DomainReport.ca
First off Happy Thanksgiving to all those in the USA celebrating today! One of the things domainers who had short .com's at the start of 2015 need to be thankful for is all the Chinese buyers who showed up this year with big budgets. Those 'crappy' letter LLLL.com and NNNNN.com you might have had a year ago today, wondering what kind of future they would ever have but you still held on for some reason, are now able to give back some holiday spending money, a year end profit, and maybe a nice family vacation.
The Chinese Domain Invasion of 2015 is the big story of the year. A lot has been written on it, and many profits have been made on domains that you could get for reg fee price just a year or two ago (even a few months ago!). The impact of this to domainers must have been what the British Invasion felt like in the 60's to music lovers.
I think the next big story of 2015, leading into 2016, will be what happens to all the new gtlds that were registered starting about a year ago when they all began their rollouts. Some of the ones I know that are coming due include:
.PROPERTY
.PIZZA
.COFFEE
.BUSINESS
.DENTIST
I'm sure many wish they had spent those new gtld dollars on rounding up LLLL.com and NNNNN.com's at the end of 2014. How much farther we all would have been ahead!
I think domainers will be looking over their new gtld's with a new set of eyes, keeping their best and letting others drop. I'm guessing more will be dropped than kept, but maybe not.
Some of the things that make it hard to continue holding new gtld's:
- Limited aftermarket. If you haven't had any inquiries in a year on that great new gtld you registered, then it might be hard to renew, especially if you can allocate those funds to something else. Sales have been spotty, and often it's the best of the best that sell.
- Many new gtld's have $20, $30, $40 or higher renewal prices. Hard to compete with .com and others at $8 renewal. Good on those new gtld's that are keeping their renewal prices competitive.
- Other places to spend that renewal money. Short numeric and letter domains in .net, .org, .xyz, .info etc seem to have interest picking up. Some of those have first year renewal prices that are crazy low, so easy to enter that game.
The new gtld's may just need more time, many of their proponents even say it's a 5 to 10 year game for mass recognition and adoption. To me, some Black Friday new gtld renewal specials sound like a good idea right about now.
So if you bought new gtld's in the past year, will you be renewing most of them as they come due?
-----
First, let's clear something up. I think the gtlds are pure trash and totally worthless. That said, yes I have a few, but only because they were given to me for free during a giveaway promotion.
ReplyDeleteHave I received any interest in them whatsoever? No. Have I considered publishing to them? No way. What about using them for email? Ha, again, no way.
Will I be renewing them for more than the price of a .com? Nope. Would I renew them for less than the price of a .com? Highly unlikely.
Do I think the gtld is a waste of time? Very much so. Looking forward to seeing the thoughts of others.
.com is for dinosaurs! :D
DeleteOne of the issues I'm sure many domainers have is that they bought a bunch of new gtlds at landrush, and they are probably decent names, hoping to sell a few to float the bunch through renewal. If that didn't happen, do you spend $30 each to renew or not?
ReplyDeleteI will renew all of my new g's and look to buy more. I have a 10 year + outlook and I don't see any reason to abandon ship. If anything, I'm encouraged by their acceptance in the marketplace and I look forward to seeing some of the brands start using their new extensions.
ReplyDelete[disclaimer: I am the Technical Evangelist for Rightside, registry for ~40 new domain extensions. That probably is a clear bias. Also, my thoughts below are my own and not those of Rightside. I'm on Thanksgiving break, so this is just Hungry Sean talking ]
ReplyDeleteI agree that the road is long and that, if you are looking to do a 7 figure sale on a new domain extension in 2016, it may not happen. With that said, I have personally sold new TLDs in the aftermarket. Were they for the amount I would have gotten for the same .COM? No. But the aftermarket is there and, with the additional available real estate in new extensions, the opportunities are larger for newcomers.
In fact, you have said it yourself, as have other blogs, .XYZ and .CLUB are darlings right now and are selling well both in premiums and in aftermarket. Both are, in fact, new extensions.
As for Rightside, the numbers on .NEWS are pretty incredible. As are the organizations that are buying and implementing them. .ROCKS and .NINJA, as surprising as it may be to some people, are consistent in great numbers as well.
As has been said before, this is a long haul, not an overnight takeover. With .COM, you have a steady, legacy concept that isn't going away soon. But this doesn't preclude the success of the new domain extensions. They are complimentary to existing .COMs in branded navigation and in more clear definition of the target content.
Renewal rates for new extensions have been higher than .COM for a while now. This could be for many reasons, but I feel it is because there are more opportunities for shorter, more clearly branded strings.
Thanks for the article and I am excited to see what the future holds!
William and Sean, good to see that you are determined. Am also holding on new gtld domains coz I know they are GOOD and I'll succeed. For those who think the new gtld domains are worthless, and may be they've tried without receiving request, or advertised without selling, the problem might be the NAME ITSELF. The name might have not connected well with the extension. Look: this year Transfer.Money sold for $90,000, Vegas.Club sold for $100,000, Wine.Club sold for $140,000, and there are countless of new gtld domains sold for around $2000 that were registered for less than $40. How about 7-10 years to come? The price will be higher. Well I don't know what those who have given up on the new gtlds because they haven't sold registered.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this is what I would say,... Domaining in the new gtlds for good figures, like Sean put it, it's not now, or in 2016. As business is concerned, these are new gtlds which have poured in, and consequently, the demand for the new gtld catchy domains in the aftermarket is still low. This is just common sense! Some have already sold a few, even though not in 7 figures, just like Sean has testified.
It's not like buying apples from the garden, transporting them the next day, then you sell them the third day and pocket the profit. Be patient like William. If you happen to make some cash in 2016, or 2017, it's good, but focus on some years a head.
I have been domaining for many years and certainly my .com domains are selling better than any other extension. However, I too have registered domains other than .com for investment. I use a strategy that incorporates metrics, and, with what I believe is sensible to the average end user. I do believe that a few of the new extensions are naturally comfortable to say, type and just make plain sense. I do feel a bit that some of the new extensions are silly and not very good, but I also believe that these extensions will ultimately boost the value of .com domain names. I do not believe that anyone PREFERS an alternative to the .com name of their choice. Most end-users seem to buy alternative extensions because they cannot get the .com or can't afford the .com...yet. Of course, I could go on about seo and development, but I think we all know the challenges alternative extensions face until with seo and search. Just my thoughts.
ReplyDelete