There Will Be Fewer New gTLD Defensive Registrations

In  Andrew’s opinion  (and I agree with the domain investor aspect), “if a new TLD operator wants to come anywhere close to the number of registrations that .mobi, .me, .xxx, and any other recently ‘launched’ TLD have, they’re going to need to count on both domainers and defensive registrations.”  I happen to disagree with Andrew regarding defensive registrations.

Before .XXX domain names were made available to consumers, many domain registrars sent “warning” emails to clients to recommend that they defensively reserve / register .XXX domain names so that others couldn’t use them maliciously. Because of the potential embarrassment associated with a brand .XXX domain name, many companies and people secured .XXX domain names to “protect” their brand. I don’t see the same thing happening with new gTLD domain names.

There are going to be hundreds of domain name extensions available within the next few years. By the looks of it, domain names are going to be on the expensive side, and most will certainly be more expensive than .com domain name registrations. I can’t imagine that most companies are going to go out and register hundreds of these new gTLD domain names for their brands. It would likely cost tens of thousands of dollars a year to protect just one brand, let alone a company that has several brands.

I want to show you what makes me believe this.

Right now, there are hundreds of ccTLD domain extensions, and most of the domain names can be bought by anyone, anywhere. Some like .ME, .TV, and .CO have meaning aside from the local ccTLD relationship. Google considers a number of ccTLDs as gTLDs, meaning a company in Boston can use a .CO domain name and will be listed in Google just as it would if it used a .com or .net. I suspect that many more ccTLDs will be considered to be generic by Google in the next few years, but that’s another story.

With that said, visit 101 Domain for a minute to search for available brand ccTLD domain names. Click the second search tab for ccTLDs and check off the European ccTLD tab because there are many searchable TLDs there. Search for brands like Realtor.ccTLD, RedSox.ccTLD, Johnsons.ccTLD, and Oracle.ccTLD. What you’ll notice is that there are a ton of available ccTLDs that practically anyone can buy now. Turn up the stakes a bit and look up “sensitive” brands like Citibank.ccTLD, HSBC.ccTLD, and Apple.ccTLD. Many unregistered large brands there, too.

If major companies haven’t registered ccTLDs for their brands, I hardly expect them to do the same for most new gTLDs. My feeling is that if Citigroup isn’t going to spend $52/year to register Citibank.SE, then the company isn’t going to worry about registering Citibank.whatever. Someone who wants to build a malicious website can likely do it on either of those domain names.

I do believe domain investors will be an important caucus for registry operators. Judging by yesterday’s poll results, domain investors don’t seem to be convinced that there is money to be made.

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

8 COMMENTS

  1. They will do defensive registrations if the GTLD is a U.S. type of GTLD name such as .store, .web, .app, .bank etc…and 100’s of others. They will defend their target market.

    • Do you think a company like Citibank will register:

      Citibank.horse
      Citibank.ceo
      Citibank.club
      Citibank.hotels

      They don’t own Citibank.travel.

      Do you think smaller companies will spend tens of thousands of dollars on defensive registrations? Companies like Publix, Kroger, Liberty Travel, Four Seasons…etc? I don’t think they will, especially considering they aren’t protecting their brands in available TLDs now.

      I edited this comment because I was incorrect, but Mike had commented in the meantime so it’s back:

      “Can’t they simply sign up for the trademark clearing house and prevent anyone from registering?”

  2. Maybe Citibank.club but not the others you listed. They will register the ones that make sense. There will be 100’s of choices and if we went through the whole list I think it will be crystal clear which ones they will and will not. They will probably also register the reverse of the ones that they use in their marketing. I am not sure if they applied for their own brand but if they have .Citibank and used loans.Citibank then I would think they would register the reverse which is Citibank.loans. This one is obvious but their will lots of good ones their marketing team will come up with and chances are they will register the reverse also.

  3. E-

    “Can’t they simply sign up for the trademark clearing house and prevent anyone from registering?”

    No it doesn’t work this way, guess I need to do a post since there seems to be confusion

  4. Borderline extortion to pay all these fees, and renewals, companies need to focus on running core businesses, and not worry about registering 2000 defensive gtld registrations.

    fail.horse is available for priority reservation!

    get it before anyone else!

    €1,199.95 priority reservation & 1st year registration —> Over $1500 USD

    ENOUGH SAID!

  5. Dot.Whatever
    Is.wasting
    Money.On
    Stupid.Stuff

    What.The
    Hell.is
    Dot.Sexy

    Why.There
    is.need
    For.Sexy

    Dont.We
    Have.Facebook
    to.show
    sexyness.to
    other.then
    Why.Frank????

    LOL.My
    Advice.Dont
    Burn.Your
    Money.Because
    GTLDers.will
    say.whatever
    it.takes
    to.sell
    their.extensions

    Even.If
    they.have
    to.say
    stuff.they
    know.is
    not.true.
    Because.Their
    success.is
    your.stupidity.

    You.snooze
    You.LOOSE!

    Goodluck, been there myself done that, so dont do it guys, I sometime disagree with rick, but this time, he is RIGHT ON it, dont do it.

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