Big launches make the next 50 days a key period for new top level domain names.
A lot of new top level domain names have come to market already. Some have flown out of the gate, others are growing modestly, and some have stalled.
In my opinion, the next 50 days will be an important period for new TLDs due to the number of high profile launches and the companies involved.
You can argue that a slow launch doesn’t kill a TLD. But new TLDs have a chance to get some positive momentum if they collectively make some noise over the next 50 days.
Here’s why this upcoming period has the potential to define new TLDs going forward:
Big .city domains.
.London and .NYC will go into general availability over the next 50 days. .London appears to be off to a strong start (15k domains were added to the zone file overnight), and .NYC could match it.
These cities are as big as it gets. Many people see promise in geo TLDs, and we’ll get a good measure on this very soon.
That’s not to mention other geo domains like .vegas, .moscow, and .scot.
.Realtor
.Realtor is a .brand domain that could shake up visibility for new TLDs. National Association of Realtors is offering the domains to 500,000 U.S. Realtors for free for the first year.
IF a lot of Realtors take them up on the offer and IF they use the domains, this could give a lot of visibility to top level domain names.
For adoption to happen, NAR will need to make it very easy for Realtors to forward the domains or set up websites. If I were a portfolio applicant, even one with competing real estate domains, I’d see if I could lend a hand to NAR to make this launch successful.
Minds + Machines
Minds + Machines, one of the biggest portfolio applicants for new TLDs, finally gets its first batch of domains into general availability in September. And it’s a big batch.
Excluding .London, the other domain names weren’t highly contested ones: .cooking, .country, .fishing, .horse, .rodeo, .vodka, .beer, .surf and .bayern.
Yet it’s still important: in addition to the volume of new TLDs hitting the market, Minds + Machines is a pure-play publicly-traded company. Its results will be watched closely.
Radix
Another portfolio applicant, Radix, launches its first batch of three domain names: .host, .press and .website.
Radix will be interesting to watch for a few reasons.
First, the company has experience launching domain names. It managed to get hundreds of thousands of .pw registrations.
Second, the company is spending big to promote its first three domains. Take a look at this big booth from a recent HostingCon conference:
They’ve also done a good job with online advertising targeted to the press and hosting companies.
Third, Radix should have good distribution given its connections to registrar platforms now owned by Endurance International.
As for its initial batch of domains, .host should be solid but faces a massive list of name collisions. .Website is a good generic; I’m curious to see market reaction given that .web and .site will eventually become TLDs as well. Pricing will also be important for .website.
A long game, but a momentum game
A lot of new TLD applicants will tell you that new TLDs are a long game and that launch numbers aren’t that important. Yeah, I’d say that too if I watched my launch flounder.
They aren’t lying; it’s a long game. But launches are important to the long game, and the next 50 days will be important.
Due to namecollision block lists, the next 50 days could be even slower… already delegated TLDs will still be restricted from activating the names in the block lists (usually by not selling them altogether) and the newly delegated TLDs can’t activate any names at all.
True, but that’s no different than on prior launches.
I wonder how many more domain registrations there would be without name collisions. For most domains we’re probably looking at 20%, depending on number on block list and average quality? It makes a difference, but not a game changer.
you would probably see more reserved names than anything else.
true, or premium priced domains that are unlikely to sell at their prices.
MMX minds & machines share price will give a good indication of how well the new gTLDs are doing
a pure-play
cheers
D
Yes. A better measure will be MMX’s market cap rather than share price. They’ve had lots of follow on offerings. This has diluted shareholders and lowered the share price, but the market cap should go up or down based solely on company value.
You’re spot on with .REALTOR. In my opinion, its capacity to influence events could equal all the high-profile city GEOs. Of course, I don’t know that much will actually be made of its potential. Depends on the leadership.
Maybe we’ll see marketing convince some mainstream buyers. Otherwise, this density of nTLD rollouts can just as easily lead to diminished registration numbers. Domainers are already pretty exhausted, and their purchasing will be further divided with so many competing extensions.
Something tells me the NAR will flub the rollout. We’ll have to see.
Unfortunately, the corporate community aren’t playing ball with new gTLD registrations.
This means we have limited high profile early adaptors which would otherwise put a rocket under some of these spaces and attract more mainstream users.
For a registry that hasn’t launched a TLD yet, M+M has been laying a lot of groundwork. They’ve attended more niche trade shows than Donuts. M+M is going to do very well with their strings.
Agree that the next few months will be telling but I think that how Google handles New TLDs, their own included, will influence gTLD uptake more than most other factors combined. We may not know that for a year or more.
I have launched some websites using the new gtlds, and they are doing quite well in Google. I think that Google will respect the new gtlds, if the content is good.
.Yawn
.MajorFail
.GtldsAreStupid
.Next50daysWillBeTheSameAsTheLast50
@Andres B:
You wrote, “I have launched some websites using the new gtlds, and they are doing quite well in Google”
Really now? Please enlighten us as to what domains, specifically, those might be? Personally, I think you are lying out of your gtld ass.