If .brand TLDs work, the incumbents will win.
I don’t think opening the floodgates to new top level domain names will have a monumental impact on the web, especially for brands that want to register a .brand domain name.
But let’s assume for a moment that it does. Let’s also assume that companies are able to leverage their .brand domain names in a way that gives them a competitive advantage; whether it be against cybersquatting, in search engines, or for marketing.
That’s what ICANN hopes will happen. But it would be terrible for the web.
What we’d have is a group of haves and have nots. The haves would be large companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, which can afford the hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their own TLD. The have nots would be everyone else.
One of the beauties of the web is how little money it takes to start up a web site or business. A $10 domain, free software, and a cheap web hosting package gets you started.
But if new TLDs succeed that may no longer be the case. The next company that wants to take on Google’s dominant position in search or Facebook’s leadership in social networking will be at an instant disadvantage.
Sure, some day you might be able to register your own TLD for $10. Yet that’s a long way off.
That is rich – dot-com guys have been kicking sand in the face of every other TLD aspirant for years, now it’s unfair?
Dot-com was never the brand.
Brand TLDs will work, that’s for sure. Dot-com will not much longer be commercial king, that’s for sure.
Good for mostly everyone – except the fair-minded dot-com guys who may partially lose their ‘have’ status I’d say..
Acceleration of ccTLDs coming up..
That is rich – dot-com guys have been kicking sand in the face of every other TLD aspirant for years, now it’s unfair?
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He is talking about the effect of startups, small & medium businesses etc, not “dot com guys”.
There is plenty of usable .com for reg fee. Not valuable .com’s (because if there was they’d be taken like just about anything valuable) but as of now anyone can get a domain in the most popular extension for $10.
Snoopy he’s talking about you.
Large portfolio owners, and small time domainers who flip for a living will be the big losers. If you have a legit business model around a specific genre of domains it shouldn’t affect you.
Time is ticking for the big guys to unload, .com will always be king but it appears valuations will be going down for several years until the uncertainty settles.
“…Time is ticking for the big guys to unload, .com will always be king but it appears valuations will be going down for several years until the uncertainty settles….”
Yes, .com value will go down…
Companies will buy i.Do for $185000+, rather than iDo.com for $10 millions.
Domain investors with thousands of large premium portfolios way back in 1990s .com will lose big time…
So .com will go down… so as .net .org .tv .co …
Still, you can make money by selling cheap with big quantities…
@ Rayy.co – I don’t understand your example. You can apply for .do. If someone wants .ido instead of buying ido.com, the owner of ido.com is going to get rich anyway 🙂
Isn’t it more like millions of dollars to get a tld because it is a 10 year contract or something.
And why does everyone get so fussy with .com guys over this tld thing? Are any of these fussy guys going to drop a cool mil for a tld, or just hope someone else does it for them and then give them all the good domains for super cheap?
People are attributing the wrong motivation(s) to .commer criticisms of the new tld release. There are actually negative consequences to too many tld’s flooding the market. But the new tld pump & dump crowd see what they want to see. There has been no “market”, or demand, for new tld’s. 90% + of their initial registrations will be corporate defensive registrations and wild speculation plays.
Companies that pay $185,000 for a .companyname tld instead of $10 obviously don’t care how they spend the stockholders money. Gotta love it. Keep increasing the competition’s expenses. 🙂 My small company with a $10 domain expense compared to the large competitor witha $185,000 expense instantly has a price advantage.
People are attributing the wrong motivation(s) to .commer criticisms of the new tld release. There are actually negative consequences to too many tld’s flooding the market. But the new tld pump & dump crowd see what they want to see. There has been no “market”, or demand, for new tld’s. 90% + of their initial registrations will be corporate defensive registrations and wild speculation plays.
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Your own site seems to be full of new tld names for sale?
“You can apply for .do.”
I thought 2 letter TLDs were reserved for Country Codes.
Has that changed?
@ Trico – correct, must be three letters. HP isn’t happy about that.
These new extensions will be a confusing nightmare.
You will now need to remember EACH individual extension for EACH company.
It’s already confusing enough for surfers to remember if it is a .com, .net, or .org.
This is the best news .com owners ever got. It now solidifies even more it’s position as the leader.
History will show the big mistake of those going with these new extensions.
Also, you don’t think they will still want the .com version even if they go with a new extension? Of course they will.
There is going to be big debates and emotions running high in the boardrooms as to how they want to brand. Alternate extensions? Or, .com ?
It’s going to get ugly for them, pretty for .com investors…LOL. 🙂
These are personal comments, not necessarily reflecting those of the company I work for…
.Com is not going anywhere and will be the most important domain name leader for years to come.
However, the fact that the largest advertisers will go to their own TLD will advertise that instead of their .com domain have an effect.
.Com is what it is because of the aggregate power of the big company ad dollars spent over the past 15 years. That will be reduced now because big ad dollar companies will concentrate that money on their own TLDs instead of .com.
However, there is an entire tier of smaller companies who still advertise, but who won’t be getting their own TLDs. And the biggest of those smaller companies will most likely still use .com as their TLD.
So .Com isn’t going anywhere in the near term, and the value of .com domains will remain strong, but it’s importance will be slowly diminished over time and as a new generation of Internet users arises.
Maybe domain investors should take another look at .me and .co? What’s the difference? No doubt .com will continue to dominate but the playing field is a changing.. and so are the rules.
@Andrew
“If someone wants .ido instead of buying ido.com, the owner of ido.com is going to get rich anyway ”
It’s true.
The owner of ido.com is getting rich anyway, but not as rich as used to be, because buyers got choice to get .ido for $185000+
ido.com owner has to compete with .ido owner, and drop the price to match $185000+ if ido.com owner willing to sell.
Still, all depends on supply and demand equation, and the timing of the flipping market…and the LUCK of course!
“HP isn’t happy about that.”
How about?
.H-P
🙂
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“These new extensions will be a confusing nightmare.”
You got that right.
I’m already dizzy.
It’s like global warming… DOMAIN POLLUTION