Will .Web Become Best Selling New gTLD Extension?

I’ve been reading all about the .Web domain name extension. Andrew, Kevin, Mike, Konstantinos, and Theo have all shared their thoughts about .Web domain names. I also shared some thoughts about .Web domain names. It seems that the majority of people commenting on blogs and forums believe .Web is going to be very popular.

I am curious if you think .Web will ultimately become the best selling new gTLD extension. At the present time, there are more .XYZ domain names than any other new gTLD extension with about 6.4 million registered domain names. The .XYZ registry achieved this number over two years by offering many inexpensive (or free) domain names. Many people seem to think .Web is the best of the new extensions, and I would be interested in knowing if readers believe .Web will surpass other extensions.

In addition to the new extensions that are currently available for sale, other extensions that are coming on the market in the near future could also be competitive. I think .Blog is bound to be successful with the backing of WordPress, and .Shop may also prove to be a big seller.

In the next few years, do you think .Web is going to surpass other new extensions? Vote in the poll below, but more importantly, please share your thoughts about why or why not in the comment section.


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
  1. One thing I would say now is that I suspect the “.XYZ” joke will eventually fizzle out like the “pet rock” from the 70’s, notwithstanding the existence of Alphabet. There’s only so long before people see the emperor has no clothes. It can’t completely dies because of adoption by one or a few whales, but I suspect it will all but die for all intents and purposes.

  2. It’s the most universal and acceptable of all the gTLDs so it’s an absolute Yes and the deep pockets and experience of Verisign will make it explode.

  3. Remember what .xyz did with network solutions? Stuffing domains into account to match what they owned?? (not verisign)

    Verisign could do that with .web and stuff a copy into every account … let say at godaddy .. and easily get 50,000,000 1 year registrations .. they could easily eat the ICANN fee like the 135 million they ate to get the gTLD.

    NOTE: ICANN fee only about $10,000,000

    Renew rates of lets say 25% of 50 Million domains and at a low rate of $10 per domain … that is a cool $125 million for 1 year …

    Easy Peasy

  4. While I’m in no way against .web, I don’t see a compelling reason why it would “take off”. Lots of vanilla tld’s have hit the market already with modest registration #’s. If the registrars specifically push it and provide long-term visibility, then it might go the route of .xyz. Pretty close to .net.

    • Well Max, since Neustar didn’t get it, we can be confident Verisign won’t work as hard as they can to make it an obscure failure the public scarcely knows even exists and cares even less.

  5. I’ve always expected that .WEB would be the top-performing new gTLD, regardless of who operates it. Will it ultimately have the most registrations? Yes, I think so. The key word here being “ultimately”.

    As .XYZ and .TK have shown, a registry can achieve a very high count by dumping 1-penny or free domains on the market. And by stuffing domains into registrant accounts without waiting for any consumer demand whatsoever. Such stunts, if continued, might artificially inflate the numbers for some TLD or other, causing .WEB to lag for awhile. However, in the long run, I doubt any registry aside from .TK wants to give away its products for nothing. Those numbers are bound to subside due to the natural drop cycle and reach some equilibrium.

    We must wait a few years to see where .WEB ends up. After all, it must go through a few drop cycles itself before we can separate speculation from ongoing market demand. The biggest factor affecting registration volume is, of course, price. If .WEB is priced substantially above .NET, say, then it’s unlikely to be registered at the same rate. Still, I fully expect that we’ll see lasting market demand for .WEB above the demand for any other individual nTLD.

    Given some time, I think we’ll also see .WEB outpace the other nTLDs in terms of adoption – i.e. usage.

    Of course, Verisign could mis-manage the .WEB rollout in some way, limiting adoption; but, barring some unforeseen issues, that’s my prediction.

    Let me stress, by the way, that I also see room for other nTLDs to grow. .WEB’s debutante ball isn’t necessarily their funeral, despite what some domainers are saying. A domain like Net.Work or Off.Market (mine) is exactly as appealing (or unappealing) as it always would have been. Yes, .WEB cuts into the market, but the effect of that competition on the other nTLDs would be largely the same no matter who wound up owning .WEB. A consumer choosing a domain name doesn’t give a fig whether .WEB is operated by Verisign or by Web.com or by Google. They’ll still have exactly the same choices – .COM, .NET, .ORG, ccTLDs, nTLDs, and .WEB – no matter the registry. And they’ll choose according to their wallet, their own experience browsing the web, and their personal taste.

  6. Cannot see any valid reason why it will. It’s quite a benign extension whereas several of the others being adopted in the marketplace actually add value to the business name/focus.

    • Paul, the word you are really going for there is “banal” instead of benign, but your point is made. “Bland” would also do for monosyllabic.

      Yes, in that sense it’s similar to “.link” (sorry Frank), but both are good and both tend to “grow on you” though .web doesn’t need that the way .link does. Obviously .web outranks .link.

    • And in all fairness to .link, .site and .online belong in that same category too, with the latter being overly long. .Webs is simply ridiculous and $1 was about right if that’s accurate, and .website is a bit ridiculous overall as well though clearly not worthless.

  7. I think that (.web) will surpass all new gTLDs.

    I’m betting they will break general availability registration records for gTLDs when released to the public. I think Verisign invested $135M to make that happen. I’m convinced most of the new gTLDs are driven by domain speculators. Therefore, in 12-24 months, most of the new gTLDs will fold into bankruptcy as these domainers see the futility of renewing.

    In the near term, (.com) will shoot up in value as the demand for (.com) rises swiftly.

    …stay tuned.

  8. I’m a bigger fan of .Co than .Web, and it’s not close. The new extensions invite meaning into the entire domain name. .Web does not introduce more meaning but rather is redundant to the online experience. I see extensions like “agency” or “club” or “group” having more traction than “web” in 10 years. Co seems like a steal for many companies: it’s memorable and makes sense. And it’s general enough to be very popular (disregarding the hot and cold phases some of these new extensions seem to be cycling through in their early years).

  9. From-
    Paul,
    add value to the business name/focus.
    Zack,
    The new extensions invite meaning into the entire domain name
    memorable and makes sense.
    I agree with these points as I hear time and time again what consumers want is relevance. New G’s that are too general like .web will have a negative factor of UDRP’s if used independently. Individual New G’s more closely aligned with Paul and Zack comments will be winners. We have already seen decent sales of 10k+ for relevance in the New G’s.
    I doubt any New G will be a break out winners. I do believe there will be at least 20 top New G’s that perform well with relevance and will effect .com values.
    If I were Verisign and spent 135m for .web it would be for a “Platform” model rather than individual registrations.

    • Hello 168 ? Whats your real name ? Whats your affiliation? Why hide ?

      You are spreading Uneducated Marketing Strategies, in the Blogosphere for your own self interests. The REALLY SMART Educated Domainers are completely discounting your Flawed and misguided Marketing Strategy advice.

      Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger) (Former Rockefeller IBEC Marketing Analyst/Strategist) (Licensed CBOE Commodity Hedge Strategist) (Domain Master ) https://www.UseBiz.com

  10. I think there is no meaning and no valuable to the character itself of .web.

    Because domain name use the website, isn’t it ?

  11. Hello Elliot,

    All New TLDs have a huge disadvantage. Its called Google Ad Sense Marketing.

    You will find that 99% of all Google Ad Marketing Agencies are Clueless about the superior Marketing Strategies that All .COM Profit Centers embody. They got it wrong thirty years ago and continue their flawed Marketing Strategies to this day.

    They still don’t get that they lose their clients valuable Rustled Traffic within the Google Traffic Rustling Maze. Actually losing as much Traffic as they gain in the Google Ad System. Utterly Amazing to us that this is still being used by most Uneducated Online Advertising Agencies.

    If their Online website owners knew the truth of the matter, they would be Furious.

    There are two recipes for Online Business Failures:
    1. NOT owning a .COM Profit Center
    2. Using Google Adsense Marketing

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger) Former ( Rockefeller I.B.E.C. Marketing Analyst/Strategist) (Licensed C.B.O.E. Commodity Hedge Strategist) ( Domain Master http://WWW.UseBiz.com)

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