Rick Schwartz has been tweeting regularly for a few months, often taking aim at the new gTLD program. This morning, he posted what some might say is a provocative tweet declaring “There’s a COLLAPSE coming the likes of which wet eared domainers have never seen b4“. Here’s the tweet Rick posted:
There's a COLLAPSE coming the likes of which wet eared domainers have never seen b4. It's INEVITABLE!! Already in progress!! #Domains#GTLD
Based on the #gtld hashtag, I presume Rick is predicting there will be a collapse in the number of new gTLD domain names registered. According to nTLDStats.com, there are just under 27 million new gTLD domain names registered, down from a peak of just below 29.5 million.
The “Domain King” has not been shy about sharing his opinions, and
Tony Kirsch is the Head of Professional Services at Neustar and is also the company’s .brand Evangelist. According to a tweet from Neustar and a LinkedIn post Tony shared, Tony and Neustar will be hosting a free webinar series “designed specifically for .brand owners to provide an update on the space and share examples, analysis and best practice.”
The first webinar will be held on Thursday, June 1 at 4:00pm Eastern time. Registration is required, so people interested in attending should sign up prior to the start of the webinar. Because of the nature of the webinar, I presume it will be archived and available to review at a later date for people who are unable to attend the live webinar.
According to the webinar page, here are the topics that will be covered during the first webinar next Thursday:
I don’t think it is a secret that Rick “Domain King” Schwartz doesn’t really like the new gTLD program, nor is it a secret that he owns some new gTLD domain names. This morning on Twitter, Rick announced that he intends to drop his premium new gTLD domain names (or at least that is how I interpreted the tweet below). I presume Rick is referring to the new gTLD domain names that do not have a standard renewal fee.
I plan 2 drop ALL my premium .whatevers in 2017. Ones I paid TENS of thousands of $$ for. $500k loss. Tax benefit. is ONLY value. #Domains
I don’t know Rick’s plans for his non-premium new gTLD domain names that have a standard renewal fee. I also don’t know how many of these “premium” domain names he currently owns. It would be interesting to know how many of these names Rick owns. Based on the tweet, it looks like Rick spent around half a million dollars to buy and renew these domain names. It will be also interesting to follow these drops to see if any of the registries opt to make these drops non-premium for future buyers and/or if others pick up his drops.
I have been contemplating what to do with two of my premium renewal new gTLD domain names – n.Holdings and n.Ventures. If anyone wants to purchase them, I would be happy to work out a fair price and I will donate all proceeds to my Pan-Mass Challenge ride.
Publisher’s note: The company operating the .Art domain name registry made a very generous contribution to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as a part of my 2017 Pan-Mass Challenge fundraising campaign in exchange for the publication of this article.
One of the most contested and highly anticipated TLDs is entering General Availability on May 10th at 14:00 UTC. The retail base price of a .ART domain name will be approximately $15.
.ART started off last year with a highly successful Early Adopters Program, remarkable for its extent and quality, with over 50 notable museums, galleries and artists acquiring .ART domains for future use. .ART has been adopted by The Cartier Foundation and Centre Pompidou (France), Guggenheim Museum (US), Tate, Serpentine Gallery and ICA (UK), MAMM and Bolshoi Theatre (Russia), artists like Banksy, Marina Abramovic, Love Watts and Shen Wei, as well as many other prominent members of the art community. Early registration covered forty countries on five continents.
Over 300 .ART websites are already live, some of them being used in a highly creative manner, representative of .ART’s ambition to become the online platform for the art world. Check out the Marina Abramovic Institute at www.mai.art and Jordan ‘Watts’ Watson, a prominent and controversial urban art authority with over 1,3 million followers. Watson, never having previously owned a website, chose www.lovewatts.art as his official web address. The leading global strategy firm for the art world FITZ & CO has fully transferred to www.fitzandco.art to represent its target audience in a more direct and creative way.
Given the Watts’ example above, we think the introduction of .ART will drive a new set of customers toward the registration and uptake of domain names. The art community, which has traditionally been highly reliant on social media, will find that domains are a better way to collaborate and display their work and products. In addition, .ART’s significant investment in marketing, PR and art event participation in Europe, the Americas and Asia, is designed to compliment and enhance registrars marketing efforts. Museums, artists, art-service providers and attendees of art-related events are being educated that having a digital strategy and a unique memorable domain name address is a crucial part of their online presence.
Jonty Hurwitz was the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Wonga, a British fintech company. Jonty left the company in 2011, although he still reportedly owns a significant amount of shares of the company. More recently though, Jonty has become known for his art, most specifically his very cool sculptures.
A couple of years ago, I mentioned that Jonty was using and promoting the Art.Ninja domain name, in addition to his JontyHurwitz.com domain name. About a year ago, I exchanged emails with Jonty and told him that .Art domain names would soon become available. I didn’t really follow up after that email exchange until I noticed that Jonty was able to buy Jonty.Art, and he is using it in conjunction with his LinkedIn and other social media posting.
I reached out to Jonty to ask him why he chose a .Art domain name when he already owns his full name .com domain name. I always find it interesting to read about why people and companies choose a new gTLD domain name, and it is especially interesting when they already own what would seem to be their perfect .com domain name. Here’s what Jonty told me about why he is using Jonty.Art:
It looks like the .Buzz registry is giving a limited amount of .Buzz domain names away for free. The promotion is in honor of the registry’s third birthday, and it also comes on April 20 (4/20), which happens to be unofficially referred to as “Weed Day.” In a post on the registry’s corporate blog, Bill Doshier announced that “Participating domain name registrars will be offering up to 420 .buzz domain name registrations – free for the first year of registration, during their to-be-announced special sale hours on April 19 through April 21, 2017.” Bill also wrote that “Starting April 18, approximately 34,000 reserved .buzz domain names will be released for general availability.”
Name.com is also promoting this giveaway on Twitter this morning:
