Citing New Afilias Survey Retail Trade Magazine Says Consumers Have No Clue What New gTLDs Are

The article says that only 21% of UK adults and 22% of US adults are aware of ICANN's plans to release hundreds of new TLDs. While the website hints that those are scary numbers, I'm actually a little surprised they are that high at this stage of the game. While mainstream outlets have reported  on the impending arrival of new TLDs, the program in still mostly "inside baseball" that is really being closely followed only by domain and  internet business professionals. There is not much reason for the man on the street to take particular notice of them, especially since none have been released yet and full scale marketing is still months or years away. 

While awareness can still be raised, gaining trust - while it can be done over time - is a lot tougher hurdle to clear. The article said "the research revealed that 73% of UK adults would

prefer to visit traditional Web addresses...in the US, 61% of adults would prefer to use a “heritage” gTLD." That's a lot of people who indicate they might stay away simply because a website was based on an unfamiliar extension. If I was going to use a new extension in my business, that is a statistic that would worry me a lot more than how many are aware of the program today. It's going to take a lot of convincing to reverse that perception of new TLDs. Afilias Senior Vice President and CMO Roland LaPlante said, “Some of the world’s best-known companies will roll out a dot Brand extension, but our research shows consumers are unaware that these changes are coming and would avoid the new gTLDs due to their unfamiliarity. However, the new gTLDs offer consumers great benefits, such as reducing the risk of purchasing counterfeit goods online. Our research demonstrates that businesses need to seriously consider the ways that they will integrate the new gTLDs into their online strategies and how they will educate consumers about their benefits."

Roland LaPlante Afilias Senior VP & CMO

(Posted March 29, 2013)