Frank Schilling in a comment to our post on .Bank getting 5,500 applications, had a very interesting comment:
“”IMO Dot Com will still be the largest individual TLD, but many, many viable alternative TLD’s will marginalize the totality of .com’s mindshare in future.
Speaking as the owner of a large portfolio of valuable dot com names, I once felt comfortable explaining that people should spend whatever it takes to buy one of my .com names because they could rest easy knowing their acquisition/investment cost could be amortized over many years and that a buyer could realize a life-time of permanence and value by purchasing the .com (an extension with ubiquitous and singularly viable resonance).
In a World with thousands of shorter, better looking and newly-viable name endings, I no longer believe .com to be singularly viable and sense the potential for a rift in resale valuations of .com names in the years ahead.””
We have been debating the effect of new gTLD on .Com values for at least 5 years well before the first new gTLD was released.
My opinion really has not changed on this, certainly the value of ultra premium .Com’s unquestionably will continue to rise in the coming years but longer .Com’s especially those that have several new gTLD’s in the wheelhouse of the .Com will continue to come under pricing pressure as consumers have more choices for a suitable domain.
Likewise bang on new gTLD’s will sell for premium dollars. Domain names like wine.club like Meet.me have premium value
So for example payday.loans or skin.care those are bang on natural domain names.
They have premium dollar value.
Yes the .com’s are better but those domains are in use and gone.
Not available.
There used to be a 5%-10% rule for .net/.org value to a .com
I think these direct match domain names will have a value in the 10%-20% range.
Take Skin.Care for example.
SkinCare.com recently sold to l’oreal.
That domain is gone.
A domain like Skin.Care is easily worth 10% of the value of the .Com
Take a domain like joint.ventures which we recently acquired.
My friend Rick Schwartz owns the .Com
You want Jointventures.com go make your seven figure offer and buy it from Rick.
Don’t have 7 figures then in the low six figures joint.ventures isn’t a bad option.
Many other new gTLD extensions with don’t lend themselves such a matching to lesser domains will probably have the value of a .info in the low $x,xxx or $xxx range.
Those are my thoughts
What do you think?
Coming from someone trying to peddle several .craps.
I think that the introduction of the new gtld’s has taken away a large part of the .com seller’s leverage as it no longer is the “only game in town”. Furthermore ,new buyers ,naive company people etc etc will not realise that a lot of emails and traffic will go astray (be misdelivered) IF they use/reg anything other than the .com HOWEVER it may take them a long time to realise this and may never realise which does not help the .com sellers UNLESS they are using pay per click which then makes it risky from the UDRP angle.
All in all I think prices of .com will go down as it longer has a monopoly. I do think it will remain the preferred tld but not the only one so is a balancing act as regards selling them, too much as you will send potential buyer to a new gtld, too little and it aint worth the hassle for sellers.
Interesting topic.
Rift in resale value of dot com in nearing future makes little sense considering the viable options gtlds offer.
Why do you think of ultra premium .com price will continue to rise?
The dot come hasn’t been the only game in town for decades, the cream rises and will continue to. The crap will always have a lucky day here and there.
Asking someone who has millions tied up in new extensions what they think is kind of a joke and this horse has been beaten to death for years now.
I wonder what people with money in something will say lol
DOT COM is and always will be THE BRAND of the internet and THE tool for small business.
But – if the DOT COM is not pure and intuitive (and in most cases short) – using an alternative hack, like ALL Non Dot Coms, Twitter, FacePlant, Google, Yahoo and several others media sources can serve as a pacifier.
Aluminium was once more expensive than gold. Demand and supply decide over time.
It took .com a while to get to the point where it is now. The only advantage of it right now is that it is widely recognised. But then only in the US. Elsewhere in the world, people are pretty happy with _other_ TLDs. .COM is about to lose the dominance market share wise. It may take many decades, but eventually the horizons will change and so will the valuations.
.COM has 2 decades and $TRILLIONS of branding investment in every form of advertising and marketing possible. It’s embedded in print on TRILLIONS of products and packaging.
No other extension will come close to that level of investment ever.
Was just saying that .com will probably drop from 50% of $TRILLIONS of branding investment more into 20% of it. Then the other TLDs will hold 80% of those $TRILLIONS. And the picture will be different. Even as .com will remain the market leader. But it will be a different title if you ask me.
I just don’t see that happening based on my observations so far and knowing the nature of people who are always resistant to change.
Not saying there won’t be a few success stories. But I don’t see corporate America rushing to abandon what they’ve invested in and built so enormously for 20 years. It’s too late in the game to go into unproven terrority and replace the .COM global recognition they’ve estabilshed in every consumers mind.
I interact with a lot of domain investors and haven’t seen anyone doing the happy dance yet.
Yeah, if I had a business related to gTLDs, why would I bad mouth the business?
i agree.
premium .com names will increase in their value, but most of them will be decreasing as more options are made available. What does sound better “LasVegasClub.com” or “LasVegas.Club” ? I would go with “LasVegas.club”. Where .com could increase is more with “LasVegas.com” over “LasVegas.club”…and still… Some will adopt the next extension. It s a new market. it s refreshing. Got to give it more marketing and education but eventually , users will adapt as corporates (brand) will start using them when they see the benefits. The rest will just adapt to the market.
A good number of new gTLDs have policy provision disallowing pay-per-click / parked pages, so .com will probably keep being the TLD for this kind of traffic for a while.
So Ben:
“premium .com names will increase in their value, but most of them will be decreasing as more options are made available”
You said it better than me BEN – and that makes Frank & Co. geniuses “ACE “.
But collectively how many of these domains DOT COM or NON DOT COM are in the hands of speculators vs. small business that has essentially gone away per CLOWN in Washington.
I wouldn’t say geniuses. Collectively, it would be hard to answer as the ratio of speculators vs small business is unknown. If you are starting a business and are looking for a visibility online, who I consider would be a must in today’s world, then the new gtld are a good option. Pricing is good. Opportunities and availability are there. The new gtld are the future of internet. It could replace search engine with education and probably a lot of patience. Before buying a domain names, I would need to take a few things in consideration. .com will always be there. It does have a meaning for commercial activities, but if you have a blog for you, you would rather try “yourname.blog” than yourname.com . or even consider yourname.me as an option. Where is will matter will be about content. With time, they will built a name of themselves. You wouldn’t have needs for search engine. If you are looking to read the news about a specify region or subject you might rather just go to lasvegas.news or cars.news or cars.vegas than lasvegascarnews.com . As for clown in Washington, I am sure we can find a few.
Anyhow, the new gtld are great for everyone except to those who don’t see the opportunities and benefits in them.
GTLD = Good To Lose Dinero
Frank just made me feel better about PleaseText.me
“What do you think?”
The obvious. I think the opinion of somebody who is selling new gtlds is not what you would call neutral, it’s more marketing to me.
With your skin.care example, you have the ranges about the same, 10% of a .com.
But skincare.net looks like a url, skin.care doesn’t.
Then we know if you actually try to build out, you will leak some traffic to the .com, how much is up for debate but I imagine if you do any offline marketing, the traffic leakage will be higher, aka not good for real companies, those serious about building a business.
This is where opined some time ago will start coming true ,which is that IP rights will become as important as the .com domains themselves. What will happen is that someone will ,for one example, build a brand on say “oranges.newtld” and will then get a trade mark for say “oranges” .They then will at some point realise they are losing traffic/emails to oranges.com but could not afford to buy it so then will use their IP rights to TRY and take the domain using UDRP. Now ok so they may not win, but they will cause a lot of grief for someone who will never ever buy the domain . Thats were it all starts getting messy and expensive for .com owners.
I already have this problem. I filed a not of opposition to a descriptive mark when I own the exd in .com. The tm rules state the mark is to the left of the suffix. the suffix does not matter. However the rules change. I pointed this out to the board. also of not when I showed my type in traffic figures to the applicant and the board.. the ceo of the company stated the mark was different. I then submitted this to the board. I spent 30k in legal fees over this issue.
.me .co and .tv look no more than a TLD than .care, so meet.me looks like a domain but skin.care does not?
The only difference is that .co has been out for 5+ years, .me 8+ years and .tv for 10+ years so you’re used to seeing them as a domain, so they look like a domain name, its been a 1 /12 years since the first new gTLD launched.
Give it time
Time isn’t going to help, the problem with these “word” type extensions, besides not looking like a url, is that they’re all niche. limited. The .care extension has less than 10,000 regs, the chance of somebody seeing something substantial, memorable is slight. The .me you mentioned, meet.me, just forwards to the .com.
You mentioned .me, .tv, .co, look at their reg numbers, now compare them to most of these new, niche extensions, most struggle to hit even 10,000 regs. They can never do big numbers by their nature of being niche. Low reg numbers, means lower chance of development, means lower chance of people seeing them.
We own a few one word .me but just not sure who the end user buyer will be but I was glad to see what Frank mentioned re ,me as has Bruce Marler .many times in the past re. .me
@Berkens–give time? 25yrs?
As the way things are, you don’t have much time. Your virtual empire will be inherited by Jamie , which he is doing a damn good job.
Enjoy the moment you have now, what the hell you are waiting for? oh wait…the rise of dot whatever.
Oh yea, the tombstone- the Memory of the dotWhatever, 2014-2015
LOL ! @Berkens – give it time ? 25 years ?
In 25 years I’ll be 51. In 25 years Berkens will be what … 85 or 90 ? … Or a ghost.
If the new Gs need 20-plus years , then it’s a young man’s game. Berkens needs to opt out.
The new Gs are for my not-yet-conceived children.
You sound just like the people-exactly actually-that knocked Warren Buffet during the .com boom. “The old man is all washed up-he should get with the times etc etc ect” They went broke-Mr Buffet quadrupled his fortune.
Berkens probably worth $20 mil I don’t think he losing any sleep.
johnuk-
“They then will at some point realise they are losing traffic/emails to oranges.com but could not afford to buy it so then will use their IP rights to TRY and take the domain using UDRP”
– the DOT COM owner cannot be penalized for a third party not doing FULL DUE DILLIGENCE in a generic / common use term.
And – just like the current Cambridge.com case – every time a third party challenges a DOT COM (Win or lose) – its makes all the pure intuitive / generic DOT COMS worth that much more.
And Jonathan –
yes – additionally from above – traffic leakage makes the DOT COM more valuable.
And yesterday as I was going thru Downtown Denver on my bike breathing in significant amounts of second hand marijuana smoke – I saw a fortune 100 sign – i.e. Brand.Jobs with Brand.com/Jobs right below it in the same font. Point being is ALL this NON DOT COM stuff is all going to confuse the consumer just as dot CC did 15 years ago – where it just went away.
Maybe Frank will stop outbidding all of is at namejet for .coms now his feelings have changed, oh wait same thing was said over a year ago, and they continue to but more .coms with 300K in inventory already you would think you would thin the heard.
Guess actions speak louder than words.
Same thing Frank mentioned was with more 3L.gtlds 3L.com would falter, we all see how that is going.
Follow what end users, and corporations are doing. People tend to market what best suits their personal investments going forward.
They know their .com portfolio is solid, gtld is still on shaky ground.
Come on! Do not ask Frank Schilling!
He lied many times in the past.
Frank is a good salesman. He realized that brands don’t give a crap about new gtlds and he tries to sell his new gtlds to domain community. Most of the domainers who invested in new gtlds will soon run out of money. No sales means no money. They will not be able to keep their new gtld portfolio. They will not be able to invest in upcoming new gtlds.
Rightside owns hundreds of new gtlds and it is worth only 125 million dollars. That number includes two big registrars, eNom and Name. That says a lot.
Put another way, the definition of “premium” is in flux resulting in downward pressure on .COM domains that are marginally premium.
icaan will make money,
registry owners make money,
new gTLD owners get slaughtered
This is a conspiracy ….he is promoting dot whatever and brainwashing you that your dot com are worthless and when you dropped them,
he will scoop them up and resell them for big $$$$$ as most of his profits comes from dot com.
Typical reverse psychology trick for the sleazy salesmen.
Repeat Repeat Repeat Brainwash Brainwash Brainwash- breaks you down mentally!!!
Domain Waterboarding!!
And if Frank owned no gTLDS he would be saying the opposite. Let’s be clear, a .sexy isn’t worth .00001% of a .com and any serious domainer who doesn’t have any skin in the game will say the same.
I think he was pointing out exact match domains, like Skin.Care. There aren’t many exact match search phrases that end with “sexy”. A few, not many.
try a different language, you would be surprised.
i don’t see you getting more than five figs for joint.ventures in 5 10 or 20 years from now.
Yes Anunt-
“new gTLD owners get slaughtered”
Better said :
new gTLD owners (i.e. 99.99999999% speculators) get slaughtered.
And anyone that associates or promotes the word “PREMIUM” with domain names – is really a clueless speculator newbie who will be crucified in a few years.
Sadly the point is what ever happened to Robert “.co” Cline ?
Asking domainers at large what they think about nTLDs versus .COM is like poking a bee hive with a stick. Guaranteed to get a buzz.
But even if there are good points raised among the dozens of comments, aren’t they mostly redundant at this point? For over a year, this topic has arisen and been debated daily all over the web.
Frank Schilling has vocally proclaimed a consistent position. His speculation about an unscheduled future may be correct, or incorrect, or partially correct. But at this stage, 1 thing his opinion isn’t … is newsworthy.
He has said it. Repeatedly. And he’s been heard by everybody. Repeatedly. He’s welcome to continue saying it. Repeatedly. But should those prophecies be grabbing headlines still? And should domainers be encouraged to rehash tired arguments?
Personally, I think the industry dialogue is improved if we talk about what has HAPPENED or what has CHANGED, as opposed to poking bee hives.
Mike, you know I respect what you do at TheDomains.com. I’m just yawning respectfully.
Try to brand something no one knows exists. Good luck.this isnt an uphill battle, its a tsunami.
Exactly “Friend”
If you have millions in your marketing budget you can put quotes around anything and put it on tv and billboards and every other media source.
If you have a limited budget – well you need a DOT COM – DONE
“Sex.com” is better than “Sex.cam” but
“Sex.cam is way better than “SexCam.com”
so in my opiniom .COM will be always there and will remain the KING talking about 1 word domain names, but
I think 2 words .COM will have less value in the near future (up to 5 years) that their matching new gTLD
(keyword + extension). We all know that every year the number of internet users connecting from mobile
devices grows so shorter domain names will be better and will have more value … Got the point ???
Sex.cam will be better than SexCam.com
Skin.care better than SkinCare.com
Joint.ventures better than JointVentures.com
Security.center better than SecurityCenter.com
Credit.agency better than CreditAgency.com
etc …
The Paradox of Choice: Too many choices create paralysis, so it’s easier to reach or snag what you know and trust.
.Club (maybe membership, subscriber base, exclusivity)
.App (search, development, updates)
.Web (maybe could be an alternative to .net)
Also, I see the potential of GTLDs for temporary marketing goals, e.g, like self.less (for the recent mediocre movie)
Again, I see potential with the GTLDs for short marketing campaigns ; e.g,
1) Discount.Autos
2) Home.Owner Insurance
or for niche markets and/or for exclusive groups (developers, collectors, etc)
.Com is top shelf, and always will be, as long as there will be domains
My number of sale inquiries and actual sales are down considerably this year (not counting the Chinese buyers always looking for wholesale priced numerics. The decline became real steep starting within the past few months.
I blame a lot of the drop on the new tlds and buyers going for new tlds instead. For example, a few months ago a large regional bank wanted to buy my exact match bang-on acronym .com (priced in low 5-figures) but after lots of negotiating they decided to register their acronym in the .bank new tld paying a high 1k reg fee.
I strongly suspect this scenario has happened with several of my other failed sales too.
“Don’t have 7 figures then in the low six figures joint.ventures isn’t a bad option.”
no comment
Everyone needs to be way more concerned about the displacement effect Apps and Cell Phones are having on the way in which people surf the Net now and even more so in the future.
People are typing in less. Traffic is lower. People are searching less. People are engaging the Internet through Apps and going direct to the content they want. Domains are becoming less relevant in the process. Branding use will continue hold the domain name glue to value, but that can change eventually.
As computer technology keeps advancing and artificial intelligence and nano size circuitry makes small devices more powerful, there could be a total displacement of the entire name system and the use of domains for branding could even disappear entirely. Even Bill Gates has stated eventually we won’t need keyboards and mice anymore.
Siri, Cortana, and Google Now can navigate for you with just your voice and asking questions and take you to the content you seek directly with just the indexed database of the numeric IP address system and they don’t need to use the overlaying name component to determine content location. Names were created for humans to make it easier to remember where to go. Computers have no problem remembering any length of numbers to know where to go. Branding value is the protective element to insure continued value, but somewhere out there many wiiz kid geniuses are already brainstorming alternative and disruptive technologies.
I agree with you. however you need to host a site and be consistent not all devices deliver you to the same website location. young ye stated no email without domains. There are 1.5 million apps and only the top ten make any money. you cannot even find these apps. And yes these junk tlds will have some value, they don’t look good, no public recognition however they are the bottom rung on the ladder. A cheaper alternative. FS owns .coms and tlds his voice is valuable. I wonder when frank will discount his .coms like marchex?
That’s all shortsighted, it’s one of the things that has been taken apart on forums, to death. You’re only thinking online, completely forgetting all the offline marketing that happens.
@Jonathan,
how do you see email working without Domain-DNS-NameServer architecture ?
Frank likes to pretend that .COM has been the only available option since the dawn of the Internet. Consumers have actually have plenty of choice with .NET, .BIZ, .INFO, .PRO, .CO, .US, .ME… Long before the new gTLDs appeared on the scene, you could pick up amazing keywords in those generic extensions for less than four figures. The new gTLD hawkers are kidding themselves.
Joseph Peterson
As far as Frank goes despite some negative comments here let me remind you that he is I believe the 4 or 5 time consecutive winner of domainer of the year award as recently as of the last “TRAFFIC” show last fall.
I believe he was also the keynote speaker at the last two Namescon in Vegas and the one this past January had a FULL packed room running late, I remember because it delayed the ROTD auction about 1/2 hour.
So I will say that the vast majority of domainers very much want to hear from Mr Schilling.
If he Keynotes Namescon in Vegas in January bet there will be a full room again.
Sure, Mike, I realize Frank Schilling is a celebrity among the domainer crowd. But does it follow that every stray comment he makes in the comments section is worth being rehashed as a separate article? After all, Frank is a celebrity 365 days a year; but thankfully TheDomains.com doesn’t shine a spotlight on him every single time he says he’s bullish about nTLDs!
We’ve all heard Frank Schilling prophesy that nTLDs will become more important in the future relative to .COM. If he were saying that same-old-same-old as a keynote speaker or in the mainstream press, then it would be newsworthy because of the occasion.
And, of course, Frank isn’t simply a broken record. When he says something new in the comments section, that’s potentially interesting. It would have to be pretty earth-shattering to be worth a headline, in my opinion; but some domainers view Frank as an Oracle, and I understand that it matters less what is said than how famous the person saying it is. Schilling is a crowd pleaser … or a crowd divider. And the nTLD versus .COM debate is divisive enough to get predictable arguments going, which boosts engagement. I get that. It just smacks a little of pandering.
I like TheDomains.com, Mike. You guys do a great job reporting new information. Frankly, your perspective is more interesting in this blog post than Frank’s because it’s more nuanced and detailed. Definitely not telling you how to run your show. Just ribbing you gently – in a friendly way – on what must have been a slow news day!
None of that matters and I don’t see many negative comments. The reality is he’s selling new gtlds. So everybody is already going to know his opinion on them. You know posts like these are going to get many comments.
.Com is king and that won’t be changing anytime soon. Businesses want the .Com and type in trafffic falls to the .Com as well. Small percentage of dead on new extension hacks will do well but at premium pricing as they’ll be held back. If your stepping into premium price range for a new extension hack then why not just go for .Com. Will be the usual story, hype, hype, hype, broadcast the occasional big sale which makes domainer’s invest more so the registry’s profit yet they won’t broadcast the 95% of domainer’s fail on their investments. Nothing more than a Pipe.Dream .XYZ has already turned into a spam zone but that’s what happens when ya release inferior extensions at $1
All those that hate these new gTLDs would own hundreds if it weren’t for the outrageous prices and renewal rates. If it were an equally priced playing field then these new gTLDs would be hammering .com right now.
Domainers should stop saying “dot-com will continue to rise in value”, without being specific on the type of dot-coms. That assertion can only be true for ultra-premium one-word names like bike.com, cars.com, hotel.com, and LLLs, (may be, LLLLs too). But not for 2-words / 3-words domains.
Take for instance, the following scenarios:
• athletesworld.com vs athletes.world (exact-match)
• naturalrocks.com vs natural.rocks (exact-match)
• toughglass.com vs tough.glass (direct exact-match)
• publishernetwork.com vs publisher.network (direct match)
• culinaryartsinstitute.com vs culinaryarts.institute
What’s the point here?
The point here is that, it is wrong for any domainer or individual, to think end-users would always value the popularity of an extension, over the meaning of a newgtld, its relevancy to their business or market, its brandability, and for its direct exact-match and shortness.
Sure, some end-users will go for the available (meaningless) dot-com of their name if its still available, but if its taken and being used, or the owner wants 6 – 7 figures for the domain; who wouldn’t settle for a better looking, affordable and highly potential direct-match newgtld of their name?
Some end-users will even get both the matching dot-com of their name and the relevant direct-match newgtld, for optimal brand protection.
Put yourself in the shoes of an end-user when thinking of the huge potentials newgtlds presents to the online business world of today; not as a “Domainer” at all times.
Best,
Potential.Domains
Too bad that nicer looking exact match hack doesn’t come with any direct type in nor ever will.
That to me is case closed, business is what matters, not looks.
You dressed that pig up real nice sir but no teenage boy in his right wind will bring it a corsage.
@Josh — As the owner of both legendary extension domains and newgtld domains, I can authoritatively tell you most of my newgtld names gets type-in traffic (even if its coming from domainers); but frankly — all that is really not relevant in today’s search-dominated web presence.
Be realistic to yourself: Who buys or hand-registers domain name based on potential type-in traffic? That is one of the least factors to take into consideration, in the domain space.
Understand that — my points are not based on mere assumptions like some other domainers whose investment goals are stuck in the dot-com space.
Rather, my points are quality opinions that are mostly based on direct communication with potential end-users (online & offline), their thoughts on newgtlds specific to their market, consumer behaviors and how they’re already indirectly citing common (unreleased) strings in a pop culture way (e.g: josh.pig / blonde.sexy / 24hrs.news) quite similar to the wide adoption of hash-tagging, foresights, among other factors while also creating awareness.
Don’t be too quick to judge newgtlds; comparing new and meaningful extensions to old and meaningless dot-com is not a fair comparison. Dot-com may become less important to new generation of internet users in the coming years; but that does not mean dot-com is going away.
Long live dot-com! Welcome, new TLDs!!
Best,
Potential.Domains
As Frank S owns approx 50/50 of .com/.gtld, I think.
For me, It’s best to diversify the domain investment portfolio into 50/50 .com/.gtld or 80/20 ratio.
So I don’t have to worry which way the market heading, it’s a win win solution.
Let say someone own RioMedia.com market value $1,500,000
Rio.Media will probably value 10% of .com ie ( $150,000) or less. Not a bad investment strategy.
It’s exactly how Frank S makes it a successful business model…..I think.
Joseph
it is Sunday
@Mike,
I’m not taking you to task in a serious way. Just a smirk and a wink.
As long as the new TLD operators don’t play dirty tricks against domain registrants using those shady fine prints like the ones we have seen recently, a lot of of them will be able to survive imo. So, it depends on the operators of the new gTLDs whether to be able to survive or not in the future.
The survival of the new gTLDs means overall downgrade of .com’s market value to me.
I had two .country seized back because they screwed up the price. Under local consumer protection laws I could have taken them to court and been reasonably happy in winning.
I couldn’t be bothered though as the issue brings up a question of trust.
.country, .flowers, .xyz, .ooo … these have created a trust issue for me.
Meanwhile, .club has screwed up price and decided to live with it (also great PR spin) which increases my trust for the extension.
However, the more “dirty tricks” that occur from various operators, the more likely the rest will be painted with the same brush.
Time will tell.
Mr Shilling has made millions in the domain business. Most here have not. Period.
He made it buying and selling what? .coms.
Yes he did-when nobody wanted them.
haha, obviously someone wanted them since he sold so much and stilling buying and selling them in big numbers.
Frank Schilling will make millions more – this time from domainers.
The early days of .COM cannot be replicated, but there is money to be made if Frank can convince new domainers that they can share his success (under completely alien circumstances today) if they register .LINK or .CLICK or .SEXY … and transfer domains to Uniregistry … and park them at InternetTraffic … and pay 15% commissions to sell through DomainNamSales.
Having cashed in on .COM years ago, Frank Schilling is now cashing in on HAVING cashed in – i.e. leveraging his fame to gain market share for his nTLD registries, his registrar (Uniregistry), his parking platform (InternetTraffic), and his market place (DomainNameSales). With all of these, he makes money from domainers.
Whereas before, Frank Schilling led the way as an independent .COM investor selling to end users, he is now marketing to a domainer audience. That is a crucial difference. He is the charismatic salesman, and we are the customers who will pay him more money.
There’s nothing wrong with that. But many newbie domainers have fallen for the sales pitch so completely that they believe Frank Schilling is simply leading the way with nTLDs in the same way as he did with .COM. I partially agree and patially disagree with Frank’s opinions. But I think it’s worth emphasizing that he is not disinterested here, folks. We domainers are the market share he wants. He isn’t merely thinking aloud as a millionaire. He’s selling.
Right, basically selling .coms to end users, new gtlds to newbie domainers. Getting domainers to use his registrar, post up links, making him more money which he can turn around and use in auctions, beating those same domainers. Brilliant. Why a domainer would want to enrich a competitor is beyond me.
For Frank to speculate that .COMs will lose value and the gTLDs will gain value is a win/win situation for him. We all know he continues to heavily invest in .COMs at the same time of running a gTLD registry/registrar….
Other investors have less confidence on .COM, bid less against him = Win
Investors begin acquiring gTLDs = Win
I’m not going to be ignorant and say the gTLDs won’t effect .COM sales, they will, but they’ll effect Mediocre .COMs and Good ones will continue to be just as valuable, if not more valuable in a Internet filled different paths and avenues with dot this, dot that.
If you’re a business or organization that just needs to put up a simple website to let the world know you exist, you’ll likely opt for a new gTLD as they are an affordable alternative and get the job done. But these were never buyers of Premium .COMs to begin with so there will be no love lost. These are businesses and organizations that would’ve registered a hyphenated .net or a 2 or 3 word .biz a few years ago, now they just have more options to choose from in the ‘cheap and affordable’ space.
First-choice premiums and the businesses and organizations that seen the value in them and paid to acquire them have and always will continue to do so in the years ahead.
As ever, follow the money.
Lately Frank has been aggressively buying .coms on Namejet despite his contradictory statements such as “I sense the potential for a rift in resale valuations of .com names in the years ahead.”
If he truly senses the potential for a rift in resale valuations of .com names in the years ahead then why is he stockpiling them right now?
More fo the same or Is the Londoner back? (Pink lemonade laced with snake oil and Tulip esscence)
Perhaps Frank can start calrifying if He suddenly changed his mind on regards to his comments:
Frank Schilling Live From London: “.Com Will Become Like AM Radio”
“.Com will still be the strongest TLD in the domain space but in 20 years, all the new gTLD’s will EQUAL or exceed the number of .Com domain names.”
http://www.thedomains.com/2013/09/26/frank-schilling-live-from-london-com-will-become-like-am-radio/
The only certian thing for the Not so new gTLDs is that they are FAST and clearly becoming Rolling Tumbleweeds in the Crappola Alternative Domain scape. (ex . Country Codes)
I will give you the one thing you were so right : greed will trump fear.
Cheers.
Domo
The issue is that 95% of domainers don’t own the super premium .Com’s that we are chatting about that will continue to rise in value.
They don’t have to, you just need to get good .coms. Again, that’s something Frank continues to do on the Aftermarket. Anytime you mention his opinion new gtlds, which will be favorable since he’s marketing/selling them, you should also mention how active he is scooping up .coms.
Curious to hear how many domainers /investors(the core visitors to this site) believe the .GTLDs will become another .MOBI bust. I see many parallels, with the same expectations on one side, and the immense antipathy and aversion on the other.
Many .MOBI investors went bust. But the .MOBI registry in Ireland apparently did well, and even manged to get acquired for a decent profit.
My opinion:
1) the .GTLDs will serve very niche markets.
2) They will affect valuations of .com, only as leverage during negotiations.
3) Some registries (owners of prime extensions) will do well; most will lose ; many will go belly up
4) The GTLDs anger the IP staff at big corporations (they are in a no win situation — as they may suggest protecting their IP for these costly registrations , then seeing the extensions potentially crash)
5) Gives marketing people and consultants more opportunities to make bank because such a small percentage of people/firms really understand the value of intangible assets like patents, trademarks and domains
7) Provides more opportunities for outside counsel to get more clients
So, would you rather own autoinsurance.com or auto.insurance? AutoClub.com or Auto.Club?
50 Cent opted for a .Club domain, and apparently, he’s a good business man ;
You just posted nonsense, 50 didn’t opt for a club domain, that was just for marketing. He’s always used .coms, 50cent.com, ThisIs50.com etc. He didn’t even mention the .club domain on his Twitter feed. He couldn’t even get the name right, there is video of this.
The .mobi registry went bust as well. Affilias picked it up in a firesale situation.
Congratulations on the roll out of new gTLDs. With all the contentions, glitches, delays, objections, comments, disputes, and auctions, it seemed like that day might never come!
Today doing research, I came across:
zeus.life
and I authored an article of another new gTLD website appearance: DeepLink.nyc.
I think they’re kind of cool. It remains to be seen how stable they are compared with legacy gTLDs.
Wow-Michael what response to this headline. You must have hit a nerve. The only “New” extensions I see real veterans talking about at any length are .me and .io . That’s really it. re Bruce Marler Frank Schilling etc.
The whole .COM versus nTLD debate is a false dichotomy.
For me, here’s what reality looks like. The last 35 unsolicited purchase offers / inquiries I received for domains were distributed as follows:
21 .COM
9 .NET
3 .IN
1 .INFO
1 .MX
0 nTLDs
And is that because I own no nTLD domains? Hardly. North of 2,000.
Why would you possibly want to own 2000 nTLD’s ? That’s the real question.
@John,
In order to know what I’m talking about first hand.
@Joseph — So, is this an indication you are expecting immediate ROI on your newgtld investments?
If that’s the case, that’s a ludicrous expectation and comparison with other legendary extensions. Just saying.
The point I was making was implied. But I’ll make it explicit so that I’m not misunderstood.
My point is this: While domainers are distracted by this false dichotomy of “Either .COM or else nTLDs”, they’re missing the diverse reality of the contemporary domain market. That’s reflected in the profile of unsolicited offers I’m receiving – for other established gTLDs such as .NET and .ORG as well as for ccTLDs like .MX, .IN, .CA, and .UK … and, yes, for ccTLD precursors to the current nTLD crop such as .ME and .TV.
So we’re in a peculiar situation. Vast blog bandwidth is given to the nTLDs by domainers (pro, con, and in between) even though those nTLDs have only minor impact in the present day. Meanwhile, other non-.COM TLDs that precede the nTLDs and have a much more significant market share in every possible sense – these are largely neglected by bloggers and commenters.
Why the discrepancy? Monied interests. That’s a large part of it. But it’s also human nature to love to speculate and sound off about subjects where facts are unlikely to show up and contradict us. Since nTLDs live in the future, they’re perfect for pontificating. Anybody can say anything and believe he’s right.
Do I believe nTLDs will sell immediately? No, of course not. Didn’t say so.
John
That why they pay me the big money to run the blog
LOL
The long-range problem is that the public are not domainers. A great brand needs to be 100% fault-free memorable – not just catchy. With these TLDs, the public has to correctly remember both sides of the dot. And if they can’t, you don’t have a brand – just a catchy domain name.
Exactly my thought, David. “…And if they can’t…”, of course they’ll simply go dotcom. Pure & simple, IMHO.
David Castello said it best “You don’t have a brand, just a catchy domain name”.
I have nothing to add.
Cheers.
Well said!
“Anthony Carlitto, a local business consultant, mentioned one major issue people in the domain industry continue to point out: there ISN’t much consumer awareness of the new extensions.”
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2015/jul/20/dot-vegas-15000-websites-use-domain-local/
remember their prediction…
Domo
We published a blog post about the Sun’s article
The comments were not a prediction it was based on registrations to date.
Michael-why would anyone care about actual facts and figures on a blog? lol
(How soon you forget…
“Dot-Vegas Inc. CEO Jim Trevino predicts at least 300,000 dot-vegas registrations, a ridiculous figure. Andrew Allemann of DomainNameWire.Com set the number closer to 10,000 (though I suspect Allemann underestimates just how many suckers are out there).”
Andrew Nailed it! Boom
forgot the source: http://lasvegasweekly.com/as-we-see-it/2014/sep/24/why-dot-vegas-domain-launch-ridiculous-racket/
One can look at the quantity of advertising on the various domain name blogs as a leading indicator of the success (or lack thereof) of the new gTLDs experiment.
For example, at one one time, the scrolling banner at the top (or bottom, if you clicked “Why register a .com?”) of TheDomains.com had 16 or 20 different new gTLDs. Now there are only 5.
Similarly, other sponsors have disappeared completely. Look at the remaining advertisers. Do you think Escrow.com is advertising in order to earn fees on all the “high value new gTLDs sales”?? LOL Of course not…..most of their domain earnings would come from .com transactions.
Most new gTLD operators seem to have retreated to their bunkers. Unlike the “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”, whose title character was rescued from the bunker of a doomsday cult, the new gTLDs experiment is unlikely to have a happy ending, especially for registrants.
Domain extensions are like Android phones; there are a very small number of highly successful brands like Samsung and HTC, then there are about 2,000 garbage brands that no-one has ever heard of, producing phones like the Onyx Boox E43 and the CarPad T65S (yes, they’re real examples). Sure, they may be quite capable phones, but nobody wants to own one because their friends will laugh at them behind their back. Frank is hawking the Onyx and the CarPad. He’ll probably sell a few to less discerning people, but those people aren’t trend-makers, and their friends will be laughing at them behind their back.
don’t miss this part: ‘how many suckers are out there’
(same article from above)
Why would l’oreal not sue to get skin.care when they own skincare.com ?
They have no rights and they would get nailed for reverse domain name hijacking
Short .com’s make money, pretty much any way you look at it. Short new gTLDs, well, they just sort of look cool, maybe even neat. They make good conversation. But that’s it.
Old domainers are very sceptical about new TLDs. Fresh kids in the game are less so. Any thoughts on this correlation?
Various explanations:
1. Experience versus Inexperience
2. Conservatism versus Risk Taking
3. Prior ownership of valuable property versus No ownership
4. Significant acquisition budgets versus Negligible budgets
Keep in mind, new domainers aren’t necessarily part of the younger generation. I’ve met many new domainers double my age who invest in nTLDs exclusively. And I also know young domainers (under 20) who’ve been it at awhile buying mainly established TLDs such as .COM and no nTLD domains. New domainers aren’t the future; they’re just new to domaining.
Just to give an example of the power of .com I tried to sell a .co to a company recently. I gave a very cheap price but they turned it down and simply said “no thank you, but if you can get the .com we would be interested”. I then sent him a link to dn journal and the prices and said that I thought the owners would want at least a low 6 figure amount in $ . They then said they couldnt afford that. They are quite big company and likely pay that amount for other things but not for a domain. That reminds me another short recent story. I offered the generic name of a company to someone for $7000. (yes I know was very cheap) They came back said they Would’nt pay that much. I said it amazes me that CEO’s etc will pay $1M for a house, $250k for a Car, and YET they will not pay $7000 for the thing (.com) that produces the money to pay for that house and car. Really I cannot understand it. No deal done and price now $30k.
Came across a restaurant in LA that switched its domain from “canele-la.com” to “canele.la”. Check out the twitter account https://twitter.com/canele_la and click on the link “canele-la.com”. You will be taken to “canele.la”. Yet another example of .LA domains making progress in LA. For other examples of .LA domains being used in LA, check out https://twitter.com/SouthlandLA.
I agree with the fact that domains that are smooth 2 word combos are valuable like you mentioned meet.me and skin.care. At the same time this can all be speculations since these are all new domains so people will hesitate to buy them due to lack of history. When it come to .coms they have more history of being valuable and you have a better chance at making a profit.
– Will