Ought to fresh TLDs be judged as startups or just top level domains?
How you view TLD firms frames how you view their success so far.
This stretch I received a note along with a press release from a fresh top level domain name firm. The note read:
In less than 11 months, Internet users worldwide have registered more than 3 million addresses in fresh Internet domains (gTLDs), exceeding even aggressive early estimates.
Cough.
More like “coming in lower than even pessimistic early estimates”. Especially when you consider that regarding 1/3 of these domains weren’t paid for.
Not many fresh TLD registries have planned for the typical TLD to have fewer than 10,000 registrations 3-6 months following their launch.
But this got me thinking regarding how to properly judge the success of fresh TLD firms. I think it comes down to this question:
Ought to fresh TLDs be judged as startups, or judged as a top level domains?
Judging fresh TLDs as startups
If you judge a fresh TLD as a startup, you give it more room to breathe. It’s going to take time for the firm to find its business.
I’ve been involved with a handful of startups, both as an investor and founder. It’s never easy. The first plan rarely works. Sometimes you’re ahead of the market, sometimes you’re behind the market by the time you launch your product.
For a startup, you expect them to spend much more in marketing than they take in at first. They’re building a subscription business, sinking cash in to create awareness and buzz that will pay off in the long run.
For an IDN TLD startup, they might be ahead of the market in terms of universal acceptance and awareness. They’re in it for the long haul (or they need to be!), understanding that it could take years ahead of they will see if it has all paid off.
When I look at fresh TLDs this way, I seriously consider investing in and joining one to help them build their business.
Judging fresh TLDs as just TLDs
Lots of top level domain names have come out over the past 15 years, especially when you consider branded ccTLDs.
Are TLDs just a product? If you judge fresh TLDs against top level domain names as a familiar, tried-and-true product, your evaluation might be very different. You can judge them much sooner against familiar metrics.
If you take this view, you probably view them as severely underperforming.
If you view them more like startups, you view them as businesses working to find and develop their market.
I think a lot of fresh TLD operators, especially those that came from the domain name business, view(ed) their firms as just selling the product of TLDs. They might need to change that viewpoint, or at least convince their investors to judge them more like a startup.
