Over the weekend, I wrote about the number of registered .Dev domain names surpassing the 100,000 mark. I think the initial registration numbers are quite strong for this new gTLD extension. Maybe it’s because I am not in the development space, but I never would have guessed there would be any significant demand for .Dev domain names, and it looks like I would have been wrong.
That being said, just because a lot of domain names are being hand registered, it does not necessarily indicate that there will be an aftermarket for the domain names. Without an aftermarket, investing in a specific extension would end up being a waste of money and a waste of time.
I have seen and highlighted quite a few websites that use new gTLD domain names. I can see the utility in some of them. Rather than having a long and/or hyphenated .com, using another legacy extension, or paying a lot of money for a good .com domain name, a business can get an interesting new gTLD domain name at the registration fee. That makes sense to me. I don’t know whether or not I would use one for a business, but I might consider it depending on the circumstances.
That being said, just because a lot of people are registering a specific extension does not mean there will be buyers looking to pay a premium to acquire previously registered domain names via the aftermarket. I think businesses and people may choose a new gTLD domain name specifically to avoid paying a premium price for a domain name. There have been some big sales reported, but it seems that most of them were closed by the registries rather than domain investors.
There may appear to be strength in some of the registration numbers for specific new gTLD domain names, but it still does not necessarily mean there is money to be made on the domain investment side.
My background is a bit unusually diverse and I worked in IT before as a bona fide developer of sorts whose creations a lot of people depended on for some very important things. Pretty sure I even occasionally used the term “dev” on my own initiative.
That said – I hate this extension and wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. The most I would do is take some for free, but even that would be a bother.
And as far as the aftermarket goes, well Estibot and friends are certainly doing everything they can to ruin that imho:
https://imgur.com/gallery/4INYuNF
😉
Sperry probably sells 100,000 pairs of Top-Siders each year to new consumers who think sailboat shoes can be worn in the city with no socks.
LOL – great analogy.
Nailed it. .dev is not investible!