In this guest post, Aditya Chauhan of LogicBoxes explains big challenges facing new top level domain name registries.
When ICANN announced the nTLD program, thousands of applicants threw their hats in the ring. It seemed pretty straight forward; the existing TLDs were running out of short meaningful options, all that was needed was to create newer options that would be more relevant for specific sets of customers.
Years later, the process is well underway; hundreds of nTLDs have hit the market, yet less than 10% of those that have gone live seem to have found success. The term ‘success’ has different definitions for different registries – for some it’s the total size of the namespace, for others it’s the quality of the target audience that has adopted the nTLD.
What’s still missing?
1. Increasing Awareness – A recent study by Sedo (pdf) in May 2014 reported that nearly 75% of internet users aren’t aware of nTLDs. Most customers are simply not aware of the existence of nTLDs, making marketing a nightmare for Registries. Not only do they have to bear the burden of marketing their product, but also the need to educate customers about nTLDs as a whole. This is something that .CLUB seems to have handled remarkably well on a global scale. By using well known faces to endorse and use their product, .CLUB has spread both awareness and acceptance amongst their target audience. However, there’s still a long way to go to make nTLDs more mainstream.
2. Dedicated Focus – Over 500 nTLDs have already been delegated and we’re only half way through. With so many options available, customers are stuck between bewilderment and being spoilt for choice, making it even more difficult to grab an apt moniker for their needs, and there’s not much that nTLD Registries can do. Nearly every active Registrar sends out frequent updates on nTLD launches that covers a list of extensions at one go – not giving each extension the attention it deserves.
3. Better Control – The balance of power has changed, with hundreds of Registries now vying for prime spots on Registrar websites. With the slew of new TLDs, Registrars simply can’t keep up. Registrars are now calling the shots by deciding how much they will prioritize a TLD. Even if a customer is aware of a TLD, the probability of losing a customer to another TLD that has been prioritized is near certain. One of the influencing factors in deciding whether an nTLD can or cannot get sufficient eyeballs is the intelligence built into the Registrar’s website. And there are certainly some issues here.
What can be done?
For the longest time, Domain Registries were the un-sung heroes of the industry – steadily working in the background and enabling Registrars & Resellers across the world in helping new internet users create online presences.
ICANN’s decision to remove the vertical separation between Registries & Registrars at the turn of the decade has welcomed a spate of creative awareness campaigns across the world:
- .club signing up popular celebrities
- .host reaching out to their target audience via events/conferences
- .xyz becoming the talk of the town with their marketing strategy
There is no denying that educating the end customer is a time consuming process and it might take another few years before nTLDs are widely accepted by the general public. So, while investing in public awareness campaigns and other marketing efforts makes sense, Registries & Registrars need be patient to bear the fruits of such efforts.
And while the traditional Registrar channel is still a very relevant avenue to drive registrations, the new Registries on the block have to think out of the box to stand out from the crowd.
Many have already taken big strides here by going direct-to-customer. Registries like .wien, .build, .luxury, .vegas, .physio, .press and others have carved out a retail channel for themselves, over and above the traditional Registrar outreach. By creating a dedicated storefront for their TLD, they’re definitely maximizing the ROI of all their marketing activities and thus have much greater control on their registration volumes. This is definitely an opportunity that many Registries should investigate.
Conclusion
Every Registry mentioned above has approached the issue at hand in a separate manner, their goals however remain the same, awareness and acceptance, which will hopefully translate into meaningful business. Which approach the nTLD Registries choose to follow is obviously dependent on their marketing spends, target markets and goals. Given the amount of competition already out there and with the number of challengers increasing every day, it only makes sense to start looking at alternate options.
The game has changed, nTLD Registries need to too!
Aditya Chauhan is a Business Development Strategist at LogicBoxes.
M. Menius says
Great article and points of view. In retrospect, those who criticized the sheer number of releases were right. It’s too many, and that does result in “bewilderment” for consumers and an uphill battle for registrars.
First and most importantly, it’s up to the Registries to actively invest in marketing and ongoing efforts to promote the new tld they introduce.
John says
Max, glad you posted here. Check out what I just posted here below about .US. As I mentioned to you on one of the blogs before, saw you plastered all over whois when .US was launched, so I know the TLD is of interest to you. Isn’t it sad that almost nothing has changed for .US all these years? I saw something not long ago about some little rumbling that maybe there would be a little effort to improve this for .US, but haven’t seen a thing since, so it would seem to be nothing but a little talk and air now and then. It’s true that only privately some interest has picked up in recent years. I even sold one not long ago for $xx,xxx and not long before that for $5K based on unsolicited inquiries and offers, but still by and large people in the USA simply don’t even know that .US exists. Someone recently posted on one of the blogs that his Grandma even asked what a .US is.
So even if people knew that .US exists in America, would they care? I remember when the launch was approaching it seemed very clear that people didn’t even care, except of course for those who participated in the launch. Don’t you think that just a modicum of promotion like what .club has so wisely done would have resulted in something so very different, not to mention greatly so for your own remarkable portfolio of .US you started out with in 2002? Very sad to me, and this DNW blog post about the new gTLD’s only reminded me of that.
John says
My first reply to you is awaiting moderation here, Max. In it I had alluded to something I found a while ago that I wanted to show you here now. So I just found it again, only now it shows you are not only already aware of it but you are also the sole commenter. Priceless coincidence. So now I know you definitely feel the same way I do and appreciate what has taken place (more accurately *not* taken place) all these years: “Save the Date: .US Public Stakeholder Town Hall (April 22, 1-3 ET / 10-12 PT)” – circleid (dot) com/posts/20150318_us_public_stakeholder_town_hall_april_22_1_3_et_10_12_pt/
M. Menius says
HI John – I just saw your comments here. Yes, there have been some lost opportunities for .US growth over the years, no doubt. I do think that people care and that .US represents something of value to Americans – though obviously not all. .Com became so well established and was “first to market” which made it the default American address for a bulk of U.S. internet users.
That being said, I do believe the paradigm will slowly shift such that other tld’s rise alongside .com. Whether or not .US will carve out a larger niche remains to be seen.
The one game changer with new tld’s (and even.US) is they add a brand new clarity & specificity to the web address. The use of full words to the right of the dot better defines what a web address is about such that the reader is more likely to understand the content on that website before even visiting it. The example I like to use is Miami.condos. MiamiCondos.com was taken long ago, but Miami.condos is the hands down best alternative. And maybe even the most logical choice years down the road.
Cole says
“I see dead gtlds.”
“In You’re Dreams ? ….While You’re Awake ?”
” …Yes , All The Time ,They’re Everywhere.”
John says
LOL
John says
This post is actually a melancholy reminder to me that in the USA people for the most part still don’t even know that .US exists, let alone new gTLD’s. So sad, especially for those of us who participated in its launch all the way back in 2002. This is something Bob Parsons figured out and wrote about on his blog years ago – that at one point people simply didn’t even know that Go Daddy exists. Fast forward through the first Super Bowl splash and the rest is history.
DomainerGuy says
I’ve felt from the onset of this that it was going to be too much, too soon. Some of these new gTLDs are easier to integrate into marketing and overall web use that others (.coffee, .xxx, .club) while some are a bit too cooky and confusing, or less-focussed.
I think this should have been done in broader waves, with more time between them to allow the Internet in general time to get used to seeing them, using them, and marketing them.