5 more experts weigh in: what do fresh TLDs mean for domainers?
What domainers ought to think regarding as the fresh TLD launch approaches.
Yesterday I published the comments of seven domain experts on what they think fresh TLDs will mean for domainers. Today I’ve rounded up five more experts from various parts of the industry.
Bob Mountain
Senior Vice President, Business Development at NameMedia
The introduction of fresh TLDs is probably the biggest change to the domain name space since the browser. Over the next 2-3 years users will be presented with thousands of fresh domain extensions. Near term we believe this will cause a lot of confusion and there will be a retreat to the safety of exiting TLDs, mainly dot com. Long term this has the potential to dramatically expand the size of the market, and to a certain extent reset the market by providing attractive generic and geo alternatives to the existingname space. Afternic is launching an innovative fresh program to help registries manage their Premium Fresh TLDs and we’re excited regarding the potential for both domain investors and end users. This is going to make our industry a very interesting place as the fresh TLDs play out.
Debra Domeyer
Chief Executive Officer, Oversee.net
The success of any given fresh TLD will depend on how aggressively the registry promotes it and how readily businesses and consumers adopt it. There is by now a lot of fresh TLD competition, excitement, noise, and even confusion in the marketplace. My prediction is that a handful of fresh TLDs will emerge as winners. For domain investors, the challenge is predicting or tracking and quickly identifying fresh TLDs with strong promotion and adoption trends. For the fresh TLDs that do emerge as winners, our industry will certainly benefit from increased registration, parking and aftermarket revenues.
Still, regardless of what happens with fresh TLDs, domain investors with premium domains in the top TLDs ought to not worry regarding declining value. Businesses will continue to look at these top TLDs as prime, coveted real estate. And direct navigation users will continue to use familiar, existing TLDs.
Tobias Flaitz
Chief Executive Officer, Sedo
Sedo is excited to see which gTLDs have been applied for, and how these will impact the domain market. Generally speaking, the success of any fresh gTLD will rely on its commercial relevance based on the marketing strategy and business model behind it. With a good foundation on this front, a fresh gTLD can capture public interest, become a go-to location for consumers, and result in an innovative opportunity. On the secondary market as a function of the primary market, only those gTLDs that have a highly visible presence during their primary registration period will have the potential to be successful. We’ve seen a great example of this with CO Internet, who have partnered closely with Sedo.
Juan Diego Calle
Founder and CEO, .CO Internet
I think domain investors will have to think regarding TLDs in a similar way to traditional domain investing. Will this name (TLD) appreciate in value? Does the industry/segment have strong/growing fundamentals? All that plus one additional (if not critical element): who’s running the TLD? Is the firm behind it credible?
Michael Berkens
Domain investor, Right of the Dot, and TheDomains.com
People certainly can’t point to a single launch of one TLD in the past and say well .museum and .aero didn’t work so these fresh gTLD’s are doomed.
With the brands and the media firms coming into the right of the dot space nothing that has come ahead of can be compared to what is to come.
I also think the Domainer community is downplaying the people that are coming into the space with tens of millions of dollars.
You’re talking regarding people like Bhavin and Div Turakhia who are unquestionably brilliant and successful, the Donuts guys, Minds + Machines, Demand Media.
The list goes on and on. Of course we can only talk regarding those who have come out in public, but they are exceptionally smart, highly successful people that are coming with huge checkbooks in hand and the volume of those types coming into the space ought to not be downplayed.
The effect on current domain holders in terms of current value is just a guess. A case could be made how current values will decrease in light of a huge fresh supply and choice while one can argue that all of the fresh choices will lead to consumers to default to what they know which is .com
