.XXX just passed it's ONE year mark, did anyone make money with .XXX?

[ImageAuthors]

The fiasco was predictable for many reasons, but suffice it to say that industry-specific TLDs have always failed:
.aero .museum .coop .jobs .etc...

I'm not sure how predictable this situation was. Certainly, quite a few domainers who had been through .TEL, .MOBI, etc. abstained from playing the .XXX table and made loud predictions of failure. But I wonder how closely their rationale from a year ago matches my assessment of the situation as it currently stands.

There are a few different questions: (1) Will .XXX turn out to be a domainer-friendly investment in the long run? I think the odds are 70/30 against. (2) Will .XXX succeed online among consumers and for webmasters in the long run? Here I think the odds are 80/20 in favor.

To me the situation still appears different with .XXX. That is to say that I see a realistic market void for .XXX to fill whereas there has been no need for .TEL or .AERO. I say this precisely because adult webmasters are using lousy .COM domains and haven't yet tried a "destination site" branding model. If they did, they'd find a wider variety of strong naming options in .XXX. And those would generally be cheaper than the corresponding .COM.

Hindsight is always 20/20, of course. Personally, I think that .XXX will eventually become a part of the developed landscape, including quite a few destination sites of the kind I've alluded to. However, I don't know whether that will happen soon enough to make investing in .XXX profitable for domainers who adopted strong .XXX domains early on. We'll see.

I may turn out to be wrong on all counts. But I'm not saying this simply because I want to turn a profit on my domains. No, I simply believe that branding works. And the adult industry has been ignoring it for years.

 

[katherine]

I'm not sure how predictable this situation was. Certainly, quite a few domainers who had been through .TEL, .MOBI, etc. abstained from playing the .XXX table and made loud predictions of failure. But I wonder how closely their rationale from a year ago matches my assessment of the situation as it currently stands.

Any new TLD is almost guaranteed to fail.
Failure was predictable. Definitely predictable for the purpose of pure play domaining.

The adult webmasters aren't the most avid domain buyers and you have illustrated the reasons in an eloquent manner.

You've made plenty of valid points, which were in fact equally valid before .xxx was even available for registration. The fundamentals were already there.

In the case of .xxx I saw bad omens from the very start:

• it is shunned by the adult industry, that is the target group
• it would be blacklisted as a whole in many places, even nationwide
• it is especially controversial, to the point that governments complained loudly
• it carries a ghetto image

Soon we will have other competing extensions like .sex .porn .adult etc and when that happens, there will be nothing special about .xxx anymore.

But the worst of the worst... the majority of .xxx registrations are strictly defensive/inactive.
I sympathize with the TM holders who feel that icann has made them hostage to racketeering practices.

 

[ImageAuthors]

Any new TLD is almost guaranteed to fail.

I'm not so sure of that. .ME is doing quite well, marketed as a gTLD. Most of the new gTLDs MUST fail, since supply will far exceed demand. But I wouldn't say "any".

Failure was predictable. Definitely predictable for the purpose of pure play domaining.

Predicted, yes. But the situation could also be different at the moment -- and may yet change ... although I'm not certain that it will. If adult webmasters took an enlightened self-interest, they'd be using .XXX. I underestimated their reluctance, but I still see that reluctance as irrational. And, of course, the ICM Registry's moves have been very short-sighted. That was a surprise. Again, I was assuming that they'd act in a way to foster customer relationships rather than alienate all sides! It's hard to predict crazy. They've made lots of money in year 1, but they've damaged their future prospects considerably.

• it is especially controversial, to the point that governments complained loudly
• it carries a ghetto image

A "ghetto image" is an argument against all adult websites. I'm not sure that it applies in any special way to .XXX. Naturally, governments of conservative countries would have to make statements about the perceived legitimization of the adult entertainment industry. But I've never known domain sales to be affected by the pontification of governments. If .XXX fails, as it may, it won't be because of politicians.

Soon we will have other competing extensions like .sex .porn .adult etc and when that happens, there will be nothing special about .xxx anymore.

The ICM Registry's stated plan is to sequester .SEX, .PORN, and .ADULT so that they don't interfere with .XXX registrants. I expect ICANN will grant them that authority. This may be the only thing the ICM Registry is doing that will benefit its customers, but it's a very important move. If .XXX really did have to compete with the other 3 variants, then .XXX would never survive. And for that reason alone, I expect the ICM Registry to squash that possibility -- for their own survival.

But the worst of the worst... the majority of .xxx registrations are strictly defensive/inactive.
I sympathize with the TM holders who feel that icann has made them hostage to racketeering practices.

Yes, TM holders were bullied and intimidated into useless defensive registrations, which is shameful, wasteful, and damaging to the domain industry's reputation. We'll probably see a lot more fear-mongering after the new gTLDs are released.

 

[katherine]

If adult webmasters took an enlightened self-interest, they'd be using .XXX. I underestimated their reluctance, but I still see that reluctance as irrational.

Where is their self-interest ? Branding ? Differentiation ? This is not what the adult industry wants or needs.
They are avoiding .xxx for a reason.
The price tag doesn't help for sure. If they could get .xxx for free perhaps they would give it a try

It's not that the adult industry is lacking self-respect, hence the widespread use of low-quality domains.

In other industries most end users prefer a lousy/longer .com/ccTLD over a shorter/more generic domain in a less popular extension (say .biz/.pro for example).
It's a general problem that affects all new extensions, it's not specific to .xxx.

 

[ImageAuthors]

I won't get into the justifications for having a brand name that stands out. As a domainer, Katherine, you certainly understand that already. I'm simply being consistent in saying that an adult website -- like a website in any other industry -- would benefit from branding and differentiation. Although adult webmasters neglect branding, it doesn't follow that they are better off without it.

Yes, a longer .COM is generally preferable to a shorter .BIZ or .PRO or .TEL. Those extensions convey nothing, add nothing. .XXX communicates quite clearly what the site is about -- something that .BIZ, .PRO, .TEL, and other TLDs do not do. Even without being much in use, .XXX communicates to you or me as much as .ORG. And that instant recognition has value.

.XXX not only enables shorter, more memorable names. It also enables registering domains that would be unattainable in .COM. As an example, consider Jobs.com and Jobs.xxx. The second domain, Jobs.xxx, communicates very clearly what the site is about -- in a way that Jobs.biz, Jobs.pro, Jobs.tel do not. Moreover, Jobs.xxx would cost a small fraction of what Jobs.com might cost.

An adult webmaster -- if he were behaving rationally -- would recognize the opportunity to grab a whole bunch of category-defining .XXX domains and differentiate his brand from all the forgettable, interchangeable sites out there. There would be fairly obvious payoffs for pursuing this strategy. Yes, the webmasters are avoiding .XXX for a reason -- resentment of the ICM registry, fear of reprisals, innate stinginess, reluctance to change, and skepticism about branding in general. All bad reasons, in my opinion.

 

[mjnels]

Yes, a longer .COM is generally preferable to a shorter .BIZ or .PRO or .TEL. Those extensions convey nothing, add nothing. .XXX communicates quite clearly what the site is about -- something that .BIZ, .PRO, .TEL, and other TLDs do not do. Even without being much in use, .XXX communicates to you or me as much as .ORG. And that instant recognition has value.

.XXX not only enables shorter, more memorable names. It also enables registering domains that would be unattainable in .COM. As an example, consider Jobs.com and Jobs.xxx. The second domain, Jobs.xxx, communicates very clearly what the site is about -- in a way that Jobs.biz, Jobs.pro, Jobs.tel do not. Moreover, Jobs.xxx would cost a small fraction of what Jobs.com might cost.

in that last part you're being pretty biased to .XXX because existing super generic TLD's like .TRAVEL and .JOBS communicate and offer the same thing. explain to me how they do not.. im not saying i disagree with all points you're making but the logic isnt lining up on that one.

The fiasco was predictable for many reasons, but suffice it to say that industry-specific TLDs have always failed:
.aero .museum .coop .jobs .etc...

i know i keep bringing this up in one form or another but... for starters not sure we can compare the porn business (ok, "adult business") on the internet with aeronautics, museums or even cooperatives.. .JOBS tld has been out a while and cast a wider net so we can use that one. so using this logic, as big as the porn industry is .XXX should really be one of the tests if any new TLD can "survive"... BUT i dont think we can run that test yet because there isnt enough of them competing at one time to gain any attention from joe schmoe.. right now the few TLD's are running a race against each other that almost nobody knows exists and is easily ignored because of the few participants.

domainers are too caught up with the amount of money that is about to be lost in this new gTLD fight (and the amount of money that has already been lost by people w/ existing TLD's like .xxx) what im saying is yes, realize lots of money will be lost in the mix, failed advertising campaigns, etc.. they'll end up being a cog in the machine to public awareness and thats just fine. at the risk of sounding insane ill just say: some of the gTLD's will be the new "domain hacks." they're what domain hacks should have been all along.. not single words broken into 2, using random country codes such as "wa.ge"

as already mentioned by many - some of the most generic TLD's (like .XXX) already exist. its possible that in the future certain existing super generic TLDs such as .TRAVEL, .INFO, .PRO, .XXX, .JOBS that have failed to gain traction in the past because "they look funny" or the average user simply dont know they exist - therefore they do not even look like websites AND therefore seem 2nd tier (ok, 7th tier) to .COM. during the process of thousands of people losing money awareness will likely happen to some degree. MUCH more than now but how much is anyones guess..

 

[ImageAuthors]

in that last part you're being pretty biased to .XXX because existing super generic TLD's like .TRAVEL and .JOBS communicate and offer the same thing. explain to me how they do not.. im not saying i disagree with all points you're making but the logic isnt lining up on that one.

As a matter of fact, I think .TRAVEL and .JOBS are intrinsically somewhat promising. And they may increase in value once the new gTLDs arrive. .XXX looks a bit more like a traditional TLD, I think, because (1) it isn't a word, (2) it's 3 characters long rather than 6 like .TRAVEL, and (3) .XXX works in all languages -- which is important. Also, there's a pretty clear dividing line between adult websites and non-adult websites, which .XXX helps indicate. I'm not sure that a whole chunk of the internet can be marked off as 100% travel or 100% jobs. Even a single website might only be partially about jobs or partially about travel. When a site is about porn, though, you can be pretty sure it's all about porn. So .XXX is a bit more clear-cut than .TRAVEL or .JOBS, I'd say.