The debate over fresh TLDs at TRAFFIC
A lively debate – both on and off the stage.
Yesterday at the TRAFFIC conference, domain investors Rick Schwartz and Lonnie Borck squared off against fresh TLD backers in a debate over what fresh TLDs will mean for the domain name industry.
Tim Johnson of .kiwi, Jeffrey Sass of .Club, Frank Schilling of Uniregistry, and Monte Cahn of Right of the Dot sat opposite them.
It was a lively conversation in which Schwartz started by clarifying that “I’m not against dot-whatever. I’m like you, I’m an opportunist. I really don’t care what flavor opportunity comes in.”
On the topic of what fresh TLDs mean for .com, Frank Schilling noted, “As the owner of a lot of .com domains, I hope .com doesn’t go away.”
Schwartz pointed out that Schilling’s analogy to .com becoming like AM radio was different since FM became popular since it had stereo to offer. Schwartz stated fresh TLDs have nothing fresh to offer.
Schilling responded emphatically that they do have something fresh to offer, and .club’s Sass stated one of the things they have to offer is meaning.
But what regarding all of the previous “fresh TLDs” that haven’t really amounted to much? Schilling stated that’s in part since the fresh TLDs we’ve seen to date have all be subpar. .Biz, which was supposed to be a professional domain, has a z, so it’s not professional, .Mobi would have been better as .mobile. .Travel and .Jobs were too complicated to register and had restrictions. Ditto for .pro. Schilling stated .xxx was priced too high at $60 and the registry polarized the industry it supported.
To that point, Schilling compared namespaces to countries. Those that offer low taxes, low regulation, and a strong rule of law (so low registration prices, no registration restrictions, but protection against losing a domain) will prevail.
Schwartz stated it’s certain there will be a confusion factor. Over time that confusion factor will go down, but it will never go to zero.
Borck recounted his experience buying e.co $81,000 at an auction. He had gone to Fresh York to visit Elliot Silver.
“Ahead of I got into the car on my way to Fresh York I had never heard of .co,” he stated.
But since e.co was being auctioned off in Fresh York, he decided to go to the auction. He bought the domain and later sold it at a profit.
Interestingly, he stated if he had to do it all over again he would not have bought the domain. He stated it was a very big risk to buy a single domain in a “fresh” extension like that for so much.
Referring to fresh TLD applicants that haven’t been involved in the past decade of the ups and downs of the domain business, Borck stated “I think there’s going to be a blood letting.”
One of the money lines of the session came from .Club’s Sass. Responding to the reality that few people know that fresh TLDs are coming, he asked how many people knew what twerking was ahead of Miley Cyrus’ VMA performance? (Schilling raised his hand to much laughter.) Sass noted that it only takes one major event for people to become aware of something.
Although the onstage conversation was interesting, I’ve found the private conversations regarding fresh TLDs at TRAFFIC to be more interesting. Fresh TLDs are coming soon, and domain investors and service providers all have an opinion regarding them. They range from .com is dead to .com will take a modest hit to .com will increase in value to the world is ending.
I think the only thing we know with certainty is that a lot more people will be paying attention to the domain name industry over the coming year.
