Head of domains at largest domain name registrar says new TLD registries are failing small business owners.
Why are new top level domain names struggling to grow their registration bases?
GoDaddy Senior Vice President of Domains Mike McLaughlin told a large audience at NamesCon today that registries are making it difficult for small businesses to buy their domain names. Registries need to focus on accessibility and usability if they want to see their domains succeed, he said. They need to put themselves in the shoes of a small business owner.
McLaughlin said that registries are missing the mark with:
- High price points
- Held back inventory
- Restrictions on usage
- Confusing pricing models
- Complex registrar implementations
- User experiences from non-standard to wacky
The reason many namespaces are small, McLaughlin sad, is not because they’re addressing small markets. Rather, it’s because they’re failing users on accessibility and usability. Those new TLDs that focus on this will be the ones successful five years from now.
McLaughlin said registries such as Verisign and Neustar have done a good job with these, and that’s part of the reason they have large registration bases.
For now, McLaughlin said the release of new TLDs hasn’t had a material impact on the preference for .com. If the .com is still available, there’s much greater conversion. However, other legacy TLDs are being affected by new TLDs.
McLaughlin will be the guest on the Domain Name Wire Podcast January 19.
Philip says
That’s where initiatives such as Mind + Machine’s MOZART platform, to be launched early this year, should come into their own.
Shaun Pilfold says
@Philip .. is “Mozart” going to solve; high price points, held back inventory, restrictions on usage or confusing pricing models?
Pro Bono says
He forgot one: crazy-ass renewal fees that are jacked up even higher than the initial registration fees.
AND…..those renewal fees can be adjusted to anything: $1000, $10,000, $1,000,000 MM. That’s right 1million dollars for your domain renewal.
What’s to stop them from doing it? The U.S. Gov’t is not in effect regulating these like .com domains which have a price freeze on them currently.
What’s to stop them from saying some domains are premium and some are not AFTER you have already bought your domain, and then raising the prices on them to effectively steal your money or your domain from you? They can’t lose. You pay up or they take the domain back and resell it.
Why is it that nobody is talking about this? People want to play this game like the “house” is a good guy. The house always wins and you usually go home broke.
There are NO measures to stop insane price increases in the new TLD’s. All they have to do is adjust their TOS. I know, I know, people will argue otherwise, like the market will correct bad behavior or some other excuse, but don’t underestimate the amount greed when talking about domain names and the companies that surround them.
Good luck, you’ll need it.
Bul says
Exactly. Just saw my .berlin up at $50 a shot. Now that sounds a small amount but x100 and it really ads up. With zero inquiries, zero whois lookup, I decided to send them all to expiry and spend that money on my .com’s. Just as I did for all that ended up with a $1000 raise in renewals.
Anticareer.com says
How can he say they are failing, .xyz has 5 trillion registrations?
Richard says
.xyz – because they are heavily discounted for registration with standard renewal fees.
Anticareer.com says
I don’t think you saw the sarcasm dripping from my sentence.
Doug Mehus says
It’ll be interesting to see how many .xyz domains get renewed. They have great marketing, sure, but who wants a non-sensical domain ending in “xyz”? I’d rather have .web, .link or .blue or .red. 😉
I suspect you’ll see hundreds of thousands of cancellations and very few picked up by domain squatters at expiration.
Cheers,
Doug
P.S. Yes, I got the sarcasm (which is surprising as I usually don’t).
Robbie says
Those are just first level issues, then consumer education, misguided traffic, and no clear cut contract on price increases on renewals. The system is broken.
M&M themselves went back to many clients and jacked renewals from $25 to $1000+ dollars on many domains, most are crap regardless. This is not how you build strings, and brands.
Keep buying GTLD’s guys, smart money welcomes it, less money in the .com buyers pool, smart money wins.
Poker.Guru sold for $275 on flippa yesterday, the guy ate a $260 annual premium, then a EAP access fee, then flippa selling fees, basically lost his shirt, on a category killer POKER keyword.
jane says
Had that happen on two domains, I wont be renewing any of the ones I did get on those extensions
ChuckWagen says
To me, nTLDs scream “expect the unexpected” (uncertainty, lack of confidence) and “stay away”. Small (or any size) business owners won’t tolerate being needlessly confused, misled or conned.
Mo says
gtld = Good To Lose Dinero