Ntldstats.com, has updated this morning and .XYZ is now the 4th most popular gTLD with over 38,000 registrations.
However over 72% of these, or over 27,500 domains are at Network Solutions (NSI), which as we discussed yesterday and today, offered free .XYZ domains to certain customers on an opt out basis, meaning that many of these customers may not even know they have an .XYZ domain.
If we back out the NSI registrations .XYZ still had over 11,000 registrations in its first 24 hours or so more than .Ninja still a week after launch.
If we go with NSI 5% market share of new gTLD’s we could say 2,000 of the 27,500 could be paid for, putting .XYZ maybe as high as 13K for normal registrations.
We do have to back out the 1,100 + domains that were registered by the .XYZ registry.
I think the whole thing is very unfortunate and unnecessary.
I think .XYZ did fine and would have done fine without this mess.
I registered 22 domain names ( yes I paid for them) and overnight but an unsolicited off on one of them for $1,000.
I’m also in 3 Godaddy auctions for .XYZ domains and overnight got outbid at $355 on one of the domains.
So I like I said without the NSI mess, the extension would have at least 11K registrations placing it in the top 20 of all new gTLD’s which is a good showing for the 1st day of launch.
There are a lot of lessons to be learned all around and we will see how it all shakes out.
Mike where do you get that 8% market share for Network Solutions? It has less than 3%.
And namestat.org has a different number on ,xyz registrations and that I believe to be correct as it is what the zone files have.
K-
Your right closer to 5%
http://ntldstats.com/registrar
I use this site to be consistent in all posts
I adjusted the post
thanks
You need to take out the .xyz domains.
If you do you are down to almost 1.8%.
Not even 3% that was yesterday with half the .xyz domains added.
So that wold place NSI at around 20K registrations like 13 with Mess seems like 2% of the market share
No Bueno
Although not a full convert, I like some of the new gtld`s because of their natural & intuitive nature. For example, I registered Wealth.Foundation because of the strong keywords flowing well together. I may or may not ever find a buyer, but it`s $80 per year so it`s a small risk.
When I look at .xyz, I just don’t “get” it. The extension .xyz is just an add-on like .us or .cc; i.e. it doesn’t mean anything and it is in no way intuitive. I can’t imagine .xyz domains ever being developed and actually utilized in a meaningful way on anything more that a very small scale. I could be totally wrong, but I don’t think so.
XYZ gets 74,000 global exact match searches a month on Google. So people are actually searching for the 3 letters together for God knows whatever reason. I think Daniel’s reasoning is that people say and use com so why not xyz? It seems to roll off the tongue easier. Getting end users to adopt it and businesses to actually rebrand to it may require a few Super Bowl commercials if it is ever to become a competitor to .com.
I personally like the 3 consecutive letter domain names ending in .xyz. I think they are memorable. I registered several, but I don’t get why Afternic isn’t letting them be added to my portfolio.
“…businesses to actually rebrand to it…?” Those businesses might as well change their phone numbers and email addresses as well, while they’re at it. No solid business with any sense will “rebrand” to a new extension, no matter how much money is wasted on Super Bowl commercials. Especially to something like “xyz”. Saying it’s the “new .com” (or even being close to the “new .com”) is an unfortunately laughable claim that only the extremely gullible would ever fall for.
Madison Avenue can work miracles. Anheuser-Busch’s Puppy Love Ad during the Super Bowl generated 37 million YouTube views. Part of .Co’s success is attributable to their Super Bowl advertising.
I don’t remember .co during Superbowl. The standard has been set. The fortune 500’s aren’t jumping on the new G’s. The reasons are simple. I do believe a few ntld’s have a chance of catching on but all of this “.randomtld will be the next .com” is a complete joke. Why be the next, when you can be the first. The ‘next big thing’ will be the first _________ .
.Co SuperBowl commercial. GoDaddy 2013 AD: Your Big Idea .co
I saw this and other .CO ads, but what works for .CO won’t necessarily work for .CC or .INFO or .MOBI or .XYZ.
Personally I’d rather have a .MOBI site than a .XYZ site, but that’s a close one. And I’d take a .INFO site over both, if I had no other choice. .CC would be a tie in my eyes with .XYZ… both equally worthless.
Many website owners, like myself, registered .COs because they owned the .COM… so it was purely defensive in nature, for the reason that .CO is similar to .COM as an extension. .XYZ? Not anywhere near similar, and simply just a silly-sounding extension, so no worries about defensive registrations for that one.
Not quite. Didn’t work out for Bud and .tv, didn’t work out for Overstock and .co.
Also, xyz only gets 8,100 exact in the U.S. and part of that might be because of – http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=xyz
He talks about the young generation, ok. somecompany . examine your zipper (xyz)
For all the choices companies have out there:
.com
.net
.web – whenever it comes out
go with .xyz?
~~ Generic comment regarding the .xyz feedback across domaining-related blogs. ~~
For weeks, all you heard was complaints: “…None of these gTLD registries are doing any marketing at all!?!”
And yet, despite .xyz being only the 2nd member to qualify for entry into the ‘RegistriesThatPromote.club’ [ha!? … did you spot the other member…?] they get dumped on from the vast majority of domainers — the same individuals who complain the new gTLD registries are not doing enough to promote their wares!
Consider this …
1) If you had a gTLD launching, wouldn’t you try to ‘talk-it-up’? I agree the 1M goal is outrageous; but by stating it the day before launch, .xyz was able to get a tonne of free publicity! In fact, on the day before launch, EVERY domaining-related blog covered the bold 1M .xyz prediction. Then today, EVERY blog published the follow-up story; either:
i) early on – when it appeared .xyz was a surprise success; or
ii) mid-day – when it seemed far less a success because of suspicious numbers; or
iii) evening – when headlines suggesting ‘failure’ began appearing as the Net Sol connection was substantiated.
…with some blogs publishing 2+ .xyz stories today!
Not since the days of ‘Halvarez’ have I seen such a block of ‘same-story’ headlines dominate the Domaining.com feed!
Plus, with some articles having upwards of 40+ comments (far more than the average story) the story has continued to snowball. And, while some will point out the ‘tone’ of the stories being published has largely swung to the ‘negative’; nevertheless the old Hollywood adage rings true: Any publicity, is good publicity!
2) From a marketing & promotional perspective, the Net Sol idea is terrific! ADMIT IT!
Firstly, the NetSol promotion was NOT designed to ‘secretly’ inflate the registration numbers. Given what happened with Uniregistry and their ‘North Sound Names’ shell company, it was clear that massive registrations of a particular gTLD made by a single company or at a single registrar would not remain hidden for more than 24-hours!
The NetSol idea was clearly designed first and foremost as a promotional program. Why NetSol? One reason could be that because of their high prices, NetSol customers tend to be mostly end users. And, who do all these new gTLD registries most want to target … END USERS!
Compared to typical marketing, advertising or promotional costs, the cost to undertake this NetSol promotion seems minimal! I am NOT an ‘behind the scenes/backend domain costing’ expert; nevertheless I’ll throw out a few (guesstimated) numbers…
The ‘out-of-pocket’ costs to the .xyz registry for each promotional NetSol .xyz giveaway domain:
– $0.18 – ICANN fee;
– $1.00 – back end provider fee (*1*)
– $0.50 – Net Sol (*2*)
= $1.68 x 15,000 giveaway domains
= $25,200
_______
(*1*) – If the normal back end provider fee is ~$2.00; I’m sure .xyz registry was able to negotiate a 50%+ discount for these special Net Sol promotional domains; since $1 for 15,000 Net Sol promotional domains is better than $2 for 0 domains!
(*2*) – NetSol might agree to just $0.50 per domain for this promotion since:
i) they will gain good-will from those customers who appreciate the free .xyz giveaway
ii) they will be hoping for a nice bonus in 1-years time; when those who decide to renew do so at the outrageous renewal price of ~$24. Even if only 10% renew (15,000 x 0.1 = 1,500 | $24 price – $5 wholesale = $19 | $19 x 750 = $28,500)
_______
Compared to paid advertising and other paid promotions, $25,200 seems relatively inexpensive.
And, in 1 years time, even if only a mere 10% renew (15,000 x 0.1 = 1,500 | 1,500 x $5 wholesale = $7,500) they will have recuperated 1/3 of their costs. But, more importantly, if only a quarter of those that renewed decide to build a real site on their .xyz domain, that will equate to ~375 real end-user sites using the extension. Perhaps seemingly unimpressive; but show me another gTLD that can boast even half that number!
Steve
15,000 give-away domains? The number of freebies is over 27,000 so far.
When I wrote the comment, the best info I had suggested the number was 15,000. If you want, substitute 27,000 wherever I have 15,000 … regardless of the number used, the arguments I put forward still hold true.
” Even if only 10% renew (15,000 x 0.1 = 1,500 | $24 price – $5 wholesale = $19 | $19 x 750 = $28,500)”
///
Why would 10% renew? If you get something you don’t need for free for one year you’re not going to pay for it the next year. I would drop it, just like most people. I’ll be surprised if more than 0.1% renews their freebie.
Perhaps you are right. Admittedly, the 10% is just a guess on my part (…at one point I contemplated using 2%, then 5%).
“From a marketing & promotional perspective, the Net Sol idea is terrific! ADMIT IT!”
From the “legal requirements to register a domain name”, it sucks.
“3.7.7 Registrar shall require all Registered Name Holders to enter into an electronic or paper registration agreement with Registrar including at least the provisions set forth in Subsections 3.7.7.1 through 3.7.7.12, and which agreement shall otherwise set forth the terms and conditions applicable to the registration of a domain name sponsored by Registrar.”
How does an “opt-out” satisfy that requirement?
“How does an “opt-out” satisfy that requirement?”
I never claimed it did! 🙂
Legal issues are your specialty! I’ll not tread on your turf; although I have to assume NetSol lawyers review all promotions before they are given the ‘OK’?!?
if somebody sues them they will afterwards
That process has broken down before – as it did with the NSI “shopping cart hold” using the add-grace mechanism.
I do want to be clear that, simply on the basis of what’s been posted about this, I am skeptical that NSI can do this and be ICANN compliant. But that’s an NSI problem, not a .xyz registry problem.
>> in 1 years time, even if only a mere 10% renew
Did you see the crap names registered. Most of those in the .com won’t be renewed. Probably the only renewals will be mistake renewals.
No, I would talk it up because when I wouldn’t hit my goal everybody would laugh at me.
And it is one thing to talk it up and another to run a probably illegal “promotion” only to brag that your had the most successful launch.
And yes I think that they thought that no one would notice.
This is no marketing. That is secretly inflating the numbers. And as I pointed out in my xyz posting blog there is more to it. Strange clienthold or pending delete .com domains registered 2 weeks back at NetSol being assigned free .xyz domains.
That above was a reply to Confer.
@ Konstantinos
~~ “And as I pointed out in my xyz posting blog …” ~~
I definitely read your blog post (in fact, my comment was written for your .xyz post; but both times I tried to “submit comment”, I received an unspecified error.) [Perhaps my comment was too long??]
.
~~ “… to run a probably illegal “promotion”” ~~
As I mentioned in response to John Berryhill, I did NOT examine the promotion from a legal perspective; rather a marketing/promotional POV.
.
~~ “No, I would [sic] talk it up because when I wouldn’t hit my goal everybody would laugh at me.” ~~
— Clearly, ‘talking-it-up’ proved successful in this case, given the tonne of free publicity .xyz obtained. As proof, compare xyz article/word counts to those of the other new gTLD’s that also launched this week!
— As it relates to publicly setting outrageous goals; you view the “everybody would laugh at me” outcome as a negative. [So would I, on a personal level!] However, for those who believe “any publicity, is good publicity”, being laughed at is a positive (insofar as it generates publicity).
.
~~ “And yes I think that they thought that no one would notice … [it] secretly inflating the numbers.” ~~
Really??
— Despite how quickly the mass registrations at ‘North Sound Names’ were discovered and publicized? …and how shortly thereafter the continued investigation exposed the close link/affiliation to Uniregistry.com?
— Despite how closely you, and other bloggers pour over the new gTLD numbers on a daily business? … and knowing the determination and resolve you and other bloggers have thus-far shown in calling attention to unusual registration patterns and/or suspicious registrations? [Thank-you btw, for your ongoing efforts in this area!]
— Despite the ~27,000+ potential ‘leaks’ from the NetSol customers who received an .xyz promotional email (which clearly detailed the .xyz free domain giveaway program)?
Steve
Try posting something smaller to test it.
What can I say. If my posts have made even one person buy a .xyz domain that they had no intentions of buying, before they read my posts, then I have failed. And so have they.
Yes, really. I bet that because the domains were registered to different parties they thought no one would notice.
Still yes. Maybe they just don’t care. They are number 1 today. With 56k Netsol registrations. They can post their numbers anywhere they want today and 99,999% of the people would not have read anything about this.
You know, I was actually mildly interested in .XYZ for branding purposes until (1) Mr. Negari opened his mouth and (2) all this dishonesty came to light.
I might have registered a dozen or two. As it is? Zero.
I don’t draw an absolute line at doing business with unscrupulous individuals / companies. In the domain industry, which is fairly corrupt, that position isn’t tenable, frankly.
But whenever I come to a purchase choice or a naming decision and come up with a .XYZ idea, I’m going to put that card at the bottom of the deck and keep shuffling, keep drawing cards until I find something else. And it will be a rare case when I can’t think of equally good or better alternatives to a .XYZ domain!
I’m fairly certain that .XYZ has alienated enough customers that it will have lost as many real, paid-for registrations as it fabricated with freebies. Very short-sighted.
I registered a grand total of 2 with thoughts of a couple of others, however, after this, it is likely that I will let the two I registered expire (and what I had in mind worked with XYZ) as I look at the stats over at http://www.namestat.org/ where XYZ has moved into first place with 67,504 domains and one of the recent registrations that was presumably freely given to the owner of the .com version which was registered almost 10 months ago and doesn’t seem to be in use (unless perhaps for email) ALl I am seeing is NetSol registrations which leads me to believe the XYZ sphere is going to be full of dead websites.
I have better extensions to work on if XYZ is traveling this route with no credibility attached.
At least now I know how they were planning to get to 1 million in a year, nothing like stocking stuffing to fleece the turkeys..this is one turkey that will be leaving the party for better pickings else where (Seriously not impressed with XYZ right now)