.Tel Tops 100,000 Registrations
Fresh domain extension tops 100,000 registrations.
The fresh .tel top level domain name now has 100,000 registrations, just one day following launching in general availability, registry operator Telnic disclosed. That’s certainly a good start, but the true test will be if Telnic’s non-domain registrar channels can deliver.
If we assume an annual ongoing registration fee of $15 and that Telnic gets regarding half of that, 100,000 domains means $750,000 in revenue. With $35M invested in the firm and a pretty hefty annual expense, .tel will have to rev up that number to at least a million registered domain names in short order to create a meaningful return. .Asia, by comparison, had regarding 250,000 domains registered as of the end of November.
But let’s be honest, .tel is nothing like .asia. In fact, I wouldn’t really call .tel a domain name. It’s technically a domain name, but Telnic is essentially offering a service. It’s an online yellow and white pages on steroids. It needs to get to critical mass soon, or find a way to shoot up individual domain names in Google (which is a distinct possibility). If the latter happens, search marketers will be all over .tel.
