In a tweet this afternoon arts and crafts marketplace Etsy announced that it would be launching a new marketplace for craft supplies called Etsy Studio. Fast Company published an article about this new marketplace earlier today. The article offered a glimpse into the company’s plans for Etsy Studio, which is expected to open for business in April of this year.
Introducing Etsy Studio, a new craft supply market that inspires everyone to make. Get an early peek https://t.co/VybRgjzzLk pic.twitter.com/S5vakQFyum
— Etsy (@Etsy) February 14, 2017
When I saw the tweet about Etsy Studio, my first thought was about the Etsy.Studio domain name that was referenced. I then thought about whether or not the company is going to use that new gTLD domain name for its website. I visited Etsy.Studio and saw that Etsy.Studio forwards to EtsyStudio.com. Social media for this new marketplace (Pinterest) appears to confirm that the company intends to use EtsyStudio.com and not Etsy.Studio for its website. I would imagine they will continue using Etsy.Studio for social sharing though.
The .Studio domain name extension is operated by Rightside. As of today, there are over 21,000 registered .Studio domain names, according to nTLDStats.com.
In my opinion, Rightside executives should reach out to executives from Etsy and see if there is anything that can be done for Etsy to launch its new marketplace on Etsy.Studio rather than EtsyStudio.com. My guess is that Etsy bought Etsy.Studio for defensive reasons to protect its new Etsy Studio brand. Since it already owns the .com domain name, Etsy could potentially use Etsy.Studio and forward EtsyStudio.com to the other domain name. This would be a big win for Rightside and a win for the new extensions.
I don’t really know what would be in it for Etsy to make that change, but perhaps they could work out some sort of deal. Maybe Rightside could offer a royalty to Etsy for any subsequent .Studio domain name purchases going forward or some other marketing arrangement. I have no idea if Etsy would even consider something like this, but I think it would be a good idea for Rightside to kick the tires, especially since Etsy Studio hasn’t launched yet.
There is no advantage for Etsy for using a new domain extension.
It’s customer base are craft people that will default to .com or .org domains.
True, but my thought was perhaps Rightside could figure out a way to make it advantageous for them.
Since Etsy Studio is controlled by the Etsy ecosystem, they could train people to visit Etsy.Studio.
Again, I have no idea what would motivate Etsy to do this, but looking at it from Rightside’s perspective, it would make sense to see what might motivate them.
Also, as far as I know, I do not own stock in Rightside unless it is in a fund that I do not control.
“People still like com’s.”
http://www.domainanimal.com/people-still-like-coms-says-googles-john-mueller/
Are you switching DomainInvesting.com to a new G Elliot? 🙂
Why take the time to train their customers when there is zero benefit for them. It’s a flat out no brainer. It would only make it more confusing for their customers to use etsy.studio. Visit Etsy.com or EtsyStudo.com. Nothing confusing about that. The only thing they have to do is use common sense.
On the face of it, yes, there wouldn’t be any real benefit to doing it. I totally agree and that’s probably why it was set up like it was set up.
If Rightside offered $10 million or something like that, then it would be beneficial to Etsy I would think.
I have no idea if they could do that or would be willing to do something like that. I doubt Rightside would pay them to make the change, but maybe there is something that interests both sides. All I am saying is that Rightside should explore if they think it would be beneficial to have Etsy use Etsy.Studio.
No, of course not. I only have something like 8 or so new domain names and the last one I bought was a while back (probably TeamSilver.Rocks for my Dana-Farber fundraising).
I am sure we could come to some sort of agreement if they paid me in stock or cash though. I have never even thought about it so I couldn’t tell you how much it would take. I have no idea what it would take for Etsy to do it either, but it would make sense to ask if the company feels like there is a benefit to doing so.
http://bahamas.co
🙂
That’s not a new gTLD 🙂
I don’t have many .CO domain names either.. maybe 2 or 3 like Elliot.CO
Buy!!!
https://www.domaininvesting.com/heritage-auctions-brokering-major-co-portfolio/
I stick to .com investments.
Why would they gamble on a worthless new gTLD that the public doesn’t understand when they own the premium extension? They’ve built a huge company, so clearly they’re not fools.
The new gtlds all suck. That’s all I have to contribute.
I’m sure if ETSY had a brick and mortar store it would have 3 bathrooms, and if the craft people can figure that out, they can handle a .STUDIO web entrance without getting too confused.