Schilling applies for 54 domains, reports Paul Sloan.
CNET’s Paul Sloan, who has been covering the domain name industry for many years, just wrote a piece on new top level domains that teases out more details behind Frank Schilling’s plans for new TLDs.
Sloan reports that uber domainer Frank Schilling is applying for 54 top level domains through his registry Uniregistry. He’s invested $60 million of his own money for the venture.
(Schilling told me a month ago “I wouldn’t expect anything earth shattering”. His definition is different from mine.)
Sloan also writes that Juan Diego Calle, founder of .co internet, is applying for 13 new top level domains through the same investment company that backed .co internet.
Calle certainly has the hands on experience over the past few years to know what it takes to get a TLD off the ground. I appreciate this quote from Calle:
“Many of the companies involved in this are simply hoping that Go Daddy will add their TLD into its store and they’ll sell millions the next day. That’s what they are betting on, but it won’t be the case.”
Indeed, if applicants have these kinds of numbers baked into their assumptions, they’re in for a rude awakening. .Co and .me have been marketed very heavily over the past few years, especially by Go Daddy. .Co has in the neighborhood of 1.3 million registrations at last check; .me is in the neighborhood of 600,000 or so.
The new TLD process needs an opera, perhaps a light musical opera like Gilbert and Sullivan
As Donald Trump said to Brad Miller on the Apprentice…
“STUPID, STUPID, STUPID”!
Thanks for the post.
95% of the new TLDs will only serve to make money for the registrars. Even if some only maintain 40000 registrations per year, the registry stands to make a tidy sum. Thus this new TLD rollout benefits the registrars 95% of the time and 5% for those registering to either develop or trade.
Two years after opening, .CO is doing fine. But how much advertising have they done? A ton! How many new TLDs will be able to match the money that went into .co for the modest amount of registrations? Almost none.
I heard someone say that new TLD registrars can be likened to lottery companies and I don’t entirely disagree. For every $500,000 in profit the registry takes in, there may be one domain/website that sells for $50,000. The numbers are much like a lottery with the ticket sellers laughing all the way to the bank.
And when will people stop buying lottery tickets? Never. There are a few bluechip TLDs around (of course .com, and then .net,.tv,.org.co, .me) but here comes a load of penny stocks.
Kudos to .co for seeing the necessity of marketing for start-ups and web development. Someone there had incredible foresight.
A good poll might be to ask how much the value of .com will increase with the new TLD rollout. We are looking at multi-million new TLD registrations. Let me just say that out of the gate, premium .com (not crap) will be worth 75% more as the rollout begins.
It should be interesting to see what happens with this.
Schilling made his money owning hundreds of thousands of domains (according to the article) yet he is now placing a huge bet on just 54 extensions which really is a different model than what he has done in the past.
Not sure where the $60 million equates to 54 TLD would someone care to explain the math there?
@ Larry –
“Not sure where the $60 million equates to 54 TLD would someone care to explain the math there?”
Legal, back end registry, marketing, ongoing ICANN fees, etc
The company that owns their brand will definitely a positive marketing approach for their products/services .e.g .google .apple .coke .canon, etc.
But for the other gLTDs, only ICANN and registrars will be able to milk the cow.
I could be wrong.
@Larry
54 gTLDs x $180K/application = $9.72M
Consulting hours .e.g legal, IT Consultant/Architect, Marketing Agency.
Approx. $1-5M
ICANN requires applicant to provide financial plans and contingency plans to support the business. Normally 1-2 years of operating costs.
Once approve, the company expenditure to start a registry is not cheap.
Maintenance fee of $25K to support 54 (gTLDs), another $1.35M to the operating cost.
Skilled Staff to run the registry
Customer Service
Marketing, a 30secs NFL ad space for GoDaddy/.CO is $3.5M easy.
Co-location servers
and other misc. fees.
I hope that help.
About the $54 million and the replies to my question.
Cnet article says “He’s put up $60 million of his own money” which is presented as a statement of fact which of course is unverified. Anybody can say anything.
Based on answer to the question that I posted this should have been stated “Schilling CLAIMS he will put UP TO $60 million of his own money”. Not as if he already had.
I dispute the other numbers even if the 54 are approved.
Sorry if it seems as if I am nitpicking. I just think it’s a little hyperbole to claim that number and that it should have been qualified in the Cnet story (and here).
They will make a movie about the new TLDs one day.
It will be called : A license to fleece .
Another prime example of why the internet will be ruled by only the BIG players in the future. I have over 400 TLD’s and this is going to definitely saturate the market more heavily and decrease the value of the .com’s. Sad
@steven
you and i are just about the only ones who predict .coms will ultimately fall in value. i do see everyone elses point in that the new tlds will leak traffic to .com. but i ask these questions: will abccompany.com suddenly need to go out and spends thousands and register abccompany.newtld? i don’t think so. will a startup pay say $1k for xyzco.newtld, and then grab the .com at $4,5,10k+? i doubt that too. they’ve already got/used their budgets… the $ amount won’t suddenly double.
speculators can turn over domains as much as they like between themselves, BUT THE ONLY TIME NEW MONEY COMES INTO DOMAINS IS WHEN THEY CAN FLOG IT OFF TO AN END USER. if end users do not cough up the extra cash that speculators demand then speculators will wear the cost by losing on these domains, or sitting on more and more stock which has perceived high “value” but never sells.
however new tlds play out, i can already hear the big crash which has come faster than the speed of light.
Sorry, but I always have to chuckle a little bit when I read some stuff. Let me just say the Yung Yee supposedly sold his portfolio for 160 million. From what I understand, Mr. Yee was a very private and quiet man. He was also called by some the invisible man.
No one ever knows the true worth of someone until you see his bank account. No one. Period. What you will read in almost any newspaper in America on any given day is some quiet little school teacher who dies and left millions. Everyone is shocked.
Excuse me for questioning God, but I will vote on Mr. Yee’s story.
@ Mike – I think you may have commented on the wrong story. I don’t understand your point. If it’s questioning if Ye sold his portfolio for $160M, it was to a public company so it’s all public info.
Nobody is going to buy any of these TLD’s
It’s .mobi all over again.