When the ad copy came in from Neustar’s new site dedicated to the new gTLD launch we couldn’t notice the statement on the site:
“The .Com Era Is Ending”
Neustar is a publicly traded company with a market cap of $1.7 Billion dollars, that provides the back end for many extensions including .Co & .Biz and is expected to be a big player in the new gTLD space and is part of our domain name parking index
They just launched a site for to promote the new gTLD’s services at Dotyou.biz
“”Welcome to dotYOU!”
“The Internet is now shifting to the right of the DOT.” ( I love that statement)
“Are you ready for this change? Are you ready to make the right decision on a Top-Level Domain (TLD) for your organization?”
“Whether you are a CMO, a domainer, a chief digital officer, a member of any large organization, or legal counsel, this site will help advise and provide answers to your questions around TLDs. dotYOU will provide you with commentary on the implications of TLDs, what they can offer to an organization, and information about the process of applying and ultimately managing a TLD.”
While I think the new gTLD space is going to present all with an open mind an expanded opportunity to make money in domains, Its a pretty bold statement to say the .com era is over.
Yet if up to now the Internet domain space has been dominated 95% by .com’s that is certainly going to shrink as alternatives expand in the coming years.
Again think of it as an expansion of a market which presents new opportunities rather than as a threat to what you currently own, although if you currently own crap its about to get even crappier
The new gTLD space will only divert domainer funds and probably the more naive ones. For the consumer and end user, there have always been alternatives to .com. If you want a killer keyword, you can always get a .bz or .cc or whatever for reg fee in most cases. The consumer or end user simply doesn’t know or doesn’t care for the alternatives. They probably never will. It’s the KISS concept.
which thing they smoke? 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
With that sort of slogan, they’re bound to FAIL. We already got a .me for personal domains.
I’m sure this article is going to get a lot of comments. Although the new TLDs are bound to be an important milestone in the history of the Internet, dot com isn’t going to vanish anytime soon.
And they use a .biz to convey that message…
I’m hopeful that the surge in interest in alternative domains will be beneficial and help reduce restrictions to domains such as .pro as I’ve personally seen a recent ramp up in interest building in this extension since I follow it closely. However, in the big picture it is an up hill battle to thing that .com era is going to end that quickly.
I think some would like to see the .com error end, however, I do not think that is going to happen by any means – I think they will ROAR !
I think there will be a few .whatever success stories, but I don’t think there is presently a need for a massive increase in the number of options right of the dot. It will cause significant confusion and, in my opinion, lead to a flight to quality to .com and, to a lesser extent, to .net.
.us has under 2 million registrations. (Neustar)
.biz has under 2.2 million registrations. (Neustar)
.info has under 8.1 million registrations. (Afilias)
.net has under 14.2 million registrations. (Verisign)
.org has under 9.5 million registrations. (PIR)
.com has 97 million registrations. (Verisign)
Nothing is at 20% of what .com is and with the exception of .net they are each under 10% of what .com is.
Unrealistic statements from neustar, nothing new if you followed .us
http://icannwiki.com/index.php?title=Domain_Statistics
You can identify the day ‘change’ has occurred by these three signals.
1) Some web application becomes part of the internet furniture (ala ebay, google, facebook, amazon, etc) based on one of these new TLDs.
2) Large companies start to acquire .them and advertise it heavily
3) Web companies with realistic prospects and above micro-level capitalization levels receive funding and go public based on something other than .com.
If it happens, it happens.
Maybe it happens everywhere. Maybe it happens in some countries, but not others. Maybe it doesn’t happen at all, but those three things are all that matters.
Every team has it cheerleaders.
Every team has its cheerleaders.
Hello Mike,
The .com era will never end ! Reason : It has become a Powerfull BRAND in itself.
.COM Is in more Advertisements than any other word or symbol in history. It is indelibly implanted in consumers minds and really smart advertisers know this.
Nothing more be said.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
It’s not a new concept that companies who stand to profit from X will strongly support, sell, and market X, even if doing so is completely absurd.
In this case, X = gTLDs, and “companies” = Neustar, a for-profit corporation.
Nothing new here, capitalism. I’ll stick with .COM 100 times out of a 100, and will be happy at the prospect that less domainer eyes will be following .COM
forget.you, save.us O_o
I received an offer yesterday on another of my
LLL.Co for $500
and I had to turn it down because
it was too low.
@robert : wow clad to hear that !!
Several years ago, Neustar announced that they were going to make a big push to Promote .US to the general public.
Big Talk.
They did nothing.
It seems logical to think that True Country Codes will continue to gain popularity and use, especially within their respective countries.
But, most registries and registrars are see visions of sugar plums and dollar signs at the mere mention of yet another WLD (whatever level domain).
Eventually, most domain investors will avoid any and all new extensions that may come along, after having been burned too many times.
Nothing new here–move on
Of god………back to Zzzzzzzzzzz
Neustar is a multi-billion dollar company.
so they have a lot more smarter people than
you, I and everyone here put together
so when they say
“The .com era is ending!”
you best take heed.
nuestar also has underperformed on kids.us, thanks for nothing…..colors shown.
page howe
kidsdomains.org
*
Quite humorous.
🙂
Perhaps Neustar is a bit overly optimistic???
*
With all due respect Mike everything right of the dot will go right of tbe horse amd buggy and guys who used to sign x instead of their names
Owen
I think in business and life you need to keep an opened mind
To simply dismiss every opportunity that may occur on the right of the dot other than .com, is being closed minded to an expansion of domain space.
This week I turned down $175,000 offer on a .Me domain
I’ve turned down $125K on a .tv domain
The news isn’t that I turned down the offer but that the offer was made
condos.nyc
yes I’ll take that
Divorce.law
Yes I’ll bite
freeporn.xxx yup that’s worth a flyer
If you think there is no money to be made in the right of the dot space you need to expand your thoughts.
MHB–well said, that why I am more successful than YOU and I eat better than your Bandit.
I wonder how many hotels in vegas wouldnt want vegas.hotel and hotel.vegas ? Can you see hoardes of pizza companies just going noooooooo we’d never ever buy newyork.pizza, no way not interested.
I think some new gtld will rock their respective sector’s.
Think it is important to keep and open mind, not an affilate right of the dot one one though,
There is Gold and there is black gold, there are Diamonds & paste. If you want the paste that is cool with me, but second rate but OK on a cheap fox,
“I think in business and life you need to keep an opened mind”
I agree, but so is being objective.
The majority of the companies and people pushing the new gTLD and making these ridiculous statements have an obvious self interest in the new gTLD.
Brad
@MHB
Unfortunately an opened mind is hard to find here.
Domain Investors, please stick with .com alone. Save the New gTLDs for someone else. They aren’t meant for you anyway, and you are most of the reason they are needed.
Greater Choice + Lower Price = End Users
Percentagewise .com should remain about the same due to its sheer volume. Even after several million new secondlevel.newtlds sell.
That’s funny Tom G when you like Mike both have a vested interest in new tlds, That does not make your mind open, it means you have an agenda and a vested interest.
Greater Choice + Lower Price = End users ? That’s funny. Because there will be no lower price for any good keywords.
All 1,2 and 3 letter names will be auctioned off, same with all the top keywords that matter, Mike here will actually be advising new tlds how to get the most money for each domain. So lower prices is a joke for any domain that matters.
Greater choice ? There is plenty of choice, can’t get the .com, because you were late to the party, There are plenty of choices, ME, US,NAME,Biz,Jobs,Travel,Pro,TV, CO,Info,Asia,EU,Mobi.
People have had choice for a long time.
Neustar has already over promised and under delivered.
“Greater Choice + Lower Price = End Users”
You really think the premium keywords will all of a sudden be affordable?
You think Boston.Homes, Chicago.pizza, Used.Cars are going be to given away for cheap? Give me a break.
The new gTLD is a handout to big business and ICANN itself, not the average end user. It created a solution to a problem that did not exist.
Brad
Great news!
Now sell me all of your formerly premium (now ‘worthless’) .COMs –cheap.
😉
@mhb congratulations in .me offer.
There will be opportunity in anything.
However the risk levels went up dramatically as well.
Use caution imo. Risk capital imo.
you know there is also
risk in holding on to
you .com s.
I had 2,000 really good .com and
guess what, I had maybe 5 offers all in the xx range.
I kid you not
here are some of the offer I received.
rocketbottle.com $70
photobucket.com $85
are you kidding me.
That is why I let 1,200 of the .com go
There is risk in holding on to .com s.
It is better to turn to greener pastures.
Neustar isn’t exactly an impartial entity when commenting on new gtlds. They are advertising to advise and help companies get into the gtld market, so ofcourse they are going to pump it. Yes money will be made and yes some keywords will go great with certain gtlds, but the list of relevant keywords for any gtld quickly drops off a cliff. And I’m sure the best keywords will be held back and auctioned for most gtlds, so the average domainer won’t have a chance to get them.
$175,000 for a .me domain (assuming no website)? I can’t think of a .me I wouldn’t sell for that amount, what do you think it’s worth then?
@Robert – You own photobucket.com?
@ Robert
The issue is not .COM, the issue is your choice in domains.
What is a “Rocket Bottle”? I am surprised you got an offer on it at all.
Obviously you don’t own PhotoBucket.com. It has been a popular developed site since at least 2004.
Brad
One word generics will do well pretty much in any ext. .co will last for some time.
So for example with one .co we had 12 requests in last 45 days the name is Tablets.co, so I think it really depends on what you are buying and why. Tablets are projected to sell 300 million tablets annually by 2015 that is why we bought that name and paid more than umm “your reg fee”. Does not mean anything but we think it sure will increase our chances of being more valuable in 5 years. It could end up worthless. I do know that if you do nothing or don’t take a chance you will know 100% for sure what will happen.
With any new ext if you are not buying one word generics your chances are really going to go down. With state or city names it is going to be an uphill battle and take a lot of money to compete with a .com. Would never do it, it’s like trying to beat the next guy in the marathon and you have just given the other person a 22 mile head start.
Spend some more money than your reg fee for a good one word generic and your chances of making a good investment will probably be much better.
Due own dd
Donny
Check out the STEVE.JOBS domain
Some people have their own Planet (Invited Guests Only)
modelbucket.com $85 is what I meant, but even better than photobucket.com
vs.
photobucket.com
Maybe everyone wins.
I asked my father-in-law, and avid fisherman (understatement) if he was going to put up a website about fishing, would he choose a .COM, or a .FISH if it was available?
His answer:
BOTH
Tom
Exactly right
This is not a zero sum game where someone only wins if someone else loses.
No one’s .com’s values went down when .Me came along or .Co yet you see sales in each extension
So its a win win
There’s a reason it’s called the dot com era, and thats because it’s irreplaceable.
The new gtld program is impractical, though i agree it will provide a lot of new opportunities too .
C’mon. I cannot belive they can suggest that “.com” will not be worth as much or not as popular.
.Com will alway be king forever, it is that simple. Will there be others that will “stick”.
Time will tell, people do not like change and if we have to start remembering 100 different extensions, then that is just stupid.
We do need growth and enterprise, but Nuestra: GET YOUR FACT AND INFO AND RESEARCH RIGHT.
Maybe I will shorth their stock.
Chances are their stock goes down well before “.com” looses its flavor, value and love with the public.
God Bless us and “.com”
.COM will stay power…forever…
.CO is better than .anything…
the marketing dept at neustar must be a wonderful place to work.
there are no laws against ridiculous headlines that are nothing more than wishful thinking or opinions.
“.com is about to become more valuable”
we can make up any headline we want. we can pretend things are happening when in reality nothing has happpening. and some people will believe it. we can shape the future! isn’t this fun?
facts? who needs facts? facts are not fun. (that’s an opinion)
for example,
it’s a fact that there are many, many people who
1. “buy” (=pay for a time-limited right to use) domain names with the hope of generating income but fail to see that these silly names have no inherent ability to do so;
2. do not expend any effort on marketing such names, believing that the names have some inherent ability to sell themselves or to garner traffic;
3. (unsurprisingly) fail to generate any income; and
4. continue to repeat steps 1-3!
and so, sad as it is, a market is born, a vast market to “sell” domain names to these people. cha ching!
this may sound harsh. but it’s just a simple fact.
and it’s not limited to domain names. people also “buy” silly trademarks that in effect are liabilities, not assets. the marks are idiosyncratic and worth nothing on their own. and the registrants expend next to nothing on marketing.
as such the marks are worth little if anything beyond the registration and maintenance fees, hence they are liabilities. in many cases, the registrants lack the funds or the interest to defend these marks. they may have a right to sue, but they’ll never exercise it.
there are hundreds of thousands of such marks.
people pay significant fees to obtain them.
why? “why ask why?”
the harsh view is those “selling” these domain names are capitalising on people’s broken dreams.
whatever view one may take, the fact is people will continue to “buy” worthless domain names and register worthless trademarks. that creates a market for “sellers” and advisors to such people.
maybe facts can be fun. e.g., if you’re one of these sellers or advisors.
Neustar ‘s company mission statement is copied from my “Bulls”.
Any attorneys want to represent me in this lawsuit??
Neustar is correct
When top brands go for .brand the game will change
and ccTLDs keep chugging along..
Only domainers think the world revolves around .com
Links and search engines and kids dont care so much
However Neustar is incorrect and negligent for they run .US like a lemonade stand, with no promotion
ccTLDs are the easiest thing to promote – they are asleep on the biggest of opportunities
Their contract should be yanked next time and given to some entity that will promote it
Main point – domainers are like radio frequency owners, protesting the widening of the band
Shit happens
Neustar = morons
Renew your .COM’s. As Wil Rogers said of conventional real estate, it is a good investment cuz they stopped making it.
.Co is on the ascendency.
.com is in the descendency
and are you preparing or prepared for
the right of the dot age
i hope many people will panic and drop their dot coms so i could snap the valuable ones
Self-serving marketing message from Neustar, of course…
I can see .com market share declining marginally, globally – and, barely at all in the US market, where its the defacto ccTLD.
I really can’t see the new TLD’s amounting to all that much across the board – maybe in niches (like .XXX), or in some corporate brand management – but, not as a new business go-to internet presence…
The economy is having a far greater (temporary) impact on .com values than the new TLD’s ever will, imo.
Wait…
…Isn’t Neustar the Registry that won’t allow you to register any domain that offends against the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ in its .us extension? (ie seven ‘offensive’ words that they deem to be unacceptable).
“…Neustar……is expected to be a big player in the new gTLD space….”
Neustar once reached into my account at GoDaddy, and simply took back the domain, iTITS.us, that I had registered….They didn’t even discuss it with me…I only found out the reason they ‘stole’ it back when I called them to enquire about why they had taken it…
How is their attitude re domains using any of their ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ terms going to work in the new TLD space??
I’m not rocket scientist but, I think, it is obvious we are witnessing the start of the end of .com.
Hooooaaa! .co here we come…
Non-sense, non-sense, non-sense… Does this company even know what the ctrl+enter button does? Maybe, just maybe if they invest $20trillion in marketing it may work, until then all they can do is let crap leak from their mouths…
Here is a large community college using even a four letter
LLLL.Co
http://www.lcce.co/
This is why .Co is on the rise.
The huge early adoption around the world is quite amazing.
all the traffic is going to the dot com version-they could have bought the dot com version …
Feel sorry for the students graduating from that college esp in the Marketing class.
@ Robert
There are tens of thousands of new websites launched per day on .COM
You know .CO adoption is very slow when you feel the need to point out individual sites.
.CO is a blip on the radar screen compared to .COM
Brad
Ethnocentrism
this is an important word that many on this board
need to be schooled heavily in.
Can someone explain what this means ?
This will perhaps explain why
“The .com era is at its end”
Incidently
the .com version of
http://www.lcce.co/
is a stupid parked page.
This is a case of the community college saying
No to .com and saying we prefer .Co over .com
They certainly could have acquired the .com version for $200
but said we want and need the .Co name.
When investing
you want to invest in an industry
that is quickly doubling and quadripling.
You do not want to invest in a real estate where it is not likely to double or quadriple
This is the case with .com
.com is stale and has plateaued out
Ask yourself this question.
Is .Co or .com more likely to double ?
checkmate.
USA NTIA has a new web-site – Looks like .COM will be Obama’s and .NET
.CO will be more popular than .com because it is cheaper to own and .CO is a NEW TECH for all mobile gadgets…
.anything will be like pigeon shits, because it is confusing with millions of branding .longtail gTLD…
Registrars need to make more money and so does ICANN and the only way to do this is to add more domain name extensions. They do not give a rats a** about the financial burden and legal problems for businesses that want to protect there brand and their mark. Does anyone here remember the altenate registry some years back with dot golf, dot santa, etc? Remember what happen? It ended. Imho, dot com will always be king and everyone wants to be dot com and dot com will continue to be king and will continue to be the most valuable.
Neustar: “The .Com Era Is Ending”
========
People seem to have short memories. Neustar was largely “Manufactured” by the Washington DC – Lockheed-Martin – ICANN – IANA crowd.
It is interesting to trace ALL of the history of Neustar. They had very little DNS experience and very little involvement in what some may have called The.Internet.Community. Neustar had interesting players emerge as “consultants”. ICANN gave them 2 years to get up to speed as a new “Registry” while others were distracted being Registrars.
Eventually, the .US card (contract) was moved to Neustar WITHOUT ICANN.
As people predicted in the late 1990s, Washington DC created the Rental.CAR Airport Model with THREE 900 lb gorillas as Registries. Some view that as “enough competition”. Now it becomes a revolving game where the low-hanging fruit is passed between the BIG THREE.
Will a FOURTH “manufactured” Registry emerge ?
As with Hertz, Avis and National, another may emerge. Note, Enterprise is private and larger.
The smart money is now looking at RE-BIDs (not new TLDs) and at /8 IPv4 Address Space. Without routable Address Space, you do not exist. You have to exist to be a player.
USA NTIA’s new web-site shows they plan to help “manufacture” and pick the players (and winners), just like CASINO licenses.
rarely is there opportunity without threat
“Again think of it as an expansion of a market which presents new opportunities rather than as a threat to what you currently own”
=====
If you do not have “your domains” in hand, secured with a Digital Wallet, recognized network-wide as “owned” then you likely own FIAT Domains.
As with FIAT Currency – Your domains are “owned” because large central authorities (governments with guns?) say that is the case.
In the future, courts may require you present your USB Drive/Wallet to prove you have the KEYS to control your Digital Wallet with domains you really own.
You hold them in your hot little hands.