New gTLDs Will…

New gTLD domain names are a source of discussion and debate throughout the domain investment space. Off the top of my head, I can’t really think of a more polarizing topic related to domain names.

Last week, I reached out to a random group of colleagues to get their feedback on the new gTLD domain names that will be rolling out soon. I asked them to complete the following sentence using 5 of their own words or less: “gTLDs will…” As you can see below, the responses run the gamut.

Within the next few months, new gTLDs will become available for the public to register, purchase, reserve, and use, and I think it’s going to be fun to watch what happens. I invite you to complete the “gTLDs will…” sentence in your own 5 words in the comment section.

Thanks to those who participated and to those who participate with a comment!

  • Francois Carrillo, Domaining.com – gTLDs will be top announcers in domaining.com.
  • John Ferber, Domain Holdings – gTLDs will create a world of opportunity.
  • Donna Mahony, Domain Boardroom – gTLDs will make some rich, some poor
  • Larry Fischer – gTLDs will  make money for registrars & registries.
  • Rick Schwartz – gTLDs will  mostly die on the vine.
  • Eric Borgos, Impulse Communications –  gLTDs will lower .com domain values.
  • Nat Cohen, Telepathy –  gTLDs will be a niche market, though…
  • Elliot Noss, Tucows – gTLDs will  bring semantics to the DNS  or gTLDs will  flatten the name space.
  • Joe Politzer, DN.BIZ – gTLDs will  make more losers than winners.
  • Donny Simonton, Voodoo.com –  gTLDs will make millions for registrars and  registries.
  • Scott Ross, Promediary –  gTLDs will forever bow to the .com.
  • Troy Rushton, Protrada – gTLDs will cause fragmentation and create opportunities.
  • Adam Dicker, DNForum –  gTLDs will confuse the general public.
  • Mike Robertson, Domain Guardians – gTLDs will create a lot of buzz.
  • Braden Pollock, Legal Brand Marketing –  gTLDs will leak traffic to the .com.
  • Tan Tran, FreshDrop –  gTLDs will  make some people go broke.
  • Bill Sweetman, Name Ninja –  gTLDs will  elevate public awareness of domain names.
  • Bob Mountain, NameMedia –  gTLDs will raise the domain aftermarket water level.
  • Dave Evanson, Sedo – gTLDs will  selectively expand the relevant options.
  • Jeremiah Johnston, Internet Commerce Association –  gTLDs will excite and confuse marketing professionals.
  • Thies Lindenthal, IDNX –  gTLDs will rejuvenate saturated domain markets
Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

78 COMMENTS

  1. New gTLD will not change anything for large corporation and so .com will stay strong as the only option for serious business.

    • I think you need to focus on get shareholder owners an ROI first before u run your mouth on your views of others LOL.

      7 cents a share.

    • @Anthony

      First I love the name of your company Minds and Machines. I would love to know as well as all the readers what criteria you used in choosing your gTLDs.
      We have heard lots about the new extensions but no one has really talked about why they think a particular gTLD will succeed. Can you choose one from your list and give us a sales pitch on why we should register a name in that extension and why it will be a success.

    • Hi Todd,

      Thanks for the kind words. The criteria we used were pretty simple. We aimed for diversity of TLDs, so we wouldn’t get shut out — we have big generic TLDs, small niche TLDs, and geo TLDs. We chose geo TLDs because if we won one at the city level — if the government chose us in a public procurement bid — we would face no competition at the ICANN level. That proved to be a good strategy as we ended up with the contracts for London, Miami, Budapest, Bayern, and NRW.

      I’ll pick .LONDON. In general geo gTLDs have a lot in common with ccTLDs: a defined territory, a natural population with a built-in affinity for the name, the support and backing of the relevant government. In the case of cities, there is also (typically) high Internet penetration. City TLDs are also great for small businesses: we think that for a plumber in London, plumbing.london is better than plumbing.com because it tells the customers where the business is located.

      I hope that helps, and thanks for the question.

      Antony

    • Antony, when do you think Yahoo will make a play to takeover TLDH in order to directly compete & challenge Google’s position?

      Seems the obvious entry strategy for them for a dominant top 4 position in the market.

      • I bought in pretty darn fast yesterday when it seemed obvious that TLDH would be the most likely takeover target for Yahoo (or another company) to gain sufficient traction in the sector.

        Its in the top 4 so a no brainer really!

        Would like to hear Antony’s views of the matter.

      • Elliot, Antony’s hinted at anticipation of a takeover before but don’t know his thoughts regarding Marissa Mayer’s intentions for Yahoo in the sector.

  2. New gTLD’s will create lots of business opportunities for all the various service providers, (registrars, registries, website developers, advertising sellers, etc), startups getting oodle of VC funding, and quick flippers who get in and out on good keywords before each extension fades into the sunset and fails LOL.

  3. In the interim, GTLD’s will give end-users yet another rebuttle to decline an expensive dot com purchase, until they learn how expensive traffic leakage is.

  4. gTLD’s will make .com’s .net’s .org’s and .co’s more valuable and create a burgeoning wealth of opportunity for all those involved in the world wide web.

  5. gTLDs will begin the downfall of Google and the creation of niche search engines and with these new search engines will come the massive decline in exact match dotcom domain values.

    • If Google were smart they would take over the News and Entertainment industry and leave the transmission of it all onto Apple devices.

    • New TLDs will be a real opportunity for search engines. Factoring the TLDs into the relevance algorithm gives them new way to improve organic search results.

    • Bump & Dump! You are one of those guys who believe apps will replace domains, right? How many website/domains you visit per month? Are you going to install app for every such web? World wide web is huge, so you should buy at least one-zillion-byte version of iPhone!

    • No—if you read my statement, I was showing how apps and domains and the cloud will all work together—-Microsoft is gearing up for HUGE cloud capabilities.

  6. Most new gTLDs will die on the vine like Rick Schwartz says, but the few that survive and become successful will forever change the Internet. The few successful gTLDs will open up many opportunities for those with the vision and knowledge to capitalize on them.

    • The geographic gTLD’s such as .London or .NYC will be obvious and runaway successes i think. Others will be more niche but low overheads and recurring revenues should see their perpetuation and initial capital outlay made back at least. A few might be out & out failures but that sjust part of trimming out the weak.

      Overall they’ll establish themselves and be a permanent part of the internet landscape.

  7. If one new gTLD succeeds all will succeed. If all succeeds, there will be plenty of time to get in, therefore it’s best to sit them out. If they succeed, it will still be good to get in 2 years from now. Instead of paying $10 for them, you may have to pay $40 or $50. If they succeed, it will be an evolutionary period. It will mean that business will start migrating to new gTLDs. In that unlikely event, we will know about the beginning of the process. It will mean that Amazon, Apple, Google, Yahoo, .. will start using these things, at that point it’s safe to get in. Until that happens, these will be like sand, everywhere but in use.

  8. The unpredictable part isn’t tomorrow, or next year. It’s 15 or 20 years, when todays 15 year olds are 35.

    I don’t think you see much in the way of serious business conducted on a .generic, but it will be interesting to see what happens with .vanity.

    If there’s a mad rush to that, or if prices drop profoundly and seriously lower the barrier to entry (this will happen), operating on a .you may be seen the same with the same sort of implied credibility as .com engenders now.

    Of course, the flip side to this is that the opposite happens. The internet decides it doesn’t want to completely uproot its existing marketing infrastructure to accommodate the soaring theories of a few domain scalpers and .com is pushed even further up them mountain.

    Either way, the registrars and registries will make money. What we saw with fiascos like .co, .tel and my personal favorite, The Professional Web” proves that there’s a lot of hay to be made taking large groups of monkeys for their lunch money.

  9. Top level domains executive running his mouth and 7 cents a share. Shareholders getting tired of things. Perks of of money by other with casino betting on .clusterfuck

  10. The market for new tld’s will be driven almost exclusively by domain speculators and corporate defensive registrations. There is no substantial real world business interest or demand for new tld’s. Several may gain a little traction, but it will be very slow. The familiar choices in tld’s will continue to have the most longevity and market value.

    • Geographic domains will obviously kick off and once media hype & awareness picks up, there’ll likely be a mad rush for domains with expectations of owning potentially lucrative domain real estate as well as acquisition for personal useage on anticipation of relevant name shortages.

  11. I am ‘speculating’ that residential homes and family units—as well as businesses— in the future will organize by a specific internet domain name as well—-this will increase the demand for domain names in other gTLD’s.

  12. No Mike Mann?

    Best response: “Adam Dicker, DNForum – gTLDs will confuse the general public.”

    That’s a fact. The rest is just speculation. I guess that was the point… 🙂

  13. new gTLD will help google more strength and more powerful to control the chao of internet world …as the line Google draws

  14. New gTLDs will seek to cover a portion of their operating costs by asking established websites and businesses to pay extra for defensive registrations and brand protection.

    New gTLDs purchased defensively will mostly act as an extra tax on commerce online.

    New gTLDs will inadvertently teach business owners that most defensive registrations must be a waste of money, since gTLDs are becoming too numerous to bother with more than a select few. These business owners will begin thinking about domain strategy. Specifically, they’ll prioritize their holdings in terms of TLD. In most cases, those priorities will line up with the established TLD brands — .COM, .ORG, and ccTLDs. Other meaningful extensions will thrive — both preexisting extensions such as .ME and some of the new gTLDs.

    A minority of new gTLDs will achieve some traction on a par with .NET or .INFO for general use — most likely .WEB if it is marketed in that way, although it may not be.

    Some new gTLDs that cater to specific niches or local communities will be adopted by the general public in a limited way. But registration costs will be higher than .COM due to the lower volume of usage, and that will act as a deterrent for most small organizations and individuals. Meanwhile, large companies will continue to prefer .COM.

    Those new gTLDs that do succeed will mostly have to bundle services with the domain registration in order recommend themselves to consumers above the competing noise and the established value of .COM.

    New gTLDs will anticipate heavy investment from domain resellers. But their calculations will overestimate what domainers actually spend, due to the sheer volume of new extensions. Without that investment from domain speculators, without sufficient numbers of defensive registrations, and without instantaneous adoption by the general public, many of the new gTLDs won’t break even.

    The new gTLDs that don’t succeed quickly will be stigmatized as failures and seldom recover.

  15. Internet stats says that currently 34% use internet that is roughly 2.5 billion users.

    By 2024 world population may cross 8 billion.

    The right combination of domain names under top level domains were already taken.

    developing countries businesses and individuals when come online may wish a better online identity.

    Those who already have top domain names may book a Ngtld related to their industry to close competition gap.

    All the above denotes to me that the Ngtlds will definitely gain momemtum.

  16. The new gTLD be another way to return to full speculation that occur in the year of the dot-com globally between 2000 and 2002, venture capital investment in large capital intensive projects unviable companies, which after 6 months to make some money off the map treasury and not speak anymore of them, a conspiracy to hide the money in tax havens.

    After this as occur in those years come the hangover fund of not having money to invest, the horse lost his mount and be crazy not to find this out, more or less like the current economic crisis in some countries of the world start get out and others even last for more years, this will be to return to another general speculation is bestial form will suffer freelancers, small businesses and as always win the big companies with established brands worldwide.

    I believe that all be focused in this direction if you are aware and are not paid domain names in the auction does not exceed the $ 500,000 the new gTLD make at auction out new domain name speculators who expect to pay more than $ 5 million this happen before and now in this market and industry domain name have a great incentive for the great fortunes of the stock market to collaborate with other third parties with ICANN body, make no mistake this is so and many of you know well.

    I also think it will be a field of impressive disputes between existing brands worldwide caliber always be winners with the new gTLD be as well thought that in this way the media of these characteristics have the cake to have agreed in advance scoop, as leverage for promoting a new product and service that the general public worldwide faithful to the same piecework buy the new product and service, that have the name speculate own neighbor, the very high economic value which have commissions and grants to the usual, this being more or less like the issue of a level Subprime great for those who have fallen into the trap of the regulatory body and small for those who invest before you left previously to these new gTLD market it already be happening in secret.

    Now do not be pessimistic the. Com and other generic not lose its value and whether to raise the economic value of the same with or without trademark as now, by that reasoning to the older best, the new pop but some can survive with easy to remember memory, for small “bakery london”

    • Have each domain name correspond to a CUSIP number, like they have for stocks.

      As for ICANN I am disenlightened due to their tax haven strategy already. 🙁

    • Perhaps at 185K a pop to register the extension, these big companies will use the extension within their company for employees…..and as the extension for their PR and Marketing.

    • @ CMD, Is easy and know that there is a filtration patent trademark, my question is whether this patent really keep running for gTLD or will only be valid for what to do now.

  17. .BRAND: Will likely succeed. Owners in control of TLD’s usage. Metric will focus on user experience which, in turn, will rely on owner’s innovation to roll out unique features/services that may even be patented. Metric not based on number of domains sold with websites (excluding those with landing pages). Brand equity already established with an existing user base in other venues that can be migrated over to TLD. First mover advantage not as critical.

    .GENERICS: Will likely experience limited success. .Web to be the most successful in this category based on preregistrations to date. Focus on short/high relevant names. Owners reliant on quality of domain buyers/developers for success. Metric will focus on number of domains purchased and developed which, in turn, will depend on the owner’s ability to fund ongoing marketing and features/innovation which could be patented and used to enhance differentiation. First mover advantage more critical for this category than other two. More expensive to develop brand equity due to multiple competing TLDs. Cash burn and liquidity will be monitored closely my investors. Category may experience consolidation which may already exist in some business plans as an exit strategy to limit the potential downside given a worse case scenario.

    .CITY: Will likely succeed. Focus on short/high relevant names. Owners reliant on quality of domain buyers/developers for success. Metric will focus on number of domains purchased and used which, in turn, will benefit from any features/innovation not currently available with existing domains. May rely on third parties for such features/innovation. Brand equity already well established. Marketing effort used primarily for redirecting brand awareness rather than developing brand equity. Geo affiliation likely given success of ccTLDs. First mover advantage not as critical since later entrants will benefit from efforts/awareness developed by early entrants regarding City TLD concept. Existing infrastructure used for marketing, i.e., buildings, buses, stations, billboards, benches, etc., will be used to ramp up awareness/adoption quickly and keep marketing expenses in check. Tax receipts can be relied upon to sustain acceptable levels in short-falls. City TLDs to be added to list of existing landmarks that create civic pride.

  18. @ CMD, Is easy and know that there is a filtration patent trademark, my question is whether this patent really keep running for gTLD or will only be valid for what to do now.

  19. Yes, the new gTLDs are sure to change the world … just as .mobi, .biz, .co, .travel and .jobs did (LOL). This is the biggest con of all time – the true beneficiaries are ICANN and the registrars and the US Government should have recognised this for what is is and knocked it on the head. It’s not what one would describe as a ponsi scheme, but you could certainly cakll it a “ICANNonsi scheme”.

    Best potential for a TLD I ever saw was .TV, a ccTLD, and look at the state of that now. With an extension like that, if .TV couldn’t change the dominant structure at the top of the TLD hierarchy, what chance have the upcoming vanity TLDs?!!

    The only gTLDs that will have any following will be the ones that reflect corporate names, and that’s because they will be used for internal purposes and for marketing. And even then, 99.999 per cent of companies that have their own .COM domain won’t bother with a gTLD. They already own the best – who bother with gTLD crap!

  20. This is a shill game and people should at least declare which side their on, a world of opportunity John Ferber ? For who ? not domainers.

  21. The new GTLD’s will fall flat. At best corporate companies might get conned into buying all the extensions, but most wont waste the time or money.

    I think they only one to survive might be the .city, but based on .la I don’t even know if that is true.

    If they charge $40 for the new domain extensions I am definately not hoping on board, but it might be worth picking up a few if they are <$15 in my opinion.

  22. The 4 big operators ie Amazon, Google, Top Level Domain Holdings & Donuts are going to dominate the market with a very likely entry by Yahoo through a takeover of Top Level Domain Holdings.

  23. EST 1 yr target date: $25….it’s at $5 now….if what John says is true about Yahoo taking it over, it is not worth acquiring, imo.
    Goldman Sachs holds 4.7% of shares of the London based company.

    • ….Elliot…I meant investing by individuals in the stock if Yahoo is about to buy the company. I think that Yahoo acquiring the company is impressive and a good thing, hopefully….as their homepage journalism isn’t up to par. But YahooFinance, is still one of my favorite Internet sites.

    • Patti, what are you talking about.

      The new gTLD’s are the biggest development in the internet since its inception. Google, along with Amazon, Donuts & Top Level Domain Holdings are the 4 biggest players.

      Google & Amazon are off limits and Donuts is tied in with Demand Media. That ONLY leaves Top Level Domain Holdings as a viable target for Yahoo to gain sufficient traction to compete with arch rivals Google and the rest.

      They can’t afford to not have direct involvement in the sector which could very well see explosive growth. It would absolutely be a perfect fit and as part of Marissa Mayer’s aggressive acquisition strategy.

      When its announced the share price of top Level Domain Holdings will absolutely rocket multiple times.

    • It appears Mayer’s long-term vision is out of focus and it seems as though she is disrespectful, especially when you read the homepage and articles allowed on YahooNews. If I remember correctly, she did not even give Google two weeks notice before she split.

      In terms of investing in Top Level Domains stock, sure the price will rise at the news and once the takeover occurs there will be no more TLDH stock, your investment will be watered down into the new company’s stock.

    • Are you serious?

      What would happen if you owned a stock and Apple (for example) bought you out at a major premium, due to market factors necessitating a price significantly over the market cap (lack of viable alternative targets for example).

      There may be no more TLDH stock for private investors, but the rewards for having sold would be a multiple on current valuation.

      Not really something to complain about and Top Level Domain Holding is the ONLY viable takeover target for Yahoo in that space.

      Antony & others know that.

    • Antonys in London in the next couple of weeks so hopefully he might let more slip out then. Lets hope as theyre all tight lipped atm

  24. My belief is most of these new domain extensions will struggle to gain traction and do anything but provide small businesses more opportunities to get a “better” custom domain name. However, when you consider how important it is to possess popular “key terms” inside of a domain name, this is where there are chances to rival if not outshine the royal .COMs. For example, .MONEY may not be a very highly valued domain extension overall, but the opportunity lies in how the domain is used to bring high traffic volumes to a site. Think about how many people search Google for “earn more money” or “need more money” on a daily basis. Obviously, the domain names earnmoremoney.com and needmoremoney.com are extremely valuable as they already possess these popular key terms in order. Therefore, someone possessing the domains earnmore.money or needmore.money may have a domain that is just as valuable if not more value than the almighty .COM as they possess the exact structure of key terms while including the extension! This exact same scenario could also be said for diseasefree.com and disease.free and thousands of other examples. To me, this will be the only way that the new domain extensions find major success in the domain market. They must possess highly popular key terms that will help drive traffic from search engines when that phrase or key terms are searched. Otherwise, they will simply be custom business names that will be used more for local/small business marketing and will not possess value to anyone else but the business using it.

  25. I would not use a name.wix.com or name.webs.com.

    Why I would pay for a .$?$&

    Wayback In time, I was usign something.freewebs.com.
    a Year after I bought the same Keywords .com! If you want people to look at you seriously.. .COM .COM .COM .COM .COM .COM .COM .COM .COM .COM .COM .COM

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