New domain extension tops 100,000 registrations.
The new .tel top level domain name now has 100,000 registrations, just one day after launching in general availability, registry operator Telnic announced. That’s certainly a good start, but the true test will be if Telnic’s non-domain registrar channels can deliver.
If we assume an annual ongoing registration fee of $15 and that Telnic gets about half of that, 100,000 domains means $750,000 in revenue. With $35M invested in the company and a pretty hefty annual expense, .tel will have to rev up that number to at least a million registered domain names in short order to create a meaningful return. .Asia, by comparison, had about 250,000 domains registered as of the end of November.
But let’s be honest, .tel is nothing like .asia. In fact, I wouldn’t really call .tel a domain name. It’s technically a domain name, but Telnic is essentially offering a service. It’s an online yellow and white pages on steroids. It needs to get to critical mass soon, or find a way to shoot up individual domain names in Google (which is a distinct possibility). If the latter happens, search marketers will be all over .tel.
David J Castello says
Impressive because it gives a good idea how many domain speculators are out there.
Jeremy says
If .TEL can gain critical mass (and it’s off to a great start) I can see this quickly becoming the 2nd most popular TLD after .com for the simple reason that this is the very 1st TLD that doesn’t directly compete with .coms.
If MySpace can deliver, the application developers will get on board, if the apps come, it’s a good as done.
ChrisR says
.tel has a better chance as the yellow pages than as the white pages. The white pages can list all the chris robbins in the area .tel can only list one for the whole world.
60DollarDomains.com says
I just made the following comment over at ChefPatrick, but I think it’s more relevant here:
I believe there is potential for type-in traffic to develop on premium terms (albeit not at the levels of .com), as individual users spread the word about their personal .tel domains. For instance, take JohnnySmith.tel (random example — it might be unregistered). If Johhny Smith begins to tell his friends about his .tel, his friends (even a small portion of them) are bound to wonder what’s on Cars.tel, for example, next time they’re looking to buy/rent/sell a car. The same could be said for other TLDs; however, the difference is that .tel provides a really easy process by which one can input their contact info. Sure, one could buy the same term/name (JohnnySmith) in a different TLD and put up a site, but most people don’t know how to do that and the “figuring-it-out” prohibits them from ever attempting. .tel gets around this by making it simple to use your “page.” Because of this, of the .tel domains that are registered, I think we’ll see a much larger proportion of them are actually used (contact info entered) than registered .mobi and .me domains, which require websites to be set-up. I don’t think this should be overlooked. With more of them being used and marketed people-to-people (Johnny Smith’s friends using JohnnySmith.tel to get in contact with him), I think we’ll see some type-in traffic develop on premium terms.
viewer says
.Tel will bomb just like Mobi
You don’t need this kind of service.
All phones now can handle full sites
Steve M says
Well, um … 100k sounds sorta impressive … but without knowing how many were reg’d BEFORE general availability, who knows?
… an’ any guesses on who’ll next try their hand with this junk extension … after the current owners go belly up once the VC cash runs out?
@NameSugar says
@viewer, you’re misunderstanding the purpose of .TEL domains. Their not for websites, they store contact information in DNS so there is no need for a hosting, any internet enabled device will be able to retrieve the information regardless of platform. Nothing else like this exists currently.
.Mobi sucked b/c their idea was outdated for exactly the reasons you state. By the time they launched phones were getting better browsers and the iPhone was the nail in the coffin.
.TEL is not .MOBI
@NameSugar says
@ChrisR Actually ChrisRobbins.tel can have multiple “folders” (subdomains) for other Chris Robbins’ by location, nickname or however.
ChrisR says
I’m aware of that. However, it really starts to get complicated at that point and turning into something an individual is going to pay for is not going to happen. Your local white pages charge you if you don’t want to be listed.
It won’t catch on for individuals except as a novelty. If you target businesses you might have a chance. Contact information, especially for companies that matter, are very easy to come by these days.
It’s going to be a tough sell.
ChrisR says
And might I add, how easy it is on a cell phone to text googl and get an instant reply with phone number and address (for free).
@NameSugar says
I agree Chris that contact info is easy to come by and getting easier all the time, but it’s not easy enough or complete enough.
Large companies publish their contact information but in a variety of different ways. Some more expensive and complicated than others.
You can get a phone number and an address from Google or 411 or KGBKGB or a ton of other ways but a .TEL will let you offer your email, IM, social networks, you name it.
Plus you change this information when *you* feel like it and hide some contacts from certain people or groups or display appropriate contact info based on a variety of factors like location, purpose or association.
All of this w/o needing a hosting account, special software or development.
Duane says
Spending money for a .TEL is like going to a roulette table and putting your chips on number 37.
Burning money and showing your in the wrong business.
Robert Haastrup-Timmi says
Have you guys read this .Tel Business pdf file:
http://www.telnic.org/brochures/top10/Top10ReasonsToBuy.pdf
If these guy’s can somehow googolize all .tel’s so the keywords come up like it does for Wikipedia in google, then Bingo! Forget the white pages side of .tel, that only leads to surveillance for stupid people and narcissist’s….the real beef is again in the “KEYWORDS” ..at least potentially if i’m correct.
This is what I wrote on DomainNameWire yesterday, someone tell me if I’m wrong:
It’s quite possible because of the .Tel DNS structure, any keyword query may come up tops on google search naturally, just like most Wikipedia “keyword” entries. If this proves to be correct, then that is going to be a massive bonanza for anyone owning essential keywords. Here’s a scenario: I just bought LondonAccommodation.tel NewYorkAccommodation.tel and LARestaurants.tel as 3 examples.
So lets suppose I complete the .Tel entries and those start coming up naturally in google, that means I could theoretically take booking orders for London Accommodation and LA Restaurants. Or I could actually put up one of those “premium” telephone numbers and make serious money!!…or I could use the .Tel organizational folders and list all the Restaurants in LA and Hotel Accommodation & B&B’s in London and New York, all for a nice annual fee!!
I’ve outlined this to give Domainers a nudge! If what I suggest proves correct, then …BINGO!!
——–
If you have not read the biz pdf above, I suggest you read it to make sense of this whole thing.
Cheers!
Andrew Allemann says
Robert, I actually have a separate post I’m writing about the search potential of .tel. I don’t buy it.
chrisR says
That’s all good and well, but you’ll need a different search engine or everything relevant would get knocked off for restaurants.tel, cheaprestaurants.tel, californiarestaurants.tel, italiancalifornianrestaurants.tel, asianitalianpolishjewishrestaurants.tel, etc.
chrisR says
namesugar–that’s if you are willing to buy chrissnuts.tel, chrissbigcock.tel, and other truthful variations, but I’m not going to buy a subdomain of robbins.tel.
Kevin Jackson says
@Robert – I doubt owning a .tel will give you any sort of advantage in search engines, unless it is a fly-by-night search engine.
Think of relevance. Search engines are concerned about their delivering the websites with the best possible “content” for their users. It would be brand-suicide if search engines allow their search results to be populated and dominated by virtual business cards!
Robert Haastrup-Timmi says
Hi Andrew, I just read your new post about your .Tel experience. That actually helps .tel which is theoretically a beta platform to improve and work out all the quirks to create ultimate efficiency.
So, I’m curious to read your post as you perceive .tel relating to search engines. But here is my perspective:
The question we should be asking ourselves here is:
1.Do they have a very unique business model
2.Is it potentially disruptive
3.Can it make you money ultimately
It appears they clearly have a very unique business model based on DNS protocol without the need for html. If that becomes ubiquitous, then that can potentially become disruptive or at the very least a whole new business environment in the universal web space! E.g, if you read their biz pdf carefully, you can literally update data enteries seamlessly from any device! What this tells me, is a guy in Brazil who does not know html, or a small business in Africa, or as a matter of fact, about 30% of yellow page businesses in the United States that are still not online, can now come on board SEAMLESSLY!!…that will be BIG! potentially.
As I pointed out in my aforementioned example, their pdf clearly suggests how we can make money if you own generic KEYWORDS, e.g hotel, accommodation or 118.tel the UK and Europe equivalent of 411 in the US. Well I just reg’d that one and if this stuff works out, I think it is obvious how money can be made!
Robert Haastrup-Timmi says
@Kevin – You do have a point there kevin, put consider this for a minute. Would you have thought that Wikipedia when it was first launched, would have a 1st page rank on google for most generic searches? Do you think Google actually likes that? The function of search engines that are un-biased, is to provide the most relevant information and that is why Google is no.1
So therefore, if generic .Tel’s all of a sudden start displaying relevant and accurate data, I see no reason whatsoever why a .tel could not have very high page rank. Afterall, only one person can own hotel.tel, therefore if that is built out with hotel contact enteries all over the world as indicated in the .Tel pdf, and if users begin to use such a site because its very straight forward and gives you what you want on any device, I’d be very worried if I owned Hotel.com and did not take the initiative to own Hotel.tel!
This could become a whole new paradigm like Twitter is now causing big problems for facebook! People want very minute info, not lots and lots or hoards of info on typical websites. The facebook generation have a very short attention span. .TEl can also become an application on several mobile devices too as another option to search. Personally, I think these guys have done some very good homework by comparison to some of the other TLD cowboys tying to rip us off!
jp says
$35M huh? Just how did it cost $35M to launch .tel? asides from marketing costs that is.
chrisR says
robert, if all wikipedia offered were phone numbers and contact info I doubt we would remember them. People who have invested heavily in .tel aren’t very good at defending them. And if you haven’t invested heavily in .tel than you are not qualified to defend them. A conundrum yes. And if .tel got everyone on myspace to invest you’d have a bunch of 15 year olds and musicians, nothing to cause critical mass.
@NameSugar says
@jp They’ve been in planning stages for quite a while, several years. A lot of money has been put(possibly sunk, we’ll see) into it.
Regardless of how anyone feels the ext will do, one thing I don’t see happening is them giving up w/o a fight like .mobi, .info etc. The rapid fire deal w/ MySpace isn’t a bad start.
Who knows, as Robert says it’s a beta platform and it’s success depends on widespread adoption. No users, no value.
Personally I think they’ll do well and I’m not going to pass up the opportunity to hey some quality generic terms relevant to the ext. If I’m wrong I’m out a few hundred bucks, boo-hoo.
David J Castello says
Whatever happens with dotTel it will be a unique chapter in the evolution of the Internet. That being said, the investors will be quite fortunate if they recoup their $35 million. I can only hope they’re already working on the screenplay.
Steve S. says
Wow! You guys really have the big picture! From the perspective of a guy with only two phone numbers (house and cell) and one email that doesn’t change over the course of years, .tel is not overly convenient. Everyone (of my friends and family) have that info on their cell or on a (paper!!) page in their phone book at home. Having said that, I have registered a .tel domain name.
BUT, what about my wife who has a total of about 15 numbers and addresses at any one time AND who changes jobs and, therefore, contact numbers and addresses, regularly. Not to mention (okay, well, I will) when she upgrades to a new hand held idevice. With her situation, I see her life getting somewhat easier with .tel. No more missed calls or emails when her peers connect to old (land line or cell) numbers or (email or office) addresses that are no longer valid. Her peer contacts do not have to regularly update their phone books or the like. When my wife updates .tel, everyone is updated immediately. When she gets a new hand held idevice she doesn’t need to transfer old (and maybe outdated)information of those same peer contacts. Web based stored numbers and addresses are fine if someone can spend the time to update info for dynamic contacts. With .tel the only updating needing to be done is your own, not everyone else’s on your contact list.
This is the small picture. What does it matter? As far as I’m concerned, nothing for me, but it sure is easier and more accurate and productive communication for my wife. Will .tel survive? I don’t know but it seems very convenient for my wife, for now, and will be as long as it’s there. Is there big money in .tel or it’s speculators? I don’t know. BUT Google, Wikipedia, Facebook and whatever may not have started out with big finances. They grew from small-picture individual users that found a handy product that was convenient and productive to use. THEN came the BIG MONEY!
We’ll see!!
David J Castello says
Steve:
You raise some interesting perspectives, but seriously, would you want the whole world to be able to so easily obtain all of your wife’s personal contact info?
Steve S. says
Hey Dave:
No, I wouldn’t. That’s why .tel offers the opportunity to create “friends” lists (as many as you want) and to designate what info each group of “friends” (or acquaintances or co-workers, or corporate peers or whatever you desire) can see on their browser. I understand you can have multiple lists of different catagories of “friends” that can see whatever variety of info you choose to display on the .tel. Remember, the option is also there to display whatever quantity publicly. The choice is the owner’s.
The short of it, I guess, is that .tel realizes the concept of privacy. From my short access to .tel I see all kinds of user controls allowing us to display any combination of submitted information.
I will keep manipulating our submissions and options to give us the best use of the system. I have no qualms to delete all info and abandon the system all together if it doesn’t live up to expectations. We’re willing to give this a (critical) try.
s.
Robert Haastrup-Timmi says
I must admit, I like Steve’s analysis of .tel from a white pages perspective. Think about it this way, if Myspace & Facebook integrate .tel as an app or something along those lines, then what Steve has just outlined above becomes very meaningful to the facebook generation, which looks like most people yong and old.
But that is just the beginning imo. Once people start saying “do you have a .tel?” you can begin to visualize a whole new eco system and businesses will want in!
No wonder why Uncle Rupert at Myspace is getting interested!
David J Castello says
Yes, if MySpace jumps in feet first things will get very interesting quite quickly.
Steve S. says
Here’s another small-picture perspective. An electrician who wires residential custom homes. He has a number of clients at any one time, as well as product suppliers not to mention that he may have family and maybe a friend. Contact information between family and friends may not vary that often but what about suppliers and especially clients? Clients may or may not be considered as the public. From my experience with .tel so far, you can create lists of groups of people that have access to only the info you select for that group. Ex.: Family can see all of your info. Suppliers can see only your work cell phone and work email. The same for your clients. The public has access to only your company web page and land line phone number to be able to talk to your secretary about doing a job for them. If you have finished with a client, rescind their client status in your .tel account and Presto…they are now the public!
Let’s do a reality check here. If I, the electrician give out my contact info to a client as “electrician.tel” most people really will not write the info down. When they want to contact me, they search “electrician.tel”, scroll to my contact number and contact me. If for some reason I have rescinded their client status, they are going to have to take the long and arduous route to try to get hold of me.
The electrician really doesn’t care about whether .tel succeeds or not. If .tel is a useful tool that makes his business better, he uses it. If not, he won’t. That’s what will decide if .tel suceeds or not.
Duane says
Good points are made by Steve S. In a pure user perspective .TEL can be interesting. In a Domainers world or better investing in the extension, I dont see any green lights at the moment.
The price is not exactly cheap.
$ 15 with a U. S. based provider.
29 Euro ( aprox. $ 38 ) at German Providers.
Even if Facebook and others jump in on .TEL? Well, just look who all was involved in the .mobi extension. All the big players jumped in on the .mobi and seen a bright future.
Andrew Allemann says
“Once people start saying “do you have a .tel?” you can begin to visualize a whole new eco system and businesses will want in! ”
One of my key points in my first article on getting to scale quickly is that .tel needs to strike deals with some of the big players out there in the tech world. Give them a .tel for free — heck, pay them to use it.
Robert Haastrup-Timmi says
Hey Andrew! I sense you are slowly coming round to realizing the great potential of .Tel. I just read you latest post, riverting as ever!
I will make a comment there.