How low will new gTLD Registrations Go?

[accurate]

New Gtld registration numbers are falling like rocks.

How low will new GTLDs go this year?

 

[Commerce]

What I find interesting and somewhat surprising about the data is that China seems to be the winner with .xyz and its over 5.9 million registered names. Never expected that one to be very successful.

Odd that some of those new TLDs have only one registration listed. Perhaps some of those, which are not in the corporate brand list, are still to be released (e.g., .free)?

The new TLD brand confusion, which more than a few long term domainers suggested may be an issue, seems to be proving true after all.

Sad to see that several of the new TLD top levels we registered for brand reasons are so low on the list.

What seems also somewhat surprising (though perhaps less so considering the costs to establish a new TLD) is the rather few number of corporate names (e.g., .GoDaddy, .HomeDepot, .IBM, etc.). Obviously, for such large entities, the costs wouldn't be a footnote on their balance sheets and yet, there are not more of these.

There seem to be only two choices for some of these registries, raise the unit rate or go out of business. Ironically, since those new TLD domains are not much more than a convenience for .com owners, part of a strategy for corporates and / or have been purchased on speculation, raising the rate may also ultimately lead to a given registry new tld promoter going out of business that much faster.

All this goes a long way to explain some of the decisions of late by UniRegistry regarding such things which you had posted here earlier in another thread.

Thanks for sharing the great information.

-Commerce

 

[gpmgroup]

The time period of the graph is too short to draw any real conclusions also the base of the y axis of the graph isn't zero this distorts the degree of the fall. June and July should give a bit better picture of what is happening because there are a lot of names that were sold very cheaply coming up for renewal at full price unless the registries offer special deals on renewals.

 

[accurate]

Agreed. Raising prices might just keep trademark holders. It costs $200,000 a year to operate an extension before you make any profit. I doubt this is enough to keep many new extensions around.

Where are the small businesses that have built sites on new TLDs? Would you risk your time, effort, and mental energy on anything besides .com, .org, and ccTLDs?

Sad to see that several of the new TLD top levels we registered
There seem to be only two choices for some of these registries, raise the unit rate or go out of business. Ironically, since those new TLD domains are not much more than a convenience for .com owners, part of a strategy for corporates and / or have been purchased on speculation, raising the rate may also ultimately lead to a given registry new tld promoter going out of business that much faster.

 

[davidthornton]

... It costs $200,000 a year to operate an extension...

Not true.

 

[accurate]

Christa Taylor from DotTBA has stated it is $200,000 on average. She does financial projections for registries.

If you are a large registry the fees could go lower.

Operational losses are based on TLD revenues with a conservative $150k in expenses

http://dottba.com/new-gtld-infographic-2016-year-in-review/

 

[davidthornton]

Christa Taylor from DotTBA has stated it is $200,000 on average. She does financial projections for registries.

If you are a large registry the fees could go lower.



http://dottba.com/new-gtld-infographic-2016-year-in-review/

RSP - https://github.com/google/nomulus/blob/master/README.md

The ongoing ICANN costs aren't anywhere near the figure you quoted incidentally, just in case anyone thought they were.

When a RSP has the infrastructure and scale the additional cost of another extension is not hugely significant.

 

[accurate]

If you don't like the truth you should go onto a new gTLD forum.