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You've
got to hand it to Go
Daddy.
They didn't become the world's biggest domain
registrar by leaving a lot of stones unturned.
Go Daddy knows that the operators of the
hundreds of new gTLDs that ICANN
plans to start launching this year will
desperately need shelf space and promotion from
the top registrars - and no one dominates the
top like they do (almost 55 million
domains are registered at Go Daddy, more than
the next ten biggest registrars combined). |
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That
puts Go Daddy in the catbird seat and today they
started paving the way to cash in on that
position but hosting most of the major new
gTLD applicants for a Registry Days
conference at the company's Arizona
headquarters. A Go Daddy spokesman said more
than half of the more than 1,900 new gTLD
strings that have been applied for had
representatives at the meeting. While
the operators all feel the need to romance Go
Daddy, the giant registrar did its best to make
the aspiring registry operators feel appreciated
too. As a gesture of good will, Go Daddy
announced it was withdrawing its applications
to run two new gTLDs of its own - .home
and .casa - a move meant to assure their
new gTLD registry partners that they won't be
competing with them. The only new gTLD Go Daddy
is going after now is their own .godaddy
extension for internal use.
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.Com
Image from Bigstock |
In
another move, that is far more symbolic
than substantive, Go Daddy announced they
will also be taking the .com off
their logo, signifying their support for
new extensions by not promoting just one
in their logo. The reality is very few
well-known companies have .com as part of
the logo as it is simply not needed.
Since virtually all major
corporations own and use .com for their
websites, every one expects
that is where they will find the company's
website (that's why you won't see Go Daddy
moving off their .com site any time soon).
In a nutshell, that is the GIANT
hurdle that new gTLDs have to get over - a
hurdle that no other previous new gTLD
have fully cleared. |
That's
not to say that none will make money - some
will. Finding the right niche can be very
profitable and there is
certainly a place for other extensions. Go Daddy
is obviously looking forward to having a lot
of new inventory to offer on their site.
Odds are they will rake in more profits than
most of the new registry operators themselves.
It is completely understandable that Go Daddy
will want to give the new gTLDs a big push
- like everyone else, they are in business to
make money. Still,
some of the wishful thinking coming out
of today's meeting strikes me as being based on
something other than reality. Go Daddy CEO Blake
Irving was quoted as saying, "As the
world is moving away from a .com world,
we are changing our logo to remove the .com and
make it just Godaddy." I have seen no
evidence that the world is moving away from
.com. On the contrary, the world's most popular
extension continues to dominate the
competition by any standard and .com commands a
dramatically higher market share and prices than
anything else on the aftermarket - evidence of
how very highly valued the TLD remains.
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You
could put 100,000 new gTLDs out there
instead of 2,000 and I still don't think
there is any reason to believe
that any of them (or all of them
collectively) will be able to reverse
the massive public recognition and
acceptance that .com enjoys as a
result of the world's commercial Internet
users having spent billions of
dollars over the past 30 years
reinforcing the .com brand in the public's
mind, making it synonymous with the
Internet itself. No new gTLD nor all of
them put together, has that kind of
marketing budget.
That
said, I am hopeful that people will
make money from new gTLDs. A lot of
capital is certainly flowing into the
space and those who find or put themselves
in the right position (as Go Daddy and
some other sellers of the
"picks |
Money
bag image from Bigstock |
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and
shovels" are) will rake some of that
money in. However, until the new gTLDs
arrive and we have some real data to
consider, I wouldn't put much stock in hyperbole
when deciding what to buy. |
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I've
seen a lot of prospectors in previous new gTLDs
get badly burned after a lot of pie in the sky
promises never panned out. If you have been
around for awhile you have heard it all
before (many times before) and the world is
still spinning in the same direction.
Yes,
big changes are coming and change almost always
brings new opportunities - so it's
probably going to be a good time to be in the
game - the challenge will be to identify the
opportunities that are real and not just
yet another mirage.
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