Desktop will make it easier for companies to manage web apps.
If you’re like me, you manage a lot of web apps.
A CRM system. Email. Trello. Smartsheet. Zapier.
And that’s just for me as a an individual. Imagine running a business in which you need to correctly provision access to apps to your employees based on their needs, and then revoke access when they leave.
That’s the problem Rolf Larsen experiences with his business, and that he hopes to solve with his new company Desktop. Larsen is founder of RegistryOffice and recently sold .Global to Afilias. His companies have many employees spread across the world. In total, he counts over 50 web apps they use.
Desktop will make it easier for businesses to handle the distribution, organization and security of web apps used by their employees and contractors.
Larsen is going all in on the venture, starting with the domain name. He acquired Desktop.com from Idealab. The business will pay for the domain over two years and already made a significant down payment on the domain.
Even as someone who ran a new top level domain, Larsen understands the value of a great .com domain name. He explained to DNW:
New domain extensions are great alternatives for branding, but a keyword .com is still by far the top choice if it can be had. Most often it cannot be purchased, at least for an affordable amount to a startup. Or it’s simply being used by a big company even if not in a competing space.
The keyword .com will give a company a recognition it wouldn’t get with a keyword new extension. There are some great combo names using two keywords, where the keyword behind the dot would be the extension. But even those are not yet up there in recognition as a one-keyword .com.
New extensions are great in defining the vertical sector of the brand. I have always advocated that brand owners should register all available relevant extensions for their brand. I chose that the most relevant extensions (even counting ccTLDs) for my startup would be .app and .cloud. This is because they communicate how the desktop service will be distributed.
Since I chose to use a well known and much-used keyword to brand my company, the .com would simply be hard to avoid in branding. Not all keywords are good for branding though, but I do believe the keyword desktop is.
Idealab was represented by Sedo in the deal. Born during the .com boom, Idealab owns a number of great domain names. It has previously sold names including Clothes.com and Top10.com. It was also involved in the commercialization of .TV. Also of note to domain investors, it incubated GoTo, which invented pay-per-click search marketing.
In a Q&A with Sedo, Larsen noted:
The impact I expect from this domain is a faster growth rate and more PR just due to the branding. Hopefully, getting serious funding for growth should be easier too, since branding is already established.
Larsen anticipates launching Desktop next year.
snoopy1267 says
This is a huge vote of no confidence in new tlds. Even a registry founder wouldn’t use his own extension
Richard says
lol, looks like the .global dude finally saw the light..
Rolf Larsen says
Hi Snoopy1267 and Richard: to your comments: Not sure if you actually read this post. You will see that I have not changed my opinions at all. I have several businesses. Some has new extensions as primary domain and some has .com. And it follows my philosophy for branding laid out in the post. Read through and be more balanced in your comments please 🙂 Cheers
Richard says
“Larsen is founder of RegistryOffice and recently sold .Global to Afilias.”
Is that a correct statement, Rolf? It it is, why did you sell?
The domain desktop.global is currently available for $10. Why did you chose to buy desktop.com in the secondary market at a premium instead of going for a $10 alternative gTLD that you were promoting for the last years? Will you register the .global now or will you pass on it entirely?
Andrew Allemann says
Did you read the full article?
Richard says
3 times because of ADD. Does that disqualify me from asking additional questions regarding a persons motivation?
Niklas Münch says
.com is a lot better than .global
If you want the best then there is no other option.
Rolf Larsen says
Richard: I sold because all shareholders including me, found the offer from Afilias to be very good. Selling isn’t equal to giving up on new extensions. Nor is buying a .com (in addition to new extensions) for my new venture. I build businesses till a point where Im no longer needed. At that point, I often sell. And btw, desktop.global isnt available for $10. If it was, I would already have purchased it 🙂
Richard says
It was available 4 hours ago but I guess the .global registry suddenly considered it “premium” and raised the price to over $3k.
One of the many reasons why new extensions seems to be unable to get any mainstream traction by the way.
I never said or implied that your sale of .global means that you gave up on new extensions. But I noticed that you were heavily promoting .global on LinkedIn during the last years or so and that made we wonder why you decided to sell. This question is now answered. Thank you.
Snoopy says
Rolf, all I read was a bunch of excuses from you about how new tlds are great for other people to use, but not yourself.
This is like Larry Page getting caught using an iPhone.
Rolf Larsen says
Well Snoopy, I guess you just want to leave a little hate message because you dislike new extensions. Why dont you let the forum know who you are? 🙂
snoopy1267 says
Seems you aren’t keen on them either Rolf 🙂
Abdel says
Nothing will ever replace .com and that’s been proven by this case amd other cases. It is true that some .gtld are geat but only if you own the .com version even if it’s inactive.
Green Jobs says
Using new gTLD to buy premium .com domains seems like the plan all along. 🙂