Jason Schaeffer (who is on quite a role defending domain names in UDRP proceedings) shared some information about the .Tube domain name extension that I want to share with you.
The .Tube extension is owned by a company called Latin American Telecom, LLC whose founder is Rami Schwartz. Rami came up with the idea for .Tube in 2007 when he purchased approximately 1,500 (keyword) tube.com domains and built individual channels. Since 2010, Rami and Jason worked together to win the rights to the extension, and prevailed against both Google and Donuts in a private auction in 2015.
According to Jason, .Tube is positioning themselves as “the domain for people who create, watch, and share video.” Jason told me that he believes that their .Tube domain names “are a great investment, given the association of the word ‘tube’ with video and the crazy growth of the medium.”
Jason let me know that they created a branded .Tube Theme and “Video Curator” Plugin for WordPress that can be used to quickly launch a video gallery website on .Tube domain names. The plugin lets users grab videos from YouTube or Vimeo and create WordPress posts with one click.
Here’s what Jason told me about why they are offering this plugin tool:
“We’ve been working to bring more than just a domain name to market–we want to give people the ability to create their own channels and make money for themselves and build something new. We expect people to continue to use YouTube, Vimeo, and Twitch (with an integrated streaming option to come soon after GA) and other hosting as well. Now you have the chance to control the engagement and manage the data and content because you own the site.”
Although Jason is actively working with the .Tube extension, he is still engaged as an attorney in the domain space. “While I’m still helping domain owners protect and manage their domain assets at ESQwire.com, I’m very excited to help bring a new gTLD to life,” he told me.
General availability for .Tube domain names begins on July 7, and .Tube domain names will be available to purchase from most domain registrars.
Laughing out loud over how much I don’t care about this domain.