Are domain registrants unaware of new top level domain names? I don’t think so.
New top level domain name companies have been saying that new domain options suffer from an awareness problem. Very few people know about them, they say, and this is why they aren’t selling as briskly as hoped.
I believe this is true, and I’ve been saying the same thing.
But I’ve recently started to consider another version of events: domain registrants are aware of new TLDs, and it’s actually a demand issue.
The general population isn’t aware of new domain options, but people who register domain names certainly are.
How can they not? Type “My Company” into the search box at GoDaddy and you’ll see this:
A few years ago these search results would have been filled with spun .com domain names. Now they are all .com alternatives.
It’s clear that people who are registering domain names are presented with options for non-.com domain names. They just aren’t registering many of them.
You can argue that greater awareness in the general internet population will make domain registrants more comfortable registering new TLDs. I buy that argument.
But I also think that the lack-of-awareness claim might be just an excuse for lackluster demand.
James says
Nobody wants to be first stepping into unknown waters, especially when the popular .com swimming hole down the road still has room.
And besides generic strings and dictionary words, who really wants the trademark hassles of myname.gtld? Not many, and surely not enough at this point to justify all the new top level domains.
YamadaMedia says
Couldn’t have said it better myself Andrew. Even if you are aware of them people stick with registering com/org.
There is no demand, there won’t be for many of these new extensions.
YamadaMedia says
There IS demand for ccTLDs in plenty of countries outside of the US.
Would be nice if Neustar put some more marketing into the .US extension. It could be popular if promoted correctly.
Jon says
There’s no reason for Neustar to put any marketing muscle behind .US, because we already have .com. Even as patriotic as most Americans think they are, they will not buy a .US. Your comment makes me think that you write it because you own a bunch of .US domains. Money wasted. Move on. We’ve all been there. BUT, like you say — many other ccTLDs are money well spent.
Snoopy says
The country code of the united states is .com. No need for .us and promoting it is a waste of money.
Johnny says
The writing on the wall for the new gTLDs has been there from the beginning. There is an over supply of domain extensions, and the market is just starting to move towards equilibrium. gTLD collapse in 2017 is probable. Mike Mann has made some strong statements on the nGTLDs for some time now.
Likewise, Howard Fellman analyzed the situation well:
Domain Name Train Wreck Ahead: Why Only .COM Will Succeed
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140519231432-92568989-domain-name-train-wreck-ahead-why-the-gtld-program-may-not-succeed
….
LEXV says
very true, they over flooded the internet with all these extensions, in other words(bad ICANN), they should have taken care better of the internet, one step at a time… Now, the result is, “oh, your just one of the bunch”, everybody prefers “classic” cocacola, instead of the generic “cola”….
Alberto says
I completely agree. TLDs work as brand themselves. The same way we tend to use a product because its brand sounds more familiar, users tend to choose consolidated and well-known TLDs (or Brands) over nGTLDs.
And just as a solid brand has a higher perceived value, promotional pricing policies por nGTLDs have very little effect on nGTLD adoption: customers will still stick to what they know.
Only TLD usage will truly increase awareness. However, the excess of options causes again a problem: not only does it make it more difficult for the customer to decide amongst an ocean of TLDs (“pushing” again the costumer to the options they already know) but it also dilutes any branding efforts across the whole nGTLD market, making it even more difficult for one of them to gain enough awareness.
In order to overcome this challenge, one of the options is to convince strong brands to adopt the new TLDs (which would help this TLD gain awareness & trust) the other is to help create enough channels that build awareness overtime.
Robert says
There is awareness. Not 100% for sure, but plenty of it. Each and every registrar marketed the shit out of the nTLDs. Newsletter, direct mailings, every guy that owns a .com or a country code for his small business was made aware of the new program on a weekly basis. The promised margins for the registrars were just too tempting. But there is just no demand. Plain and simple. Where would it come from? Over 1000 pointless new TLDs and counting and you think there would be any demand left at all? If you own a small business or want to open up a small online business you can still find a great .com at reg fee or for a couple of hundred dollars. Maybe not your first and best choice but your second or third. Honestly if you are about to start a small business the cost for your domain will probably be the smallest amount in the whole calculation. If you are a funded startup, great go ahead and find something in the 10-50k range. It will more than pay off over time. Anyone else? Why? If you are a small club for whatever and want a website to show what your club is about, go to Facebook, set up a page. Costs you nothing. There is only a limited amount of people using domains as a brand for their business. These are the people that are actually willing to pay you money for it. And that amount of people is not going to triple overnight just because 500 new TLDs are launched or some guys in China wake up and think .top and .xyz is the next big thing. Because it’s not. The next big thing is the same as it is now, and that is .com. If you run a business you go with .com or with your country code. Period.
These are the facts of the case, and they are undisputed. 😉
Kevin Murphy says
I think that when people talk about “awareness”, they might be referring to awareness of other sites using those TLDs.
I’m sure people are “aware” of .enterprises after visiting a registrar storefront, but are they aware that they’re a legit option for a business? Doubtful.
Also may be there are people out there who do not regularly visit registrars that might purchase a new gTLD domain if they were aware they existed, but are not.
Andrew Allemann says
Certainly, awareness by the typical internet users will be good for new TLDs.
YamadaMedia says
What good is awareness of regular folks have ZERO interest in buying them?
C.S. Watch says
There’s a reason the market rejects all non-dotcoms. It’s clear to anyone in marketing.
A system with an apex suffix provides fraud, trademark, and brand protection. Easily, unobtrusively. Parallel suffixes would rob both companies and consumers of these benefits.
Every toddler on a tablet knows to look up and verify that they’re at the dotcom. It’s authentication and quality control via market forces for the health of the internet economy. Virtually free of cost to taxpayers.
Steve says
When Godaddy provides GTLD alternatives over .net, .me, or variations (spin) .com possibilities, and the GTLDs still can’t gain traction, perhaps it’s time for the GTLD backers to finally concede supply exceeds demand. But they won’t. Nor should they. Their loyalties are to their shareholders, their families, and their own bank accounts.
I believe when they measured the risks, they figured X amount of registrations would generate net profit above the $185 K fee. And if they lucked into an extension coveted by other bidders, they could generate profits by the “buy out” auction pay-off.
The Chinese market, flush with cash and domain mania, provided an outlet to sell many GTLDs, But then that dried up.
Providing GTLD domains for free or at .01 enhanced the “vanity metrics”. But you can’t monetize free or penny-paid domains, as that won’t provide any behavior analytics to sell to the data brokers/
If 10% of the GTLD extensions are still “alive” in 3 years, I’d be surprised.
I realize the GTLD promoters have used the mantra of this is “a long-term play of at least 5 years”. It’s the oldest ploy in the con’s playbook.
I recently had dinner with a couple who acquired probably the greatest .com portfolio in 1994-1995 by merely registering these domains. With the proceeds, they have built schools, hospitals and they’ve funded research for various maladies, including cancer, diabetes and heart disease. .They informed me they were offered a chance to get on the GTLDs at the ground level and they passed.
In conclusion, I feel some GTLDs serve a purpose, albeit limited: such as .club, .cloud. .App could provide lots of possibilities. .Shop – as well.
.Web has the most potential.
But most of the GTLDs are superfluous. And most will be extinct within 3 years. And shame on the “snake oil” dealers who extracted $ from their targets.
LEXV says
owning the .com and sync with .online, .site,. website, .zone, .shop, .cloud, .app, .store, makes sense…but if not, your just one of the bunch…..web hasn’t been realized yet
Kate says
I agree with this:
“The general population isn’t aware of new domain options, but people who register domain names certainly are. ”
Obviously end users don’t register domain names every day, so this could be a reason why they are not ‘aware’.
But we can assume that many if not most have received several E-mails from their registrar, plus the usual newsletters and the registrars are not the only ones talking about new extensions. Many tech-related sites have talked about them, and in fact new extensions have been featured in the mainstream media too.
So I too agree that it’s the lack of demand, and of course fear of the unknown plays a part too.
That should surprise no-one.
Bob says
I have a number of new gTLDs where the SLD compliments the TLD to form a highly searched for term. The traffic and parking revenue received is not insignificant. Indeed, in two cases I own the .com equivalent domain and the .com domain does not perform nearly so well.
Many do not realize, but gTLDs that form heavily searched for terms get a lot of traffic. I am sure it is by accident – people probably try to perform a Google search on their phone and hit . instead of the space bar, thus connecting the two words. Regardless, if you own the right gTLD you have a very valuable asset.
John says
What parking company?
Bob says
DomainNameSales
Of course I have many gTLDs (and .com domain names for that matter) that achieve nothing – they have zero visitors and they make no money. In my previous comment I am referring only to the very best gTLDs that are comprised of two words forming a keyword searched for at least 250,000 times each month on Google. Those domains get type-in traffic and they make money. In the two instances where I own the matching .com, the gTLDs perform better.
Andrew Allemann says
How much money are we talking about here? This is the first I’ve heard this.
Bob says
1) My best .Furniture gTLD had around 750 visitors last month and made approx. $65.
2) Another .Furniture gTLD I own had almost 1,000 visitors in May and revenue of roughly $45. Last month it had 450 visitors and made around $19. This domain is seasonal.
3) I have one .Recipes gTLD with around 1,500 unique visitors each month and revenue about $15.
4) I have a .Flights gTLD with traffic around 300 visitors per month and $20 revenue.
Okay, I will not get rich from parking these domains but it proves (to me at least) there is some potential in the very best exact-match new gTLDs and I do consider they should have value to end-users.
domain guy says
very interesting. thank you for the stats
collianceSteve says
@Robert
You’re absolutely correct. The awareness has been there, but not the interest,
The value proposition, as pitched by the GTLD ecosystem(which comprises registries, marketers, domain bloggers, etc):
1) GTLDs will serve as a great alternative extension to startups who cannot afford paying for .com
2) GTLDS are FM to AM, and are multi-colored, as compared to the monochromatic .com or .net (black and white)
3) GTLDS are a long-term play (at least 5 years): again, a ploy long used in the con man’s playbook, per going long on stocks, buying real estate, and/or investing in ventures (this is sad, as this refrain was stated by persons I had admired in the Industry)
Kudos should be extended to many of the great Hall of Fame domain pioneers who refused to pitch the GTLD hype and facilitate the extraction of monies from the marks.
LEXV says
i still think is going to create a lot, a lot of trademark confusion, is already happening.. I have both gTLDs and .com… and the truth is that new gTLDs just don’t create enough traffic, like none! the guy in cambodia, thailand, kenia, netherlands, mexico, would go for the .com and not .travel, all of them have english as second language, india could be consider english speaking country, they owe lots of gTLDs but none of them is like booking.com… is more like booking.yeah, booking.com makes a point with his advertisment
David says
It’s both. Many people don’t know about new names at all in spite of having seen them as options on Godaddy. It’s just too new and people are marketing blind to it. Few of those who see them in these early times will register one as their main site, because of the “safety in numbers” in a dot com World. With that said; every day more of these new names get registered, every day somebody builds a site and then suddenly 5 years from now the water doesn’t look that deep or that cold and people will jump in. I would not like to be 10 years long on a portfolio of .com names right now. Even less so after the next round of applications opens
John says
Neustar has done everything it can to make sure .US remains an obscure languishing failure the American public scarcely knows exists and cares even less.
Otherwise .US could and really should be a top TLD. When you consider the big picture, I have a hunch there is more to this story than one might think.
I remember leading up to its release in 2002, realizing how nobody really cared despite the nifty notice on GoDaddy’s homepage. That even led me to delay getting in on preorders. And that was when some actually did care and have some interest. Now it is a thousand times less interest and awareness.
Regarding the new gTLDs, you have to distinguish between the general public and those “in the know.”
The general public may have some awareness, but people generally just don’t care about domain names, period. So while there may still be some lack of awareness, it doesn’t matter. Even if anyone knows, they don’t care – no demand. And for those still unaware, they would probably be the same if they find out. Furthermore, if confronted with a new gTLD it is more likely to just arouse fear of the unknown, especially these days, with few exceptions.
So you have:
• Awareness
• Demand
But one cannot leave out this as well:
• Price (especially for general reg)
• Intrinsic appeal of each specific TLD to begin with
There seems to be a lot of self-delusion among those who have ventured into a lot of these TLDs, not only regarding the issue of pricing, which is just plain Marketing 101, but also the appeal of each TLD at all. Frank Schilling may be right that in some cases high pricing can work, which is also just Marketing 101, but when it comes to many TLDs those behind them may be rather self-deluded if they think anyone would have any significant interest at all, in some cases beyond only just a few decent keywords even.
When it comes to the general populace and even “domain investors,” however, as you start going above normal .com, net and org pricing, you are going to run into sticker shock and reluctance. Those who are willing to pay more are going to probably be few and far between overall in terms of what is really needed.
Andrew Allemann says
I agree that Neustar dropped the ball on marketing .us. Frankly, marketing wasn’t in their DNA back then.
I wonder, though, if it’s really too late to market the extension.
John says
I’ve said before I think there may be more to the story.
In government, things tend to flow from the top down. If the US government had wanted more for .US, I very much doubt things would be anything like what they are now and have been all these years. Or to put it more directly, I have a strong hunch this is exactly what the US government has wanted, and that the top tier of leadership at Neustar has received exactly that as their marching orders in one form or another, while those like company vice presidents or others just below the very top simply drink whatever Kool-Aid they are given and tow the party line they’ve been hired on for, possibly not even fully realizing the overarching “ethos.”
I could elaborate as to speculation why, but I don’t want to do that now.
Before you may wish to engage in a knee-jerk suggestion that this can perhaps just be dismissed as a “conspiracy theory” by the way, Andrew, do note that I am intimately acquainted with multiple levels of government and even used to work on the same floor as a few US Senators if you catch my drift.
To me one of the most blatant and telling examples consistent with this “hunch” of mine is the advertising for our great US military. There is perhaps no better opportunity in the entire country or world to demonstrate patriotism and promote our national TLD – *if the government wanted that* – than the advertising for our military. Including .US instead of .com positively nothing less than screams out for doing all these years – Army.us, Navy.us, Airforce.us, Marines.us. But what have they been doing all these years instead, anytime you see a TV commercial where the website is displayed? Nothing but .com of course…
And no doubt more huge examples can be put forth…
So regarding your last thought there, Andrew, here’s what I would say with all genuine conviction: if we really ponder it based on what we have seen in current events all these years, and even despite any polarization into things like the “politics of hate” or other elements of “societal deterioration” and division, nonetheless it is NEVER too late to tap into people’s sense of US patriotism. Never. Despite all our division and problems, we are always ready for the fanning of the patriotic red, white and blue flames, especially but by no means only when there is any form of national crisis, of which there are many of different kinds to begin with anyway.
(And I sure wish I could get those email notifications from your site again.) 🙂
LEXV says
military, don’t need .us, they have .gov, /gov is by far more important, secure, clean, easy, staright forward
Kate says
Actually they already have .mil
This in addition to .gov and .edu (mostly US).
.us alone doesn’t represent the United States.
John says
Looks like my point went right by you and you’ve totally missed and obscured it.
But for the benefit of those potentially so distracted as we as yourself, obviously it’s not about what they have or what they need. We know what the gov already has. Apples and oranges tangent.
And just do a little search, which apparently nobody did, and you’ll see how prominently “.com” appears even though “.mil” also appears.
John says
So to summarize, both of you are responding to something other than any point I have made, to something not expressed here.
When was the last time anyone saw military advertising and public relations using either .mil or .gov? Why, never of course. That would not appeal to people. What you do see is that being done with “.com” And as already indicated, that is completely blatant and telling when it really screams out for .US to be used instead for that dimension of public relations and “marketing” for it.
LEXV says
I actually remember buying a lot of .us when it came out with instra corporation, and they did put a lot of effort on marketing that extension, this was yeears ago…
John says
>”they did put a lot of effort on marketing”
Uh, yeah, sure. (Not.)
You are talking raindrop instead of the river needed that has been damned up all these years and withheld by those who were supposed to release it.
Eric Lyon says
Personally, I think that all the waves of new gTLD’s opened the door to era of development. A huge shift of undeveloped digital real-estate to “ready to move in” condominiums. Businesses in a box, if you will.
While it would be nice to see more companies jumping on the wagon of investing into the blank canvas, it just seems that the data points to pre-development.
Scott Ryder says
I think this topic is more nuanced than “aware”-“not aware” and “general consumer”-“domain owner”.
In the case of “general consumers”, that haven’t purchased a domain before, there is definitely a awareness issue. No question about it. One area where this can be more easily addressed is with groups that are linked to vertical new gTLDs. For instance, Rightside has had strong success marketing .LIVE to video-based self publishers. You can see examples of this at our http://showcase.ninja site.
When it comes to existing domain owners, sure, there is awareness of new gTLDs, but I would argue that there isn’t familiarity. What I mean by that is even those that focus on TLDs on a daily basis struggle to keep track of the 400+ non-brand new gTLDs. Is .FISHING a new gTLD? What about .FISH? .DOG? .HORSE? .ELECTION? .GUITARS?
Ultimately, “awareness” is an issue, but but lack of “familiarity” is also an issue. We can only do so much to solve for “familiarity” due to the sheer number of options. How do Registrars (and Registries) over come this? The answer is better merchandising.
One of the most important things a Registrar can do is improve their merchandising of new gTLDs. It’s one thing for them to show up in search, per Andrew’s notes above, but another thing for them to be presented based on relevancy to a query. Again, it’s one thing to be aware that new gTLDs exist, it’s another thing to find the one that’s right for you. Randomly showing TLDs or showing ones that aren’t relevant only marginally moves things forward. Show searchers the perfect TLD for their needs and you’re making a difference – even if they don’t buy it right then.
Name.com and Rightside have worked on this a great deal. Here’s an example. Go to Name.com and search for “offload truck”, check out the TLDs that are returned. .TIRES, .LEASE, .SHOW, .AUTO, .REPAIR are some of the top ones.
In comparison, here are the top 5 from one of the leading registrars: .NET, .ORG, .XYZ, .INFO, .US. These results don’t take advantage of the vast increase in vertical TLDs and only marginally increase familiarity for the user performing this search. .EQUIPMENT shows up in the 9th place, but after that the only other highly relevant TLD is .REPAIR in the last position.
One of the main benefits of the new gTLD program was the opportunity to establish vertical TLDs. There are lots of ways to increase awareness and familiarity with these targeted TLDs, but doing so through search is one area where the industry is struggling.
Andrew Allemann says
You brought up .live and I think this is a unique example in which ‘awareness’ really applies. With .live you’re marketing in a way to grow overall demand, not just fulfill a demand when someone says “I need a domain name.”
Regarding Name/eNom’s search technology, I agree that it’s better than the rest. I just did a search for ‘baseball game’ and Name.com’s top picks were .cards, .coach, .fans and .academy. All of these make sense.
I also notice that name isn’t defaulting to ‘your .com is taken’. Instead, it presents a positive message:
We found a great domain for you!
baseballgame.video
and then ‘baseballgame.com is taken.’ is shown in smaller print below that. I like it.
Adam says
I generally just want to know if the COM/ORG is available. Therefore them showing me a bunch of domains I don’t want to register is just annoying Andrew, not helpful.
I’m fairly sure they have leaked customers due to the interface search.
LEXV says
me to 2, I look at .com, .net, .org. .info, the rest is well, who knows, most are english speaking words, even though is the second language for most countries, it’s still easy to pronounce and remember just .COM in any language….
Adam says
Be aware even if you find a great domain name out of Rightside’s portfolio they will STEAL it.
Here is what happened to me.
*I bought – News.social via the Name expiring section.
*I pay for the domain name, it renews.
*The domain goes into my account.
*I was excited since I wanted a News.tld domain for a project for awhile. I thought I would try to a new gTLD and see how it goes.
I* check previous registrant, it was Name marketing team.
*I’m nice, I email the marketing dept. asking if they want need it back. If not I intend to use the domain.
*1 week later Scott McBreen, takes the domain out of my account.
*Jared Ewy calls me and says I can have the name back, if I do marketing video with Name/Rightside about the colossal F$@$-up.
*I try to call Scott McBreen and leave a message, he refuses to call me back.
*I try to call Jared Ewy back many times to try to be reasonable about the situation, he will only leave messages on my phone.
He admits in one of his messages he doesn’t pick-up numbers from my area code, Seriously?
*I decide I don’t need to be a donkey/horse with a dangling a carrot (News.social) in front of me
*I have nothing against donkeys/horses. At least they are honorable creature unlike the F$@-sH$#ts at Name/Rightside
*I take a positive review of Name down from my website and remove any mention or positive mention. The review still had good SEO rankings.
*I transfer most of my domains out of Name and will NEVER do business with Rightside
*I write to several clients explaining the situation with Name/Rightside extensions. “They can unilaterally take a domain name whenever they feel like.”
*I’ve been emailing others explaining how they screw honest people.
Name/Enom/Rightside have lots my business. I’ll never recommend the portfolio of new gTLD extensions they have. I’m not going to recommend a company that steals from customers.
Great way to market new gTLDs.
It only took me 10 minutes to find 25+ .COM domains where the “Rightside premiums” have $1,000+ a year renewal pricing. How do these companies justify this when you can go buy .COM for reg fee?
How do you expect to convince people to use new extensions when you abuse long time customers? Why do you punish people that might actually use these extensions?
Adam says
As reported on DNW, even Frank Schilling believes your company is worthless.
https://domainnamewire.com/2016/08/30/frank-schilling-sparked-yesterdays-active-day-rightside/
Mason Cole says
Andrew, I disagree with at least part of your post. People are registering them — there are 23.5 million registered and the number is increasing. Absolute comparisons to .COM, which some seem to insist on making, aren’t a good apples-to-apples comparison thanks to its 30-year head start and its imbedding in popular use since the Internet was commercialized. Setting aside the comparison, new gTLDs are being registered, are being used, and are being advertised (GM, Lionsgate, Apple, McDonald’s Omega, Taco Bell — just to name a few).
In terms of awareness, that does still have a ways to go. Awareness among domain professionals (whether they invest in new TLDs or not) is very high. With small- to medium-sized businesses, it’s much lower (often they do learn about new TLDs when they visit a registrar). Even with the broadening landscape, there still are plenty of users who are unaware. It’s important to remember we’re still early in this process, though, and remember that it took .COM a good long while to get to the 23 million mark itself. Regardless, use will beget awareness and more use (on this point, you’re right: “…greater awareness in the general internet population will make domain registrants more comfortable registering new TLDs.”).
Andrew Allemann says
Thanks for commenting, Mason.
I’m not arguing that people aren’t registering new domain names. Indeed, both registrations and use are increasing and I believe they will continue to do so. (I would argue that the 22.5 million number is highly misleading, though.)
My commentary is more directed at the speed at which registrations are occurring, which is much slower than what most industry participants accepted. That’s why many in the industry are saying it’s an awareness issue.
168 says
domaintools shows 23,155,000+ New “G’s”
excluding: .mobi, .pro, .biz .gov .edu, .org, .info etc. country codes, corp. codes
I’ve seen this number posted in other reports too.
Estimated 180 million investment dollars that didn’t go to .com/.net etc, add start up costs for all of them, could get to
1/2 billion in investment dollars.
It took .com 15 yrs to reach the same reg numbers
and country codes continue to take more of the pie as well.
On a side note: .vote has 911 regs. a funny number for this years elections,
Democrat 827
Republicans 797, an indicator of outcome ? 😉
I’m voting for the constitution this time around .;)
Cheers
Andrew Allemann says
The 23M number is misleading because so many of those have been given away for basically free, registered by the registries themselves, or are part of other shenanigans.
If you take a look at the leaderboards on nTLD stats, how far down do you have to go before you get to a domain that hasn’t sold domains for below a buck? About #30 by my count.
To be fair, many of the other domains cost more than .com domains. Donuts hasn’t participated in any sort of gaming and charges a lot more than .com, and they have about 2M registrations across their appx 200 domains.
I also don’t understand how a comparison to .com’s early days is at all relevant.
Adam says
You’ve mentioned the 23 million number Mason which Andrew has already stated is misleading. All those registrations are not going to renew. There will be massive drops.
What will you say when all those domains drop? Will you still claim consumer demand?
“30-year head” start is ridiculous as it was hard to register a domain when the extensions originally came out in 1985. Even after ’94 period things didn’t change until Godaddy came along.
If you really want new gTLD awareness to grow, you would need small and mediums sized businesses to use Donuts domains. Clearly this isn’t happening as you’ve mentioned major corporations with huge marketing budgets. No small companies.
A $100 a year domain registration is nothing for big brands. Small businesses without that are going to stick with what people know, which are not your domain extensions. They also don’t have the marketing muscle to waste on the headaches associated with new domains.
The new gTLD program isn’t a complete waste. IDN.IDN domains are positive step forward for the internet. They have had the Cyrillic version of .RU for a few years.
http://statdom.ru/tld/%D1%80%D1%84/report/summary/
I’d go buy a .RU or the Cyrillic version over a domain from Donuts any day of the week. 🙂
Mason Cole says
Thanks for the perspective. It’s clear there are going to be doubters no matter what, but in fact, small- and medium-sized businesses are adopting:
http://www.donuts.domains/donuts-media/featured-sites
http://inthewild.domains
Adam says
If you like new Gs so much how come “Mason Cole” links to Donuts.co, a ccTLD? 🙂
John says
$185k plus related expenses for many in which only a few keywords are even the least bit desirable.
The entire money grabbing way in which this has been conceived and implemented is flawed and defeats the whole purpose if the purpose is to create and expand options (which clearly is not the only purpose).
A friend of mine who is a genius wunderkind who went to Harvard Law at a young age and is now CFO of a famous hedge fund once told me many years ago that he didn’t think domain names had lasting value because they were infinitely expandable beyond the TLDs of the time. The way in which this has been and is being implemented takes a lot of the wind out of that thought of his if it ever had any merit or cause for concern at all.
YamadaMedia says
He use to work for Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers. 🙂
Joseph Peterson says
Both. This is a feedback loop:
Usage drives Visibility
Visibility drives Awareness
Positive Awareness drives Demand
Negative Awareness drives Skepticism
Demand drives Usage
Full circle.
Snoopy says
Why would anyone use .web or .shop or .whatever? Even if people knew about these they’d see them as junk. The % of people who would use one is very low. The market for new tld names is domainers and defensive registrants. Very few business people would be silly enough to use one.
James Kite says
They suffer from a USAGE problem.
The majority of GTLDs have been picked up to resell to end users.
This ensures a lack of legitimacy to the public at large as great domains are locked down.
The high renewal cost is also a contributing factor as the end user compares cost to legacy domains.
Without usage, value is not obvious.
…
Why invest in an extension that costs 4x the renewal of a legacy domain?
The idea that such a domain may provide the opportunity to more than cover such an increased cost is lost.
Which impacts sales of domains purchased for resale.
This perception may change over time, but unlike ccTLDs, the GTLDs are typically far more niche oriented.
Eric says
To buy a Domain name you have to want and/or need one.
Just how many new Business are being set up each day accross the world and want a domain name? <10000?
How many Business are looking to change the name of their Business each day and want a new Domain name? <1000?
How many of all the Domain names currently registered are actually used by a real business that looks to generate a profit? < 10%?
There is a massive over supply of names. Its been that same for the last 25 years and will be the same for the next 25 years.
168 says
According to the Kauffman index more than 500,000 companies start up EVERY MONTH.
There will be a massive supply of unwanted domains forever.
The point of New “G’s” is a better supply of desirable “New” domain identities that have the potential to reduce overall long term marketing costs with a more appropriate identity of products and services offered or geo location prefferd. Even the popular brandable.coms will cost more to market than specific nitch identities. Corp. extensions will provide better access to secure brand sites,
New uses for domains, investment grades,search platforms, collectible types, indie contract workers vs. employment are some examples of “demand created” going forward
The low hanging fruit is picked over and the most valuable are out of reach for 85% of buyers. There is money to be made. It will require more actual effort to find the value.
Happy Hunting for the gems across the vast expanse of offerings.
Cheers
C.S. Watch says
‘What is wrong with all you kids not wanting to buy my jorts? I have cargo jorts, acid wash jorts…look at them all! What is wrong with you, in your brain, that you don’t understand that I have numerous jorts?’
http://www.tinyurl.com/jumtcrx
The registrars know these gTLDs are DOA. Most callous marketing push ever. With the exception of Cottonelle trying to make us wear our underwear for two days.
T. Reader says
A revolution that wasn’t.
Saw this article entitled “The web’s domain name revolution has been a missed opportunity” in a British newspaper which sort of sums it all up.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/08/29/the-webs-domain-name-revolution-has-been-a-missed-opportunity/
John says
Just read it. Great article.
Steve says
Always nice to see people provide objective perspectives like many persons above commenting —- those with zero stakes in the GTLDs.
what’s the best alexa score for a GTLD?
what’s the highest price paid for a GTLD by an enduser which was developed into a vibrant well-trafficked site.
I’m interested ONLY in data,, not opinions, as I’m a data scientist. Just give me the facts. No interest in vanity metrics, spin, abc.xyz fun game by Google, or the stuff your carts with free GTLDS or penny domains.
Penny stocks are for suckers, as are penny domains.
Anders says
I don’t understand why people insist that there is something wrong. The pace is picking up fast, as i see it. I have been monitoring the new TLD stats at https:// namestat .org/s/newgtld-summary and i think the growth has
been phenomenal.
What do you expect? Do you expect that every new tld are going to get as many registrations as dotcom. Dotcom is a big part of the old net, and as a consequence of that it got a big piece of the registrations. Thousands or tens of thousands of daily registrations. Now all the new and old tlds have to share the daily registrations. Don’t expect more daily registrations just because there is more tlds.
Kate says
There is growth in numbers but not in usage. That’s the problem.
The growth is very artificial, driven by freebies, 1-cent registrations, zone stuffing and a lot of speculation.
Some older and more mature TLDs like .biz or .info are stable today and have millions of regs. But nobody takes them seriously. New extensions are not going to fare any differently.
Maybe some niche TLDs will do OK but on a small scale. However I don’t even believe that. Industry-specific TLDs have all been failures.
Nobody wants to be the first mover because the benefit is unclear while the disadvantages are numerous.
John says
People should definitely read this article posted by T. Reader. Just did and it’s a good one:
https://domainnamewire.com/2016/08/30/new-tlds-suffer-awareness-problem-demand-problem/#comment-2240577
dot stories (@dot_stories) says
Thanks. That is interesting – But I think that from a registrant and numbers point of view, there is both awareness and demand – 23 million domains in the new gTLD after two years. And most registrar do propose nTLD alternatives. The real question is the use, awareness and demand from an end user point of view. What is there in there for the end-user ? as ccTLD, it gives you an indication of what you are on. polo.cars will be a site about the polo car, polo.fashion will be about ralphlauren, polo.sports will be about the sports.
Freebee says
23 million domain registrations is easy to achieve when many of them are given away free or for 1 cent.
Time will tell.
Separately, The Wall Street Journal has just done a story
New York Addresses That Aren’t Moving: Those .nyc Domains
http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-addresses-that-arent-moving-those-nyc-domains-1472859342
Gerard says
It’s not an awareness or demand issue. As you already have implied it’s a branding issue. .com is a premium brand, just like many cctlds are for locals.
But many new tlds don’t have a brand you want to identify with. .xyz for example looks fairly cheap and nonsensical. And .top doesn’t look so valuable as the name suggests. Of course this is a matter of taste as well. Apparently the Chinese disagree with me here.
There are of course a few home runs, like .blog. And if I had to bet on a tld that might be viable in the distant future it’s .one. After all, people already describe their own websites as blogs and use brand names containing one. I feel .app and .cloud also feels quite familiar, but they are quite niche.
But I would never download something from a .download site. People do seem to be rather scared off by long domain extensions, which seem to be even more alien to the average person than the 2 to 4 character ones. So I wouldn’t bet my money on them.
Snoopy says
Do a search for “my company” today and you can see how the new tld experiment is gradually failing and registrars are likely to remain reliant on Verisign.
.com is still out selling new tlds by 10-15X at godaddy despite Godaddy giving new tlds most of the “shelf space.” (2000-3000 new tlds sold per day versus 30,000 .com’s).
This would make for a great “Part 2” story.