Forbes Examines Why New gTLD Domain Names Are A Big Flop

Roger Kay has written an insightful article on the failing new gTLDs (ICANN's new generic Top-Level Domains) in Forbes, entitled: Why, Even After A Year, There's Still No Land Grab For New Internet Domains which is worth taking the time to read for anyone in  the domain name industry, active in ICANN, or a domain name registrant--excerpt--

".... Since a year ago, more than 400 new gTLDs have been introduced, nearly doubling the number of extensions available to companies and individuals looking to stand out on the Internet. However, the reception to these new domains has been muted, and 2015 is kicking off with a notable lack of enthusiasm for their adoption, despite some registrars’ best efforts... And if consumers aren’t flocking to the new domains, commercial entities have their own reasons to be wary of them. A greatly expanded domain universe opens up a multitude of opportunities for cybersquatters... And as if that weren’t enough, the new domains can breed confusion through something as simple as the distinction between singular and plural names.... To make matters worse, Web surfers may not even be able to see some new domains, since they may be blocked for security reasons.... In contrast to the slippery territory of the new domains, the existing names are solidly established. The .com extension has been around for almost 30 years, and every Fortune 500 company has a .com registration. The top 50 global brands direct customers to a .com homepage... Not a single leading brand has switched its online identity to one of the new domains, despite all the hype surrounding their introduction a year ago... even supporters of the new names are not as sure as they once were about their prospects. Since February 2014, companies and individuals have registered approximately 3.3 million names in the more than 400 new domains. While that number may sound fairly large, to put it in perspective, .com had more than 8 million gross registrations in a single quarter last year... Buyers would do better not to bother and instead go after real estate on the more established, busier thoroughfares of the Internet — like .com, .net, and .org — where the traffic is." (emphasis added, read more here)

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