Google’s .App Now a Top 20 GTLD in just DAYS!

Morning Folks!!

Google's .App Now a Top 20 GTLD in just DAYS!
Without giving them away for a penny or stuffing it into accounts for free, Google's new .App GTLD extension is now a Top 20 GTLD. Sitting at #19 and on the heels of #18. With the bleeding that  14 of 18 in front of them, I expect .App to continue to rise and may eventually be a top 10 GTLD extension.

That's pretty impressive after watching HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of others struggle for relevance and survival. Many now simply dying on the vine. Not .App. It has life and some meaning and it has Google behind it that gives it a pedigree and legitimacy.

Google took in millions on early access and general registrations are $15-$20 annually. Premium names come with a higher price tag.

Will it be successful? I have no idea? Will companies use and adapt? I have no idea. But they might. It may be a viable extension. Time will tell. But like anything else, it's a gamble. You place a bet. I grabbed a few. Did not even know about .App until the week it was released. But there were some elements I liked and I decided it may be a decent play.

What are the elements I like.

1. 3 letter extension

2. An extension that is a word


3. I believe people can make their fortunes just on a great app

4. It is an end user play and worldwide market

5. There is a demand

It's a long shot even with those elements. But compared to the crap that is already out there, I like it the best. It's a definite maybe. lol

And here is a tip for you. If Godaddy is not the #1 registrar on any GTLD, I give it much less chance of relevance, survival and values that MAY increase. When I see some registrars, I know there are either many bogus registrations, closely held regs or penny crap. Pretty easy to spot. Here are the top 10 new GTLD's and the numbers for each registrar. Pretty stunning if you follow what I say and apply it.











I always said when a winner came out it would be recognizable. Regardless of the outcome, making it into the top 20 in just a few days while so many others are simply dithering and going nowhere is impressive and somewhat remarkable.

I still believe that when .Web hits, it will break the 1 million reg mark within the same time frame. Demand will be there. Whether it works, we won't know for a number of years. But as a number of years have passed, we KNOW what doesn't work! Which is your favorite GTLD Flop? Did any GTLD surprise you?


Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz



17 thoughts on “Google’s .App Now a Top 20 GTLD in just DAYS!

  1. Travis

    With so many keyword app .com’s sitting in parked accounts, what added benefit does keyword.app bring to the table with its premium pricing structure?

    Reply
  2. Mark Thorpe

    Good .App article, Rick.
    I noticed not may domainers or bloggers are writing about .App right now. Probably buying their own .App domains or too scared to write about .App’s success so far, because of their sponsored AD’s.

    .App will be in top 10, then top 5 and probably #1 eventually.
    I also think that .App has stole some of .Web’s thunder.
    .Web is a more broadly used term than .App is, but .App is a more modern term and technology. So it will be Interesting to see what happens if/when .Web is released.

    Google paying $25 million for the .App extension is now a bargain IMO, where Verisign probably overpaid ($135 million) for .Web.
    .App has definitely got a head start on .Web.
    If Verisign was smart, they will fast track .Web’s release.

    Google timed .App’s release perfectly, by not releasing it earlier with other nTLD’s or later with .Web.
    .App is the only new game in town right now and with crypto prices being down, that has helped .App as well. IMO

    Some of .App’s premium pricing are also lower than most other new gTLD’s, which makes more sense. Some nTLD premium pricing is way too high!

    I agree with you about a new gTLD being #1 at GoDaddy is a good sign. That means not just domainers are buying .App!
    That was the first thing I noticed when .App was released and made me want to buy more .App domains.

    Reply
    1. Mark Thorpe

      If you had to pick a domain extension for your business website, which one would you choose? Choices are .Com .Net .Web .App
      Vote at twitter.com/namewhiz
      4 days left to vote!

      So far it’s a 2 horse race between .Com and .App

      Reply
  3. smartwebby

    Gm Rick. The godaddy angle is a really good one that most wouldn’t even notice :) I think the end user adoption will be swift and faster for .APP because apps have taken center stage right now from the development perspective.

    I have to agree with Mark. Someone else made me rethink about .WEB and its usefulness. It doesn’t have a unique proposition like .APP has. .COM already is the king of all things the web… why would anyone want a .WEB… its starting to make lesser sense to me now. Verisign might have missed the train and the price they paid is humongous!! Google did get the bargain absolutely!!

    Reply
  4. John T.

    Dot app should do well. I believe other new tld’s aren’t doing well because people don’t know about them.

    An example of this is .lgbt. I asked a gay person about this extension, and he said it doesn’t exist.

    Reply
  5. Morgan Linton

    I agree – .APP is definitely one of the best new gTLDs, makes sense and like you said, someone can make their fortune off a single APP so there’s clear value for an end user.

    It’s also nice to see a new gTLD get real traction without having to run some crazy promo where the drop the price to almost nothing – shows that real people actually care about the extension.

    Reply
    1. Travis

      You said the same thing about .ws,
      Why would anyone want .web, when .nets can be had for under $1k for premium stuff, and 2 keyword category terms for hand reg

      Reply
      1. Snoopy

        Agree on .web. It is a poor man’s .net. The term is dated, who calls it “web” anymore? World wide web?

        .net hasn’t performed well in a world with 1000 other similar choices and .web isn’t 1/10th of .net.

        Reply
  6. Bill Kara

    Dot app was a gold mine… too many names for sale for cheap prices. If you bought on the first few days you are liquid or close to it already. If you aren’t buying now and buy whatever is left today I think you are 5-10 years out before those names have commercial value with the odd exception.

    As for dot web I disagree. I think it’s DOA. People say app, download our app, this app, that app ect….

    People use the web, find things on the web but it’s the same as online. It’s catchy in the same way find us on the ‘net is. It’s just not naturally used enough as a direct action to a specific site or service. An app is a thing same with a dot com. Online, web, net and others are a place. That slight difference is enough to make a difference.

    Plus the trust factor that will come in and has always eventually crushed these gtlds… spam, malware reduces them in public perception to junk sites.

    Xyz had a period when it was cool. It was a bit like dot co and now after all the ‘promotions’ it’s been pretty much parted out and sold for junk.

    I think dot web at best, will be matched with instant site builders and if that happens it has potential. As a simple and packaged way to get a quick nice looking site online. If has a gimmick maybe it can work but it has to be around features and not giveaways those have been proven not to work.

    Reply
  7. Rob V.

    Good article. I agree with previous comments.
    . App is a winner. It’s been underestimated before launch and compared with other unsuccessful gTLDs, however facts are showing there’s a big potential as we are seeing only 2 weeks after early access.

    I endorse what has been said plus I’d like to add:
    – In just a matter of days Google has already indexed over 200,000 pages with .app domains – just search: site:app
    – Big brands are already using it to point to their mobile apps, check: uber.app, twitter.app…
    – It’s already the second fastest growing gTLD

    Other top level extensions like .loan, .work, .club… sound nice for a specific industry or purpose, however .app goes further. In my opinion is the only one that can follow .com steps. Apps are already a reality of todays entertainment. Google results page is so 90s, just plain text.. however user experience at app stores is at another level, now accepting animations and video presentations that makes interaction much more attractive.

    It’s a huge market growing every year. There’re near 6 million apps already listed between Google Play and Apple Store: https://www.statista.com/statistics/276623/number-of-apps-available-in-leading-app-stores/
    and a platform that integrates not only with mobile devices, also each time more present in the living room – TVs, smart speakers, watches, IoT… today entertainment habits are connected with apps and they are here to stay.

    Another extra value I see with .app domains is that it connects two worlds that until now they’ve been independent. You can use your .app address not only to host a web app, also to market your application thought search engines -organic search or SEM- and encourage users to download it from app stores. Some nice marketing pages I’ve seen so far are:
    https://cash.app
    https://picnic.app
    https://bark.app
    https://podcast.app
    https://albert.app
    … growing everyday.

    With an .app domain you have more control on marketing and SEO than just using the default iTunes or Google Play profile template. Plus .app addresses are unique, so it means having a memorable name puts you on more dominant position than just naming it on the app store. The limitation until now is that when you search app stores you’ll get many results with same name or headline -however the domain is an unique identifier for authority names in each market. Good example is the recent acquisition of gay.app by Blued.com (regardless of being a legit million sale or not) the point is that it’s being used by the company to be noticed as the authority name in their industry.

    Some people mention about pricey renewals of premium names, but nothing compared with trying to get a good .com today… For a developer or publisher its a cheap investment yet.

    About .web, it sounds catchy yes, but as pointed in previous comments I don’t see such unique proposition as .app has. .Web can be eclipsed by .com – the only advantage I see is that it opens more options in a crowded market space. But it sounds to me forced. Com will be always the big player for a company website… Uber.com and Uber.web for me its the same.

    However its different for .app – direct alternatives are .mobi, .io…- but .app sounds more powerful. And having and .app web doesn’t interfere with .com corporate sites, both can be complementary for marketing and different purposes/audiences.

    Right, its early to know what future will bring for .app domains, but it looks promising.

    Reply
    1. Snoopy

      It has all the same problems as .mobi. Long term who is going to want to be seen as only an app?

      Reply
  8. Steue

    Registries and marketplaces need to provide the ssl functionality that allows .app domians to resolve to a domain-for-sale landing page when they are typed into any of the Major Web Browsers. Without that, a robust .app sales environment will be stifled until who knows when.

    Reply
    1. Bill Kara

      This has already happened. Check Morgan’s blog he posted a link to it I think. I used it for xo.app and for others like blackjack.app I took a few more steps and set it up myself.

      Reply
  9. Phil

    .app will raise consumers general awareness of tlds this will help all others , good names are good names home.loans good name bad names are bad names iwanttobetona.horse bad name.. awareness will help all good names outside of legacy tlds.

    Reply
  10. Snoopy

    The paid $25million for it so anything other than #1 would be a disaster. They may still lose money even if they get there.

    Reply
  11. phil

    25 million is nothing… to google.. such a small price, one app alone could have a 100 x the 25 million spent as a valuation. They controlled that piece of real estate at a bargain price.

    Reply
  12. Jose

    Rick, I read a lot on APP’s domainer blogs as a GTLD extension and read that Chinese investors buy the single-letter etc.,

    Also read in some blogs of domainers and in their posts that being crazy to invest in APP the next day be skyrocketing their purchase prices register and write in the Posts posted on their blog, which at this price could not be purchased separately the APP was not a good investment either

    I searched at http://www.directnic.com for the keyword home, about selling “Home.loans $ 500,000” and this will be the result of two extensions that are not in the top ten of the GTLDs that you publish in your post.
    home.science $ 79999.99
    home.bid $ 160000.00
    pay this only can make companies and millionaire buyers who have some customers willing to pay equal or superior of $ 500,000

    As APP is from Google to start having the first problems read here in this link https://domainnamewire.com/2018/05/10/heres-why-its-going-to-be-hard-to-sell-your- app-domain-names /

    Happy day,Jose

    Reply

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