As part of Demand Media’s earning report, it appears Demand Media has plans for applying for a number of new gTLD’s.
In the section of the earnings report “looking forward” to 2012 to serve as guidance to investors of the company’s Demand states:
“”Excluding up to $5 million of 2012 operating expenses, which the Company expects to incur related to its generic Top Level Domain (“gTLD”) initiative”
At roughly $200K per application it could mean the Demand is planning on applying for some 25 new gTLD strings.
Interestingly at least two former execs of Demand that received restricted shares in Demand and may well still be shareholders, formed another company, Donuts, which according to reports is planning on applying for 10 new gTLD extensions.
It’s possible that Demand and Donuts may wind up applying for one or more of the same gTLD extension which could lead to a bidding war in an auction between Demand and shareholders of Demand.
Its also should be noted that the stock market loved Demand Earnings report sending the stock up 30% in trading on Friday.
poll: how many new TLDs will succeed?
a) 10
b) 30
c) more
As of this writing, Dynadot is down. Every domain we hold at Dynadot is failing to resolve (300+ domains)!
WTF! We’re moving them all to Godaddy once Dynadot comes back up. Anyone else having this issue at Dynadot? Third time it’s happened to us in two years – sick of it.
@Alert,
Confirmed. I can’t get into my dynadot.com account and my domains held there aren’t resolving either. Not cool.
I’m also unable to login to my dynadot account and my domains there aren’t forwarding properly. What does this mean? Have I lost my domains? Do I need to consult with an attorney?
The site is up
http://www.dynadot.com/
“At roughly $200K per application it could mean the Demand is planning on applying for some 25 new gTLD strings.”
More likely, this means they are planning to apply for just one new gTLD string, maybe a 2-3 more.
Launching a new gTLD is not cheap. The $185K application fee is chump change compared to the marketing expenses that will be necessary to gain market awareness, registrar shelf-space and critical mass.
Tom Barrett
EnCirca
today I’ve noticed that DiscussNames.com no longer is in the AfternicDLS Domain Tools’ menu
I don’t know what AfternicDLS managers want to do with the domains forum, if they want to …
– close it
– manage as an independent forum
– sell it
in the last case, I suggest you to buy it and add it to TheDomains blog that now lacks this feature
Tom
You could be right but I didn’t interpret it that way since the $5 Million expenditure is all for 2012 and as we know at Rightofthedot.com the only thing that is going to take place in 2012 is the application period and the vetting of the application and possibly the approval of some very clean .brand apps.
ICANN has recently said that no new gTLD will be delegated or be live until 2013.
So any money Demand or anyone else needs for (a) battling objections (b) possible auctions to win the string 0r (c) operating the registry will not come in 2012.
Also owning Enom I would suspect Demandwill operate the Registry in house, thereby Demand will not need to pay to lock up backend registry services.
So I’m going to stick with my assessment of 25 or so applications.
Breaking
http://discussnames.com/
looks like its still up and working
yes, it’s still online and working, but no longer advertised in the Afternic’s homepage and menu
few months ago Afternic has deleted also the function to list all the domains on sale of an user
both changes’ goal seems to increase the home-featured function revenues for domains on sale
gTLD registries are not the only business model. They could be amping up their registrar profile.
Breaking
I will reach out to Bob Mountain and see what they have to say
Tom
Again there will be no new gTLD out in 2012 and the money is represented as being spent in 2012 for the new gTLD’s.
I don’t think its going to cost Enom $5M or anything close to that to ramp up there registrar for backend services for something that won’t be live until 2013 at the earliest.
“I suggest you to buy it and add it to TheDomains blog that now lacks this feature”
#1. Why would Namemedia want to sell DiscussNames?
#2. Why would MHB want to add a forum to his site? This site is already a full time job for him and his crew with very little financial reward.
#3. If ‘breakingnews’ thinks ‘D-N’ has merit, maybe he should buy it and do it himself. Or, is ‘breakingnews’ looking for an additional place to promote his sites?
(I find it rude when someone tells someone else how to spend money when the suggester is not willing to risk the purchase himself.)
#1. Why would Namemedia want to sell DiscussNames?
A: because it not seems longer interested to own it
#2. Why would MHB want to add a forum to his site? This site is already a full time job for him and his crew with very little financial reward.
A: because the forum may add traffic and revenues to his blog and to his business
#3. If ‘breakingnews’ thinks ‘D-N’ has merit, maybe he should buy it and do it himself.
A: I would be happy to buy DiscussNames (if on sale) but its price could be light years away for my budget
Mike,
Good point. I agree that most marketing will not begin until 2013.
Tom Barrett
EnCirca
Why would anyone in their right mind invest in the new gtld’s?
Well, they say the best way to make a small fortune is to start with a big one.
Suckers.
I wonder if one of these two groups were the ones involved with that guy who claims he got screwed. He said he worked with some company to buy glt’s and then they told him they were canceling working with him and weren’t going to pay him anything because he didn’t sign anything.
mmm donuts 🙂
It may be worth noting …….the house always wins
there is a 5k deposit and 185k registration fee
is the registration fee payable after you are the successfull applicant?
Joe
The application fee is $185k
$5K of it is paid for access lets call it a key to put your application in which must be filed electronically.
That access of key cost $5K and must be paid for and obtained by March 29th
When you file your application, which must be transmitted (submitted) to ICANN on or by April 12th the $180K must be submitted.
So the entire $185K has to be paid to ICANN with the application.
You will also have to retain a backend provider who will make the registry work unless you are going to build it out yourself as Enom will most likely do.