Demand for domains

[aqls]

Shot in the dark estimates.

Suppose there are only approximately 50,000 really good domains under any tld.
and approximately 1,000,000 that are moderate to just above reg fee.

Suppose that each country only really has 2 or 3 main domain tld and country code slds (like .co.uk or .org.uk)

So given current pricing structure with .uk's at about £3.50 ish per domain per year.

For each cctld (or immediate derivative) it would cost about £3.5 million per annum to buy up just about all the worthwhile domains.

Assuming, that with the right resources, (i.e. a copywriting or news resource and some corporate web expertise) you could make just about every one of those domains cover their reg fee every year, and for the sake of argument, have those that do brilliantly cover for those that don't.

And, further presuming that with that sort of portfolio of traffic, you might interlink to form quite a powerful and well used search, independent of the majors to further leverage your asset to provide higher margin advertising income from your own visitors.

Then that is realistically within the budgets of a small to medium fund managers play money, and has some bearing on the sort of strategic argument that may be discussed when choosing to invest.

So, if, or hopefully, when, the fund managers do see the benefits of domains as a realistic asset class, then it will only take one or two of them to change the shape of the market.

It would also put pressure on the registrars to release further ccSLDs which would, if these calculations are anywhere near right, be snapped up within milliseconds of launch.

In the end, discussions would be had along the lines of "are there enough people to accidentally type in these names" and/or it would become a bigger playing field to get traffic to their portfolio of their domains.

SEO gone mega corporate.

In this imaginary world - yes - where would our existing portfolios fit in?

-aqls-

 

[charlie]

I suppose when this happens we, the early adopters, and those that had the funds and foresight (perhaps not me then ) to snap up the good names will ultimately come out on top.....but it could like you say swing the other way. Nominet and other governing bodies may decide to release further tlds to meet demand.

And if someone has the resources why not let them - they get a bunch of generics and increase the value like any market or share system - more demand higher prices.

in theory the options are endless as the combinations of words is unlimted so those who dont want to pay the demands of the sellers will just have to register .mybankloadcompanylondon.com...thier loss.

Generics, as we all know will become hot propery but more and more companies will be able to claim rights to names as they cotton on and start to call their businesses names like "bankloan" etc and gather up any newly released tlds? (game.co.uk)

With more and more tlds the way we search for and find domains would have to change - they may keep the existing top levels but add sub domains (similar the industry sections in our parking programs)?
mycompany.banking.co.uk....perhaps.
Remember we dont really own the domains we lease them from nominet so i suppose theres something in there that says they can change the offering at any time?

but again anyone looking would have to know what subdomain it was in ...perhaps we we;ll end up totally reliant on search engines and directories. this would seem very likely.

the simplest option is that second hand values of domains rises for the pure generics - if they want them they'll have to pay but this wont be such a problem as online and advertising increases and the price of prime spots like in newspapers becomes something advertisers demand.

which leads you to another age old issue .....what are advertisers going to pay for.....a nice pure generic or a high traffic site. Each one has its benefits
but which will appeal to the paying industy.

probably all b*llocks
mmm...interesting