New TLDs not always way to riches

[katherine]

From Sedo's newsletter:

Preparing to Bid Adieu to the Newly Launched .TRAVEL TLD

By Monica Ibrahim, Customer Relations Associate

The recently launched .TRAVEL TLD, a product of travel domain registry Tralliance, seems to be approaching its rapid extinction. The new registry is in the midst of a capital deficit of approximately $7.8 million and expects to be unprofitable in the foreseeable future.

Tralliance Corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the .TRAVEL registry, TheGlobe.com, which "develops products and services to promote the efficiencies and convenience of e-commerce for the global travel and tourism industry." Tralliance's site advocates a Value-Added Service requiring all .TRAVEL registrants to be authenticated as a "legitimate service and/or product provider in the travel and tourism industry."

Registrants are required to submit all .TRAVEL domains they intend to register to the registry and will then be subsequently assigned a Unique Identification Number (UIN) required for registration purposes. It costs $100 to register a .TRAVEL domain; not a price a small start up travel business may be willing to sacrifice for an extension that is not yet ranked highly in search engines and has not gained popularity among travel suppliers as of yet. These stringent stipulations are part of the reason .TRAVEL is running into some difficulties. While the concept of an industry-sponsored top level domain with a comprehensive directory, search and navigation service is not bad, the countless registry regulations are playing a part in its decline.

With the .TRAVEL registry strictly prohibiting domain tasting and with the regulation stating that all .TRAVEL web sites be held only by legitimate travel organizations, this seems to rule out any possibility of domain parking. In addition, TheGlobe.com is dealing with $2.6 million in losses due to a 2006 MySpace lawsuit with allegations that 400,000 spam e-mails were sent to the popular social network's users. That just might be the tipping point in the whole situation. TheGlobe.com management recently admitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission that they do not think they can continue to fund their operations until they receive more money. Is there enough interest in .TRAVEL to keep the registry alive and is there any restitution planned for the hundreds of .TRAVEL registrants should a registry collapse occur?

It's been approximately two years since Tralliance signed their contract with ICANN, and .TRAVEL continues to face hurdles. It may be difficult for .TRAVEL domains to compete with the thousands of brandable and generic travel .COM domains that have already made an immense impact on the travel industry. Their value is hard to overlook; Malta.com sold last year through Sedo for $250,000. The .COM is still the most desired domain extension. Just as any astute domainer would prefer to own the .COM extension over the .BIZ or .NET; it seems that they would prefer a brandable one or two word .COM over the .TRAVEL for their travel business or domain parking needs.

Its hard not to notice the flashing warning sign on the .TRAVEL highway. Whether the .TRAVEL TLD will survive the current obstacles is yet to be seen. But don't be surprised if you find yourself bidding adieu to the .TRAVEL TLD in the near future.

 

[hugegrowth]

goodbye .travel

 

[DomainLobe]

I'm shocked!!! :-/

 

[Leading Names]

I'm not shocked at all. What did they expect with a six-letter ext and all those registration restrictions? doomed from the outset.

- Rob

 

[carlton]

This really goes to show that the domain name industry is funded, to a significant degree, by the capital of domain speculators and investors. There were insufficient registration numbers in .travel to keep it viable.

Cutting domain investors and developers out of the loop, was understandable in principle, but it was like cutting the head off the dragon. Domainers and developers ARE the fuel in the engine ... like it or not.

 

[hugegrowth]

it's just not a good extension - if there had never been a .travel extension I don't think there would be any big demand for one.

But you're right, from the money side of things if they want an extension to succeed, open it up to everyone after a sunrise period, and keep the reg fee under $20

 

[cee]

...

 

[Rubber Duck]

I personally thought the .name wouldn't be a big hit. I was quite surprised. James.name looks nothing like a domain name to me. It looks like some hackerish jargon, "James.is.my.name." Similarly, "I.like.to.travel."

I hope .travel makes it, though. Not for the fact that I like it, because I think it is a horrible TLD, but simply because I hate to see investments of that magnitude fail. Lots of losses for many people.

It is essential in any market that unwise investment decision be allowed to incur losses. Anyway, it is failing because they don't have any money. There is probably little or nothing that ICANN can or should do about that.

With a potential explosion in New gTLDs sometime next year, it is essential that everyone gets a firm grip on reality and for most that will involve a lot of thinking and analysis that has been blatantly missing to date. Dot Travel is a bust. The only thing that could save it is a massive reduction in fees and a wider audience. Next year, there are going to literally dozens of new extensions. This is to some extent specifically designed to kill the speculation game dead. The more extension there are the more the original ones will be valued and the less likely that the Johnny Come Latelies are going to be successful, at least from a speculation perspective.

The only exceptions are going to be those domains that find a niche, that is not served by the existing ones. If all the hype that was applied to dot Mobi had been based on facts rather than some dreamed up technical nonsense, then dot Mobi might well have been the classic example. The only instances I can foresee of essential niche domains is if ICANN goes off the rails with allocations of IDN gTLDs and starts handing out different versions of dot Com in various scripts. It has been muted that this was an option, but frankly I see it as a non-starter for legal reasons. It has of course yet to be formally ruled out.

I personally thought the .name wouldn't be a big hit. I was quite surprised. James.name looks nothing like a domain name to me. It looks like some hackerish jargon, "James.is.my.name." Similarly, "I.like.to.travel."

I hope .travel makes it, though. Not for the fact that I like it, because I think it is a horrible TLD, but simply because I hate to see investments of that magnitude fail. Lots of losses for many people.

So, did anyone actually make any money on Dot Name?

 

[RazorNF]

I actually came across a .travel for the first time a couple weeks ago in some tourist literature - canada.travel At first I didn't recognize it as a web address and thought it was an error in the advertisement...

Don't see the extension going anywhere unless it gets a push from some of the big travel companies like expedia, etc,

 

[wasistdas]

The financial problems the registry faces will evidently lead to decreasing restriction for .travel name registration, I think. .travel may follow .pro and will make restrictions rather virtual than actual as it in fact happened to .name