I know a lot of people in the domain industry have put the eventual success on the new gTLD program on whether big brands would actually switch from their .com to their new gTLD.
Today we have the first.
In an interview with worldipreview.com, Professional services firm KPMG says they are going to replace KPMG.com with .KPMG the new gTLD they applied for.
KPMG is a worldwide company, which operates in more than 155 countries and employs close to 155,000 people according to David Green, head of global digital marketing who was interviewed for the story
“It’s a massively scalable database; these registry systems have a proven ability to host millions of unique entries,” he says. “And you have more secure point-to-point Internet communications as well as unique addressing, which is where most of the conversation during the application stage was focused.”
Its a very long and detailed interview that lays out KMPG vision for its new gTLD and the advantages they believe operating off their new gTLD will give them over operating off of KMPG.com
Do they do the books for o.co (Overstock.com) ?
I am waiting for the next article:
“Migration failed. We are back at .com”
Most of that all could be done with their kmpg.com already.
But he missed one critical point:
Why should a world brand like KPMG push the brand of a total unrelated company like Verisign’s “.com” when they could (for the cost of $US 2 per employer per year) skip the “.com” entirely?
Note: “The time it takes to get to that stage will depend on general public awareness of the gTLD programme…”, so while we hope that THEY push the program acceptance they state that they would like to see it the other way around. A catch 22.
And while KPMG is a true world brand – them “switching” to “.kpmg” might be a signal to other companies – but the consumers will probably not even realize. Unless KMPG advertises their new TLD. If a highly advertised consumer brand would switch to their new gTLD (forward their old .com to it) or Google forward to USA.google, Deutschland.google, etc THAT would create impact overnight!
But certainly .kpmg is good news and helps us all!
what onlinedomain said…
Additionally: “CEO and Marketing Director fired… as a result.”
morons.
Wow, KPMG is such a household name, this will surely benefit the gTLDs! /sarc/
Anyway, being “first” will get them some short-term attention in certain press circles… while the customers that do know of them will likely continue to use .COM and be forwarded to .KPMG. So even if they do “drop .COM” after awhile, they probably won’t ever *really* drop it completely.
So how do I get to the homepage website.kpmg?
I think he is speaking from more of an internal application of all their employees creating a database from within.
Otherwise they are free to delete their .com now if they choose im sure the Korean Pickle Making Group would be all over it.
I presume that dot kpmg is a ‘closed’ registry, i.e. only for internal use therefore of no interest to the general public.
The best advertising the new GTLD Industry can get is when large brands start using their own right of the dot and when huge consumer brands like Walmart, Target, Samsung etc…. start using their ROTD you better hold onto your nuts because that is when the domain industry is going to be turned on its head. I am still baffled that their are still people that can’t see through all the chatter.
Frank Schilling said it would the big brands leading the way. .KPMG might not make a big dent in consumer awareness, but .Google will.
And don’t forget of main problems with new gTLDs and especially the .brand ones: EMAIL.
“Initially, we will see closed brand gTLDs used for web addressing but not email addressing, as it will take longer to transition existing staff email systems to a new registry, which obviously doesn’t apply to an open gTLD domain sold to the public in the open marketplace,”
David
That is correct, its a closed registry
lol website.company? I like the shorter way name.com(pany)
Ask O.co how that worked out.
Anyway, operating one’s own registry may have some advantages for internal operations. But it makes no sense for the consumer-facing site to be located on anything other than a .com or ccTLD.
It’ll be interesting to see how things work out. And the success or failure of .brand won’t have all that much to do with the more general new TLDs. .brand would succeed based on market awareness of the brand more than anything else. Targeting startups, small businesses, and individuals is not a viable model, imo, with so many new extensions coming out.
if it’s closed…
shouldn’t that make the title… sensationalist ?
replace?
David – I was thinking of asking them if I could get TaxFraud.KPMG or maybe even BernieMadoff.KPMG 🙂
They are probably trying to outsmart EY (previously known as Ernst & Young), that couldn’t apply to a new gTLD due to being a two-letter name. But considering then can’t allocate country codes or country names as in france.kpmg or fr.kpmg, they should consider stick to local ccTLD (kpmg.fr) in those markets.
The question is indeed what will they put left of the dot… kpmg.kpmg?? makes no sense. start.kpmg? x.kpmg, If they take home.kpmg for example I bet people will enter homekpmg.com or home.kpmg.com… what a mess. If it would be technically possible just to enter kpmg or at least .kpmg to get to their page
This is absolutely no surprise.
Comapnies this size are going to be promoting their own .walmart, .statefarm, .???
However, my question still remains:
How does this help:
.web, .xyz, .horse etc.
It doesn’t.
Having said that, there are over 110 million .coms registered.
Granted, they are not all in use, but we are only 25 years into this business (15 really) and eventually those will be start to be used.
Having said that, a lot of this will depend on how google and company will treat the new TLD’s,.
If history is any indiction, .com will prevail.
so what are they going to put before the dot for their main site? kpmg.kpmg? seems silly.
I am sure someone will figure out a way to type .KPMG or any other right of the dot without having anything on the left of the dot for their homepage. Reminds of the day not to long ago that they said you MUST have a .MOBI extension if you want a mobile site and we all know how that turned out.
well…they were one of the evaluation panels…they are just supporting the model from which they made millions in evaluation fees
R. E. = ” “We won’t immediately drop .com; there will be a phased migration.” ”
These original .COM Franchise owners will promote their own Vanity Plate gTLD, but maintain their .COM Profit Centers. This is a Media Propoganda stunt, Paying Online consumers will still enter through the .COM Franchise gate.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Sure, because the largest brands in the world want to own a franchise of someone else. Silly. Real credibility will be in the .brand tld. THAT will become the new standard. Next round 5 digit .brand applications to ICANN.
How does that help generics? Simple, users will understand that .com is not the .end of .it. Other .endings will be more familiar. What’s the difference between this time and .mobi, .biz, .info?
There was no .GOOGLE then. There was no .NETFLIX, .WALMART. This time is different.
You think confusion is going to drive users to the address bar where they will type a word and add ‘.com’? Not likely, confusion will drive them to google search, where they will type in their best guess and let google sort it out for them.
Which google will gladly do.
At Search.Google, or Deutsche.Google, or Web.Google
who needs a ‘franchise’ when you can own the store.
Tom Gilles @ I agree re the Google scenario, but owning the store is all about the root domain & security. Brands under the com or cc where always first by search default TM’s. The “.com” is now brand & the cc’s do hold national identity in mainland Europe and parts of Asia, Google search returns will carry the com & cc’s and they will be noted with a degree of cognitive trust & that edge is enough when comparing with list of classifieds.
1) The develop of .com alongside the development of commercial internet itself will look completely different from the eventual adoption and use of .brands in a mature internet space. Reasons: too many to elaborate on.
2) Speculating on .com was acting on legitimate foresight. Speculating on these from a ‘domainer’ standpoint is gambling with crappy odds; two entirely different things.
3) How long it takes megabrands to migrate to .themselves, however many of them ultimately do and what impact that has on the perception of everyone else could be (and probably will be) COMPLETELY outside a period of time considered reasonable for an investment of time and money, relative to other stuff you could be doing with that same time and money. Historically, if you bet everything on the opposite side of the masses who said “it’s different this time”, you’d be hugely ahead but sometimes, paradigms do shift. Catch is, they don’t always shift quickly and 20, 30, 40 years is an awfully long time to be paying a tax on something that has long odds to begin with.
4) The cluelessness about the marketing side of internet identity extends deep, deep into the world of tech and can be observed in otherwise competent people. I personally know a man under 45 who is liquid to eight figures, all internet money, who doesn’t begin to ‘get’ domain names. It’s incredibly bizarre to be in the presence of someone who has crushed the internet (and life in general) yet passionately argued that .co was a legit game changer and would see mass commercial adoption. It was surreal.
Knowing how to engineer a web app and knowing how to make it matter to other people are accomplished by completely different intelligence types. Domains fall into the latter. Beware of the advice you take. There is horrible insight emanating from otherwise lofty places.
5) The internet ecosystem has been, is and quite likely always will be dominated by the startup enterprise. Its a safe bet that the financial barriers to .you will eventually come down but when the first 6 months are all about catching as much wind as you can, who’s going to bet their work on .awesome when .com already ‘is what it is’? And if that day is due to come, how long does it take?
The ‘irrelevance of .com’ is one of those things that theorists love to insist upon when it’s on a blackboard in academia but when VCs are cutting checks, its so funny to see those very same people scurry back to .com.
6) Its entirely possible that .brand and .com co-exist, while many .generics fail.
7) That is all.
I think the key point here is that they are using their own company name to the right of the dot. And I doubt they will be discarding their .com domain when implementing the .kpmg. If it causes too much confusion like O.co we may see them backtrack.
This is not a ‘win’ for the new gtlds if it’s a closed extension.
It will be news if a company rebrands to a generic new gtld, like .web, .xyz or .shop. That would be news. I think existing websites and companies will continue to use their existing extensions, and there will be some larger companies who try the KPMG route.
New companies and startups will trickle into the new gtlds, like is happening with .co and .me. There are examples of this but I don’t think the newer gltds have captured much public mindshare.
Hello MHB,
Phisching Scams and other upcoming scam ploys, will only heighten consumers avoidance of any right of the dot offerings, this will include right of the dot gTLD brands. Count on Consumer behavioral response, not gTLD hype.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Hello MHB,
Well it looks like a Dog and pony show powerpoint Ad Jockey got into the kpgm webmasters psyche. Any seasoned Online Marketing Strategist if presented with this same flawed Online marketing strategy would have shown the Ad man the door. With the recent (Target Phisching Scam) KPMG and others may be re-calibrating their next move to abandon the gTLD Experiment.
Phisching Scams and other upcoming scam ploys, will only heighten consumers avoidance of any right of the dot offerings, this will include right of the dot gTLD brands. Count on Consumer behavioral response, not gTLD hype.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
@tom gilles..do you really think google will stop using google.com in favor of search.google? for one its longer, for two its been used for close 15 years. are they going to change everyones gmail address? no. what are they going to do is yet to be seen but just because a company is securing their own gltd doesn’t even mean they are going to use it.
TB –
They will be putting NewBoardOfDirectors.KPMG to the left of the DOT
And then those former Directors and the Former o.co directors will form a new company called :
WhyCantWeMakeMoneyWithTheNewgTLDsUnlikeGuysLikeFrankAndPaulAndOtherPeopleWhoFiguredItOut.com
Dominator
I don’t know if o.co which is owned as a registrant has anything to do with operating a new gTLD.
In any event the issue with o.co was people going to o.com instead since KPMG will still own KPMG.com maybe forward it to their new gTLD they should not have an similar issue
I think icann should bring democracy to the masses. Everyone should have their right of the dot domain. Technical difficulties? Let the cloud handle it! For 10 bucks and everyone can have it. Here you go.