Hopeful New gTLD Investors May Miss The Boat

Elliot Silver
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Judging by comments I’ve read on my blog and elsewhere, I believe there are many people who are hoping the new gTLD domain names will usher in another “gold rush” in the domain name space, and there will be many great new opportunities to hand register valuable domain names. Sadly, for the most part, I don’t think this is going to happen, despite the fact that I do think we will eventually see some new extensions take off quite successfully.

I believe there are many people who are excited about registering new gTLD domain names once they become available. They believe there will be hundreds of millions of keyword domain names  available to purchase, and this is a great opportunity considering the difficulty in registering a valuable .com domain name today.

Based on what I’ve been reading

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Exclusive: GoDaddy Shares New gTLD Trend Report

Elliot Silver
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When it comes to the new domain names, GoDaddy is probably going to play one of the greatest roles in consumer adoption. GoDaddy is the largest domain name registrar, and as a result, the company will present the new gTLD domain names to millions of consumers. I believe the company’s marketing efforts will be critical to consumer awareness, and there’s a lot of money at stake.

Earlier this month, GoDaddy opened pre-registrations on four domain extensions: .Build, .Luxury, .Uno, and .Menu. Prices to pre-register domain names ranged from $40 to $1,200 (price is refundable less the application fee if name isn’t secured). Shortly after the company began offering pre-registrations, I reached out to ask if the company would share some trends and perhaps some information about the number of pre-registrations.

Last night, I received an email from GoDaddy with some trends the company is seeing. Here are some of these trends:

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Donuts’ First New gTLD Sunrise Begins

Elliot Silver
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2

 

Donuts is one of the largest new gTLD applicants, and this morning, the sunrise period for seven of its new gTLD extensions has opened. Beginning today, trademark owners are able to register domain names that match their trademark(s) at a domain registrar like 101 Domain  (visit their website for pricing and other important details).

According to the Donuts website, the following new gTLDs began their sunrise period today, November 26:

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Sedo and Donuts Announce Partnership

Elliot Silver
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Sedo  just announced a new partnership with Donuts, and the company was selected to help Donuts sell some of its premium new gTLD domain names. This is positive news for the company considering the number of new gTLD registries Donuts will likely operate.

According to this morning’s news release, “Sedo will manage contention resolution for competing trademarked domains, and will also assist in auctioning premium names that will be reserved from general registration.” The sunrise auctions are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2014. Sedo has also been tapped to manage auctions for some of the “premium” domains that Donuts reserved from general registration.

This good news comes on the heels of some bad news earlier this week regarding Sedo’s partnership with GoDaddy, which will end on March 31, 2014.

Here is the full press release:

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My New Domain Pre Registration List

Elliot Silver
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24

Based on reports I am seeing from companies like 1 & 1 and eNom, it seems like there are millions of new gTLD domain names that have been pre-registered or pre-reserved. Many domain registrars are allowing clients to pre-order, pre-register, or purchase options to buy new domain names when they are available.

With that being said, I thought I would share the list of the new gTLD domain names that I pre-registered / pre-ordered:

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What If New gTLDs Are Wildly Successful?

Elliot Silver
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If I could poll every domain investor right now asking them to predict the outcome of the new gTLD extensions, I think the majority would say that a majority of new TLDs will fail. This is my unsubstantiated opinion based on what I’ve read on a number of websites and forums, including this one.  I can’t speak on behalf of all domain investors, but it seems that the majority of people think .com domain names will always be the extension of choice for people who buy domain names.

What if this isn’t true? What happens in ten or twenty years if businesses  decide that they don’t need to spend 4, 5, 6, or 7 figures on a .com domain name when they can hand register something else for less than $100? Perhaps Google will treat .shop or .coupons the same as it would treat a similar website on .com. Perhaps there will be another search engine or type of search tool besides Google that will impact the relevance of .com.

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