And make no mistake, it was truly awful. Eight new gTLDs entered the General Availability phase this week and their total day one registrations amount to 15,724. In other words, an average of less than 2,000 registration per new gTLD (1966, to be more precise).
Got these numbers from TheDomains and they are the result of data gathered from nTLDStats.com as well as RegistrarStats.com, with the highest value taken in each case (so for example, if nTLDStats had higher numbers for gTLD1 than RegistrarStats, the nTLDStats numbers were taken and if nTLDStats had lower numbers than RegistrarStats for gTLD2, the RegistrarStats numbers were taken).
Here are the new gTLDs which went live this week:
Dot Trade
Dot Bid
Dot Webcam
Dot Events
Dot Futbol
Dot Dating
Dot Partners
Dot Productions
The reasons, in my opinion, aren’t difficult to identify.
On the one hand, the costs are prohibitive for someone like a domainer who buys more than one or two domains. The best domains were either unavailable or had premium pricing and even for the ones which were available without premium pricing, the registration fee was on the high site. If you’re buying several domains, there’s a huge difference between paying $35-$40 or more a pop compared to what you pay for let’s say a dot com. And you’ll be reminded of that difference whenever renewal time comes 🙂
On the other hand, with a few exceptions, new gTLDs are barely promoted. Maybe the people behind them are trying to reinvent the wheel by proving that marketing isn’t needed, not a good idea in my opinion and this week’s results prove it. If you had dot co as a case study and still don’t understand the importance of promoting your gTLD, I’m sorry but there are just no excuses.
These two reasons alone should make it clear why this week’s results shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Registry operators could have gotten away with such a strategy during the first couple of new gTLD launches but now that the novelty has worn off, it’s just not going to cut it. With more and more gTLDs appearing each week, they really need to up their game in my opinion because otherwise, most new gTLD launches will end up representing a joke and a bad one at that.
June 12th, 2014 at 3:58 pm
One problem with investing in new TLDs is there are so many being launched in 2014. If there were one TLD being launched every year then it would be easier for domainers to digest the acquisition cost and renewals of a select number of “whatever they were able to get their hands on.” But with hundreds of new launches and premium pricing or renewals on the better keywords, only a very wealthy individual can afford to speculate here. Again, there will be no meaningful aftermarket for these for several years so can you afford those renewals until then? Thus far I am still on the sidelines while I market my existing portfolio.
June 12th, 2014 at 4:19 pm
3rd reason: Reality is sinking in.
4th: Schilling and obscure shell corporations woke up and stopped buying.
5th: XYZ scam and ‘poster boy’ scamer were exposed.(…but not glorified as the .link .tattoo .NotSexy = Schilling/ Not-Sound/Unregistry was….go figure!)
June 12th, 2014 at 5:17 pm
I put $7K into new GTLD’s from day 1, I stopped buying 3 weeks ago, as I realized this is just a money pit.
6th reason: NO CAP ON RENEWALS, read the fine print people, they can increase the price by 1000% year over year if they see fit.
7th reason: DILUTION, great webcam came out, when .webcams comes out the price of your domain will fall in value somewhat given the first half of it.
8th: I know .XYZ bullshit has been spoken for, but it needs to be said again, this just glorified what BS GTLD’s have become, make no guess about it, I spent $7K on them since .guru. So far I have not gotten an offer over $500, and these are on domains that have $250 annual renewals.
9th: Domainer fatigue, and burn out, domainers have been buying last few rounds, registries have been using their similar keyword trends, and tagging premium to them. Yes, guys like Berkens have money to splash around, but when they start pulling back, you got issues.
I do not feel gtld’s will be embraced as easily as we thought, I do not like the email side of them also. I only need to look to faltering .biz, and .us which would be highly sought after extensions if they were being released today, and their values in the past 3 years, and we can see where this ship is headed.
I learned the expensive way, don’t make the same mistake.
June 12th, 2014 at 8:35 pm
Reason #10 as to why they will fail: they are all dumb
June 13th, 2014 at 12:59 am
Very valid reasons quoted…
That’s why I only dipped twice: once for .guru and once for .trade.
It appears that the registries thought that the public at large, let alone domainers, follow their way of thinking.
No way, people are not stupid.
June 13th, 2014 at 1:40 am
Would have said .xyz is the main factor. I think this has taken a fair bit of gloss off the new tld market. I think people will be speculating with cooler heads for a while.
June 14th, 2014 at 6:28 am
You’re bang on regarding the lack of marketing. Donuts are just pushing out new TLDs every week without trying to sell them. I never saw the new gTLDs for domainers. For brands yes, for new websites yes, but this is like investing in diamonds the day De Beers will lose its monopoly