Paul Sloan just wrote a piece for Cnet.com about Amazon’s 76 new gTLD applications of which all Amazon plans to run as a closed registries, meaning that no one will be able to register any domain names under any string other than Amazon that Amazon wins.
“Whether it’s .you, .book, .shop, or .news — and you’ll find similar language. Not just that “All domains in the .YOU registry will remain the property of Amazon,” for example, but that “Amazon and its subsidiaries will be the only eligible registrants.”
“Amazon intends to initially provision a relatively small number of domains in the .SHOP registry to support the business goals of Amazon,” the company writes. And it uses similar language for .book and all the others.
“Amazon could, for instance, create destinations around .news or .shop or .book that it builds out in ways we can’t yet foresee. ”
“Perhaps, as it builds out its publishing business, it will create a community of Amazon authors on .book or .author. Maybe that becomes a place to feature the books that Amazon customers are most talking about. And so on.”
“In the end, even if Amazon wins a small portion of these names, the Amazon.com of the future — or the .Amazon of the future — will likely morph into a very different place.”
Amazon is not alone as many generic gTLD applications are for operating as closed registries giving the winner of the extension, the entire right of the dot space for the vertical.
No advantage to doing this other than a limited experiment.
Mike
You think that Amazon spent $40 Million in application fees as a “limited experiment”
Big companies do fail too..you know..MHB
Look at Microsoft..so many failed products…like Wins vista, zunes and etc
Hello Michael,
Humans have spent Billions on fear based vehicles, WAR not being the least of them! I am going with Mike Mann on this one.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Hope Amazon gets nothing but their trademark exts. They are attempting a Rockefeller Standard Oil domination of rotd. Disaster!
Amazon has $6 Billion cash on hand….wtf is $40 million to them on an experiment??
So what we’re really seeing in this process is that these shell companies and more recognisable companies that are going for generic strings are telling all the world that “Yes, we too are domainers. We want to own all the possible strings that users might type.”
That is why any registry Applicant that tell us “We want to create vibrant communities” is pulling your leg.
No one is going to operate a registry solely betting on the success of “creating vibrant new communities”.
However, if you are guaranteed a minima of traffic by virtue of controlling strings that people naturally type (no marketing needed) then you can entertain ideas about “Gee, we could really build something cool.” Yeah, you might. But if you look at large portfolio domainers, you see that although they often make similar comments about “developing” their sites, they generally do not do that. Why? Because the returns from no developing, and just showing some paid links and a paid links search box, are better.
And from a business perspective, returns are what matters.
If a registry sells registrations, domainers will be the primary customers. (A vibrant community of domainers? Squatting on thousands of domains?) Because they want to control strings and profit from the traffic. They want to become the large portfolio domainer or the domainer that sells a few names for millions.
If a registry does not sell registrations, the reason is the same. They want to control strings and profit from the traffic. They do not need to sell registrations. Why would they want to do that? By owning the registry they already are the large portfolio domainer and the domainer that can sell some names for millions (if they want to).
This is not a cynical view. This is a realistic view based on history.
Why did Amazon fight for wwwamazon.com as the article says?
Because they are protecting their trademark? Or is it because they want that traffic?
These 76 applications they’ve applied for at no small cost should answer that question.
A lot of the major trade organizations and associations will most likely bring objections against those who have applied for strings that define the Industry that those trade organizations and associations represent. Although its puzzling as to why those trade organizations and associations didn’t apply for their perspective gTLds in the first place, but nevertheless they probably won’t sit idly by and let someone else end up with the gTLD that represents their Industry. (just my opinion)
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GOOGLE and AMAZON are MAJOR DNS Service Providers
Google provides a DNS Service on 8.8.8.8
Amazon has their Route53 branded service
Each vendor could demand payments from the other Applicants to resolve their gTLDs just like adword sales
What happens when people wake up and ask: “Why is ICANN the only one who can charge $25,000 per year for DNS promises” ?? Other players are in the various DNS pipe-lines.
ojohn
Will they?
I mean as I point out earlier this week its not cheap to object and you win nothing except block the string.
How many are going to spent tens of thousands even hundreds of thousands to object where all they get is the extension not being allowed?
What happens when people wake up and ask: “Why is ICANN the only one who can charge $25,000 per year for DNS promises” ?? Other players are in the various DNS pipe-lines.
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ICANN is falling apart. The high-paid executives are jumping ship.
The head of the U.S. Department of .COMmerce has resigned.
Americans will be headed to political conventions and elections this Fall.
Technology is now in place to empower people (.KIDS) to build something that lasts.
The ICANN Emporer has No Clothes & Does NOT Exist
@ MHB
It might be worthwhile to them to block certain strings if they can apply for it themselves in future rounds.
Here is how I see the situation:
City TLDs are great and most likely will become very popular and widely used once all the major Cities are represented by their own gTLD. There is an automatic control and oversight for geo TLDs in general because they require the support and approval of the local governmental officials.
Brand TLDs are great too and a few will have a chance to become very popular and widely used especially if some of the major brands start promoting their gTLDs by giving free registrations to people. There is an automatic control and oversight for brand TLDs too since they require having the appropriate trademark before being approved.
So far so good and ICANN gets an A+ for their handling of geo TLDs and brand TLDs in general, (although they could have done some more advertising and promotions to let people know about the New gTLD program before the first round got started). The problem arises when you get to the generic keyword TLDs that either represent a whole Industry or a major category which is so broad that should not be given to just one company or private entity because of the risk of creating monopolies at worst or an anticompetitive environment at the very least, not to mention the risk for abuse, discrimination, and suppression of people’s rights for certain other generic keyword TLDs.
In my opinion there should be more control and oversight as to whom is going to get those generic keyword TLDs and how they are going to be used. It might be best for certain gTLDs to be managed and run by a not for profit organization for the benefit of the Internet community as a whole rather then giving it to just one company or private entity which will be even worst if that company or private entity decides to run it just for themselves as a closed gTLD.
(just my opinion)
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ojohn
“”In my opinion there should be more control and oversight as to whom is going to get those generic keyword TLDs and how they are going to be used. It might be best for certain gTLDs to be managed and run by a not for profit organization for the benefit of the Internet community as a whole rather then giving it to just one company or private entity which will be even worst if that company or private entity decides to run it just for themselves as a closed gTLD””
I agree with you and should have been an issue dealt with in the 1st round but ICANN allowed this exact situation to occur
Whether .shop or .store…the question is which one is more intuitive and can Amazon convince me that the “string” should in fact be intuitive.
So in future will it come natural for me to default to camera.store as opposed to camera.com. Also, what weighting will search engine give to more intuitive navigation.
The frenzy in the marketplace plus a lot more to come plus new monies being injected may change people’s habits. If I think .shop for all my camera needs…and Amazon has the extension locked…that’s a major coup!
” ICANN allowed this exact situation to occur ”
@ MHB
This is what I believe that ICANN mentality was when they were dealing with this situation:
> We are going to give the already established Internet elites the chance to fight over these generic keyword TLDs and eventually things will get settled down and the best applicants will emerge and we can give those who have risen to the top full control of these valuable public assets knowing that we have done our best to make sure that these generic keyword TLDs will end up in the most capable hands and that they’ll be put to some good use that will benefit everyone. <
Well this is capitalism 101 which might have worked okay in the past centuries when dividing land or other resources amongst people. But things have changed in the new millennium, nowadays when you divide a public asset (like the generic keyword TLDs) amongst companies and private entities the first thing on their mind is going to be their own interest and bottom line and its already clear that the last thing that they are going to think about will be what’s good for the Internet community as a whole.
How can ICANN even consider allowing the generic keyword TLDs like .shop to become closed to the public and just be used by one company and how can they think that this will be in the interest of the global Internet community as a whole.
The way ICANN is handling these generic keyword TLDs is a betrayal of their original mission statement that emphasizes on the importance of protecting the interest of the global Internet community. There needs to be more scrutiny about the way that these valuable public assets are being delft with especially since a lot of the ICANN insiders are now working for some of the private companies that are going to end up with these generic keyword TLDs.
Before we know it all the best generic keyword TLDs are going to be divided amongst ICANN insiders and their friends and if we complain they’ll tell us that it’s already too late and that nothing could be done about it.
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