Following the new gTLDs has been interesting from a business standpoint. It puts into question “Is the distribution partner the most important component in the success of the new gTLD?” Do you have to sign with Godaddy to move from profitable to one of the top? After further research the answer is…in most cases yes.
Here is a breakdown of some of the top gTLD based on number of Registrations
1. XYZ ….Cheaters. We’ll throw them out
2. .Berlin
136,776
DomainRobot…57%
1&1 Internet…12.5%
United Domains …8.2%
3. .Club
79,901
Godaddy…..33%
1API GMBH…..9%
eNom……..7.7%
4. .Guru
Godaddy……58%
eNom…….9.1%
United-Domain ….3.5%
5. .Photography
39,830
Godaddy …….52%
eNom……11%
1&1 Internet…..8%
6. .Email
34,573
Godaddy….29%
eNom…..12.3 %
1&1 Internet…..11%
7. Link
33,681
Uniregistry……78%
eNom….5%
Name….4%
8. n–3ds443g
9. .Today
30,010
Godaddy….39%
eNom…14%
1&1 Internet 9%
10. .Wang
22, 017
Chengdu West ….55%
Xin Net ….14%
Foshan YiDong 9%
14. .Center
18,126
Godaddy……21%
United-Domains…14%
eNom…..11%
19. .Sexy
14,271
Uniregistry…41%
eNom….18%
Name….8.3%
As far as Chinese or foreign gTLDs it shows Godaddy has no bearing on the success. Most European and Chinese don’t use Godaddy. But if you want the North American and English speaking market Godaddy and Enom are crucial to your success. Ask Frank Schilling. I don’t know his business model, but it looked like Godaddy wasn’t in his plans originally. Uniregistry just recently added Godaddy as a registrar to many of his new gTLDs but it wasn’t until after the initial release and numbers that were, according to general consensus, less than great. Uniregistry has a bit of a conflict of interest in that they are trying to compete against Godaddy and why would Godaddy want to fund a company that is trying to take away their customers? From a business standpoint, if I were Godaddy, there would be no way I would sell the domains of a direct competitor. Especially a competitor with the finances and expertise of Frank Schilling behind it. But I’ll let these two companies figure this one out.
It’s a little early in the game to make a complete conclusion, but looking at the top 10 it shows that .Link is the only “North American” name that doesn’t have Godaddy selling for them. There is probably some data behind why .link has so many registrations. It makes the least sense to me of all the top 10. But as I said before, this is a business and just because you don’t have a top ten name it doesn’t mean you aren’t making money as a gTLD owner. The break even is actually pretty low. Schilling is still going to kill it. And he may actually be making more money but not splitting it with Godaddy.
After looking at the number I also come to one other conclusion. I’d love to have a successful Chinese gTLD. When it’s all said and done, foreign gTLDs are going to dominate. While the English market is divided between thousands of new names, each country and language will have only a few. It doesn’t take a high percentage of a few billion people to make money. If .888 was allowed it would easily be the biggest gTLD of all.
Shane, Frank owns more than half of the .link domains.
There must be about 20k reserved domains in there.
I knew there had to be something fishy going on with those numbers. I knew you’d know 🙂
That’s not entirely accurate Konstantinos .
Premiums are by their nature more coveted. Had Uniregistry not reserved those as registry-assets (to be sold or distributed free for the benefit of the registry), then at $9.88 per domain year, most of those names would have been taken by now, by domainers, speculators or other commercial registrants. You could even make the argument that “more” SLDs would have been registered in the ensuing frenzy, and that our perceived grooming of premium inventory(in select low-price spaces) has actually left many great names unregistered as speculators read blogs, mistakenly think the good-ones are gone and just fail to look.
I think in these early days, where new g’s are perceived more as novelty than anchor-name, and where certain namespaces are unavailable at certain rars, and where new g’s don’t resolve in mobile safari – nearly “everyone” buying is a speculator at some level. This idea that moms and pops know about the opportunity before them is whimsical but wrong.
In the grand scheme we are in the fraction of a second after the starting shot of a relay has been fired and the runners are still on their marks waiting to react to it. These early numbers are just the initial flinch after that shot. Uniregistry strings will be in Godaddy by the end of July so if you believe that distribution = success then this is a buying opportunity in Uniregistry strings.
In my experience the cream always rises, and if the string makes sense and is run with low predictable fixed cost renewals, with low registration prices, without variable pricing, strong rule of law and hands-off governance as Uniregistry strings are’…. Then those strings are the cream that will ultimately rise .. As long as you have “some” distribution (via any viable registrar) then the church of Google will make certain your audience finds you.
It will just take longer
To be more precise: 24,336 .link domains are registered under NorthSoundNames.