There is the natural desire to proclaim someone or something the NEXT whatever. If you are a fan of the NBA people for the last 16 years or so have been looking for the next Michael Jordan.
Stories such as, is Victor Oladipo the next Michael Jordan ? was pondered last year on Espn. The guy has a nice game, but Michael Jordan ? I did not know there was a drug that strong that could induce those words.
Of course many want to discuss and some proclaim LeBron James the next Michael Jordan. He is not, they are very different players, playing in two different eras. Michael Wilbon on Pardon the Interruption on Wednesday remarked that Jordan would average 40 points a game under current NBA rules.
LeBron is the first Lebron James, there is no one like him, he is no longer and should never have been seeking to be the next, he is the first of a special player.
In music over the years many have been proclaimed by the media or by themselves as the next Beatles. I always liked the band Oasis, but their arrogance of saying they were as popular as the Beatles was too much, all the while the media was fitting them to be the next Beatles.
Oasis: In an interview with Q magazine, Paul McCartney said that Oasis gave themselves the kiss of death after saying they were as big as the Beatles. The English rock band was popular in the 1990s with hits such as “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” Brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher made headlines as their relationship deteriorated throughout the years. Noel told Rolling Stone in November that if the band did reunite, he wouldn’t have any part of it. Source
Now in our little cottage industry everyone wants to find the next .com, but there is not an extension to be the next .com.
To be the next .com then it too has to arrive at 100 million registrations eventually. Or did I get a poor man’s next .com ?
It has to be used as part of the name and the popular culture, where for years people said things like Amazon.com or Pets.com, they did not say I am buying a book just on Amazon, they used the .com.
Is there going to be an extension where millions of people know to use the keyword and extension in one beautiful symbiotic relationship ? Probably not, I see the small business value to a plumber in Austin, Texas losing, yourfavoriteaustinplumber.com for Austin.plumbing, but that business will not be recognized even state wide without a lot of money spent on branding.
It has to have 100’s of billions of dollars in marketing and awareness spent over a 20 year time frame, such as .com has had.
Timing counts
One of the biggest things we have to remember is that .com got lucky. It came at the right time, and everyone used it when it was not just the best restaurant in town, but for all intents and purposes the only restaurant in town.
A new gtld can be successful, it really can, but to be the next .com, it has to undertake one of the hardest things out there, it has to reshape human behavior. I know a lot of older people who are online, my Mom is not someone of any technological background, at her age, her and her friends are not relearning new ways to surf the net. Every site she uses ends in .com. Now of course these are not really about the elderly so the story goes, but don’t kid yourself, every 21 year old is not Mark Zuckerberg or Sergey Brin, everyone in their thirties and forties is not Marissa Mayer or Kara Swisher. There are plenty of people who know enough to do what they do online, and those extensions for the most part end in .com. Telling these people you are going to be the next .com is going to confuse them.
NewGTLD: Hello average net user that doesn’t know where Silicon Valley is, we are Dot **** and we are the next .com
Average net user: Hello, why do I want the next .com ? Is there something wrong with the current .com ?
NewGTLD: No but have you ever played pick up basketball ? We got next.
Average net user: Thanks but I will stay with the current .com. Take care.
You want to be the first ! You want to have some definable message that is unique, that fills some niche out there. Trying to be the next .com is too much pressure, Oasis folded under that pressure to be the next Beatles, the J Geils band was once touted as the American answer to The Rolling Stones, Peter Wolf is ok but he could not hold Mick Jagger’s microphone, The Rolling Stones toured in 2005 and made $558 Million as senior citizens. It’s only rock and roll but I think I like it, especially when we are bringing in $558 million.
You don’t want that pressure, you lose your sense of self and are motivated by things which may be unattainable. Some of those things are unattainable through no fault of your own, it is a different time, a different place.
Dot Luxury is not calling themselves the next com and they only got 931 registrations, but they are $800 a pop. So they are already net profitable, now I would not recommend a domain investor go anywhere near this extension, zero, zilch, nada. To quote Teddy KGB from the movie Rounders, “Go away, this one is not good for you”. It is good for Monica Kirchner and her team. The point is you can make money by finding your niche as a new string without the pressure, hype and backlash of trying to be the next .com.
Great article love it and it’s so true I did love the part about Oladipo.
Thank you, glad you liked it.
I don’t think registration number is a good and only measure of the importance of an extension. It’s possible to have a new extension that racks up hundreds of millions of registrations within a few years. If Google decides to promote, say, dot home by offering it free to anyone with a Google account, complete with easy-to-use website templates, backup, etc. so you can store all your digital assets in your new ‘personal cloud’, I can see this new extension shoots to No. 1 in a short time.
But, the focus for investors should not be registration number, but the value of domain names of that extension. I believe .com will drop from No. 1 in the future when free domain names become common place, but .com will remain the best extension for domain investors to turn a good profit for years to come. My 2c.
Thanks for the comment, if Google were to do that, I think it would affect the values of other also ran extensions, people would ask why will I buy your name when Google is giving me this.
Never underestimate free. I have been amazed what people will do for free. Even if they don’t see there is a hidden cost down the road.
Just look around. People simply don’t value their privacy. So free and easy are good enough for most people — not me though.
Not to strain the metaphor, but while the “next Beatles” still haven’t shown up 50 years later, several artists have made more money than the Beatles.
There won’t be a next .com. There will never be a 2nd chance to get in on the ground floor of domaining. That time came and went. But there will be plenty of opportunities.
You’re right – it doesn’t do any good to be looking back and trying to replicate lost opportunities. But there are opportunities staring us in the face today that will make some people very rich. And, odds are, friends are telling those people at this moment that they are being stupid for investing in whatever it is.
Thanks for the comment Bill, agreed, this post was more about the marketing message not that there are not opportunities, but how you express your message may turn some people off.