There have been literially thousands of stories written on the new gTLD program but many contain inaccurate information or are just plain out wrong.
Here’s the worst one we found:
Domaininformer.com writes in a post entitled:
“Top Level Domains to Shake Up the Web? Not Exactly”
Here is the 1st sentence in the story:
“”There’s been a lot of press lately regarding ICANN’s decision to allow the creation of just about any type of domain ending. ”
Meaning that .com, .org, .edu and others which currently number about 25 could potentially reach millions in just a matter of a couple of years.”
WRONG
There aren’t “about 25” current TLD there are 22 exactly.
and the number of extensions cannot reach MILLIONS in just a matter of a couple of years.
ICANN has been quite clear that the absolute maximum number of TLD that would be approved in the first round is 1,000 and its clear the first round won’t end for a couple of years.
Millions of domain extensions?
Come on.
“”These TLD’s will probably be used mainly by large corporations to add status or cache to their brand. They will also be used by other businesses or even individuals for bragging rights””
NO
No one is going to spend $185K (and that is just the application fee) for “bragging rights”. Moreover its going to be a ton of work to get one of these applications done.
How about cities, like New York, Paris and Berlin which have been very vocal about getting their own TLD?
Not a mention in the article
How about entrepreneur wanting to build a registry business around a great generic word?
Not a mention
“The only ones that will be able to afford or even apply for a new TLD will be the very rich. It’s because in order to apply for your very own TLD, you must first pay $185,000. If you want a TLD that is only yours (can not be shared by others) it will cost you even more.”
A TLD not shared by others?
I have no idea of what he is talking about.
A TLD that more than one applicant my apply for can go to auction and the price can be much higher in such a case, but its doesn’t seem that is what the author is talking about.
However the application fee is just the beginning so if you think only the ‘very rich” can afford one of these you will need to be even richer.
MHB,
You are being too picky here. What you are making is a distinction without a difference. With ICANN, how can you tell who is wrong or right in the long term? It’s unknowable. These guys can make millions of extensions available in the years as the domaininformer predicts.
IDN? Not a mention.
“A TLD not shared by others?
I have no idea of what he is talking about.”
———————-
Sounds like he means Nike can own .nike, but nobody else can, sports.nike would not be open to others to reg. The whole TLD would be closed.
I think everyone is just guestimating at the moment as it takes a certain kind of person to be able to fully understand the wonders of the ICANN master plan.
(like a lawyer)
Most people have only know about this for a few days even if it has took 10 years to get to this point.
BBC Article Today about .scot
“Several hundred new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs) are expected to be created by Icann in the new process.”
I have read other media articles where it implies they are going to be cheap and help users, businesses get cheap domains rather than have to pay those pesky .com domain squatters thousands of dollars.
Really? .. Fun times ahead 😉
Fast forward five or ten years: what if the application costs went down to something mildly affordable for most? I think back to when domains were so expensive. Do you (and I’m asking anyone) think that would eventually happen or is there too many problems with the way this is set up to really take off?
Hi,
$185k is going the to be the least of expense’s this companies are going to have.
I am still looking into this, as it really is such a complex issue on many levels.
Just looking at it from a pure ‘logistics & organizational’ stand point…It is going to be a sure nightmare for all these companies.
Just from the most simple question.
If your the head of say: Coke, Sony, Nike etc..
What are their home pages URL(s) going to be?
Something has to come before the ‘dot’ (‘Left Of The Dot’)
And, right now… I cannot think of one letter or word that makes any real sense for any of these companies…from a marketing or branding standpoint.
And, this is just a simple basic problem I see.
Anyway…
The more I think about it right now…from a large picture perspective, the more I am convinced its going to to be like opening some type of a “Pandora’s Box”… with many unattended consequence’s.
Not to mention, the expenses these companies never dreamed of coming down the line.
__
@MHB : Brilliant with “Right Of The Dot” …
IMHO as these companies have no clue what it is they are about to jump into…and are going to need some serious help, if they are to successfully transition all their website,content, domain name property’s… to their new domain extensions. And then revising and implementing ‘branding & marketing’.
These large companies, are going to go from from a 185K to the multi millions…in a ‘heart beat’ in expense’s, as “Right Of The Dot” is going to have to be all about what is “Left Of The Dot”.
Best as always,
Dan
be a marketing consultant.
provide registry services.
license your registry management software.
advise on legal issues.
sell anti-spam services (these new gtlds are going make things much easier for spammers… guess what business the new icann chairman is in?)
etc.
does anyone but the registrants themsleves care whether these registries will succeed or fail? no one knows whether they will succeed or fail.
but this is an opportunity for some to cash in as we find out the answer to that question. maybe also a chance to make the root more relevant (22 tld records vs maybe 100’s). even if these registries fail, money will be made. sounds cynical but is it really that far from the truth?
why go forward with new gtlds? to improve the web’s functionality? or because domain names are a business and there’s money to be made? only you can answer these questions.
@Dan
Had similar questions.
Can anyone guess what the maintenance costs of a gTLD might be for a .brand company, for example? My guess is easily $2M per year to cover personnel, materials, technology alone. Not talking about a registry here.
Hi,
The more I think about it, the more (at least for right now) ICANN has not created new TL domain extensions or these companies…they have created TL “sub domains”.
We will take: . Nike…
Nothing you can come up with to put ‘left of the dot’ is going to work on any level… if they are thinking of moving everything from: Nike .com to whatever . Nike
I mean what are going to use?
N. Nike? No
Nike. Nike? No
There is nothing you could come up with…that makes any sense.
But,
They could do some real creativity things, using the .Nike as a ‘sub domain’
justdoit .nike
superbowl .nike (ads)
etc…
But as a TL domain extension?
___
Nike .com will be here till we are all long gone…IMHO
Take “.Coke” they are in the exact same boat…
Being sold a ‘sub domain’ as a TL domain extension.
These are just some thoughts off the top of my head… but it is very hard for me to see how these are going to work even close to their present .com TL domain extensions.
This, is just a ‘simple’ basic problem, I see no way around…at least at the movement.
This is just a basic step1… and I do not see how you get to ‘step 2’, without resolving ‘step1’…
Be glad to hear how you solve step one…from anyone… I may be missing something, as I can be very ‘dense’ sometimes. 🙂
Have A Great Weekend All!
Dan
Be
“does anyone but the registrants themsleves care whether these registries will succeed or fail? ”
Over at My RIGHT OF THE DOT side, we do.
Many other consultants also care very much.
We don’t want to attach ourselves to an extension that will fail, that is why we are being very selective working with no more than 20 or so TLD’s.
Yes we are actually turning extensions and cash down and I know others are doing it as well.
No one in this industry wants a FAIL.
Some will fail no doubt, but we rather concentrate on those that will WIN.
“no one knows whether they will succeed or fail””
How many millions of business start every year around the world, who knows whether any one of them will succeed or fail?
Why is this business any different?
mhb – i imagine you’ve already seen some hellish proposals. maybe can you tell us (without naming them) are there any good ones in the pipe? with good chances? i believe you and your clients will succeed, for no other reason than you have succeeded before, in domaining.
it’s good to know there is at least one consultant who cares. with the ones who post every other day on circleid i have my doubts.
minus the cycnicism, the point i was making, which others have also made, is that this really looks like a better opportunity for consultants and service providers than it does for registrants. and so, for those complaining about the 185K fee as in the cited article, there are potential opportunities besides being an applicant.
BE
There are some excellent new extensions coming.
One’s that are public that I think will be quite successful are the Geo’s including .nyc.
Love .green
Many of the consultants do care about the success of the extension, others feel its not their job to tell a company that wants a certain extension that they can’t have it, after all at the end of the day its just an opinion and all of us are often wrong
Dan
The best use for most .brand extensions for companies looking to keep the whole extension to themselves, would be to have products or services as domains like in your example shop.nike, for online purchases store.nike for a list of their stores, clothes.nike, shoes.nike, jobs.nike, or actual names of products like ipad.apple, iphone.apple, ipod.apple etc.
@ ‘MHB’
.nyc and other ‘Geo domain extensions’ make much, much more sense, than the . “company” extensions…
With all do respect…. .green
I do not care for it… it will attract a lot of money and interest no doubt…and should be pretty successful.
But,
I am a oil, nat-gas, coal person…
Do not get me wrong, I am all for “Green”… But with regards to most of it, we have been “putting the cart, way before the horse”.
I guess it is to ‘PC’ NOT to come out with:
.oil
😉
Best as always,
‘D’
Hi
@ Micheal..
” The best use for most .brand extensions for companies looking to keep the whole extension to themselves, would be to have products or services as domains like in your example shop.nike, for online purchases store.nike for a list of their stores, clothes.nike, shoes.nike, jobs.nike, or actual names of products like ipad.apple, iphone.apple, ipod.apple etc.”
_)___
That is what I pointed out… a lot of creative marketing and branding can be done this way.
But in the end, these are just marking & branding “sub domains”, as you still do not have a “home page” using . Nike
ALL great TL ‘sub domains’…nothing wrong with it at all.
Peace!
Dan
“But in the end, these are just marking & branding “sub domains”, as you still do not have a “home page” using . Nike”
——–
lol, I like the way you put that Dan, they are almost selling them something they already have.
Nike uses store.nike.com for their shop at the moment, so they’d be paying an extra few million over the next 10 years to loose the .com part (which they’d still have to own) 😉
vs $100 for a 10 year reg fee on Nike.com and as many subdomains as they want to make up.
golf.nike.com (or nike.com/golf)
basketball.nike.com (or nike.com/basketball)
—————————
Any idea how they would decide between someone who wants to launch .Hotel and someone else who wants to launch .Hotels ?
would it have to be one or the other or could both TLD’s be launched by different people ?
ps ) Plus they have to keep all their other domains like Nikegolf.com, nikebasketball.com, nikewomen.com, nikestore.com, nikerunning.com etc etc
I cant wait to see what will happen to the market 🙂
MHB: Great article.
It’s important that people realise that this a costly exercise, way beyond the $185k non-refundable fee.
The basic startup for a new extension, assuming there isn’t any competition will be at least $400k, going upto $1mm depending on the marketing required to bring all interested stakeholders to the table. And if there is competition for the extension you can expect the extension acquisition costs to go to $10 million or more quite easily.
MHB is right in saying at least the consultants are being extremely picky about selecting extensions that would actually be profit making, think a part of their revenues would depend on their success.
I’d written about new extensions and their impact on existing domain valuations in 2008, followed up with a couple of other articles on new extensions as well, see my blog for the complete articles.
Great points about that article. I think .nyc will be huge, and wonder too why no mention of it.
-Brad
YumDomains.com
@BradHines