Are domain extensions becoming irrelevant?

[tifosi]

So, Are domain extensions becoming irrelevant?

With the massive expansion in the gTLD's, pseudo ccTLD's (e.g. wales/cymru), brands tlds, and other generics over the next few years as well as probable/likely within the next 10yrs masses of city tlds and other generics the landscape is going to change massively. I've not even mentioned .uk but that's part of it.

The only people I see at present persisting with the .com will still be the primary domain name and will still have significant value attitude are the portfolio holders and domainers.

To the main in the street, the mom with a blog, business owner with a single domain, etc is it really going to be vital what the tld is going to be. On top of that is the way search engines are moving/developing. Will the tld become net neutral? More than likely.

It's a question many domain investors are quietly ignoring.I'm not saying the world is about to end and we'll all get sucked into a black hole, but the landscape will be significantly different in 10yrs from now - as it is now from 10yrs ago when broadband became mainstream.

 

[websaway]

Or are they becoming more relevant in the short to medium term ?

The more you dilute and confuse the more important the brand and easy recall become.

That is why brands have worked so well for hundreds of years.

The co.uk brand is now embedded in everyone's brain, it's time to promote it and reap the benefits amid all the confusion.

You only have to look at biz and info to know what the future is for the new tlds.

 

[Paullas]

.co.uk was the main cctld for the uk over the .com (my opinion) but due to nominets stupid .uk fiascos over the past year or so they have devalued the .co.uk brand. I also thinkg they have been trying to push .uk through before all the other .extensions investors and developers have dropped the .co.uk now and are waiting for the other extensions to be released. So i think nominet have by themselves killed the .co.uk brand, but then again is that what they wanted? are they wanting people not to invest anymore in .co.uk and want the .uk then more .uk = more money = bigger bonuses = more nominet trust investment.

 

[sdsinc]

I think new gTLDs are pointless, because they are a solution looking for a problem, and the landscape is dominated by .com and ccTLDs anyway. ccTLDs have a bright future. Most new extensions will fail.
Some extensions could thrive in niche markets (like .cat) but will have negligible market share.
For instance, I don't think .wales or .london or .whatever can be bigger than .uk, not to mention that .uk has been around for so long and has had a big headstart.
I'm confident and I will stay away from the crap that registrars are eager to start selling

 

[murph]

.co.uk was the main cctld for the uk over the .com (my opinion) but due to nominets stupid .uk fiascos over the past year or so they have devalued the .co.uk brand. I also thinkg they have been trying to push .uk through before all the other .extensions investors and developers have dropped the .co.uk now and are waiting for the other extensions to be released. So i think nominet have by themselves killed the .co.uk brand, but then again is that what they wanted? are they wanting people not to invest anymore in .co.uk and want the .uk then more .uk = more money = bigger bonuses = more nominet trust investment.

As someone that mainly buys domains to dev, I'm exactly in this position where .co.uk has so much uncertainty that I only think .com,(maybe .net) these days. I think .com will remain king despite the new tlds. They'll be seen almost as domain hacks...

 

[monaghan]

I don't think many people outside the geeks like us actually know the difference. Kids are taught at school by teachers who (to be fair are not taught how the Internet works and expected to get on with it) teach them to find what they want by clicking on the "Google Button" and looking down the list until they find it.

Many advertisers are giving out FaceBook or Twitter links or re-enforcing the school way of "search for XYZ"

 

[addz123]

The top tier TLDs and ccTLDs such as .com, .net, .co.uk, .de, .fr etc will remain in importance.

The TLDs that will massively decrease in value are 2nd tier domains such as .info, .biz, .mobi and .pro.

It's simple supply and demand. If you have 500 generic new strings launching for different industries then none of them will have any value. Even premium EMDs on new TLDs won't hold any value.

For example, how could even something like Fridges.shop be worth anything when there will also be Fridges.store, Fridges.online, Fridges.buy, Fridges.sale, Fridges.home, Fridges.site etc etc..

Furthermore, many of the new gTLDs which are unilaterally argued to be most successful are geo-city domains such as .NYC, .Berlin and .Frankfurt.

If Geo-city domains take off then it clearly keeps existing ccTLDs relevant and most likely increases their value as I see no way how .nyc can become successful without the same string .com increasing in value.

Unless you have a trademark for your brand, the only way to guarantee some sort of authenticity in the consumer's eyes is to own the .com or ccTLD, which has become the established de facto extension for brands.

Even though some of the world's largest brands are applying for their own brand TLD, the majority can't afford this.

You should read this I wrote: http://www.searchable.co.uk/how-successful-will-new-gtlds-be/

Here is a quick summary of the total number of registrations for the top gTLDs in 2013:

· 106 million – Number of .com domain names
· 14.9 million – Number of .net domain names
· 13.7 million – Number of .de domain names
· 10.1 million – Number of .co.uk domain names
· 9.7 million – Number of .org domain names
· 6.7 million – Number of .info domain names
· 2.2 million – Number of .biz domain names
· 1.5 million – Number of .co domain names
· 1.1 million – Number of .mobi domain names

The fact that .com has over 100 million registrations will indefinitely retain its place as the credible extension for brands in the consumers eyes. An industry-centric TLD such as .construction or .tennis could probably realistically aim for 100,000 registrations but no more (i.e. 0.1% of the visibility of .com).

New TLDs will also be higher priced like .xxx, which costs around $75 to register compared to $10 for .com or .co.