Owners of .xxx domain names will get matching adult-themed web addresses.
Kevin Murphy at Domain Incite reports this morning that ICM Registry, the company behind .xxx, has settled the contention set for .sex.
That means ICM is the only remaining applicant for .sex, .porn and .adult.
This may be good news for .xxx domain name holders. The company proposes a Domain Matching program in which owners of .xxx domains will also get the matching domains in the other adult domain names it operates.
It could take longer than previously expected for these new adult domains to come out thanks to a last minute curveball from ICANN. But knowing ICM Registry, it will eventually get ICANN to come around.
dltG says
Yes .xXx will increase in value now that they have secured .sex, the grandfathering rights for .xXx owners is a great promotion!
.xXx will be king down the road because it is the most internationally recognized brand for adult content.
Joseph Peterson says
Definitely .XXX domain owners are in a stronger position if ICM Registry can assure them the exclusive options for matching .SEX, .PORN, and .ADULT names.
If I understand ICM Registry’s past statements correctly, then .XXX ownership rights resemble those of .CO.UK with respect to .UK — except with no timeout after 5 years.
But a transition from .CO.UK to .UK is mainly just for the sake of 2-letters-and-a-dot more brevity. Activating one or the other of these new adult TLDs would offer the domain owner real variety in branding options or multiply online presence across up to 4 distinctly different website names. So the advantage of simultaneously owning .XXX and the rights to .SEX, .PORN, and .ADULT appears much greater than the .UK case.
Since many adult industry professionals (of which group I can’t count myself) initially reacted with hostility to .XXX when it arrived, perceiving the TLD mainly as a kind of extortion racket, this unique benefits policy of the ICM Registry is important now. Arguably it sets a precedent for fairness and customer protection that is rare in the domain industry.
Just compare the chaos introduced by .PHOTOGRAPHY, PHOTO, .PHOTOS, .PICS, .PICTURES, etc. — each of which would be acquired separately in a competitive setting.
Kwon H. says
Yippie! Now you can leak traffic and email to your .com competitor from not just .XXX, but three (count ’em, three!) different tlds!
Joseph Peterson says
Why would Jobs.xxx leak traffic to Jobs.com? There’s an obvious difference.
couponpages says
I don’t think that’s what he meant,. If somebody with an existing adult .com domain doesn’t buy the corresponding .sex, .xxx, .porn or .adult version they will definitely get some leaked traffic.
Some people looking for something like “HotRedheads.xxx” will habitually and accidentally end up at the .com version. So I entirely agree with Kwon H.; the .com version will absolutely get leaked traffic from all the others (.xxx, .adult, .porn and .sex.)
This is why I’ve scratched my head about why they are creating so many overlapping nTLDs in the first place, especially if they are not only encouraging buyers to try to get the same name under more than one, but in some cases offering a domain matching program to secure identical names.
When Network Solutions decided to give .xyz domains to .com buyers that was a clear case where they demonstrated the real goal of getting more fees, not creating new opportunities for people to get a domain.
As for Jobs.Com, while they may get a tiny leak from people looking for jobs in the adult industry, they will definitely get some leaked traffic from jobs.career, jobs.careers, jobs.finance, jobs.express, jobs.exchange, jobs.site, etc…. Not only that but sites like JobsSite.com or JobsExpress.Com, they will get traffic too.
While I know a lot of people disagree, I think at least until the general public becomes more familiar with the nTLDs, every .com will gain traffic from it’s corresponding nTLD competitors… provided the nTLD site launches with real content… not just a park page.
Joseph Peterson says
There’s far more fragmentation with the 2014 wave of nTLDs than there is with the .XXX and its bonus TLDs.
I agree with you that a 3-word adult .COM might face undesirable confusion with respect to a matching .XXX, and the latter would lose traffic to the .COM. But it’s also true that such lengthy .COMs already leak traffic to similar .COM domains or — on a much bigger scale — to Google.
The main opportunity with .XXX / .PORN / .SEX / .ADULT is brand simplification. From, let’s say, adultentertainmentjobs.com to Jobs.xxx. Such a rebrand may be advisable for various reasons (e.g. reclaiming customers from search engines and letting them act as repeat type-ins). The rebrand tends, rather than exacerbating issues such as traffic leakage, to mitigate or cure them.
couponpages says
Ever since the 90s, I felt that there should’ve been a .xxx TLD. In fact, I felt that the adult industry should’ve required the .xxx for hardcore sites, just like the film industry ratings, just to make it easier for browser makers to filter potentially offensive materials. Such filters would only work if they agreed not to use .Coms too.
Now that it’s finally here, parents, schools and employers will be able to easily block those TLDs…. but that will drive people who were blocked from those TLDs to go back to the .Com versions.
Besides this, having 4 or more TLDs of the same genre will lead to people buying multiple versions and pointing them all to the same place, and that place will often be the .com. It’s pointless.
Joseph Peterson says
@couponpages,
I would probably disagree with you on 2 points regarding .XXX and the ICM Registry’s other TLDs.
Some people have argued for (and the adult industry vociferously against) using .XXX as a way to quarantine adult content online, to help with search result filtering or aid parents or other users who don’t want to stumble across such material.
Personally, I’m opposed to mandatory rating systems and categorizations, since they interfere with free speech and have historically been applied crudely, puritanically, or unfairly. In reality, there is no dividing line between hardcore and softcore, pornography and art. It’s not even a sliding scale. Standards are all over the place. So I wouldn’t want one set of standards imposed universally online, whether through a TLD or through some other mechanism.
Self-labeling on the other hand, is what personal identity and online marketing (including domain names) are all about. So I see .XXX primarily as another self-labeling tool or advantage, along with SEO, SEM, and naming domains to the left of the dot. People are looking for something. If a webmaster wants to clearly identify his site as what they’re looking for, then for adult webmasters the domain is usually pretty clearly designed to say “click me”. .XXX is just a step toward clear signaling. But it’s just a tool.
All sorts of borderline material (in terms of rating or intent) may not want to confine itself to .XXX. For instance, a photographer who handles fine art erotic nudes along with clothed figures and landscapes, won’t want .XXX even if some rating agency might wish to impose some such classification. Likewise, there are some e-commerce sites for whom sex toys are only a minor portion of their inventory, yet every bit as “adult” as they would be if sold on a more focused site. Those websites won’t want to use .XXX. But some adult webmasters may want to announce exactly what they are. They can do this with .COM, but they can also do so — and often more succinctly and memorably — with .XXX.
As far as search result filtering goes, either in the useful sense of a voluntary “Safe Search” or in the negative sense of unwanted censorship, I really don’t think Google or the other search engines need .XXX as a label. Technology has progressed far beyond that years ago, and website content gives off countless signals that identify the site as adult or non-adult. So both the advantage and the concern about this regarding .XXX are probably baseless.
The other point:
“Besides this, having 4 or more TLDs of the same genre will lead to people buying multiple versions and pointing them all to the same place, and that place will often be the .com. It’s pointless.”
As I understand the ICM Registry’s previous public statements, .XXX owners will have the option to “turn on” .ADULT / .PORN / .SEX by paying to use them or else to leave them turned off and unusable to others. If the ICM Registry abides by that promise, then few people would point all 4 domains at their .COM. Why would they, when they can pay for .XXX and leave the other 3 offline? No, the other 3 TLDs would really only be registered if they’re in use. And there could be strong reasons for using them in addition to .XXX. Four brands or four websites in one, in a way.
So we’d be talking about a defensive registration of at most just .XXX for those pointing it at their pre-existing .COM. Defensive registrations are always the choice of the company involved, and they’re always technically a waste since they’re an extra expense that adds nothing. But there are frequently costs associated with ignoring defensive registrations. So it’s not so obvious in advance which cases of defensive registration are wasteful or not — whether that’s .XXX / .COM or plural /singular or typo / non-typo.
And some domains are assets even if they do merely forward to another site. Take DNW.com and DomainNameWire.com as an example. Long story short, it’s up to ICANN policy makers to limit the amount of defensive registration risks. And (following that) it’s up to brand holders to spend money on defensive registrations in non-wasteful ways, based on the pros and cons of use or non-use in the real-world circumstances.
Some adult .COMs may use .XXX only defensively. Some won’t register .XXX at all. Others will forward a .COM to a .XXX brand instead. Others will rebrand using .XXX. And still others will launch new sites, using whatever they please. We can only decide who’s making a good or bad decision by looking at them on a case-by-case basis. The same applies to other TLDs, from .COM and .ORG to .ME and .TV to .CLUB and .FAIL.
couponpages says
I agree. It’s definitely way too late for a need to filter adult content with TLDs, but 20 years ago, it would’ve been helpful, not only to the public, but as you mentioned, in many cases it would actually enhance those brands by making it clear what they offered.
I also agree with the slippery slope of censorship. I wouldn’t want any government or organization to limit it, but it’s generally a nice thing when an industry simply agrees to setting standards. In the early days of the web a simple tag in a meta tag was all it took to earmark its age suitability. It was voluntary, but helpful.
With regards to having multiple TLDs in the same genre, I still feel this is just a way to increase revenue while confusing consumers.
Assuming ICM is giving people the option of guaranteeing owners of one get version the option of getting the alternates, it’s proof of that motive. If they want to double their revenue, all they would have to do is make 8 TLDs… Where do you draw the line? If there were 8, whether a domain owner decides 8 unique, or 7 inactive, the registry is getting paid 8x more than if they had only 1.
If the motive of having multiple TLDs in the same genre was to expand the pie to more buyers, they would not automatically offer the alternates to buyers, and just stick to the traditional first come first served model. To me that would still suck, but it would be a sign that they are looking to make a bigger pie… Even if many buyers get more than one alternate.
This goes way beyond the adult industry. I’ve cited a whole bunch. If you were a lawyer named Perry Mason, would you buy PerryMason.com, PerryMason.lawyer, PerryMason.law, PerryMason.attorney, PerryMason.legal or PerryMason.firm or one of the others? According to the registrars, you should get them all, and most likely there will be a dozen more in a few years that are also good fits.
If you compound multiple TLDs with some words that can be singular or plural…before and after the dot, the combinations are staggering, and they only serve to increase the number of domains the buyer will get for what will often be the same site.
To simplify, here’s a what some singular / plural combinations could look like.
RunningShoe.com
RunningShoes.com
RunningShoe.shoe
RunningShoes.shoe
RunningShoe.shoes
RunningShoes.shoes
RunningShoe.store
RunningShoes.store
I could go one, but it could get like this… And more when you factor in hyphens and even more alternates, like .health, .fitness, .gym, .shop, .shopping, .web, .website….
If you had one of those, would you try to get as many as possible?
Personally, if I had the .com versions… I would not buy any of the alternates, and I wouldn’t even care if a giant shoe site like zappos bought all the others… But if I had something like .shoe, I’d certainly end up buying .shoes.
In the end, if registries give a buyer the others as an option, as network solutions did with .xyz, they are basically not trying to expand the pie, just their income..
Joseph Peterson says
You’re preaching to the choir with your “Shoe” example. It’s a mess. Primarily it’s a mess because the different TLDs are run by multiple, competing companies, which would lead a customer to pay over and over again to protect a brand name.
But I’m afraid, without realizing it, you’re setting yourself up to blame the ICM Registry whether they do this or do the opposite.
You say the ICM Registry is not sincere about “expanding the pie”; if it were, it would offer .ADULT / .PORN / .SEX / .XXX for sale separately to one and all. So you conclude that it’s all about profit from selling those 3 variations to existing .XXX owners. Do I understand that correctly?
But what if the ICM Registry DID sell those separately? Then .XXX owners would feel cheated, since their domains would be diluted in value and because they might be forced to pay for 3 expensive extra TLDs in a setting of competitive bids. In that scenario, the ICM Registry would indeed be “all about profit”; and those people who had bought .XXX would be 100% justified in condemning the registry for competing against or extorting money from its own customers.
The situation you dislike (and rightly) in your “Shoe” example is the very situation the ICM Registry has PREVENTED by securing ownership itself of the 3 variant strings. Those could have adversely competed with their .XXX customers, but the ICM Registry has apparently taken than risk — the problem you identify with the “Shoe” example — off the table. Yet, at the same time, they’d be giving their customers the opportunity to use the new TLDs without any risk or cost if they choose not to.
Surely that’s the best possible outcome! I can’t imagine a better approach. When you look at all the confusingly similar strings that have been applied for — singulars and plurals, .SHOP and .SHOPPING, and so forth — then it’s abundantly clear that .PORN, .ADULT, and .SEX would enter the market one way or another. As you’d expect, the ICM Registry has had to contend with other applicants.
All companies are “about profit”. But if the ICM Registry were “ALL about profit” in the objectionable sense, then they’d be selling off these other extensions separately and multiplying the charges to preexisting customers in every case. Instead, they’ve incurred the full cost of applying for 3 new TLDs but will recoup only a part of what they might have done if pursuing a short-term strategy of selling to one and all.
Do you actually want them to be “expand the pie”? That’s the problem you’ve identified elsewhere. To the extent that they are expanding it, the ICM Registry seems to be doing so in the most responsible way.
couponpages says
It’s a mess in both cases, simply for creating an environment where domain owners are either given the chance to pay for the alternates, or feel cheated if they don’t. It’s a passive aggressive version of extortion.
Even with just 4 similar TLDs, they are essentially saying to a buyer “We’re nice to you, so we’ll let you decide if you are going to pay us 4x the price or let us confuse your visitors by letting your competition get almost the same name”
If ICM created 6 more alternative adult themed TLDs next year… a total of 10 adult themed TLDs. Odds are the owners who ordered the first one would now be given the option to pay 10x more and secure all 10. Would that be better or worse?
Did they secure that position by outbidding others who proposed the alternates, or were they the company that originated the other applications?
If other companies originated the other versions, and ICM outbid them and absorbed the fees, that’s a smart move, and I’m sure getting paid 4x for each domain will give them a nice return on that investment.
I blame the ICANN more than anyone, because I think the process itself should first be to categorize applications, then pick the best candidates in each category, and part of that approval should’ve been to determine which word serves the category best… including how singular, plural and other factors impact how consumers will use them.
As a coupon guy, I got a laugh when I saw that the ICANN had 4 bidders in the coupon domain space… some with .Coupon, some with .Coupons…. Approving both would definitely dilute the value of both TLDs, and once again only serve to make people buy both, and since they are different parties, they will likely have no guarantee of getting both.
The bottom line, it looks like ICM made a smart move, but the ICANN is the real winner… for a non-profit, they’re cleaning up… at the expense of domain owners paying multiple times for the same brand… while confusing consumers.
“Do you actually want them to be “expand the pie”? That’s the problem you’ve identified elsewhere. To the extent that they are expanding it, the ICM Registry seems to be doing so in the most responsible way.”
Assuming ICM only created these other 3 versions by outbidding other applications, then no. I think they should try to consolidate the pie.
However, the ICANN and Registrars like Google have been vocal about their support for the new TLDs as a way to expand the pie, because they feel there aren’t any good domains left. I completely disagree with that premise. There are still plenty of good domains out there, it’s just that a lot are parked, forwarded or owned by domainers like us, awaiting the right offer.
I don’t have any hard statistics, but it’s safe to say that a HUGE percentage of domains are either parked, forwarded or simply undeveloped.
My position is that if companies like Google are going to assert that the industry needs them so more people can get a good domain, then encouraging people to buy 4 or more variations of the same domain conflicts with that premise.
My other position is that as somebody who mainly has .Coms, I get a strong feeling that an expanding pie will not dilute the value of .coms, but only increase it.
Case in point, phone number expansion. Decades ago, when there was only one toll-free number in the US, companies like 1-800-MATTRESS and 1-800-FLOWERS quickly became leaders in their markets. When they added 888, 877, 866, 855… etc, that created an expanded pie of toll free vanity numbers, but I don’t think those companies cared in the least. If somebody else created a competing company using 866-Flowers, I would venture to say that they would be wasting money advertising it, because it will still send leaked customers to the 800 version, conversely, I doubt any of 800-Flowers customers accidentally went to the 866 version.
For this reason, I don’t fear other companies invading my markets with nTLD versions of my brands. To me, I welcome them to the party. If they manage to get big, I’m sure I’ll get a lot of their traffic, and that’ll drive them nuts.
I’ve had several companies who owned non .com versions of my .coms beg me to sell the .com… then eventually give up and build using an entirely different .com, because they couldn’t handle the fact that I owned the Park Avenue version of their Mediterranean Avenue address. Shucks… I actually hoped they would launch and compete with me. 🙂