Amazon has registered a bunch of domains under new TLDs, and it’s forwarding them to pages on its website.
It’s still unclear what Amazon.com’s strategy is for the many top level domain names it will soon control. But we might get a hint from examining its use of other registry’s top level domain names.
Amazon.com has been a big buyer of second level domain names in new TLDs. For example, it picked up many city names under .delivery.
I’ve also noticed recently that it registered a bunch of generic or descriptive terms under new TLDs last year that were originally registered under Mark Monitor’s DNStinations. The whois records are slowly shifting to Amazon.com, unveiling more and more domains.
This month alone, I count 38 non-brand domains registered by Amazon in new TLDs that have popped up in my DomainTools alerts. These domains range from Outlet.toys to Congratulations.gifts to Funny.reviews.
My initial assumption was that Amazon is registering these to keep them out of the hands of competitors. That still might be the case. It might also be an over-the-top defensive strategy, which is one of my hypotheses for why it has gone after top level domains like .spot. It doesn’t have much of a use .spot, but by owning it, it doesn’t have to defensively register hundreds or thousands of domain names under it.
…but maybe not. Here’s what’s interesting about the 38 domains I identified this month: they’re all in use.
Every single one of the domain names is being forwarded to a (mostly) relevant page on Amazon.com’s website.
Funny.reviews forwards to Amazon’s list of funniest reviews, including the famous banana slicer. Wearable.fitness sends visitors to its wearable technology page.
(You’ll notice some “misses” in the list, such as cloud.cleaning and cloudcomputing.camp forwarding to cleaning products and outdoor camping, respectively.)
Since Amazon.com won’t be able to get .amazon, would the company ever advertise “Find all of your hiking gear at Hiking.camp?”.
I’m not sure, but it’s intriguing. Here’s a list of the domains and where they send visitors:
It’s a clever strategy, often derided by technology purists. Back in the early Internet era (1994-1996) Proctor and Gamble did the same thing registering names like tide.com and cheer.com and reditrecting them to its brand pages at P&G. It also registered loads of generics like razorblades.com and bakingsoda.com. Those redirects served the company well for years, then the team or person charged with curating the program stopped (or left the company) and many of those valuable generic names dropped and got scooped up by Yun Ye and others like yours truly.
Span-the-dot names like chicago.delivery and wearable.tech are the last mile in direct navigation. There is no level above the natural language identifiers we all use to describe things. Amazon was very shrewd to get in early with a slew of great names and it will not be the last big company to figure out that these new names sound better, look better and make sense to own.
ugh! large tech company using these junk tlds. This could only help the adoption process. I really don’t like any of the new tlds.
I’d applaud Amazon.
Forwarding these domains to partially relevant preexisting pages isn’t ideal, but it’s probably just a holding pattern.
Over time, Amazon can customize pages that match the domains more precisely.
Such nTLD domains make compelling shortcuts for long unwieldy URLs, and they can be extremely effective in SEM campaigns.
I’ve argued for awhile that nTLDs ought to be used in that way; so hopefully we’ll begin to see it happening.
It’s still an experiment, and some of these domains must have been expensive. But marketing is ALWAYS experimental.
Hello Frank.Schilling,
We had a very restfull R.+R. from the circular Psycho-Babble hype of the Quasi- Derivative gTLD Love Fest. Google is pushing their Minion salesmen to flood the Domain System Hierarchy with Bastardized Digital Code to try and cement in their Monopoly Grip on the DNSs Nuetrality.
People here us when we say, when you buy these Quasi-Derivative New gTLDS Google benefits and you LOSE. The new Quasi-Derivative gTLDs are GOOGLES front line to capture more Indentured Servants to their cause of Total DNS Dominance. GOOGLE is ALL Domain Name Extensions Holders ENEMY in Camouflage. They are currently involved in a Systematic Assault to destroy ALL Domain Name Extension Holders Livelihoods. JAS 4/20/15
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
There are a number of Amazon registrations not on this list that are significant as well. For example, one of the first names we noticed Amazon using was AWS.training — that registration has been #1 or #2 in Google search results for “AWS training” since it was registered about a year ago.
It seems like many of these were premiums. Makes me wonder if Amazon is paying a small fortune for some of these second-level domains in TLDs it doesn’t own.
Hello Frank.Schilling,
The coming carnage will fast change all new Quasi-Derivative gTLD Extensions adversely.
The stage has been set, for a confrontation of ALL Present Online Extension Holders with Google and Amazon Both. The Online and offline DNS Stakeholders will crush both Google and Amazons assault on the Domain Name Systems Hierarchy and The Subverting Monopoly Power Grab will ultimately topple both GOOGLE And Amazons effort s to topple the DNSs Nuetrality. COMING SOON !
JAS 4/20/15
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Did amazon register any PRIME domains ?
Yes, lots of prime, kindle and other brands.
Amazon must see a potential business opportunity in .delivery or some enhancement to their online presence. Geo location is a technology in itself that is certainly relevant to the shipping/delivery industry. The metro cities.delivery are a good portfolio start for a company that ships as much product as they do.. What about state.delivery though?
Just cuz their big don’t mean they are smart.
The gtlds will definitely fail, but these guys are so large that they won’t even notice the money loss.
Hello Jaymes How many Reg. numbers before GTLD’s become a success?
Also Amazon have this domains name
Amazon.company
Amazon.services
Amazon is looking into the future because very soon, these new gTLDs will get good ranking from search engines, especially Google.
I think they are just reserving the names so for a small annual fee, so that they don’t have to pay a massive premium to purchase the domain name of off somebody else later on.