GoDaddy flying high with BusinessJet.co?? Lead vs GOLD! Let’s Rumble.crap!

Morning Folks!!


Let's get DEEP in it today. Let's get in the weeds. Let's get to the costly numbers. Let's stop closing our eyes to reality because it does not dovetail well with the business of business. The truth is gonna hurt and some will lash out. But they never lash out with FACTS. They only lash out with emotion. Danny is about to piss you off big time!


GoDaddy flying high
with BusinessJet.co


By Danny Welsh
Gosh almighty, Godaddy...you mean all I have to do is have one great idea and
pay a few bucks to have it protectable FIRST and I'll be the one 20 years later
rich and laughing in my BusinessJet.com?
Sweet! Let me hop in my handy dandy
time machine so I can compete with the 500 who really WERE there first
,
staking their claim on 24k gold before anyone had even thought of covering lead
in gold plating to sell for the same price, and are now increasingly traveling
around IN that private jet TODAY.
Translation: If you own the best .com domain names such as those available
for hand registration in 1993, Godaddy running their .co commercial will make
you richer in 2013 without you doing a damn thing
. Of course they'll make
their own money, and God love ‘em for selling as many .co's as they can until
folks realize the flux capacitor is broken and there ain't no time machine.
That's capitalism and in the capitalist system anything can be sold.


There are probably
more employees at Godaddy right now pulling down a weekly paycheck than there
were guys like Rick Schwartz in the entire world 20 years ago
.
And those folks at registrar companies have families and I wish them well. Most
who work at them are fine people, and I have several saved in my cell phone by
name that I'd give an opportunity to in a heartbeat if they asked.


But the majority of
employees who work at a domain registrar simply do NOT know the difference
between YourBigIdea.com and YourBigIdea.co when there is a WORLD OF DIFFERENCE.


And so we’ll have the blind leading the blind with the sales
of .co and 1800 other www.left.right
changed domain extensions increasingly pushed by folks who are simply doing
their job and happy to clock out and get back to real life…EXCEPT that there is evidence RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES that
Godaddy’s EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT knows they’d be LOSING MONEY to advertise
YourBigIdea.co as their “branding” without first having secured YourBigIdea.com
to protect them
.


Fact is, registrars can sell .whatever domains all day long
and make money.


You may not have
realized it, but the GoDaddy’s and Google’s of the world are gearing up to GIVE
AWAY DOMAIN NAMES all day long and they will make money
on the hundred
products they want to sell that small business customer from email to hosting
to website templates and so much more.


And their pitch will be like a siren song. I just won't be
betting MY family's future on any old WHATEVER gamble that’s not proven to add
value and INCOME to a BUSINESS.
Simply put: Any businessman or woman in
2013 seeking a domain name for their business and their great idea to have a
chance to become a great business can now easily find FACTS having been
reported in mainstream business publications, that .com will remain the gold
standard among all domain name extensions
...and that realization is a big
part of what’s going to make generic .com’s available only to use for highest
and best use ideas among companies that seek to WIN...not just to play not to
lose...


To believe that making your business’s home on a website.co
domain name will “save you money” is simply hope and wishes and lollipops when
'the 500' have math and human nature and facts that say different.
When we have MATH that says
up to 61% of PRODUCT.co's traffic or BRAND.co’s traffic can go to the same
PRODUCT.com or BRAND.com. If PRODUCT.com is owned by a competitor and you go
forward with PRODUCT.CRAP anyway then you’re a fool or you have a HOBBY and not
a business. If it’s owned but not being used for a “real” business at this time
then you’re setting up a FUTURE BUSINESS to be able to siphon off your
customers one by one at will.


(and don’t try to
hide it)


Is it the 123 Main STREET retail store owner’s FAULT that when a future
retail store opens at 123 Main AVENUE
and spends money advertising, folks ready to buy now show up at his
competitor’s store confused every day when they can’t find it?

When we have observations on HUMAN
NATURE
that says if you want to create a successful business on a
PRODUCT.co commodity, you will have a silent PRODUCT.com partner earning money
daily with that asset from the sweat of your brow and you don't get a damn
thing in exchange for it.


(and don’t try to
hide it)


When we have FACTS that say
one is speculative gamble and another is an earning asset.


(and don’t try to
hide it)


Don't blame the guy whose $100 bet became an investment worth
millions 20 years later. EVERY .com domain name that is undeveloped IS
available to be developed. You just have to make the owner and offer he/she
can’t refuse.


As the Godfather would
say, 'just let me wet my beak.'

If you want a dot com asset, you better be prepared to pay asset prices or give
up some income from your company as you grow. If you want a commodity, you're
soon going to be able to buy 1800 www.domain.imitations as more extensions roll
out.
There are no losers when you have your great idea and you put resources behind
bringing that great idea into the world as a great business, and even the end
user who makes the WRONG choice to build a business using .co or any other
alternative extension IDEA instead of the .com IDEA that is proven…theyt can
still make sales, make money and win. If you do your due diligence on this
question, you’ll realize just what I did….


It will be an uphill battle trying to build something
magnificent on a foundation of SAND. And
for what? For whom!?


To save a some
money?
That’s short-term thinking when facts show the greater you
succeed, the more money you will LOSE if you get this part of the online
business equation wrong.


To save face at a
stockholder's meeting?
LOL, ask the hotel chains how that worked out
for Hotels.com when they had a chance to buy it and snubbed their nose at
OWNING THE LAND CHEAP less than they now pay MORE per month to RENT ADVERTISING
SPACE on the side of the skyscraper erected on that land. Ask them now what
they think of Hotels.com and the opportunity they muissed forever, what chance
in HELL they have to ever own Hotels.com short of BILLIONS now that the great
domain name has been married to a great BUSINESS.
In business there are bets and their are investments.


With sales of .whatever registrations for a domain to use in
a business…GoDaddy (and Google to come) is selling bets that MAY 20 years down
the road or more have investment grade value in the market.


And many domain name speculators will buy them hoping
they’ll pay off like a lottery ticket. But we doubt that will ever happen and there isn’t a .co domain in the world I’d
spend my money on advertising as part of my business strategy if you gave it to
me for free
...


I’ll leave this post today with how I started it.


Gosh
almighty, Godaddy...you mean all I have to do is have one great idea and pay a
few bucks to have it protectable FIRST and I'll be the one 20 years later rich
and laughing in my BusinessJet.com?


There are 500 laughing in the chair on that private jet
because they got there first and had your great idea 20 years ago. Right now
the world sees them as somehow having done something wrong. They were smart, worked hard, took risks,
and got a little lucky.
They are visionaries, and history will bear that
fact out as the 21st century continues to unfold. Don’t revile them.
Just let them help you make more money and give them a fair share.


Or trust your future to Google and a made-up domain.crap
while domain.com gold lies unused.


Do you have 20
years to wait while you hope BusinessJet.co will ever get off the ground
without sending 61 cents of every dollar you spend on advertising to enrich a
competitor that owns BusinessJet.com
?


I didn’t.


I’m too busy flying first class, having made a possible
future competitor my ally, and a possible obstacle among my greatest
advantages, and a branding tool that was sitting unexploited my immediate edge
over bigger companies with more resources than my start-up.


If you’re looking at GENERIC.com vs GENERIC.co you have the
same choice.


Don’t say years down the road no one told you so.



Danny Welsh
JointVentures.co
JointVentures.com




38 thoughts on “GoDaddy flying high with BusinessJet.co?? Lead vs GOLD! Let’s Rumble.crap!

  1. viman

    Great post. COM’s will always have a higher demand and value than any other extension. I see this on a regular basis where some of my clients based in UK prefer a .com rather then co.uk or some other new extension.
    When they cannot find a suitable .com – only then they consider co.uk. Why? Because the general public relates with .com, co.uk, .de, etc extension. .CO is way down the line to them – in fact they dont even know the extension.

    Reply
  2. Rick Schwartz

    “If PRODUCT.com is owned by a competitor and you go forward with PRODUCT.CRAP anyway then you’re a fool or you have a HOBBY and not a business.”
    Those”Fools” will become unhinged today after that. How can anyone in their right mind not understand losing 61% of all your business. Not just ad dollars.

    Reply
  3. cm

    I have to look at what my address bar is telling me.
    Seems .com button or .whatever button is no longer needed.
    New technology has already muted things in the past and is now dimming the lights on other things.
    Right of the dot is dimming. Right of the first letter typed and each keystroke that follows gets the spotlight.

    Reply
  4. Jack

    The”61%” figure has surely become a magic number. The reality is this:
    1. .com is over 30 years old, .co’s been around for 3 years, so its like comparing an adult to a child
    2. GENERIC.com vs GENERIC.co – one of them is like a thousand times more expensive than the other, which means:
    A. not everybody can afford”the better one”
    B. buy .co and spend the rest on advertising?
    “.com is king” how many times I heard that? But every king dies eventually. Just look at Yahoo.com example. One thing is (almost) certain: after this weekend the awareness of .co existence will increase.
    I wish I could afford a single, dictionary .com’s as I can afford .co’s . Am I wasting money? Time will show

    Reply
  5. Rick Schwartz

    “2. GENERIC.com vs GENERIC.co – one of them is like a thousand times more expensive than the other,”
    Jack, I just don’t see it that way. I see plenty of .com domains between $500 and $1000 that are domains that work. I just think folks give up too quickly or expect too much. There is a happy balance. That is why the PERFECT way to buy a domain is make it self funding. Have your IDEA pay the note. No out of pocket $$. Revenue neutral. That was the way I bought many of my first domains. It still works.
    Anyone looking at it would get very sick if they saw the amount of $$$$ they will lose over a lifetime by this single decision. A single bad decision. Building a foundation on sand that may wash away.

    Reply
  6. ri.sk

    I am a believer in .com, but to deny other TLDs
    in this way is just plain crazy…
    But since this thread is all about ‘facts’, let
    me introduce one; the overwhelming majority of
    ‘domainers’ have little-to-no business experience
    yet they want to shoot their mouth off to anyone
    that will listen.
    Being lucky because you regged a bunch of great
    names 20 years ago is great, i’m happy for you.
    It doesn’t qualify you to start talking about
    business and marketing in a credible way ‘though!
    And so what if there’s a little ‘bleed’ to the
    .com??? Who on earth believes that this ‘traffic’
    would ever convert, to any meaningful degree. I
    don’t, and know that this traffic is exceptionally
    poor quality.

    Reply
  7. Rick Schwartz

    ri.sk
    I am afraid domaining is not my opening act nor will it be my closing act.
    Been in business for 40 years. I know what makes a clock tick and telling the time 2x a day ain’t one of them.
    I am not denying anything but folks have to eat TODAY not in 20 years. My 20 years was instead of investing in stocks and other assets not as a business. I knew in 20 years it would become many businesses. But I did not open up up back then. I invested. These folks are doing the opposite. And since there is ZERO DEMAND for the new gtld’s they have to invent demand. Good luck with that.
    Not only don’t we have to swallow, we can resist and resist hard.
    Need, want desire pal. I look at it through the eyes of a friend or relative running a business on Main Street or in the world of business. I would do everything in my power to explain why he will be working harder for less for a lifetime unless he is LUCKY! That’s the only part of the equation that Luck comes into play.
    When you understand simple folks and simple marketing and simple radio spots and simple messaging you will sell a whole lot more than aiming for the PHD’s of the world.”Cute” usually does not market well. You handle is”Cute” but it won’t market well. Sorry. That’s just how I see it.
    Domainers come from very diverse backgrounds and you underestimate the top 500 while overestimating the masses.
    Also, can’t you see the shift we are making from talking to domainers and now talking to end users? That is the key from here on and The top 500 are multi talented while the vast majority are running and looking for the second coming.
    That traffic WILL convert if they have the same items in the same industry. So it seems you are the one not that knowledgeable about traffic. Plus who cares about WHERE it leaks to. The point is there is a leak and no smart captain would ignore it.
    A lot of you folks are very invested in something that so far has not proven to be. I can’t help that. I can only alert an end user not to swallow the bait because it will LIKELY be the biggest business mistake of his/her life.

    Reply
  8. ri.sk

    Thanks for your reply.
    You say:”And since there is ZERO DEMAND for
    the new gtld’s they have to invent demand.
    Good luck with that.
    Not only don’t we have to swallow, we can
    resist and resist hard”.
    No one has to”invent” demand, it has always
    been there!.. If you doubt that, ask yourself
    which identity you would have gone with back
    in 1990… bostontravel.com or boston.travel
    The fact is, one is infinitely more intuitive
    than the other AND Internet users are now much
    more sophisticated (in their interactions with
    the web) then they ever used to be and are quite
    content to see new, and potentially much more
    potent brands, come on the market.
    I agree with your comment about the ‘radio test’,
    however, and will admit that some alternative
    names will fall down in this area.

    Reply
  9. Puckerhuddle

    Why do card counters play Blackjack???
    Disciplined mathematicians know that a skilled and disciplined card counter can slightly bend the odds against the house in the game of blackjack. Even though the advantage is ever so slight in the players favour, the casinos understand (because they make business decisions based on math and facts) that it cannot be allowed. They spend big money to prevent anyone from manipulating the odds.
    Why? scalability, Loosing a few dollars on a $5 min bet table is not going to make much difference to the bottom line. Having multiple players betting thousands can.
    The internet provides an ability to scale that many of us cannot fathom or fully understand yet. A small advantage on a large scale makes for some interesting numbers.
    Take your pick”by the numbers .com” or”luck of the dice .craps”

    Reply
  10. ri.sk

    “That traffic WILL convert if they have the same
    items in the same industry”.
    Hmmm. If you say so… In any event, I recommend
    that businesses, who are considering a non .com
    name, generally steer clear of generics so they
    don’t have to suffer hearing the .com owner attempt
    to blackmail them…
    (Incidentally, lets have a big old chat about all
    those lovely generic .com’s that you read so much
    about in the news… There must be hundreds!….
    Amazon.com, for instance, they are sure to fail
    because they don’t use books.com, surely!).
    But even if a .com owner was able to blackmail a
    guy who owned the same name, albeit in a different
    TLD, don’t you think that little loophole can be
    closed down;
    Now, via less ambiguous marketing, on the part of
    the promoter, and..
    Later, through the general public’s familiarity
    with a 1001 new TLD’s??
    After all, many of those 1001 TLD’s WILL be marketed
    extensively.. It won’t just be ‘domainers’ owning
    them.
    So, what WILL happen when the public becomes familiar
    with non. com? (in a 1001 different ways)..”progress”, that’s what happens :-)

    Reply
  11. Rick Schwartz

    Nobody is stopping progress and I don’t see progress as anything but opportunity.
    Problem is the consumer is in charge of how that progress works and that progress may be no progress at all just another money grab. Remember one thing…..Not a single consumer complained about not enough extensions. Not a one in 7 BILLION.
    So this is something CREATED that others have already CREATED and few have gotten any traction.travel.mobi.crap
    X 1900. Please. It has no bearing on the consumer. The consumer could care less. Unless you give them something specific and special and what they need. That’s the missing battery.

    Reply
  12. Anunt

    Dot com values are going down daily…
    Stop dreaming and wake up to reality…
    FOR PROOF: Put your dot com domain for sale right now
    and see how much someone is willing to pay…
    I bet you will get LESS money for your dot com today than yesterday..,
    Each day that passes, domain values are going down…
    This is a FACT…
    You dreamers can keep dreaming…
    But Numbers Don’t Lie, People do…

    Reply
  13. UFO

    What will happen is deadbeats will buy extensions that they could never properly develop. They’ll in the majority be wannabee dreamers.
    When renewal comes up they’ll drop them like flies.
    One thing though, if your selling position ISN’T highly correlated to the strength of your domain name and you have a USP based on technical issues etc etc etc, then buying a cheap alternative may well be ok. But any domain name purchaser when looking at their full cost of development (Website build costs, Advertisements etc) should realise that they will likely lose enough trade to have made the .com purchase a worthwhile decision.
    The only way .com will lose out is if all the major corporates switch and start advertising random extensions, and they won’t do that for a number of reasons I have previously mentioned in other posts.

    Reply
  14. Anunt

    Dot com is old school…does not look fresh…
    New gTLDs are the way of the future…new FRESH look…
    dot com is meaningless … an extra word without much meaning…
    Type-in traffic will not be as important in the future…people will move to search, apps, and other new future inventions…
    bye bye dot com…thanks for making me rich…time to move on now!!!

    Reply
  15. ri.sk

    I don’t want to antagonize ‘.com’ owners, necessarily,
    but the truth is that ‘.com’ domains are, increasingly,
    seen by companies as a kind of synonym for the 1990’s.
    This isn’t my opinion, it is what companies tell me on
    a frequent basis. Many of them don’t actually want a ‘.com’
    (at any price) as they are looking for a fresh, new, identity
    that synergizes with a younger (paying) audience.
    THAT is the primary reason why some of the new gTLDs will
    do well…
    Will all of the gTLDs do well?.. No, some gTLDs are terrible.
    Are business owners who decline a”.com” identity acting fool
    -hardy?.. No. Some business owners WILL make mistakes, but the
    over-whelming majority know their market very well and they
    simply do not need the .com…
    The”trust” element of a ‘.com’ is highly debatable anyway, and
    as for that other (much mooted) element of value, type-in traffic,
    they can simply put a dollar value on that and determine a name’s
    REAL value from there…

    Reply
  16. Brandon

    I couldn’t agree with you more Danny. One company that I can think of who bet really big and put lots of money behind a .co was Overstock.com, anyone seen an O.co commercial on tv? There logo is back to overstock.com now again. They should have spent the millions that they spent on tv ads on some related category killers.
    In my opinion these .co .us and other extension domains are for guys who don’t want to buy a proper domain and want to try to buy a seo optimized domain. There will probably be exceptions to this rule and a few of these extensions might be developed into something profitable like with anything but money isn’t made in the exceptions.

    Reply
  17. mjnels

    “Nobody is stopping progress and I don’t see progress as anything but opportunity.
    Problem is the consumer is in charge of how that progress works and that progress may be no progress at all just another money grab. Remember one thing…..Not a single consumer complained about not enough extensions. Not a one in 7 BILLION.
    So this is something CREATED that others have already CREATED and few have gotten any traction.travel.mobi.crap
    X 1900. Please. It has no bearing on the consumer. The consumer could care less. Unless you give them something specific and special and what they need. That’s the missing battery.”
    ..this point is made very often. a few dozen TLD’s have been released and the consumer remains largely unaware of many. however, i think part of the point you made above actually makes the case FOR new gTLD’s gaining traction (at least a few)… 1,900 is a FLOOD compared to a tiny droplet of water.
    also, the point about it being a money grab..in the grand scheme of things that is irrelevant. its not my money. watch from the sidelines and let them fight it out. there are too many factors at work this time with GIANT companies grabbing these things. what are they gonna do with them? who knows for sure at this point but i think denying the consumer will become more aware that right of the dot exists is silly. maybe some of these registries and promoters of new gTLD’s will lose LOTS of money. they probably will…but meanwhile in the chaos of 1,000+ existing gTLD’s that didnt exist before, something huge will happen and consumers will be more aware. in short, the .com the leakage will probably eventually level out.

    Reply
  18. Patrick Hipskind

    Hi Danny,
    I’m sure you ruffled a few feathers with that post. However, you are saving many businesses a lot of time and money. As Malcolm Gladwell proves in his bestseller BLINK, most of our critical decisions are reached in the first two seconds. The remainder of our time is spent subjectively gathering evidence to support the decision that we reached in the first two seconds.
    That means that a company has two seconds to differentiate themselves from their competitors. I would rather use a .com than a .co or .whatever, because I wouldn’t want to risk losing my two seconds by using an inferior extension.
    It also means that companies have only two seconds to tell their prospective customers what industry they are in, what they do, and what tier they rank within that industry. And remember, you only get TWO SECONDS. An industry defining or generic .com domain name is your best and only chance of establishing yourself as an industry leader in those critical first TWO SECONDS.

    Reply
  19. ri.sk

    “An industry defining or generic .com domain
    name is your best and only chance of establishing
    yourself as an industry leader in those critical
    first TWO SECONDS”.
    What makes you say that Patrick??

    Reply
  20. Altaf

    @Anunt
    Be specific please. Give more proof than just are giving analysis without basis. You were upbeat about domains, then many ups and down negative comments here with domains. You sold some domains here, now guessing death of .com. What is your views on new gTLDs? Come up with proven full details that folks could discuss.Should we sell .com & buy new gTLDs?
    Thanks.

    Reply
  21. Patrick Hipskind

    Consider Malcolm Gladwell’s research. It is unquestionably some of the best research in the field of psychology and decision making. He proves that most of our decisions are made within the first two seconds, even our most critical ones.
    The .com extension has had years and billions of dollars spent establishing brand identity. The .com has built brand equity. The other extensions have not built brand equity, nor will any extension do so in the near future.
    You get only two seconds to tell your prospective customer what industry you are in, what your value proposition is, and what differentiates you from your competitors. Only TWO SECONDS.
    If I am going to have a two second battle, I am going to take direct aim. I am going to use an industry defining or generic .com domain name.

    Reply
  22. ri.sk

    Oh, I read the book some time ago, and do agree with
    most of his findings.. That is why I don’t understand
    YOUR comment about generic .com’s…
    What Mr Gladwell refers to is ‘instinct’, and not the
    trained-response of a ‘domainer’ who has long been
    schooled on the idea that .com wins all (even ‘though
    they can’t quite say why that is).
    I suspect that the instinct of a consumer then will be
    VERY different to your ‘instinct’ in this area. And, for
    the first time in history, businesses/consumers will be
    given a REAL choice re: TLDs.
    From a consumers perspective, they don’t give a crap
    about how much ‘type in’ a .com gets. Their only view
    -point is to what degree an online identity is both
    relevant and impressive.
    That’s it – that’s ALL they care about!.. and is all
    they ever will care about.
    Domainers do NOT speak for consumers – consumers don’t
    generally have domains that they’re trying to unload –
    for them, they only want to know what identity appears
    to be most credible…

    Reply
  23. ri.sk

    “The .com has built brand equity. The other extensions
    have not built brand equity, nor will any extension do
    so in the near future”.
    You’re absolutely right, but then the gTLDs DON’T NEED
    to build brand equity, as you put it – they already have
    it!… And citing Malcolm Gladwell’s work only serves to
    prove MY point, not yours, and that is; instinct is
    everything.
    People judge credibility almost instantly, and when some
    of the new gTLDs get going, consumers will immediately
    place .com down the perception rankings… Why? Because
    brand or not, the gTLDs are simply much more intuitive
    identities AND THAT MEANS greater credibility.
    We are not talking about what you think is merely ‘cute’,
    or ephemeral…”.com” does not equal credibility, in the
    consumers mindset, but Short, Exact, Potent names do.
    Take a holiday outside of your ‘domainer’ head, and you
    will see that this is true…

    Reply
  24. eh

    .co sound good because it is sold as”company” :) That is all folks know about dot co. With the addition of the hundreds of extensions, people will learn what extensions mean, and when they do, dot co will slide, just like the other fallback extensions, folks will not want their business tied to the mercy of Colombia or any other foreign country.
    Having a .com is like playing in the NBA. Having another extension is like playing in the league around the corner, wannabees, no offense,
    Of course, the folks that sell the shovels will make money, just like the gold rush and some will find a way to stand out perhaps with the help of some sexy ladies…

    Reply
  25. Homero A. Gonzalez

    Danny; Juan Diego Calle of the .CO Registry just unfollowed you in twitter… Lol!

    Reply
  26. ri.sk

    They WON’T learn what the extensions mean ‘though
    – customers could not care less what they mean…
    A case in point; bit.ly
    They use the TLD for Libya. Did it hamper their
    progress?.. Did it heck!
    As for your point about .com being somehow more
    credible than other TLDs; all TLDs have the same
    legal authority, by-and-large, because they are
    (for the most part) all controlled, ultimately, by
    ICANN.
    So where does that leave your ‘super team’ logic
    now???..
    Let me say it again. With the exception of very
    few registries, all domain suffix’s/TLDs have the
    same ‘authority’, from a legal perspective.
    Of course, there’s a difference in how they all
    appear visually, but that’s a separate matter
    entirely.

    Reply
  27. Tom G

    .co and .com are typos – too similar
    nobody is going to confuse .art with .com
    every artist in the world will want their portfolio, their identity on a .art extension.
    They tell me so everyday.

    Reply
  28. Patrick Hipskind

    Hi ri.sk,
    I respectfully disagree. Brand equity is built over time as a result of brand awareness and brand image. The gTLDs have not built any brand equity, because they do not even exist yet.
    Once a business loses a prospective customer in the first two seconds, then they must spend additional time and money to get that prospective customer to change their mind. The cost of doing this adds to the Cost Per Sale.
    You want to maximize the number of customers you are able to get in the first two seconds. Citrix paid over $200 million for Cloud.com so it can become the industry leader in Cloud Computing. The company understands the importance of an industry defining .com domain name.

    Reply
  29. UFO

    You have an overly myopic view of the world for every bit.ly there are 100s of .com’s doing the business every day. Very few ecommerce sites are credibly run on these novelty extensions.
    Look at the bigger picture.
    Even on you observations of ‘branding’ you don’t understand that the best brands will ALWAYS have a clear demarcation between their brand and others in the same class. Hence even if .hotel comes out the 5 star hotels will want to stay with .com
    Its the biggest brands that spend the most on advertising on television, media, print so .com will keep on getting drummed into consumer minds.
    The best .com’s will stay that way. The bottom end .com’s may well lose out to novelty gtlds, but I can tell you that businesses selling a generic product or service will always aspire to the .com because it will make them as credible as the other biggest of players.
    There’s a whole raft of other reasons why .com will remain the bussom buddy of large corporates. Sunk costs, keeping the branding tight, outlays to change, not pivotal to their business and so forth.
    gtlds like .shop in my view have massive potential at the smaller SME level (like small shops) if a large player in the market scoops that and bundles it with everything that small shops need online then it could be a VERY viable business model. Dare I say an EBay or Amazon should be husstling for that gtld (From a sales side) or Google MS Apple? (from a solution provider side).
    But as before, the best .com’s will remain that way.

    Reply
  30. UFO

    Lastly, watch as Amazon devolves out of Amazon and allows all its sellers to have ‘theirname.shop’ on the net. Because they will OWN the gtld with conditional leasing they can allow their sellers to be open to the wider world.
    Or they can soak in new retailers, by allowing them the .shop and bringing that shop into the fold of Amazon selling systems.
    All this allows Amazon to be more ‘porous’ while retaining control over their storeholders by owning the gtld on which they sit. See, in effect Amazon could LEASE the domains to storeholders while maintain complete control and ownership of the domains, so long as ICANN gets its registration fees they are happy. Just like leasing .com’s but with a different twist.

    Reply
  31. UFO

    One last observation seeing as I’m almost spamming now, EBay and anyone else (Google, FB, MS, Apple?) may well want to do a back to back deal with the other entrants for .shop and .store so they can beat Amazon to the pie in the bidding process (Admittedly I don’t know if its been done or when it is).
    Because its a game changer esp for EBay and anyone that wants to have control over small retail shops.

    Reply
  32. Mark B

    The new gLTDs are going to fail because nothing will be done with them.. They are being reserved as defensive registrations, large companies literally HAVE to register their names, but they don’t HAVE to do anything with them and most won’t… They will just sit there as parked pages, or most likely redirects to their main .com site…
    If anyone thinks there is going to be a massive rebranding effort after all these extensions are released, well, you don’t understand business…

    Reply
  33. Danny Welsh

    Who is that? Remember Homero, I’m not a”domainer”. If I even HAVE Twitter, it was set up for me by someone that helps run one of my businesses. Hmm, have to check. I never found much use in it honestly. Aren’t most twitter followers FAKE? I think I read that. Why do people fake it? To create”social proof”, right?
    Man, what has happened to our world where companies try to TRICK other people into believing they are credible?
    Danny Welsh
    JointVentures.com

    Reply
  34. Danny Welsh

    “.co and .com are typos – too similar. nobody is going to confuse .art with .com. every artist in the world will want their portfolio, their identity on a .art extension. They tell me so everyday.”
    That is FANTASTIC Tom G! Kick ass, pal. Be innovative and make stuff happen. That’s what it’s all about. But just one word of caution…”dot net” and”dot com” are dissimilar as can be. So are”dot org and”dot com”. Rick Schwartz can show you stats going back 10 years that show thousands of daily visitors lost.
    The more successful your customers get, the more money they will LOSE. Will they read this later and BLAME you for not telling them? Not making it easy for them to get online with a great chance for success?
    There is ZERO DOUBT, Tom. http://www.left.right with”Dot ART” *will* leak to Art.com and all of your smart hard-working artists who don’t understand business but put their business portfolio online trusting YOU to do right by them…they WILL send sales every week to the developed Art.com.
    So I hope you got a revenue share agreement with Art.com to account for that LEAK. The question is, will you SHARE? Because I’m telling you pal, it ain’t all what it seems. There are UNSCRUPULOUS companies out there right now who OWN AND CONTROL the .com counterpart of a .extension and they’re going to sell millions of .crap domains at a LOSS and KNOW without doubt that they’ll make many millions more with the other.
    Just do some research on the ICANN”greenlight” new extensions. Cross reference with”.com” owners. You’ll find a few that were sloppy and didn’t hide their Privacy soon enough. But WE know who they are, and it makes me sick to my stomach.
    We will do a revenue share with a gtld all day. But it MUST be WIN-WIN for everyone, including the person paying $8.99 to register the damn domain name they can afford.
    I’d lease Artist.com in a HEARTBEAT to a credible .gtld that wanted to sell $8.99 http://www.FirstNameLastName.Artist portfolio domains with template-based websites for artists and give them a FirstInitialLastName@Artist.com email address.
    What’s it WORTH to create a world-wide HUB of the most creative people on the planet emailing their friends and customers using @brand.com because they are PROUD to do it? Make it as easy to use as Gmail and it WILL happen.
    That way the leak is self-contained. You don’t send money to someone else, and you simply pay Gary Kraus a fee to grow your business using his better location Artist.com, and Rick and I broker the deal.
    Think about it. Or don’t. I’m sure someone else reading this right now IS.
    Business does NOT have to have losers UNLESS someone chooses to stick their head in the sand.
    Think WIN WIN and never look back
    Danny Welsh
    JointVentures.com

    Reply
  35. ri.sk

    “Its the biggest brands that spend the most
    on advertising on television, media, print
    so .com will keep on getting drummed into
    consumer minds”.
    Hmmm, and it has to keep getting”drummed” in
    to their minds, doesn’t it?… And, of course,
    this is true for anything that intrinsically
    has no meaning; it has to keep being repeated,
    like a religious mantra, as the risk of it being
    forgotten is so very great.
    Don’t get me wrong, I love .com… but the only
    real value it has is as a ‘familiarity’ in the
    public’s consciousness…
    So when the public become ‘familiar’ with gTLDs,
    as they surely will in the next few years, then
    .com will inevitably lose the power it once had.
    Domain IP is one of the few markets where a
    perceived ‘hierarchy’ exists. That is the main
    reason why ‘domainers’ have been able to sell
    at X value, as opposed to XY value.
    The gTLDs, however, will be seen to be operating
    somewhat OUTSIDE of that currently established
    hierarchy, and at a higher level. Yes, there will
    be some challenges with them but the benefits are
    very great.

    Reply
  36. mjnels

    “If anyone thinks there is going to be a massive rebranding effort after all these extensions are released, well, you don’t understand business…”
    straw man argument. this gets repeated so often.. why though? who is suggesting existing businesses would”rebrand” ?
    we can argue whether or not any of these will gain traction and why or why not.. but continuously bringing up an argument nobody is making is a bit silly.

    Reply

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