Rick Schwartz sent out a TRAFFIC conference update this morning, and one of the most interesting pieces of information he shared is that there will be a no reserve gTLD domain name auction held during the conference. The domain names that are being listed for sale will be directly from the registry. It will most likely be the first public new gTLD live auction.
Here is what Rick had to say about the auctions as well as the gTLD focus at this year’s TRAFFIC conference in Las Vegas:
United TLD, a division of publicly traded Demand Media (DMD), applied to manage more than 25 new gTLD domain extensions. Yesterday, the company announced that it is rebranding and will now be called Rightside Registry.
As you are likely aware, Demand Media is splitting off its domain companies and assets into a new company called Rightside, which DMD hopes will become publicly traded. A couple of weeks ago, DMD filed a Form 10 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to move this process along.
I do not believe that Rightside Registry will
Among those looking for answers at ICANN’s March meeting in Singapore will be new generic top-level domain (gTLD) applicants who haven’t yet found a path to delegation due to potential name collisions. No longer is the issue of name collisions merely technical. Over the course of almost a year, it has evolved into a potential business and financial roadblock.
Name collision refers to the confusion that may occur when a new gTLD string exactly matches an existing string used on an internal network. So, as new gTLDs enter the root zone, they can potentially “collide” with existing names. Name collision is a problem in current gTLDs too, but has taken on greater significance because of the exponential number and types of strings involved in the New gTLD Program.
The issue first took hold in
There are many people in the domain investment space who are either opposed to the new gTLDs or are certain that the new gTLDs will fail. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this at all. Should some new domain names happen to be successful, there might be a missed opportunity, but everyone is entitled to their opinion and should invest accordingly, especially given the illiquid nature of domain investing..
One thing I personally don’t understand is how some people who are adamantly opposed to the new gTLDs are bullish on repurposed ccTLDs, which tend to have more value due to their generic nature rather than their demographic. For instance, .TV is far more widely used with video / television in mind than the island of Tuvalu, and .ME is used for the “me” connotation rather than in relation to Montenegro.
I have several friends who have invested in (and done well with)
Depending on your domain investments and business affiliations, there are a number of ways one can define “success” for the new gTLDs. I thought I’d share what I think are the various ways the new domain names could be considered a “success” and who would be happy with that success.
If I missed any scenarios here, you are welcome to share them, and as always, you are invited to offer your own feedback on this. At the moment I have no idea which scenarios are most or least likely, but I will continue to follow along from the sidelines.
Success scenarios for new gTLDs:
I’ve gone through the entire gamut of emotions and opinions about new gTLDs. If you search online back far enough, you can find a few of my rants stating that adding anything more than .com, .net, and .org is a terrible idea (this was when they were proposing .info and .biz). Obviously, I’ve warmed up to the idea today and have a different view. I’ve been directly involved in assisting 10 or so applicants to submit 60 new gTLD applications. I’ve been a domainer, worked for a registry, and now, work for a registrar so I’ve seen the industry from all sides.
So, what should a domainer do about new gTLDs? How should you prepare? Here are my suggestions.
1. Be Optimistic, But Don’t Be Stupid – I have reasons to believe that some
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