean last time as your .com was the only option. even now it is not the only option.
Like Holy Jin said : Bye Bye stupiddddddddddddddd .com
MARK says
I forgot to add the most vital point about gtlds. they will not be haunted by stupid .com companies for TM. trademark won’t be really affecting them much.
Let us say Mark.com has a TM. if i register Mark.agency now and represent a different business. can mark.com take my domain away ? huh. NO WAY.
So i got the name i wanted and just put it into a different business from the registered TM and i am famous !!
The killing point will be the release of 2 letters gtlds .. wait and see……
elevateer says
Oh! Oh!! O!!! I believe all of you are domainers, if yes, OK let’s look from this perspectives; you have your company.club, another person have company.guru, and another person have company.sexy. .xxx, .company, etc etc can that be compared to just only one extension which is known by everybody? Mind you a lot and lots of confusions will make you loss traffic to the .com.
Though .coms are too expensive if they are highly targeted keywords or one word domains, your comparisons are like a poor person who prefers to own a common house in the third street or 5th street for his business compare with someone who has his business in a burbling or busy wall street; that needs no much ads. Is it possible for them to make same profit or returns.
Mind you, if you have a new extension in top ranked of Google page one; you must have lost so much thousands of customers to the dot com of that same keyword.
You were talking of egypt.travel in top results, do you know how much traffic it has lost to egypt.com and more soo egypt.com is known worldwide and not egypt.travels. egypttravels.com could even make sense than what ever new tlds.
Lets be factual. Cheers.
C. J. says
Does it really matter. if i am the owner of Egypt.Travel , then i am so happy. i do not give a F about Egypt.com it is not mine. i am their competitor now and i have got to win traffic over them.
Anyway that is not the main point. the point is that: Once gtlds are developed into real websites, real businesses, they will rank in top search results. got the point ? it is simple, because the website content which comes at first as google said, if your site has rich content, it does not matter what your domain is or its extension. 2nd because of the keywords involved in the gtlds itself.
add my Bye Bye to .com . no one is buying from these greedy domainers any more. let them struggle to sell their .com while they try hard to catch up with new investment in gtlds. they thought they controlled the web market because they sold some domains for millions. life can never be smiling at all times, there is good and hard times. there is old and new.
Bul says
Thing is, domaines still own the majority of the best nTLD’s as well. Get it?
couponpages says
Very true.
I’ve only seen a few developed sites that use a new TLD, the rest are either being held by domainers looking to cash in down the road, or are being used to redirect to .Coms, making the new TLD redundant.
All I can add is that if 74% of new TLD domains are still available as .com, they won’t remain that way if the new TLD versions actually get any traction. If a new TLD site gets traction, you know somebody will buy the .com version and then the fun begins.
Bul says
It’s Capitalism…welcome a board 😉
Jason says
They are holding most of gtlds yes because they have made money from .com. they have all the money. they will hold those gtlds until they get red of their .com domains. That is why they want everyone away from gtlds so that they can have the best of gtlds for themselves while they are selling their .com and later on they will still play the same game as they played .com
Martin says
Some dreamers :
http://www.domaininvesting.com/weekly-domain-sales-listings-1224/#comment-351724
jess says
MORE shocking news : TLDS ARE RANKING TOP IN SEARCH RESULTS :
EGYPT.TRAVEL
COLOMBIA.TRAVEL
GERMANY.TRAVEL
ECUADOR.TRAVEL
CAPETOWN.TRAVEL
CANADA.TRAVEL
SANFRANCISCO.TRAVEL
CHILE.TRAVEL
PERU.TRAVEL
AND MANY MORE FOR ME TO COUNT HERE.. GOOD BYE .COM
Andrew Allemann says
“TLDS ARE RANKING TOP IN SEARCH RESULTS :”
I don’t even know what that means.
jess says
That means; If you search one of the above countries names in google, you will find the top results are the sites with gtlds extensions . ex : google SANFRANCISCO . you will see SANFRANCISCO.TRAVEL in the top results. That means gtlds are ranking highest !!
couponpages says
I tried them all. For me, the only one that ranked anywhere on the top 100 was Capetown.travel.
That said, it’s still quite likely you saw some of them all rank in the top 100 for you, and potentially for some other members.
The reason for that is that Google doesn’t return the same results page for every visitor. Unless somebody is using Google for the first time, has cleared their cache and cookies, and is not logged into Gmail, they try to return results based upon what they know about you. Even then, the results will vary based upon where you are, what’s trending, and what kind of device you are using.
So, as somebody who may have already visited .Travel sites, or new TLDs in general, they may include a higher weight to those sites than somebody who hasn’t.
However, I do find it encouraging that some of them are at least popping up at all. Google has made it a point publicly that they endorse the concept of the new TLDs, but they claim content still is their main factor.
Personally, I don’t believe that’s true, because I know popularity is still their core factor. They used to measure popularity based upon inbound links, but since then they have moved towards social media likes, tweets, shares, etc… which is just as pointless. I hope this trend stops, because content should be the strongest factor.
Just because something is popular, doesn’t mean they should rank it higher, because some sites are popular because they ranked high, which snowballs into even more popularity.
bye bye dot com says
I have tried them all too. egypt.travel comes 4th because top results are news.
canada.travel did not show. BUT the rest showed in TOP.
Really !! .travel websites are really ranking 1st !!
So parked gtlds have no chance. make a site for your gtld and you will kick it up.
bye bye dot com says
Quote : So, as somebody who may have already visited .Travel sites, or new TLDs in general, they may include a higher weight to those sites than somebody who hasn’t.
WELL THAT MEANS ONCE THERE ARE MANY SITES WITH GTLDS THERE WILL BE MORE VISITORS AND THEY WILL START TO RANK HIGHER WITH TIME. SO IN GENERAL IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME FOR GTLDS WHICH ACTUALLY MEANS TIME FOR GTLDS TO BE DEVELOPED INTO REAL SITES, THEN THE PUBLIC WITH SEE THEM REPLACING .COM
.COM HAVE BEEN TOP BECAUSE OF THE SAME REASON YOU MENTIONED ABOVE. AND THAT IS WHY WE CAN SEE SOME .NET .ORG ABOVE .COM
couponpages says
To be more specific. That’s why some people see some of the new TLDs.
The key to remember is that Google gives different search results to almost every visitor, depending on many different factors.
In my case, out of the list above, only one was listed in the top 100. I didn’t have time to look beyond the first 10 search results pages, but I’m sure some would be within the first 200 – 300.
If I visited at least on of the .Travel sites from time to time, I’m sure Google would’ve shown more of them in the top 100 (for me).
bye bye dot com says
For me, they showed as first and top option in the first page. i wish if i could attach a screenshot.
ex: i google.com searching colombia : 1) colombia wikipedia 2) colombia.travel SAME with egypt, peru etc.
bye bye dot com says
BTW, yahoo is giving me the same results. i can assume that .brand will follow the same road. nike.brand puma.brand etc
bul says
I am going to Medellin Colombia next week. I will do a search there locally and report to you and @coupon what the search results look like out there. But right here where i am sitting (Calgary, AB) the results for Colombia are as reported.
couponpages says
Sounds like a fun experiment, however try to remember the IP location is only one of many factors that Google uses to produce any given results page. To truly see this for yourself, and see what Google displays for a “stranger”, you would also need to factor in the following:
1. WHO is searching. They can derive this from any active Gmail sessions you may have opened, or if you use Chrome, they know who you are, and what searches you’ve made from that login, even if you clear cookies and caches, because they are linking it based upon those other logins and their server history of your activity, and even more creepy… the contents of every email you’ve ever sent… or had sent to you. This even factors into things outside of search, such as banners.
For example, last spring, I noticed I was seeing a lot of banners for battery powered lawnmowers. I’ve never searched for one, or been on a lawnmower site. Later that day, I noticed a friend sent me an email the night before asking my opinion about a battery operated lawnmower. Therefore, Google read my email before me, knew it was a person I had frequent contact with, and used that to start showing me ads about such products. Essentially, they anticipated that I would be looking into them, before I even opened the email.
2. WHAT device you are using. People tend to search for different things on a mobile device than a desktop or laptop. For example, somebody on a mobile phone searching for shoes, is probably looking for a local shoe store, but from home, they may be more interested in shoe sites. As such, you will get more local content from mobile devices.
3. WHERE you are searching. If you are in an IP that is not only in a city, but near an airport or hotel, you are likely a traveler. So, they not only factor in the kinds of things other people in that city are searching for, but people in that type of venue.
4. WHEN you are searching. For example, people searching for shoes at night are more likely to be looking for a site than a store, because the stores are closed.
5. WHAT’S TRENDING / NEWSWORTHY to people (like you) right now. They try to blend in some places and events that are getting mentions in social media or searches at that exact moment.
So, if you’ve searched for, visited or had email conversations about something, Google knows and will tailor your result pages to include all those factors and more.
So, to get as close to an accurate test of what a “stranger”, among other things, you would need to re-install a browser and make sure you haven’t logged into anything Google related, especially gmail which is as pure an ID as they can get.
Then, you would need to make sure you don’t visit any sites, especially social media and sites you frequent until you’ve tested it. Once you visit even one site, they start profiling you from the AdSense and Google Analytics code, as you move from site to site, you are building a new profile of likes, dislikes, etc.
For what it’s worth, Google is pretty creepy. It’s scary how much they know about people.
bul says
I wasn’t planning on spending lots of time on it. Dude i am going to Medellin for a vacation while most of you are at Namecon hahaha. but given all the variables involved, should we put a lot of value to search results? Sounds like we can’t even tell if the results are due to natural or paid search positioning.
couponpages says
The core of what I’m saying is unless you literally do backflips to make sure Google sees you as somebody they have never encountered before, from a non-descript place and using an indeterminate device, they don’t have a “canned” results page for any given query.
My #1 for any keyword I search for is not even guaranteed to be the same as somebody who may be sitting in the same room as me. This is independent of paid vs organic. Google simply re-shuffles the deck for each and every visitor and situation. While some pages will have a high enough rank to be on the majority of results pages, there are so many unique result pages that it outnumbers the fallback pages.
That said, there is a way to see a close approximation of what somebody other than you may be seeing, which is to look for the icon to the right of the search box on your results page. That tells Google you don’t want results to be based upon what they know about you or your history.
While this helps remove the bias they had towards results that they think fit you, it’s only half true… because everyone else is seeing their own interest biased result page.