vTLDs - My Thoughts
July 3, 2008 by Rick Latona
So I’ve had time now to digest and summarize my thoughts on the new vanity top level domain extensions that ICANN has decided to soon allow. Yes, I’m also supporting David Castello’s coined terminology “vTLDs”.
The quick and dirty answer of mine is that they are a bum deal for speculators but a great opportunity for entreprenuers. In otherwords, I will be applying for a few of them.
I think the smart money is to go after small niche markets. Let’s take for example a potential .nyc in the New York market. Say about 200 grand is spent on ICANN fees, software, support and a first year’s small, grass-roots marketing campaign.
You would need 6667 regististrations to break even at a $29.99 price point per year.
I have to think you could bump into a couple thousand of those just from big companies protecting their brands. So the work is 1/3rd done for you. After that you just need to have a team of kids go to concerts in the park and colleges and pimp vanity domains to individuals. Give them free email addresses, etc and you have a better than excellent chance of clearing that 6667 required registrations.
In time, a market like that could get up to 50,000+ registrations with relative ease, I would think. That’s cash flow.
So far I’ve identified 20 niches I will be going after. My plan is essentially to create a network of partnerships so it’s not just me applying for 20 niches. If ICANN gets 20 applications from the same company they will most likely only grant one of them, I’m guessing. So, my plan is to submit each application in conjunction with other individuals and companies.
There you go. I’m an open book. There are few secrets on this blog.
If you have an idea for a vTLD, contact me and we’ll try to work something out. I’m actively seeking partners with the right goods and ideas. I have the cash but I won’t want to put up all the money so don’t hit me up if that’s your idea. If you want to invest in the domain business along with me and have something to bring to the table where together we can make it work, let’s talk.
.band
.law (or .lawyer)
.game
.blog
.auto
.3D
.eat (or .food)
.god (or .church)
I’m an open book too. Anyone want in?
It’s a good idea indeed. A few private groups are being formed to register and promote new extensions. I can see this becoming quite competitive.
There is one thing that people forgot to think about - all those proposed new TLDs are in English. That brings to a conclusion that ccTLD will get stronger, because there would be much less interest in creating new TLDs in other languages than English.
Thanks for the post Rick! My only concern is that legal challenges may hold up ICANNs plans - do you think that large corporations may initiate some requests for domain names to be limited?
I think the application fees are non refundable.
So, if they are 250k a pop,.. @ 20 TLDs, that’s 5 million dollars, with the possibility you get just one TLD, or even none.
Looks like a great cash cow for Icann.
Beyond the Icann BS, i think there’s some interesting opportunities.
One of the results is that the general public is going to become more comfortable going to non .com sites.
I think calling them Vtld’s or vanity TLD’s isn’t accurate, and a bit of a slag, considering
the incredibly wide potential use of them. Is IBM going to buy .IBM for vanity purposes?
Is a restaurant in New York going to buy Sushi.NYC for vanity purposes?
This is about a more open access to the name space. It’s way long overdue.
Some will fail. Some will succeed.
As per the description vTLD’s, Imo, they are just TLD’s.
In my humble opinion, ICANN wants to establish good cash flow on their end. They can’t increase more fees in our existing domain extension. This is why we have this discussion, to make a buzz for their own benefits.
I guess companies that manage .travel .mobi .pro spent a lot of money to advertise their new extension, people, technology - different approach in innovation (especially .mobi) but the consumers still hesitate to use it. Only domainers, resellers and big companies register these extension, there is no longterm business “legs” to hold this idea.
By the way, I learned the idea of the term business “legs” as factor to determine a good business. Thanks to Rick.
Good luck to you.
Emil
Clearly, the vTLDs would simply rely on (a hell of a lot) marketing to pick up whilst .com doesn’t need as much. 5 years from now, I’m sure that people would still rather add a .com to the end of their SLD than trying .band .law .game etc..,as they will have a better chance of landing on a website.
Icann’s move is too much too soon..and will simply confuse people.
think of .museum launched 7 years ago. I’m sure those guys were as excited as they are today.
but still, I’ve just tried Louvre.museum and it redirected to louvre.fr
why is it not the other way round?
So I forsee, google.search redirecting to google.com , facebook.social redirecting to facebook.com etc… That’ll just bring us back to square 1.
on another note, have a look at my website. I am looking for a partner too.
Best Wishes.
Ritz.
Josh:
The reason I labeled them Vanity TLDs (vTLDs) is because that will be the best description for most of them. The vast majority will not be classified as genuine gTLDs.
And, yes, I consider .IBM (as well as something like .Trump) a Vanity TLD because these companies and people will be branding themselves as a TLD (is anything more vain?) and spending a fortune in an attempt to make the world forget that the best brand for both of them is what they already use - IBM.com and Trump.com.
The people that stand the most to gain from these vTLDs will be ICANN, registrars and speculators (especially those who feel they missed out on the great dotComs).
For most, it will be an expensive lesson in branding and marketing futility.
PS: Let me be clear that I have no idea if IBM is planning to use .IBM or if Donald Trump is planning to use .Trump. I used both as examples only.
vTLD’s seems like great idea.
200K per custom TLD is peanuts for a good TLD. Even 200K per year expense is still a viable. Imagine .hotel tld with following plan:
1. A partner pool of 100 inestors as part of a LLC/corp . Each share costs 2000 and there are only 100 shares available ( so 200K is ready) .
2. After the TLD is approved, each partner gets first choice 10 names for their investment. they get some premium names in that way. They still have to pay registration fees asusual. they are free to sell in open market.
3. All the names will be offered through open auction.
4. Just one domain name like newyork.hotel might bring 20K to the company.
5. now you have another 5000 cities without any problem selling .hotel tlds at 79.99 per year and don’t know howmany other domain names like cheap.hotel, best.hotel might sell.
6. I will be the first person to invest some money in this.
If you are starting this, I am in.
What I was hoping to hear in this post was Rick’s opinion on the impact to .com domains. Will this have an positive or negative effect or very little effect?
I am interested in getting involved in a finance-related vTLD. Not sure what the term would be (probably not a good sign), but if taking that road at all, I would love to partner up at some point.
Interesting points there.
I will look into the following ext.
.pc
.gold
.dvd
.air
.resort(s)
Well, Since I don’t have the funds to proceed with the business, I thought I could leave 2 ideas here…
.vom
.xom
Am I nuts?
Well, maybe, still these are the most common typos I make.
http://www.google.xom
http://www.yahoo.vom
etc…
Any comments?
I think the best new tld could be .hotel, that business really could bring in some srious money.
And Bruno- how do you intend to profit from google.xom for example? First of all it would be against the rules to register “google” and if google themselves register it, how is it good for you? regfee? there are not enough trademark names which would want to get a .com typo for it to become profitable, I think…
Sorry, I don’t agree with you Oskars, what about:
cars.xom
hotels.xom
skyresorts.xom
and thousands or maybe millions of others?
I’m not into trademar issues, that’s for sure, those were only examples, still I believe .xom and .vom will be some of the first vTLDS available.
I whish I had those $200k… you bet I’d get one of those at least.
.bio would be the hottest extension in pharma and medical. The industry is worth hundreds of billions. A descriptor that is specific to the industry would be incredible. Rick, I am tied into the industry. Any interest call me … or email me.