A few days ago we wrote about Frank Schilling, one of the world’s largest private domain name investor, getting into the new gTLD space under the new domain Uniregistry.com
Today comes word through Cnet.com that Uniregistry has applied for 54 new gTLD’s making Frank one of the largest applicants for new gTLD’s.
The article written by Paul Sloan entitled “Here Comes the Greatest Internet Landgrab in History“, goes on the say that Frank invested $60 Million dollars of his own money into the new gTLD space.
With 54 applications for new gTLD’s, Frank passed Demand Media (DMD) which applied for 26, Directi which applied for 31 new gTLD’s through its newly formed company, Radix.com and only trails TLDH (Minds+Machines) with its 68 applications and Donuts, Inc. who applied for 307 strings, of those applicants who have revealed to date.
Frank is quoted as saying about the new gTLD’s:
“This is absolutely the future”
“We’re at this point where the dot-com name space — the entire name space — is exhausted.”
Gah! I must be on the wrong side of this thing. I just don’t see it. I’m having a hard time comprehending how an influx of new extensions will get any market penetration when heavily branded one-off launches get marginal acceptance at best. I’m not trying to be critical at all. I wish I understood the upside others (with lots of money) see.
>>> We’re at this point where the dot-com name space — the entire name space — is exhausted. <<<
I didn't understand this.
It’s going to be an interesting day tomorrow. Anyone applying for .domain?
Curious, what type of odds of getting even 1 of the 54 applications approved?
Secondly, are you saying he put up $60M cash NOW or potentially would if each application was approved?
Makes a huge difference and no sign of confidence in a new niche just because you apply for a bunch, could simply be a numbers game to get some.
Josh
I chatted with Frank for a few yesterday he has invested $60 Million already.
Don’t forget that in addition to the $185K you have to also put up 3 years of operating expenses in a bank account for each new gTLD, that is a pretty big number.
What are his chances of getting any of the 54, I would say excellent.
For one I’m sure he will have at least a couple of extensions that no one else applied for and in the case he has conflicts they will either work it out between the applicants or it will go to auction, of which Frank is no stranger
“I wish I understood the upside”
The “upside” has very little to do with the name-space or the money.
The “upside” is all about breaking the back of the I* Society Eco.System which has a lock (throttle) on all-things-digital in the world. Artificial scarcity is (was) a horrible way to abuse Netizens in CyberSpace.
Tomorrow the Internet moves from CUBA to the USA. It is ironic Frankie is one of the captains on the boat. It is important who he clearly left behind.
One has to wonder what will happen to all the people who have thrived on The IANA Regime.
Don’t think of yourself. Think about your kids. There are not enough .com names for everyone. All those people will have to get names somewhere. You are not the last domainer or registrant who will ever live. Against that optic – the .com space “is” exhausted.
It’s a big swing and it’s highly speculative. Good luck!
The upside has everything to do with making money
Lets say your registry does 100K registrations.
How realistic is that?
.Pro has over 100K registration and .mobi has over 1M registrations
So lets say your wholesale cost is $10 and it costs you between operation, marketing and fees $2 a domain to operate it, that’s an $800,000 annual profit in perpetuity.
repeat the 50 times and you have $40M annually, ongoing
One interesting point, Frank is breaking one of the golden rules of the rich (and what got him to where he is today): Make money when no one sees.
“The upside has everything to do with making money”
YES!!! Long-Term – AFTER the WAR and after the road-blocks are removed
The I* Society road-blockers, stone-wallers, dictators, foot-draggers, etc. have a formidable obstacle course set up for the Applicants who will “Hit the Beach tomorrow”.
Two years of chaos are predicted but it will be worth it.
Then, many people will prosper.
I wish everyone good luck in their endeavors!!
Time tells all and it will be fun to have a front row to seat as this all unfolds.
It is going to be a ride for a lot of these new gTLD’s.
There will be objections filed to some, which will have to be fought.
There are already strings applied for by more than one party.
There maybe lawsuits filed over certain applications
There will be auctions that settle who wins an extension
and yes the process for some of these may take 2 years or more
But again the upside is huge
It will be interesting to see how Icann will vet the companies that apply for these tlds.
We all know that frank is a domain name investor and it will be a conflict of interest to award frank ant gtld because I’m sure he will keep the best for himself.
“Frank is breaking one of the golden rules of the rich ”
Frank is etching his name in history along with many other brave people willing to risk a lot of their personal wealth.
Frank is leading one Team. There are many brave Teams and even some small splinter groups.
People have no idea how important it is to break the back of The IANA Regime….
….and you can bet [[[THEY]]] will not be easy to defeat…there will be casualties.
Ulysses
The Guidebook for new gTLD’s has a bunch of dis-qualifiers, which if you fall under your application is denied.
There is not “conflict of interest rule” nor is there a rule that someone who applies for a gTLD ever has to allow an outsider to register one.
So its perfectly acceptable under the Guidebook for someone to apply for say .insurance and then not allow any registrations and use the whole extension for their own use.
This will cause the “whole domain community” puzzled and confused.
I got lots of time to do research on things. I only imagine dot com only going up more.
Wish frank the very best. Major investment.
Michael,
Does .pro has 100k registration annually? does .mobi has 1M annually?
makes a big different.
.mobi has over 1 million registrations
http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registries/reports/mobi/mobi-transactions-feb12-en.csv
As far as him spending 60mm on applications + all the operating cost bonds, he’s either a lot richer than most people guessed, or he’s going all in. Or maybe this is just a hedge?
If you read Franks story, he’s clearly a gambler. An incredibly smart, thus far winning gambler. He went all in once before with .com’s, maxing his credit cards and bootstrapping all of his earnings (per the stories we’ve all read) and made a killing. Of course his financial position is a lot better these days, but it would still be quite an accomplishment if he’s repeats the feat, twice in the same space
Not everyone might share his appetite for risk, but if you’re going to take a cue from anyone and follow their lead, he’s probably the right guy.
.PRO has 150k registrations per the info received, only 40k out of those are some kind of zip code deal, so not sure how long that will last.
Owning a new gtld will be one of the best businesses in the future, assuming of course the string is commercially viable, else it will be an exercise in self gratification like most of the .brand gtlds.
If you can’t see the profit, even as a non-registry owner, you need to clean your worldview – only 225million domains registered, over 650million active sites TODAY, tomorrow it’s only going to get worse.
“the upside is huge ”
YEP!!! – 1995 to 2012 – 17 Years attempting to defeat “The IANA Regime”
.XXX was a small battle compared to what is coming
D-Day 2012 – London (ironic)
“the upside is huge ” “there will be casualties”
Frank has done VERY well and of course legally lives in a tax free jurisdiction so he has been able to hold on to 100% of what he made instead of giving 1/2 of it to the government year after year, reinvesting 100% of it for over 10 years.
He has a ticker on the side of his site with recent sales. Many sub $10k. Moving a lot of inventory.
Couple of points:
1. $60M is enough to buy out Tucows registrar and 200,000 domains they own.
2. I remember reading one of Frank’s posts saying that owning the top 100 domains in any given TLD might be better than owning and operating said TLD. This might have been regarding .XXX and his investment in it. I guess he wants to try the other side of it now.
Whoa!!! Huuuuuuge mistake.
Obviously, Frankie has come late to the game and is not aware of the graveyard of skeletons and bones into which he has just invested heavily.
Seems obvious to me that his tlds shall soon end up in the ashheap of history — right next to .Aero, .Mobi, .Tel, .Name, .Travel, .Museum, .Pro, .Asia, .Biz, .Coop, .Cat, .Nato, .Jobs, .Pro and yes, .xxx.
We have picked up over 200 premium .tv’s since April – most were aftermarket, some were premiums held by the registry.
With this much cash going into investing in, then advertising of gTLD’s, it will heighten public awareness to all things right-of-the-dot and we see .tv benefitting greatly in the aggregate.
Thank you, gTLD Program.
It is an interesting gamble he is making for sure. I am guessing it is a carefully crafted hedge to protect the longevity of his business.
It is not fair to compare these extensions to .mobi and .co and .pro. Those extensions launched with virtually no competition. New extensions will be going up against a thousand other extensions. When .co launched they had a $10+ million ad campaign promoting the extension – and had no competition to the extension at the time. They were also able to secure the “second spot” on most registrars, with homepage advertising on most registrars and a Superbowl commercial. Spending just $2 million on advertising a new extension is going to be a risky move in the near future. So how are people going to find your new extension among 1,000 on their registrar?
It is going to be an uphill battle for a lot of new TLDs. Some will make it, many more might not.
KD
Again your thinking of TLD from the domainer point of view.
Owning a registry is a different business model than being a domain investor.
and yes most of these registries including .xxx are Making Money.
@michel –
“.Pro has over 100K registration and .mobi has over 1M registrations
So lets say your wholesale cost is $10 and it costs you between operation, marketing and fees $2 a domain to operate it, that’s an $800,000 annual profit in perpetuity.
repeat the 50 times and you have $40M annually, ongoing”.
Supply and demand balance will change. What if only 20K registrations?? Then the numbers look different. Also shelf space will be an issue in general though less for him, as he will be a registrar/y.
Nonetheless, nice move.
@Michael H. Berkens,
Obviously, the average domain investor isn’t financially equipped to start their own gTLD registry. From your perspective, what is the single smartest thing an AVERAGE domain investor can do to properly position themselves to profit from the oncoming gTLD tidal wave?
We’re buying .tv’s, hand-over-fist. I’d like to hear what you’d do or are doing from a domain-investor-perspective to prepare for the billions of dollars that will be flowing into gTLD registries and advertising.
“he’s going all in ”
Frank is going “All In” putting his name and reputation on the line, along with others. The money will not matter when history is written.
It should also be noted “the money” has not YET been spent and will likely be returned as The ICANN Process plays out. [The Money is sitting in NON-Interest-bearing accounts benefiting some happy bankers.]
Many of the big players have already noted the absurd aspect of the ICANN Process wherein an Applicant with one TLD is charged the same (per TLD) as an Applicant with 100 TLDs.
It does not cost anything to vet most of the Applicants. ICANN claims they are non-profit and cost-recovery. ICANN will surely be pressed to return most of the money now that the Applicants have arrived at D-Day.
“Stamos said he expects to charge thousands of dollars for a “.secure” name. The idea is to attract just those businesses that need the higher level of security.”
“I don’t think any of these will be the next dot-com,” said Bhavin Turakhia, founder and CEO of Directi Group, a Dubai company that is seeking “.click,” ”.baby,” ”.insurance” and 28 others. “Dot-com had too much of a legacy to be outdone in a short period of time. But it has potential to be a very strong alternative and over time capture reasonable market share.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/AP53817dab266e416fa1e0dc064ea890a3.html
He’s all in
Once ICANN publishes the list tomorrow there is no provision for the return of 100% of the application fee.
There are times where an application can be withdrawn and the applicant can receive a partial refund.
Big
Well obviously personally I think there will be huge demand for marketing outlets for the new gTLD’s and we anticipate increasing our ad rates and being compelty sold out for the next few years.
I also started RightoftheDot.com with Monte Cahn in early 2011 to consult with new gTLD applicants so we will be working on some of these strings.
For domain investors I think there will be a lot of opportunity to make money as a registrant both for flipping and for long term investment.
You can also invest in public company’s that have announced they are either applying for new gTLD or that provide back end services for them or both, including:
Demand Media (DMD)
Top Level Domains (Minds + Machines (http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=TLDH.L%2C+&ql=1),
Neustar (NSR)
Verisign (VRSN)
Google (GOOG)
If all these experts really invested all these millions in something so extremely risky then the only possibility is that its a “bubble”. I’ll take .com tulips to keep the flight to quality rolling and stop confusing consumers.
“the applicant can receive a partial refund ”
ICANN can change the rules at any time.
ICANN could also be nuked** now that [[[They]]] see the Applicants lined up.
ICANN is not the U.S. Federal Government or some opaque agency or Vegas Casino. The $350,000,000 sitting on the table belongs to the players around the edge of the table. They collectively can put a gun to the dealer’s head and say, “Let’s be adult about this…”. What would ICANN do?
In the past, The IANA Regime was very clever and carefully divided the players so that they could not collectively act.
The players (Applicants) sensing a chance to have their cake and eat it too will certainly try to get their money back and have their TLD launched. It takes about 5 minutes to add a TLD to the file that is broadcast, and less time to remove it.
**Imagine D-Day 1944 with one side not changing a thing and the US arriving with 2012 weapons….one might hear…”Let’s be adult about this…”
Mike
or its an expansion of the Internet that will produce a lot of profitable registries.
I have a hard time selling fantastic .coms for $350 each which itself if a risky expensive enterprise, and the traffic for any new TLD name could only have a little value. So with broke consumers being harassed by .com salespeople already, all sorts of other confusion and investment decisions to make including other marketing and technology, how could enough millions of them speculate enough to pay out all these at risk Alt TLD investors? Its just not lining up logically, but again I must be missing something to partially balance the issue.
I agree with some of the posters that I don’t see the overall upside in the new TLDs. Most of them will fail. Some, though, will gain traction. I don’t necessarily think it will be all that hard to recover expenses for most of the TLD applicants and in that sense, it is a fairly safe bet. However, in terms of being an Internet game changer in terms of widespread end user and consumer adoption, I don’t see the new TLDs having any greater impact than present extensions like .tv, .me, etc. Those extensions have had some success, but have hardly made a dent against .com.
the difference is there won’t be any domainer suckers to buy these off the new registries and tlds that they’re counting on
who is going to buy these 100k domains in each new .whatever?
a couple may do ok, 95% will not imho
some of these new .tlds may just be for a companies security with their .brandname and to stop phishing etc and with their big pots of money may seem a drop in ocean
I’m sure Frank has a detailed plan and he’s obviously a very canny businessman and successful
however everyone has their moment where they get ideas that go nowhere
this may be it
his wage bill won’t be cheap either
most of this sea of .whatever will be exactly that imo
at best a big hedge for someone that is in the .com space up to his neck
The Leg
You have to stop thinking about domain names solely from the stand point of domainers.
For example there are over 2.2 million .biz domains in existence, I would guess less than 1% are owned by domainers.
http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registries/reports/biz/biz-transactions-feb12-en.csv
There are millions of people happy to use a .biz or .info or .co or .something other than .com for their business or personal use.
Its a big world.
Also I think you will see domainers investing in great new domains as well.
“invested all these millions in something so extremely risky”
The risk is almost ZERO. Unfortunately, the I* Society insiders and ICANN incumbents have scared people away (with high $$$ fees) with FUD about
operating your own Top Level Domain.
It costs very little to operate a Top Level Domain that is not heavily monetized or CHURNED. People have turned TLDs into something similar to an SEC IPO. Not every TLD needs to be a billion dollar launch (or lunch).
If the right TLD is developed 5 or 6 people could run it and each make millions per year. In some cases, the database of 2nd level names already exists. The 4-letter NASDQ names are one example. Companies already have their 2nd level handle, they could decide to pay or not.
The Churn of the ICANN-fabricated Retail-Wholesale Registrar-Registry model is what gets expensive. A fully-automated Registry can be operated for very little cost without the ICANN overhead.
This is all about making money selling domains (new gTLDs) – not making money building businesses around them –
A great gTLD, like .RealEstate or .Insurance will get every agent and broker to buy their name.RealEstate or name.Insurance – whether they use it or not – but for $25-$100 a year – who cares – yes.
It is genius – It is just not my business model – that is all
At this level using his own money is not the smartest move. He would have been much better using investors for something so speculative.
Let the Game begins!!!
MHB– why don’t you be Frank’s neighbor so you don’t have to give to Obama?
“BullS” Inc wishes all of you the best of luck….
When u wake up tomorrow, dot com will be gone!!!
Follow the money…numbers don’t lie, people do!!!
Because I’m a US citizen not Canadian and don’t have that opportunity
Mike you did not finish your last comment “However I”
Mike you really think domainers will make money flipping these ?
There will be so many choices very few names make sense to pay above the initial registration, or what you and Monte advise companies to auction for.
Frank should be selling his whole portfolio because he has diluted its value by taking this stance. Its funny a guy who was always Mr.com and in comments did not like other extensions, now likes extensions with no track record.
You are right it can be a great business, have Frank say that, “I can make a lot of money” Not some egaltarian nonsense about fair and equal opportunity.
This should be comedycentral instead of thedomains.com.
How would the dot com space be exhausted when dot com domain names can still unlimitedly go from hand to hand? While the new TLD rush will be a huge gold mine for the new extension s’ promoters, the ordinary domainers will hardly take any advantage from it..
*egalitarian* typing too fast
@Anunt
Numbers don’t lie about results i.e., profit.
People make investments and the entity creates the results.
@ Mike Mann “I’ll take .com tulips to keep the flight to quality rolling and stop confusing consumers.”
Excuse me Mike but now I am confused. Are you saying that the new tlds are going to confuse consumers or are you saying that you are going to personally stop registering names that include the trademarks of the likes of Google, Microsoft, Facebook etal which have confused consumers?
Fernando permalink
How would the dot com space be exhausted when dot com domain names can still unlimitedly go from hand to hand? While the new TLD rush will be a huge gold mine for the new extensions’ promoters, will the ordinary domainers take any substantial advantage from it?
Well Fernando I think its quite ironic Frank owns CognitiveDissonance.com. He who preached .com forever and now its dried up and .whatever is the next great thing.
RH
Yes there are definitely people that will make money flipping these domains but also people will lose money.
Not every registry is going to reserve or hold back a lot of premium domains.
As part of rightofthedot.com we have chatted with 100’s of applicants and many have different business plans.
So there will be registries that will hold virtually nothing back (except for SUnrise TM domains) and just open the flood gates
As Michael indicates US Citizens do not have as much flexibility as non-US Citizens.
If we live 11+ months outside of the USA the first $92K of income is non subject to US taxes.
If you own over 10% of a foriegn corporation (that owns your domains for example) – you must report that ownership to the IRS – they cannot do much – but you are likely to get audited every year. And naturally if you take any distributions from the foriegn corp – they are subject to taxation – just as if you lived in the USA.
You can have a “foundation” created where 3 (or more) unrelated individuals (usually non-US lawyers) own all the shares, units or stock and you have the ability to direct 100% of the business’ activities – and collectively this foundation “owns” the Corporation that owns your domains
Again what happened before is in the past by definition.
Things change and your outlook and opinion sometimes changes as well.
Just because you thought “A” under a set of facts and circumstances doesn’t mean you have to continue to think “A” when circumstances change.
This is a HUGE change with $1 Billion or more coming into the market.
It will start to unfold tomorrow
Well that sounds good Mike, at least they won’t all hold back the good stuff. But do you think the best will ? why would they not follow the .co and .me model ?
Secondly I don’t think many average domainers will make much flipping, plus won’t most new tlds have a much more expensive reg fee than $8 ?
I want to congratulate Frank, Paul S, Demand, Michael and all others who took the grueling path to plan, raise funds, build partnerships, consult, etc to get to this point of the new gtld space. The will be many winners, and some losers, but this is the new world and they will be the leaders.
larry
Mike do you see your .com portfolio negatively or positively affected by say 500 new generic extensions ? The .nike of the world don’t matter because you could never or should never own their tm.
There are many different applicants and many different business models.
Some registries will be restricted.
Some will be opened to all.
Some will have a big list of premium and reserved domains, some will have none.
Some might charge $1,000 a registration some may charge less than a .com
Many of the top generic’s will have multiple applicants and the winner won
to be determined for a year or more.
Some of the business plans may change depending on how much it costs to get the extension.
So if you wind up spending $20 Million in an auction you may have to increase the cost of registrations or hold back more premium domains to make it up.
RH
Well of course that is the question and the answer is no one know because what about to happen is unprecedented.
IMHO .net will be hit the hardest.
I think brandable domains will hold their value.
Domains matching strings will rise in value.
Long tailed domains and verticals with matching gTLD’s could suffer as alternative become available for registration prices.
I saw this coming a while ago, with no answer on how these new gTLD’s will effect current extensions, I started rightofthedot.com to have skin in the new gTLD game.
First off thanks for taking the time to have this little back and forth. I know you are busy.
Secondly I agree on .net and any of the other tertiary extensions like .biz and .info.
I got offers on a couple .nets and sold for less than I thought they were worth, because I just don’t want to have any of these type names moving into the new tld rush.
Do you think this benefits extensions like .me and .tv who the public would not know as a CC tld and it seems natural “OH there is .shop and .web and there also is .me and .tv” Greater awareness to names truly intuitive, I am not saying any .me or .tv benefits, but names like Meet.me or LCD.tv make more sense to the average web user. Maybe even .us could get some bump as most here don’t know its a cc tld and just focus on the word US.
Facebook is the final frontier in whoring out social media – and even though the stock trades at 70% of its IPO the founders made good dough – that is good business. I see a dotted line with these new gTLDs – in fact more of a solid line.
End users will pay their $100 a year to renew them – but the upsaide in a secondary market – well that is where money will be lost.
Hello Michael,
Frank is taking advantage of the frenzy feeding dynamics of expanding free markets. Where theres Money Velocity there are Margins to be made. Also Frank is amassing a Siri-Centric portfolio of ” Virtual Business Foundations as we speak. Sorry Frank others need to share a little knowledge and get a piece of the pie.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Anyone who thinks any of these new TLDs will ever touch the popularity of dotCOM is not seeing the bigger picture. The public didn’t choose dotCOM because they wanted to. They did it because they had to. And historically, that has always been the prime motivator for the masses.
Over time, these new gTLDs will gain traction much the way that dotBIZ and dotINFO succeeded. However, the difference is that there will be thousands of them rushing the playing field at once and my hat goes off to those investing and marketing them because the apathy of the public is a costly foe.
Berkens,
Soon, we will demand that you show proof of the numbers you throw around here.
A lot of these numbers sound incredible. Do you request for verification before you publish, or it doesn’t matter at all? A lot of people make decisions based on what you write on these pages.
I’m just saying…
Frank is taking advantage of the frenzy feeding dynamics of expanding free markets. Where theres Money Velocity there are Margins to be made.
—
Try being more needlessly florid.
Frank, apply for .Patel, I am willing to go in 50/50 with you.
I guarantee over million registrations easily.
Uzoma
what numbers are you referring to?
“I saw this coming a while ago, with no answer on how these new gTLD’s will effect current extensions, I started rightofthedot.com to have skin in the new gTLD game.”
Me too 🙂
I acquired some 25 URS (UDRP equivalent for gTLDs) domain names.
I can’t wait for the chaos to begin and people filing URS complaints to get domains from others.
Not buying any of these new gTLDS, learned my lessons before with mobi/info etc.
Increased my portfolio from 70% dot-COM to 99% dot-COM in last 3 years.
I am also looking forward to typo traffic coming to .COMs.
“The public didn’t choose dotCOM”
Correct !!! The U.S. Department of .COMmerce took over the DNS mess from the NSF – National Science Foundation when people made it clear DNS was not Rocket “Science”.
The U.S. Government then orchestrated the vendor (Registry) and Registrar Franchisor (ICANN). The original $6 .COM price was set when the U.S. Government said “Under $10” and the .COM Registry wrote a big $9 on a piece of paper across the table. The crafty U.S. Government negotiator looked at the piece of paper up-side down and said: “Looks good… $6”
Behind the scenes, .ORG was handed to the I* crowd. .NET was part of another deal. .US was yet another deal, outside the ICANN process.
ICANN then spent over a decade keeping competition away from the insiders who funded them. Various Internet Governance charades were played out to
entertain the masses with ccTLDs, IDNs, etc.
The need for ICANN (IANA) now comes to an end.
.RIP
There will be multiple apps for .RIP
How about .SHIT ?
LOL
GAC would object to it’
Actually if you think about it carefully, .SHIT can be a very profitable gTLD.
People/companies will be forced to buy their names/marks 🙂
“There will be multiple apps for .RIP”
“There will be multiple .APPs for .RIP”
Stay tuned for the day when people ask “What is ICANN ?”
and someone says: “There is an .APP for that” 🙂
Does anyone know the deadline for applying for new gTLDs???
What I don’t understand is why all the gTLD interest comes as a big surprise to anyone. In Europe they’ve always been used to other extensions, so they’re used to look at what’s to the right of the dot. I know the US is all about .com for now, but that will most likely change in the coming years.
What most people here don’t understand is that you can’t look at this from a domainer perspective. This is not about domainers, this is about the average Joe and the end user market. Big corps will be putting billions of dollars into their new gTLD’s, promoting awareness of what’s to the RIGHT of the dot. The average Joe can’t assume every domain or email will end with .com anymore. It could end with .art, .me, .web, .tv or whatever else will be around. That’s called enduser awareness!
Most of the .com domainers don’t WANT to understand this process because they don’t want to see the change. I won’t even get into WHY that is, but I think we all know why. Some people are afraid of change, whatever their reasons may be.
I’m happy to see that some of the key players in .com for the past 15+ years are thinking ahead, seeing the opportunities and all the positive things the new gTLD’s bring along. Schiller is definitely one of them.
I quote Mike in one of the first comments – “I wish I understood the upside others (with lots of money) see.”
Think globally, think branding and think of other “descriptive” extensions that have grown quite a bit over the last couple of years. Why do you think that is?
There are two king of people. The ones that don’t WANT to see change and the ones that CAN’T see change.
If you don’t WANT to see it, dig yourself a hole and stay there because change is happening as we speak. If you CAN’T see change, it’s time to sit down, learn and study what the future of the web is all about.
The ones looking ahead are pioneers, visionaries and innovators. The ones resisting change are the followers. The questions is, what side are you on?
RK, please buy my premium dot coms.
If you’re a dot com lover, please email me and buy my premium dot coms
Too late in the game. .com and after that .org are already ingrained. It’s really the only extension I’ve ever seen on TV, people are familiar with these already. Besides other countries cctlds, I’ve seen no history of other extensions competing, so why would that change now. It’s amazing to see sometimes, some people can be good at domaining but really don’t have a clue when it comes to marketing/consumer behavior. This is going to be one big fail, domaining’s New Coke.
Anunt, I’m curious. I found a few posts you made last year where you said that .com would be king forever. What opened your eyes and changed your mind?
“GAC would object to it”
Objections will be the likely tool used by the I* insiders to delay competition for several more years. Gosh darn, ICANN will have to play referee for a fee.
Who made up the system ? [[They]] claim “The Community” made it all up.
The GAC will be walking away from the chaos as completely new Internets, like FirstNET are constructed.
ICANN will likely be forced to change the game, return most of the money, and allow the Applicants to work out a plan. “Lets be Adult about this…”
I would say he needs a write off but….
Berkens,
Frank’s statistics…$60,000,000.00 etc
Not long ago, Frank was paying so much money for his parking services, there has been no follow-up on such articles, as to ascertain if the numbers still hold. I’m sure many people moved their domains to him based on the reporting by you and other bloggers.
I suggest that numbers be verified. $60 million dollars is a lot of money to me, and probably to any individual.
Suggesting that a verification be done is not a bad thing, or putting doubt, it’s just a simple journalistic requirement. Where it is unverified, it must be stated, or implied.
Mr. T, please look at my last comment posted on ricksblog.com
You will see …how much we think alike from my post in the comment section on ricksblog
@Mr T:
I believe you are unfairly labeling many as “resistant to change” when they are simply pointing out some of the shortcomings of the new TLDs. Will some of these new gTLDs make money? Absolutely. Same as dotBIZ and dotINFO. No one would not call those a success. However, when some claim that dotCOM is going away they’re simply drinking too much of the new gTLD Kool-Aid. DotCOM is the ONLY mass accepted worldwide brand for the Internet. That is a fact and that is not going to change for many years to come.
When people say, “DotTravel, dotPro, etc’s relative lack of success has nothing to do with the future gTLDs” they are ignoring important and relevant statistics than can give an insight into public interest and demand – even if from a restricted audience.
The best thing about the new gTLDs is that it will stop anyone from saying there are not enough domain names. Now there will be countless, but to say that these will devalue any of the legacy or ccTLDs is tantamount to saying that opening up a million acres of real estate in New Jersey will devalue office space on Park Avenue in Manhattan.
Uzoma
The $60 million dollar figure was cited in the Paul Sloan Cnet.com article cited above.
That is what Frank told him.
Donuts said they raised over $100M
Directi said they invested $30M
and so on.
I don’t have access to Frank’s bank account or Donuts or Directi.
I have no way of verifying what people said they invested.
Nor does Cnet.com for that matter.
The numbers do seem in line though with the number of extensions they said they applied for which will be verified when ICANN publishes the list tomorrow
CASH.OUT
One Big Unknown people have not mentioned is the potential for a big Registrar to do a $10 to $100 per year price increase in one year and CASH.OUT
Customers not prepared and with hosting at the same Registrar would be forced to pay and may not be able to move because of the potential for down-time.
If most of the other Registrars follow and move to $10o per year the new TLDs can slide into the $10 market position with .COM headed to $500 per year at the Registrar level capped at the Registry.
Registrars have very little loyalty to the ICANN Process. They might as well CASH.OUT The new Registries will be Thick.Whois and can handle everything direct.
Uzoma
BTW I just checked and thedomains.com has only published two stories on InternetTraffic.com
1st when it launched
http://www.thedomains.com/2011/05/17/a-game-changer-frank-schilling-launches-internettraffic-com/
and the 2nd
When it broke the 1M domain mark
http://www.thedomains.com/2011/11/02/internettraffic-com-just-months-after-launch-breaks-the-million-domain-mark/
Also I think Bhavin of Directi comment is noteworthy and on target:
“I don’t think any of these will be the next dot-com,” said Bhavin Turakhia, founder and CEO of Directi Group, a Dubai company that is seeking “.click,” ”.baby,” ”.insurance” and 28 others.
“Dot-com had too much of a legacy to be outdone in a short period of time.”
“But it has potential to be a very strong alternative and over time capture reasonable market share.”””
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20120612/NEWS05/120612022/New-Internet-suffixes-announced-Wednesday?
The new Registries will be Thick.Whois and can handle everything direct.
Since ICANN is now into Carnival Games like Digital Archery the Carnival Model of paying for Registrations is likely to emerge. Registrars will be replaced by BANKS who sell Registration Tokens – keeping all the retail money in a few places.
The Registration Tokens would then be handed to the Thick.Whois Registry – Good for One Renewal – That is your ticket to ride
Registrars fade and become hosting companies or CASH.OUT
Berkens,
Then, you must do a follow up after the ICANN publishing.
I also suggest that you do a follow up on the pregnant questions left by the two posts you mentioned above, as well as an update.
Over all, you are doing a good job, except, there is a tendency for you to join in with the elites in this industry, and I will continue to criticize any actor that is not playing a team game.
@Anunt – “Frank, apply for .Patel, I am willing to go in 50/50 with you.
I guarantee over million registrations easily.”
I got to say after all your postings I’ve seen, this is by far the funniest and best one yet. .patel …what a concept!! LOL!!
Hello Michael,Owen,David and others,
The booming gtld phenomenon will add many new investors to an already robust market place. Rising oceans float many more boats ! Money velocity drives Markets! The domains at the top of the pyramid become ultimately more valuable! GOOD YES ?
Gratefully, jeff Schneider (Contact Group0 (Metal Tiger)
One thing that will change with this round of new TLDs that we have not seen in the past is the promotion of .brands. In the US and for most international businesses, .com domain names have been the domain name advertised and promoted. Going forward, we will see hundreds of .brand ads. This will change the public’s acceptance of non-.com TLDs. This acceptance may take many years, but the constant .brand exposure will have an effect. This will work to the advantage of new “generic” gTLDs including existing ones like .travel, .info and .pro.
Hello Michael,
When people get lost in cyberspace where do they all naturally gravitate ? My contention is they start looking in the dotCOM Channel amongst the more prominent ” Virtual Business Foundations” .
Yes the new extensions will be advertised, but to what extent and how long ? till they forget the current Sound Bites and return to the Foundations base, the dotCOM Channel.
@MB, thank you for answering my questions.
All the best to Frank, it is a huge risk but a potential huge reward must be expected. Some good points were made about .pro and .mobi registration numbers BUT they were not fighting 100’s of new extensions at the same time. I susupect millions more will be needed to market… this could get very expensive!
Anunt – I’ll take a look 🙂
Mr Castello – it was never my intent to label anyone and I apologize if that’s the way my post was perceived.
I agree with you that .com is still king in terms of global recognition. BUT, that will change more and more as new gTLD’s roll out. It’s about creating awareness, marketing and branding, it’s about making the average Joe aware of what’s on the right side of the dot. In Europe people are more aware of the right side of the dot because companies here have used .EU, .TV, .COM, .DE, .Co.uk etc for years.
I also agree with you that we can’t ignore the fact that .Pro, .Info., .Biz, .Travel have been far from successful, but that again is related to the awareness of the average Joe, marketing and timing. People (especially in the US) are used to .com because that’s they’ve been “served” for the last 15 years.
The key is the way domains are promoted. I watched a commercial on TV 5 minutes ago that promoted Poland.travel. If I was responsible for that commerical, I would’ve added www infront of the URL to avoid potential confusion. Sony’s “Make.Believe” slogan is a great example of what could confuse the average Joe, because it’s not a domain, even if it looks striking similar to a new gTLD.
When branding and promoting new gTLD’s, the most important thing is to make people understand that the right side of the dot is part of a web presence. Go.Shopping, Buy.Tickets, Buy.Homes, My.Bank, Watch.Movies, Online.Music etc etc – they probably don’t make much sense right now to the average Joe. BUT, as soon as the www is added we’re one step closer to making people understand what the new gTLD’s are all about.
This is not a change that’ll happen over night, but in 5-10 years from now the web space will look A LOT different from what we’re used to today.
“the promotion of .brands”
.BRAND has to be the strangest thing to ever come from ICANN
.BRAND is contrary to the notion of Generics in the DNS
.BRAND may also have potential tech problems if the companion .COM is not orchestrated with it
.BRAND could be the catalyst to trigger some of the nukes people really do not want to see used. A collapsing DNS hierarchy could be very ugly and more chaotic than an expanding hierarchy. Both at the same time could be… .RIP
>>> When people get lost in cyberspace where do they all naturally gravitate ?
The biggest winner to this could be confusion and more people gravitating towards Google to find websites.
“Was I on GoGreen.com or Go.Green or Going.Green or Go.Eco or Go.Natural?”
With all the .confusion on the way, I’m beginning to think of going back to mailing catalogs to our customers through the U.S. Mail.
“With all the .confusion on the way”
IF you believe in Free Markets and all sorts of other **good** human dynamics you may come to the conclusion that “out of chaos will arise order and people will have some choice”
Compare that to an IANA Regime ( or .COOP ) dictating to people what they want/need based on some kook-ball academic/government geek freak wackos surrounded by a cult of sycophants.
google via matt cutts has said new gtld’s won’t receive any preferred treatment in serp’s.
these new gtld’s are aimed at 1. wannabe domainers 2. users who navigate via type-in and 3. shaking down big brands (trademark holders).
but the registries will claim they are aimed at small local business, non-profit orgs, entrepreneurs, etc. don’t be fooled.
this is much like a dot co. (or as others have said a dot info or dot biz, dot cc, dot xxx, etc.) the success of the registry is how many regs you can sell. not how much traffic the tld gets or the quality of the content.
if i’m a smart consumer, i’d rather just look up a business in a directory/search engine than take a chance at mistyping a strange domain name that may or may not be owned by the business i’m looking for. these domains will be full of ppc. they will be spammy. they are not aimed at smart consumers.
what’s entertaining to watch as the curtain is lifted is how icann and back-end providers are more than willing to get into the domaining business even more directly– they are partnering with domainers. these are the folks who claim to be against domain speculation, domain tasting, etc.
end result of this if it goes through unchallenged is that icann will be pwned/captured by domainers. more reason to think dot com, which icann does not control, will gain value.
the most important name servers on the internet are not the ones icann has control over — e.g.the root servers (which if this new gtld plan goes unchallenged will be injected with heaps of garbage tlds). the most important name servers are the com servers. this will become more apparent if icann’s new gtld scheme succeeds.
there will be a market for small devices that plug into a user’s wall outlet and serve a customisable root zone (via wifi), free from garbage icann tld’s. or credit card sized dns servers to carry when travelling. like a portable rolodex. user’s will be able to filter out the garbage.
look at the success of opendns. users need to have more control over dns — they want to filter out the garbage — they’re even willing to pay for it.
Sloans article contains a galring misnomer:
“And you, dear frustrated domain-buying consumer, could eventually find it a whole lot easier to register a domain name you want without having to pay fat prices that Schilling and his ilk demand on the aftermarket.”
That is a completely ironeous statement. First of all regardless of the string lying to the right of the dot all domain names are unique and “One ofs” likely available on a first come forst serve basis. So if the domain name you want is gone, its gone regardless of the extension and you are looking at an aftermarket purchase if the owner is willing. Add that to the fact that if he is successful in acquiring a string Schilling wont controll just 300K domains he will own the entire extension including every possible itteration of .whatever which he can choose to make available to the public at reg fee or at whatever price he so chooses. The idea that these new tlds will make for better selection is over-rated. There will be great selection of 2nd tier domain names in all extensions but the best names will still be tough and or expensive fro the average joe looking for an alt to .com
I just sent Uniregistry an email, asking them a fairly easy question about
the format of the gTLD’s, and got an entirely ‘canned’ reply back from them.
I don’t mind that at all, but do think that Mr Schilling & Co. will have to try
bashing “.com”, to a very large degree, if they want to see their gTLD’s gain
traction throughout the web…
Also, the costs involved in acquiring these names may be inconsequential
compared to the cost of promoting them, even to the extent where people
recognize them as having SOME credibility.
One interesting comment from Frank Schilling in this article –
“This is absolutely the future,” says Schilling, whose new venture, Uniregistry.com, has applied to run 54 new top-level-domains. “We’re at this point where the dot-com name space — the entire name space — is exhausted.”
As far as I am concerned Frank Schilling has some role role in .COM being “exhausted” as he says. When you own about 400K domains, mainly .COM, and ask ridiculous prices…it tends to lock up quality domain names that could otherwise be used.
Brad
@Brad,
You sound like a Socialist. Need a tissue?
@Brad,
You sound like a Democrat. Need a tissue?
Here is a great comment from CNET site:
——————————————————
How it will play out is very simple. A few people (the same people as usual) will make a lot of money. Users will be inconvenienced and confused.
Let’s see, if I want to access the White House’s official website, is it still going to be whitehouse.gov? Or is it now whitehouse.whitehouse? Or gov.whitehouse? Or just white.house? Or any of a thousand other possibilities? It’ll all turn into a huge guessing game, with spoof sites, malware sites, and a universe of ad sites to penalize wrong guesses.
Instead of confronting it all, users will try to shut out the complexity by further retreating into walled gardens such as Facebook… oh, wait, maybe THAT’s the hidden agenda…
Posted by aj37viggen (116 comments )
June 12, 2012 5:21 AM (PDT)
—————————————————————-
My take: Confusion will just drive people in to the loving and safe arms of .COM domains 🙂
Careful with that truth, Brad.
This program is not for egalitarianism reasons, it is just about the cash.
As MHB stated in a 2010 blog post (2 Hours On The Panel Its Clear That The New gTLD’s Are Just About The Money)
“No the new gTLD’s are about the all mighty dollar.
Cash.
Profit.
Money.
More for ICANN
More for the registries.
More for the registrars.
Domainers be damned.
Trademark holders be damned.
Big money is being made”
That is the.truth
Brad
Holy .Cow, $60 MILLION smackaroos of his own money !!
Big Balls or what?
Well, if anyone on this planet can make a big profit out of these new .whatevers it will be FS
I suspect some of these keyword buyers have no intention of opening their gTLDs to registration – they see them as single domains, to be sold in a few years as brands. $185,000 + $25,000/year is not a large price for the equal (???) of a top .Com domain.
@Accent,
Yep. 90% of these gTLD’s will not be registering to end-users. Think about it.
You be able to just type-in .beach, or .movie. There will be no left of the dot after this plays out. The $185,000 fee may drop to $100 in 10 years, after all the premiums are long gone.
Use your brains.
Fair play to FS. Fair play to everyone else who is in on the ground floor, it’s a guaranteed money maker for everyone involved.
The only people that will lose out here are the little people who will register loads of crap that will never sell. Some people will register 10 domains, some 100, some 1000 and you’re going to get people that make even bigger mistakes.
Think hard people, it’s not too late to benefit from this big con job and make a bit of money yourselves.
The way some of my stuff is set up I parse an incoming packet to an IP address on one of my servers to determine what domain of ours someone actually typed in – BTW a great way to throw away all the garbage – and there is a lot of it.
The point is – who says a domain consists of a dot ? – no one – just wait until this round of this passes.
I will repeat myself – all these new gTLDs are for the end user – not the secondary market – my hat is off to all these new pioneers – it is just not my gig.
.Lemmings and .Cliff are sure to be the biggest gTLD winners.
@ name
Except keep in mind, that Google said they were applying for 50 new gTLD’s
They are applying but it does not mean they are going to use them. Google owns many domain names that they do not use. These are defensive holdings. And if you look at the strings they’ve applied for they too are defensive: these are mostly strings that could be confused with existing Google properties.
Some of the many defensive domains Google owns do not even resolve. Try elgoog.com
What Cutts said on his blog was “Don’t apply for new gTLD’s thinking it’s going to get you special treatment.” (paraphrase)
We have to remember that new gTLD’s are first and foremost (before we can even consider the value of generics) a maneuver to extract money from trademark holders. Defensive registrations. Like .xxx. ICANN gets $185K+ fomr some TM holders. And some domainer Applicants will also extract money from TM holders for individual domains under their generic extensions (if these new gTLD’s become reality).
Look at how well you can do just selling defensive registrations (.xxx).
Google is a company protecting its existing IP. They are not engaging in wild speculation.
@commie Brad sounds like he made total sense, anyone without an agenda or an elementary school education could figure that one out.
My feeling is that the gTLD’s would be much more potent if they
didn’t have the ‘dot’, e.g. were in the format “anything” as opposed
to “.anything”…
The ‘dot’ makes the identities far less intuitive in my opinion, and
means that they have to be promoted (like heck) in order for people
to become accustomed to them.
Will they ever become accustomed? Well, that’s the gamble.. and it
really is a gamble too, and unless the gTLD owners can beat dot com
in to the ground then I think they are going to be fighting a losing
battle.
Does ‘dot com’ need to die, for the gTLD’s to flourish? Yes, to a large
extent I think it does.
Frank has been on that island too long not paying any tax, he is detached from reality.
I think this is the monet he gets caught out. to date he has gambled very well but still has huge liabilities in renewals and now lots of staff etc
I don’t ever remember him saying anything good about .tv.me or any of the ‘new ones’
and I am a .com man and quality cctlds but still see a good market for the most ‘brandable’ and catchy new tld of .me
so why does Frank and others think they can profit when domainers made mistakes on past new extensions, there are NO new suckers for their little schemes
plus .co as much as I dislike it did a good pr stunt and worked with godaddy etc
laughable after telling people it would rival .com , this juan calle character is after doing the same with another load lol
seriously i am going to kick back my heels and watch this car crash
I’m sticking to .com baby
100 million registrations + and growing
I don’t see any new extension from here on in getting 1 % of that
I would think 95% of domainers think this new gtld business is crocked even if major blogs are pumping it, there won’t be any sucker domainer buyers
@Trash says “there are NO new suckers for their little schemes”.
Agreed. 98-99% of domainers are selling and thinking ‘junk’, and won’t
be able to participate even if they wanted to.
Established corps have already voiced their (very serious) concerns
about the gTLD, and I don’t see many ‘takers’ as far as mainstream
business is concerned.
Yes, Demand Media, and a small listing of other enterprises are wading
in and startling everyone with the sums they’re laying down, but this
is like a party with a very high admission fee… there’s no booze… no
music… just men (!)… AND, to make matters worse, there’s only a few
who want to join the party…
As for consumers, who knows if they will go for it or not!.. ICANN
should be aware that they are trying to introduce a very different
naming hierarchy, in the form of the gTLD, and they have not
satisfied the concerns of the well-known biz’s they have spoken
out against it.
Frank Schilling will lose a lot of money. Trust me.
Well, looking at Google’s applied-for strings, it seems they are not just aimed at protecting Google brands. They are trying to protect Google searches. Very interesting.
I still maintain they are not engaging in wild speculation. They have far too much search data to make “guesses”. These applications and the accompanying 60MM investment strike me more as yet another recognition of domain names as a search method, otherwise known as “type-in traffic”.
Adsense for Domains was terminated. And now this. Google wants control of “Address Bar search”. You type in a search term in Mozilla Firefox and what do you get? A Google search result.
Type in a search term after the dot and what do you get?