As the The Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress Conference wrapped up yesterday in London Frank Schilling founder of Uniregistry an applicant for more than 50 new gTLD’s, posted a comment to our post to his opening remarks from the conference, in response to over 65 comments made by readers on the original post the following:
“”””
this.stuff
is.not
that.hard
There are only so many ways you can say things and language will not change. Only the location of the dot will change.
It.seems.confusing
today.but
itwont.tomorrow
Laugh.now
but.this
will.look
normal.one.day
Just as it did in 1993, it will all start with the .BRANDS, and it will take time for those brands to market their TLDs into a use-pattern.
itsa20year.journey
and.it.starts
next.year
YOUR.COM will always have value but the “upside” in value will be limited by the changes to come.
Hence my analogy: What would an AM radio station be worth today in the absence of FM and Satellite radio?
Ask yourself what you will navigate to when every brand looks: LIKE.THIS
Good luck to all.
“”””””
As I summarized at Elliot’s blog: Open.your.eyes
whoops wrong thread with that last comment.. anyway
one problem is people are having like a dozen COMPLETELY DIFFERENT conversations at once pretending they’re related.
– newbies losing money
– registries losing money
– no one TLD being able to “catch on” because there are so many
etc…
has nothing to do with the “normalization” of gTLD’s as a whole… all that crap above can happen and gTLD still catch on.
domainers suggesting stuff like 90% will fail but .web will be “one of the good ones” i think are missing the point entirely. how could any of them be “good ones” if gTLD’s still look funny to most people… take one thing at a time here.
domainers that think people will never use these gTLD but at the same time saying “a few will do well like .web and .shop” are probably WAY OFF the mark.
we’re moving to phrases separated by a dot – not a new “default” TLD everyone likes and prefers. i think thats old thinking at this point. a hangover from previous landrushes… sure eventually some TLD will do better than others via registration numbers and/or actual developed sites but first things first… people gotta get used to em.
in some ways the gTLD all need each other to survive. they dont need to all thrive, but being released at once is a major benefit on the pathway to making them “normal” and accepted. they need to be operated by tons of different entities to make sure this thing hits people from all angles.
Everything will be decided by endusers. Consumers are king.
Online classifieds have always been an attractive area for investments globally ,buyers and sellers exchange information which create network effects leading to the winners capturing a disproportionate market share and high operating leverage. The location of the . will change to offer new classified listings and brands will pay the ferryman for top spot. FS is right, the algorithm is tribal user-patterns. However, the ferrymen will not row against the tide. Is the “.com” a brand or a list of classifies ads ? My money is that it is a luxury brand.
Great respect for FS vision & integrity but moving the dot is not a technological innovation that makes life’s choices easier, I want less buttons on the remote not more.
Sounds interesting…
Although – I have the REAL ability to see the FUTURE…
And that’s NOT happening in OUR Lifetimes. . .
Carry on as usual.
.COM .ORG .CO .NET .TV .INFO .US
in that order…
~Patricia Kaehler — Ohio USA — DomainBELL
.
.
.
a.select.few
gltd.name. combinations
will.stand.out
justlike.certain
dot.me
domain.names.do
but.most.gltds
will.not
still.those.that
stand.out
will.have.to
compete.against
the.dot.COM.giants
already.long.established
on.the.internet
good.luck
for.it
will.be
farfrom.easy
Too early, and I just finished a 4 mile run… replace the two instances of “gltd” I wrote above with “gtld”. Can’t even get that right this morning, it must be more confusing than I thought.
“Ask yourself what you will navigate to when every brand looks: LIKE.THIS”
What I will “Navigate to” is the .com bank
Frank is just a really smart guy who is going to make a lot of dough on something else that in turn will make his own .com portfolio worth exponentially more.
He is just a half step – or even a full step ahead of the rest of us.
We can all guess but we won’t know til it starts happening.
I do not understand why clever, educated guy like Frank replied to domainers – its waste of time.
Most domineers are not rich,clever, powerful and mean completely nothing in business world.
It really funny when I hear domainers` opinions like anyone from successful businesses would care about them.
@Paul Green, I agree. From a marketing viewpoint, this would have been better left unreplied to.
I’m not a domainer though, I’ve never sold a name, preferring to build sites with the (only) 50ish domains I’ve acquired since 1996. There’s a lot more money in ad revenue and sponsorships for long-established popular sites, than simply selling the vast majority of parked domains, and it keeps coming every year. That combined with revenue from my software/app development and tech consulting since the 80s, has made me a good living.
But yeah, this would have been better left alone. People’s minds aren’t going to change, (including my own), so there’s no real benefit to keep the conversation going. Except for the fun factor, of course.
Brands-and-Jingles coined similar statements already back in © 2008 during a big .ME bang
So Brands – that is impressive that you coined something similar with .me in 2008 that was coined with .com’s in the later 1998,1999 and 2000.
Who remember all the ads – don’t remember the exact words but something like :
“SoWhatAreYouDoingToday.com … NotMuch.com .. WellLetsGoShopping.com … Where.com .. WellLetsJustStayHere.com..AndHowCanYouShopByStayingAtHome.com .. ItCalledTheInternet.com…”
I don’t have Delphic powers, so I have no idea what the Web will look like in.the.year.2034. But having worked w/Search technologists, I can assure you the Web experience will be more more intuitive, personalized, and contextual within the next 5 years. I’m not even sure there will be Web Domains in.the.year.2034. With BCI (brain computer interfaces) technologies, wearables, sensors, telematics, the omnipresent Web may resemble more “Minority Report” or “The Matrix”, and less “The Net”. Google’s just launched algo, “Hummingbird”, may herald in a whole new kind of search and retrieval, notwithstanding its dependence on keywords for ad.revenues. It will be fun.to.watch.
@ Steven –
“I’m not even sure there will be Web Domains in.the.year.2034”
Very good observation
I am pretty sure there will not be web domains prior to that – and I am a .com bigot
from the 90’s.
But business needs them now – and that is all that counts – i.e. NOW
@Brian
“I am pretty sure there will not be web domains prior to that” (.2034)
And I’m pretty sure you’re right.
I don’t have a long view on this. Or long view assumptions or projections (which rarely come to fruition, at least with most forecasts, financial reports, business plans).
But, yes, the Internet needs Domains now and the foreseeable future (at least through 2015, I hope); so let’s see how this all plays out, whether right, left, or outside.of.the.dot.
its quite the assumption to think all or even most brands will adopt this. i guess they’ll just let the millions a number of companies have spent on .com’s just drop or collect dust because hey, having a dot inbetween keywords is somehow progress.
Domains will not be the issue in 20 years. Electricity and water will. The only domain that will matter is Collapse.com. And Frank hedged his bets because he owns that too.
@Paul
“I do not understand why clever, educated guy like Frank replied to domainers – its waste of time.
Most domineers are not rich,clever, powerful and mean completely nothing in business world.
It really funny when I hear domainers` opinions like anyone from successful businesses would care about them.””
Well for one Frank still makes a substantial amount of his income as a domainer
Frank owns one of the largest domain name parking platforms in the world and his customers are domainers.
Frank owns one of the largest domain brokerages in the world and domainers are his customers.
Once new new gTLD’s launch many of the 1st registrations will come from domainers as they always have
Or maybe he was just being nice
“Or maybe he was just being nice”
no he is a smart dude – 10+ years younger than you and I Michael – and I am the biggest student around – its all about finding (or creating) a market to sell stuff into. The whole non.com market has helped me better understand the model I got into.
Here’s food for thought
The last DNJournal report (late Sep 13) had these two sales:
Pizza.net …….. $150,000
PerfectPizza.com …….. $8533
We can assume that Pizza.com, which is parked, must be many times higher that the dot net, so an end user went with the dot net. Only some kind of pizza chain would pay six figures for a domain.
Pizza Hut hasn’t applied for the .pizzahut string (yet). It’s sure to acquire PizzaHut.pizza. It might just sit on it, or it might just re-brand every store in the world as PizzaHut.pizza. Nobody knows.
So someone just paid $150,000 for a non com.
So how much will the following be worth?
Pizza.web
Pizza.cafe
Pizza.menu
Pizza.restaurant
Pizza.online
Pizza.deal
Pizza.store
Why wouldn’t these also be worth some five figure numbers over time?
Then there’s the .pizza string itself…
Buy.pizza
Eat.pizza
Order.pizza
Deliver.pizza
Crusty.pizza
Cheese.pizza
Pepperoni.pizza
Giovannis.pizza
Tasty.pizza
Supreme.pizza
MakingMeHungry.pizza
How is it possible these new naming options won’t have a transformational affect on the DNS? If Pizza Hut and the 680 brand domains plaster names like PizzaHut.pizza all over their stores (just one example) people will get used to it, quick time.
Frank’s assessment is right.
In 1998, Ira Magaziner and the White House discussed implementing new Tlds almost 16 years ago. Market Demaand and Confidence play a big factor in any extension and what drives our market is not US based customers but global users. Any professional domainer should tell you a majority of the demand and sales are coming from places like china, India, germany etc.. Its a global economy now and success of any gtld will be determined by global market demand. When you have the biggest brands in these global markets like sohu.com, bidu.com, etc. unless they switch, penetration might never occur but always has the potential. For me, I dont want to be one the first ones into a new market again but will follow once it has proven value and adoption. Those that “own their own ISLAND (gtld) are in different positions.
Prices are also key as when they are free, and some will be, building a million dollar global brand on any other extension will just take you long/harder and why go elsewhere unless you get a clearly different product. New domain models, methods and technology are launching soon to showcase the value of any domain and this attention to domains in general is good for everyone as it creates change and movement.. Something our space has been lacking for some time so lead, follow or get out of the way as change is coming and that is a beacon for new opportunities.
Domainers need to get their head out of their asses and think like the average joe.
The new gTLDs is for the newcomer and the millions of people that are being born.
The registry owners are going to make a lot of money from the newcomers.
95% of websites built on dot com are bullshit websites … and just built for the owner to use and tell their few friends about…that’s what these newcomers are going to do with these new gTLDs…just build a small site to let their friends see it.
Why do domainers keep comparing dot com to new gTLDs…no need to compare…new gTLDs are going to make money for the registry owners like Frank…
.xxx, .mobi, .biz, etc…are successful for the registry owners but not for domainers.
Frank made a great investment and will be happily rewarded.
Frank should NOT waste time with domainers…only 5000 domainers…there are millions of newcomers who want to register .whatever and build a bullshit site to show their friends.
Good Luck to ALL