By: Raymond Hackney
When looking at the new gtld program the one thing I think needs to go away is the discussion of them as a collective. That it’s all or nothing, many are going to do less than spectacular numbers imo.
That opinion is based on their pricing model or the limited market for the string. That’s what makes a market, we don’t look at every brand of Cola and group them together.
I drink Coke if I have a Cola, there are plenty of other cola brands on the market with different degrees of success. Some have failed and went out of business. It’s about the branding, the pricing and the advertising throughout the years that makes them successful.
I look at the new gtlds as individual start ups, each one is unique and will have to fight for mind share, market their company successfully to their target demographic and execute their business plan.
So grouping them all together the new gtlds suck, or they are going to fail, etc… seems like a flawed ideology.
In my opinion there is no comparing a .NYC to a .Sucks to a .Sexy. Grouping them all together may be the way those that despise the whole program want to look at it but it simply cannot be done by those trying to find opportunities or report on the domain industry.
There will be new extensions that are going to price their registrations on the cheaper side so they can compete, extensions like .XYZ run by Daniel Negari, many of the Uniregistry (an advertiser on this site) strings will also be priced at a low rate and have a cheap renewal.
Then there will be companies like .luxury who are going to be on the expensive side running at somewhere in the range of $799 a year.
Then there is .sucks which looks to be an extension that is set up just to make money off defensive registrations and has turned many people off already.
I think there is a big difference just looking at novelty type extensions vs business type extensions. I think with new gtlds coming out on a regular basis for the next couple of years, that the novelty extensions could be treated like fashion trends or fads.
Someone might want their name.sexy and then when due for renewal they may see .ninja and now think that is cooler.
With a lot of these novelty extensions appealing to younger registrants and appealing to personality and vanity I believe these registrants could be more fickle.
The key will be for the company running that extension to be in touch with their registrants.
A business that gets its name in say .corp or .llc is more likely to stick with it and provide that extension with a higher renewal rate year over year. It makes sense that some businesses may protect their name in one business string.
For example, if you own LuxuryCorp.com or LuxuryLLC.com, I can see those registrants securing their name in Luxury.corp or Luxury.LLC.
They don’t need LuxuryCorp.web or LuxuryCorp.shop for example. Of course the caveat to those with popular keywords in their name may have to pay a premium or win the auction for the best keywords in the string.
One extension I am interested in is .media. It is a niche I focus on in .com, I have a couple keyword media.com domains that have received 3 or more offers over the years.
If the pricing is not crazy I will register those in .media, that way a potential buyer can’t go around me, and I can give them both in sale and have them feel secure that they have both forms of their new name under their ownership.
As the 6th most popular keyword by domain count, I think there could be some interest in .media.
So I will look at these each on an individual basis with the only overlap comparing singular and plural like .photo and .photos.
There is going to be extensions in so many categories that for domain investors interested in the new gtlds, they are going to need laser like focus on industries and interests that they have knowledge in, or some edge over the rest in selling them to end users.
Go Go Go says
Very nice post. There are so many layers here so many different fruits.
Tom says
The fashion fad example is most likely what we will see. Why are they releasing so many at once ?
Gtld Gerry says
Respectfully disagree Raymond. Either they all float or all sink. Either the public accepts them or rejects them. Most are incredibly stupid. Stupid, long-assed and costly. Deadly combination. As such,I predict that all will fail miserably.
Raymond Hackney says
Thanks for the comment Gerry, I don’t see how they all float or sink together. I think .nyc is going to be received well by their demographic and if that is a success by their standards I don’t see that helping .luxury at $799 a year.
Certain registries are better funded, have better marketing plans than others.
When we talk about the public, well its a big world. No one in the public will have a complete grasp of all the extensions available, but I believe people in .nyc will come to understand there is a .nyc without ever knowing anything about .ninja.
They will grow to see a .Bmw and Google is the real wildcard if they get .app and some other extensions I think that will speed up the public’s learning curve.
Again from a domainer standpoint we know the stats everyone who hangs out on a forum or blog knows the numbers its what we do. So domainers may see 25,000 regs in some extension and deem it a failure but it won’t be for the registry.
I see them as all separate start ups, each will have fans, detractors and each will have their own separate challenges.
If I was running a registry and was able to secure a business of 100,000 registrations a year, I am sure people talking about the extension from a domain investor standpoint would probably laugh on a forum, that I only had 100,000 registrations but more than likely it would be very profitable for me, I do agree Gerry most of these present little to no opportunity for domainers.
Either good names will get auctioned or reserved and the others will be hard to sell for a profit because there will be another new gtld coming out in a week.
I think these are highly speculative for domainers and should only be regged by those with a high risk tolerance and an understanding that liquidity will be low for these names in the secondary market.
There will be some successes, I think if you can get in and get out, flip them fast there is a chance. I think long term holding is hard because like I said before, there is going to be new gtlds coming which could make these like Fashion fads and a lot of turnover for the new hot thing.