In a blog post appearing in iparkavenue.com, Daniel Schindler of Donuts is quoted as saying gTLDs Better Than .Com.
You might expect that from a co-founder of a company which applied for 3x more new gTLD’s than any company on earth, however in all fairness Dan’s comment that a new gTLD is better than a .com seems to be limited to end users looking for available domain names:
Here are the most interest parts of the story:
“First, he is firmly convinced that the new gTLDs are better than the .com extension because they mean something. He states, “They are a short, meaningful habitat for your domain.”
Second, Mr. Schindler believes that we have run out of quality names that can be hand registered in the .com market.
He says that if you attempt to hand register a domain name “you can’t get a good name in the .com market.”
He goes on to say, “What is left now are poor names, not meaningful names that you can go out and register for your business.
It is obvious who should register .pizza, .attorney, and .restaurant, and no Super Bowl commercial is needed for consumers to understand what the brand means. Consumers automatically understand what .pizza means.”
And third, he believes the new gTLDs will enhance the value of the prime real estate that already exists in the domain name space, not lower its value.
“If you view the .com extension as a beach front hotel then building hotels next to it could enhance its value.”
For companies that want two descriptive words in their branding, new gTLDs will be very useful once generally accepted. We are introducing .co.com because, for some users, only a short memorable domain ending in .com will do.
“If you view the .com extension as a beach front hotel then building hotels next to it could enhance its value.”
Next to it? How about down the street in the man made subdivison where no one is living or worse, in swamp land?
Let the hype/misinformation/propaganda/self serving games begin!
I don’t have any horses or dogs in the gTLD race. But I wish all well. I always root for underdogs & risk-takers.
But this statement, “you can’t get a good name in the .com market.” (hand-registered) is really absurd.
I hand-registered a super short sweet name this past week, and I intend to build a great product with it.
I hand-registered a domain last year, which I gave to an entity 6 months ago, and this name/site/product was one of the darlings of the recent CES, launched in a partnership with Dreamworks.
I hand-registered another domain in late 2012, which I gave to an entity, and one of the leading Media companies is building a product, and will use this .com to launch their new Media site.
Of course, the great generics and super keyword names in the .com were taken many moons ago, but there are still many “good names” out there for the taking & registering.
people only insist today there are still “plenty of good .com domains left” because, um… compared to what?
you need something to compare it to. when 1,000some TLD’s with naturally spoken phrases arnt out.. sure, you can still register memorable stuff in .com
when you are able to register seemingly unlimited 2 word phrases, that were long long gone in .com, well then you could say there ISNT very much left “good” to register in .com
all this depends on whether .weird as a whole becomes not-so-weird… if it does happen people will look back and go “HA! we actually thought there was good stuff left in .com to hand register.”
Check out this story:
Bitcoin Exchange CEO Arrested
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/27/bitcoin-ceo-arrest_n_4674148.html
I have seen more end users come up with auctions in the drops, and aftermarkets than ever. Good .com’s recycle themselves, they are eco friendly you could say.
Sure, you got a gazillion dollars invested in GTLD’s you are going to SCREAM, PREACH, YELL, do whatever it takes to get noticed. This guy just did it a bit smarter by not insulting his 90% target buyer market. Let’s face it the average working joe does not care about domains, they do not think they need a domain, nor do they want one. Domains are created out of necessity, for branding, and launching.
I can’t even imagine the email snafu’s with new gtld’s mail@horse.shit, Only thing I wish is I had a registar, so I could take multiple prereservations on all the good names, and hold the money interest free for months on end, and then have to deliver no product, and say sorry, I have to refund your money, but I am keeping $10 as an application fee;-) Be careful guys, these guys are smart, they say 100% refund minus application fee. Basically an interest free loan, with a surcharge, and you are promised nothing!
@Steven, exactly. A sales pitch is one thing, but if you actually believe all good names are taken, then you are very short sighted. New ideas and products emerge every day. Good dot coms get dropped every day. People are just lazy and a lot of times put the least amount of time into thought/creativity when it comes to naming their product/business. You see this all of the time.
Lots of good names left folks. Shoot, i found LLLL & NNNN in .net and org available to be registered. And LLLL.coms are still going for CHEAP in the aftermarket.
Dot Com All Day Long ~~
I’m a bit tired of these delusional “made to fit the purpose” opinions by gTLD sellers on one side and .com domainers on the other side. Guys, 3 out of 4 start/ups fail. Why should it be any different for new gTLDs? It will be a blood bath, but this still means that there will be 50-100 new gTLDs as alternative to .com.
Hello MHB,
We can safely say that the .COM subdomain strategy will successfuly replace any generics designation, the gTLDs can supply. This effectively usurps and strengthens the full Strategic Marketing advantage of the already dominant .COM business model. Our advice to gTLD investors is to immediately formulate exit strategies. JAS 1/27/14
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Donuts is a subliminal, in plain sight, meaning greed. The applicant whom has applied for by far the most new gTLDs and who’s goal is to “win 100%” of their applications due to having the biggest wallet and nothing else.
Hello MHB,
This whole Titanic gTLD experiment, has been highly suspect from day one. To argue whether there will even be Generic gTLD deck chairs evident in the future will only allow .COM business holders to incorporate these Generic deck chairs as sub domains and part of their dominant Strategic Marketing position. The .Brand gTLD experiment will enrich .COM holders and dash generic gTLD supporters on the global reefs. Don’t blame Rick or me for this eventuality, blame the indomitable marketing genius Rod Beckstrom and his merry band of pirates.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
@ ken.com
If you seriously in your wildest dreams believe that .co.com will fly you have consumed to many ludes. The first and largest barrier to succes is the .COM-Plex franchise ownership cease and desist orders that are on their way as we speak. Also .co resitance will also be fierce and the bad press this will obviously create will taint the .co.com derivatives longevity image. Quit trying to peddle stolen properties before it is too late.
You have been drinking Rod Beckstrom Kool-aid excessively, this is not china where knockoffs can exist indefintely.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
http://dotchurch.org only wanted .church but Donuts were too ‘smart’ for that http://youtube.com/watch?v=X3ZcZ2h4Ths
lets all use USeBiz.com YEAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!! USeBiz.com is THE good generic domain name yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
10 million dollars valuation is even too low! USeBiz.com THE BUYERS WILL COME A KNOCKIN!
USeBiz.com IS WORTH LOTS OF MONEY AND WILL PAYOFF SOME DAY!
80% of Internet experiences occur through search according to Duane Forrester of Bing. Search engine rankings are based on quality of content and social media presence. That leaves 20% of Internet experiences that occur through direct navigation (assuming Duane Forrester is correct).
If I operated a bike shop in Las Vegas would I want to spend possibly thousands of dollars for VegasBikes.com to attempt to capture that 20% of direct navigation, assuming I can even capture a fraction of it with the domain name VegasBikes.com. The category killer domain would be Bikes.com and that would cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars.
If I had a bike shop in Vegas I would probably register Vegas.bike or Bikes.vegas and build a website on those domains for my business, and put those names on my business card and promotions. Vegas.Bike looks good in print and on a website, and won’t adversely affect my profit margin or cash flow. I also see it as adding value to the balance sheet as an indefinite life intangible asset (domain names are indefinite life intangible assets to companies on the balance sheet). As a business owner I could get lucky and hand register a .bike or a .vegas that significantly increases in value on the balance sheet, which will pay dividends when exiting the concern.
Now if I think of this while owning plenty of .com domain names as a domain name investor, I am sure that small business owners will come to the same realization. The gTLDs won’t affect their search engine ranking if they build the website out with quality content, and build a visible social media presence. Why pay thousands for a less descriptive .com when you can get a gTLD for less, as long as there is no significant impact on margins? This line of reasoning compels me to make sure I don’t have mediocre or crap .com domains in my portfolio, and I will use that extra cash to speculate on one word generic gTLDs.
There is no end to creativity. Go get your .com!
@Patrick Hipskind
I’m waiting for those things to happen. They may happen. If they happen, then, domain investors should get in.
People such as yourself, should get in with Vegas.Bikes, if you do well the first year or two with them, then we can join in the 3rd year or so.
I’ve been monitoring this site for a long time. But for some reason, no one has ever mentioned the impact of regulatory compliance, tax-incentives or content regulation.
First, it’s clear ICANN has now set the stage for various layers of increased regulation for both end users and registrars, this regulation is embedded in the new gTLD registrar agreements. Second, regional/city gTLDs will provide local governments a new revenue stream by offering tax incentives for local businesses to register and promote their local gTLDs. This will have a major impact on a global scale, that has it’s genesis in the grass roots of the local communities. Lastly, content regulation is the end goal. The Internet has been the Wild West and no one ever knows where they’ll end up by clicking a link. These days will come to an end.
In summary, the new gTLD program offers ICANN the “silver bullet” that will ultimately shape the Internet of the future. I encourage you to consider the strategic reasoning behind the new gTLDs. And it’s not to make money. It’s to introduce a governance framework as we move forward.
Let’s imagine this Blog/forum has nothing to do with domaining. Let’s say we’re all entrepreneurs or small businesses or start up investors, artists, web designers etc, etc. I think the comments posted here would generally be a lot more positive about the potential opportunities in being able to register a really cool name for less than $20, in a funky new extension without it being unavailable or costing thousands of dollars.
As domainers, we’re the ONLY ones who care how successful or not, this whole venture will be. Every company investing in a new GLTD won’t give two hoots as to what we think, We’ve been biased from the start and generally (myself included), hope that the whole thing crashes before it can take off!
The Internet of Things is now upon us, meaning millions of dollars is going to be pumped into new tech start up companies popping up everywhere, and I think we’ll see alot of those being creative and imaginative in their branding, for example, if my new app is called ‘Its Just You And Me’, these are my options:
ItsJustYouAndMe.com (Taken)
ItsJustYouAnd.Me ($9.99)
ItsJustYouAndMe.App (TBC)
+1000 GTLD’s
Personally, I’m going to grab the .me extension because wtf does the .com add? It muddies the message, makes it less succinct. And will probably cost me hundreds if not thousands. If one of the golden rules of domaining is to keep your domain short, well, we’re potentially going to be able to do so by losing three extra letters, c, o and m.
If anyone reading these blogs thinks that they are going to wake up one morning and be able to register bike.vegas or vegas.bike etc for reg fees then you are deluded. These new registries are there for 1 reason, to make as much money as possible. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the single word generics will either be auctioned or reserved for auction at a later date. Not to mention restrictions on 1,2,3 or 4 letter or number domains at the outset.
lets’s get this straight, no enduser will be able to register valuable domains in .bike like vegas.bike, but now any end-user can perfectly fine find any .net, org., .us, .biz if he is against paying anything over $20 for his domains
repeating – gtlds are dying to attract attention and make money off defensive registrations, not to power new businesses, existing .com business > new businesses
@Seymour
Jeff Schneider is now a shill writer for me?
The guy that tells me I’m full of crap 99.9999% of the time?
The guy I tried to chased off my blog from commenting?
The guy I that I don’t even understand what he is talking about?
That Jeff?
So do you live in Colorado? I hear the shit is really good there
its just as good in california to be fair..
you’re not helping your case tho seymour with that kinda conspiracy… if anything, Jeff is a character played by somebody (aka a troll intending to mock over-the-top .com stuff, i dont know)
theres also the possibility its a real person because you can find articles that date back 10+ years ago to the fantastic domain USeBiz… the posts ive read in the last couple years are just so hilarious and bizarre maybe someone assumed the identity of a real person. again i dont know, but the posts are so completely over the top if its a real person, well thats pretty special too.
hey why am i talking about the metal tiger, lets talk about domains again..
@Dave: RE “If anyone reading these blogs thinks that they are going to wake up one morning and be able to register bike.vegas or vegas.bike etc for reg fees then you are deluded.”
well, i woke up this morning.
vegas.bike is sitting available for registration for now.