Fresh TLDs: is it an awareness, acceptance or demand issue?
Are domain registrants not aware of fresh TLD options or do they just not accept them? Or is there just low demand for each .com alternative?
My initial reaction to the underwhelming “out of the gate” registration numbers for fresh top level domain names this year was that it’s an awareness issue.
99.99% of people have never heard of fresh TLDs. Once they’re aware, they’ll start registering them.
Following taking a look at registrar search yesterday, I’m starting to wonder if the issue is actually acceptance instead of awareness.
It’s not the 99.99% of the public not knowing regarding fresh TLDs that matters right now. What matters is how many people searching for domain names to register are aware of them.
I think most domain searchers are aware of fresh TLDs.
Search for a domain name at GoDaddy and the top search results (following the matching .com) are fresh TLDs. They’re slotted ahead of alternatives like .net and .info.
So if I search for a domain at GoDaddy right now, I’m aware of fresh TLDs.
Right? Or do I never look at the suggested alternatives if .com is by now taken? Do I not accept alternatives to .com, so I just look for another domain.
I’m not sure. Startups have embraced alternatives such as .io, .co and .me. Will they start to accept other fresh TLDs once they see a hot startup using them?
I believe awareness in the general public is coming, and that will lead to an acceptance by domain registrants. When Realtors start using .realtor, Fresh Yorkers start to embrace .nyc and a brand advertises its .brand, then the public slowly becomes aware.
At that point, someone searching for HomeRun might register HomeRun.today since Homerun.com is taken.
Yet it will be a slow climb, which gets to the demand question. How many people every year register domain names related to construction or biking or plumbing? Not many. Once both awareness and acceptance click, people will consider these domains instead of .com. They will siphon off a sliver of the 30 million .com domains registered each year.
But how much of a sliver? Is there enough demand to be spread across all of these TLDs? Following all, there are only so many domain names related to each niche by now registered in .com.
Awareness, acceptance or demand?
