Really?
.uk registry Nominet recently worked with YouGov to poll businesses in the UK about new top level domain names.
The press release headline read “British businesses largely unprepared for new gTLDs”.
The headline number: 41% of British businesses surveyed are currently unaware of the new domains.
Wait a minute. That means close to 60% of businesses surveyed are aware of new top level domain names coming online.
That’s a staggeringly high number to me. I would think that only a small minority of those surveyed would have heard of this expansion. 60% would make sense if they talked to the intellectual property departments. Or maybe a small business owner at a tech firm. But overall?
The survey involved 530 senior decision makers in small, medium and large enterprises with a website. I’m not sure how the question was asked, but I can’t think that 60% of these people would be really be aware of new TLDs. Maybe they said they’d heard something about it. But you’d have to hit the right guy at the right company to get a number this high.
If 60% of businesses are aware of new TLDs at this point, that should be seen as a huge win for ICANN and new TLD applicants.
Other numbers from the poll:
61% have no plans to buy any new TLD registrations
22% plan to keep their existing domains but buy new ones
2% plan to switch from their current domains to new ones
I think the relative percentages here make sense. 2% switching domains seems a bit high to me, though.
What do you think?
JamesD says
Over 60% don’t know what a domain name is in my experience…
There are lies; damn lies, and statistics.
Andrew Allemann says
@ JamesD – that’s a good point.