.XYZ = not exactly the NEXT .COM, more like a disaster

.XYZ entered general availability yesterday and after the first few hours it had reached 14,924 registrations. It now ranks 15th among New gTLDs, just below .directory. That is hardly the performance expected from the NEXT .COM. Ntldstats.com reports 17,980 but I don’t know where it got that number from. Zone files that were released a few hours back show 14,924 registrations.

Not sure if this 14,924 includes the registry reserved domains. And I sure would like to know why Network Solutions that is one of the most expensive registrars has almost 50% of all .xyz registrations. The usual market share for New gTLDs for Network Solutions is less than 3%.

Yes, .xyz is not the next .com. It is barely a bad New gTLD among hundreds of much better ones. Sure, it got more on it’s first day than what .guru got that had 12,435 registrations and less than .club that had 25,781. But similar to .club, .xyz has spend a lot of money on marketing. Money it’s not getting back anytime soon.

And .xyz doesn’t have the premium pricing other new gTLDs have and even it’s regular pricing is a lot cheaper. .XYZ got about $75,000 revenue at $5 per domain wholesale.

.xyz, let’s say that .xyz will reach 100,000 registrations in 12 months. With all the good (nothing good can coexist with .xyz) keywords gone I doubt it but just for the sake of the argument here… At $5 wholesale price per domain that would be $500k. And then the renewals will come and a few domains will drop. Domains such as these that hurt my eyes:
byrd-investment-solutions-inc.xyz
bzwp283.xyz
c7vz.xyz
control-c-control-v.xyz
corporatefinancialadvantage.xyz
dufangylcylc58.xyz
dufangyulecheng200.xyz
dukeaddicksstoryteller.xyz
duwangyulecheng684.xyz
maryseidmananddancers.xyz

I estimate that you need at least 500k to a million per year to run such a registry. Daniel Negari only has one more New gTLD, .college. If he had 100 New gTLDs and different price structure then maybe .xyz could be profitable. But at this pace and with expenses running, .xyz might break even in a few years, if ever. And I don’t even include marketing expenses. This seems like a disaster. The original .XYZ business plan is gone from day one.

Daniel Negari said that “There is no doubt in my mind that the growth rate of .xyz will surpass the growth rate of .com. It won’t take us 20 years to reach one million registrations. It will only take 1 year.”.  You need to average at least 2,700 registrations per day over the next 364 days to hit that goal. That will never happen, sorry.

Daniel Negari also said: “I’m going all in on .xyz with a multi-million dollar budget and one of the largest distribution channels of over 200 registrars.” Sorry Daniel, .xyz was a bad bet. Cut your losses and move on.

Sold.Domains

About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

60 comments

  1. I’m pretty comfortable in saying the end result will be somewhere in between your “disaster” and his “next dot com” 🙂

  2. You should check your facts before you let your mouth run off like that.
    .xyz 24 hour registrations top 30,000 and are still on the rise!

    • I check zone files that update at a certain time each day. And I compare results between new gtlds from the first zone file I get.
      If tomorrow I get a new number I will compare it to day 2 results of other new gtlds.
      I don’t have any other facts. I asked you (.XYZ) on twitter what your number was and you didn’t reply.
      Next time you watch your mouth. OK?

    • LOL @ Me.xyz.com

      are you from the Marketing team of XYZ. Let me tell you, no matter how much BUZZZ YOU guys generate, you guys are the worse gtld on the market except .college, so suck it.

      Also, telling others to look at number before open their mouth, you guys should also OPEN YOUR MOUTH that you guys are giving .xyz at network solutions lol…….so playing the drums behind the curtains

  3. Anyway I have seen someone who dare to say that its a disaster, while all the other blogs where just carrying the news about xyz being the next .com, I was not able to corelate the domain with any of the words or keywords as you have pointed out.

  4. XYZ is the worst extension of all, seriously. .College may have some luck. He could have just got any cool string, but why .XYZ.

    • Do you know why? He had what he thought was a great .com, xyz.com, and thought about building a business around it.
      But this is not how New gTLDs work. This is not about trying to be “smarter” than the others.
      It’s about following what people want.
      Do you think all these companies are stupid going after .online and .web?

      • Honestly, I reg gtlds too, but I do not think all gtlds will fail.

        For example, keyword, like right and left of dot which makes sense will survive thrive.

        Such as flights

        that would be cheap.flights etc

        But I do not think .web makes sense to me, online yes it would survive.

        For me is, gtlds strings will make excellent keyword without having to put in dot.

        Sooner or later there will be traffic, people will be typing for the hell of keyword.keyword etc to see if there is a website, just like they did with .com keyword.

        So yes, gtlds have potential, and I am also a gtlds pro, and have names under my belt.

        BUT .XYZ, is the worst, I DONT KNOW WHY MORGON LINTON, is pitching to domainers etc about how great it is, and in the end they will say oh i didnt tell you to register it, but that is what they are doing such as Morgan and Linton.

        I had high respects for these guys morgan and howe, but you know money talks and now I can see the reality of them.

        You are the only person I have seen @ kantos, who has guts to stand up!

      • I don’t particularly like .web as it reminds too much of .net that I don’t like but it will have a lot of registrations.

        Exactly: “people will be typing for the hell of keyword.keyword”.
        They are not going to be typing insurance.asd or insurance.qwerty!

  5. I currently see 18,329 registered .xyz (http://ntldstats.com/tld/xyz), not 30,000. And that 18,329 includes the “9,000” dubious registrations that happened at Network Solutions (=50% of all .xyz registrations!) and the 1,141 .xyz domains that are reserved.

    Maybe ntldstats is not updated every hour and the numbers are somewhat higher now but regardless, to me it also seems .xyz is indeed a disaster.

  6. “(nothing good can coexist with .xyz) ”

    :))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
    oh my God, unfortunately for them nothing under the sun is more true than this phrase

    Anyway, few of these gTLDs domainers will lose money, maybe some of them simply regain what they spent in few years and not in 1 year or even in few months… Of course this is true for the ones that have sold or will sell domains….For those that reserve for them 90% of the registrations and/or make appears thousands and thosands of fake sales, like if all people were stupid…, the money recovery is not so sure….

  7. xyz is an abbreviation for “examine your zipper”.
    http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=xyz

    …which may occur about 1 million times in year, right?

  8. Netsol also had a large share of .expert names regged with them as we’ll. Due to marketing?

  9. I just found out on another post the possible explanation why they got so many registrations on netsol:

    Quote:
    “.i will explain how it was possible. i recently got the email from Netsol offering me a complementary .xyz for my so-so .com free for 1 year. and in order to decline such an offer i had to visit a link and click decline, otherwise the domain would be mine automatically.

    so it;’s all BS)))”

    Link: http://www.thedomains.com/2014/06/03/xyz-gets-almost-18000-registrations-on-day-1-of-general-availability/

    So it seems that .xyz ( through a partnership with netsol) offered tons of domain owners a free .xyz domain to complement their .com.

    Now I’m not sure this information is correct but if it is then the numbers of paid .xyz registrations will of course be MUCH lower (50% off to be exact).

    • And if that was an opt-out promotion instead of an opt-in, these people will get charged next year unless they opt-out.

      • Indeed.. but I guess it’s easier to boost the numbers this way since the domain name gets added automatically to the user’s account without any intervention of the user. To not get his .xyz domain for free the user actually has to “work” for it :p

  10. It is one thing to put sales & financial projections on paper. It is completely another to execute to plan. I have spent much of my career on researching & explaining variances to plan – why didn’t sales or pricing meet forecast? The CEO was often too optimistic and wouldn’t accept the more conservative plan that was submitted.

    • I am on a $3 million software project and the clients are pushing for a 16 month timeline. I say it can’t be done but hey keep pushing.
      They are going to pay penalties if the software is not ready in 16 months but they don’t listen.
      The project has more than 150 people involved all over Greece and it is impossible to manage.
      They will pay the penalties because they don’t listen.

  11. In all honesty and with no hyperbole, I think .XYZ would need Super Bowl ads for the next three seasons to become a competitor to .com. Now, if Daniel has that kind of budget for marketing he should do it.

  12. Judging a company on its day 1 results is poor form. I like your blog Kosta but your blog on day 1 is not much compared to your blog today.

    Making a big bet on anything takes guts, smarts and a lot of tenacity. A fellow domainer and entrepreneur should allow some room to grow before calling the entire thing a disaster.

    The gTLD rolls outs just flipped the open for business sign on let the paint dry before you call winners and losers.

    • @bill Kara

      Lol it’s not judging anyone , CEO said something outrageous cool will happen and didn’t happen eventually.

      Comparing two different variables blog to gtld is stupid.

      Kantos on first day of blog didn’t expect 10000 visitors neither did he make that assumption so he is not fault.

      On the other hand daniel made crazy assumptions and now trying to reach that goal by offering free domains for one year and trying to cash on people who forget to turn off auto renew is whole different game than blog.

      At least my friend bill Kara get your analogies right!!!

      • “analogy” was between products on the first day and after they’ve had some time to be live.

        “CEO said something outrageous cool will happen and didn’t happen eventually” You cant say that till the year is whatever X time period he said is up.

        Regardless, the point of my comment, which was lost on you, was to be supportive to a fellow domainer and entrepreneur, or at min cut them some slack.

        Don’t be a comment troll life is way to short.

      • HAHAHAH @ BILL KARA

        First of all, let me tell you something, I am a PRO GTLD guy and having been registered myself I am basing my opinion. In the past, I have lost money as well when I registered .asia etc blah blah blah so am speaking from experience.

        EXACTLY my point is you guy are supporting your friend , which is right thing to do, go and open up a booth, but instead of pushing the average domainers to reg the names which you know as well are bound to fail , then sooner or later KARMA Will catch up to your ass.

        I know life is too short and you are going to leave this world without any money, property, or domain names, so that is why I am asking you to MAN UP and speak the truth.

        This extension is Worse, Period. I am not trolling, I read this blog and leave my comments based on the facts that are published here and also based on my knowledge.

        Now Bill you can go and kiss the Daniel ass, but if you believe in Karma, stop pushing the average domainers to reg these names.

        I don’t have nothing against Daniel so that is why I am looking to .college launch 🙂

      • Bill, he will not make it to 1 million unless he gives out 900,000 free domains.
        Stats don’t lie. He can’t keep this pace. No one could. And I don’t expect the worst of the 100+ new gtlds so far to do any better.

    • Making unbelievable predictions asks for it.
      If he hadn’t made these predictions I wouldn’t have bothered writing anything.
      But he is in front of me wherever I look and I can’t stand listening for bullshit.

      I didn’t predict I would be the best domain blog by year 1. I can’t even predict that for year 10.
      New gTLDs have only one way to go in terms of registrations per day and that is down.

      Making a big bet doesn’t require anything. I can say that by next week I will have 10,000 views per day but that will never happen.

      He spoke about numbers, and he still does calling this a success, comparing 24 hours of .xyz to 12 hours of .club or .berlin and saying he had the most successful launch of any new gtld. Whatever. No one can argue with nonsense.
      He should now reply as to what is going on over at Network Solutions.

  13. So…is Negari sleeping with Konstantinos’s sister? The hate! I sense something personal here….most be more to the story.

    • Never met him. Never heard of him beforev.xyz. Nothing more that I react to bullshit. No hate. Just domains.

    • @GNARLES

      I bet if its not Kantos sister, then its probably your sister, why are you taking it so personally. I laugh at guys like you , who can not argue with valid thoughts or fact, then start acting like 10 year OLD KID.

      If you are 10 year OLD, Then I apologize, because then I can not expect you act any more mature.

      take care kid.

  14. i wonder if the chinese latch may onto this extension due to the x and z factor …..just putting it out there ?

  15. i bought upload.xyz and put it instantly on sedo
    lets see whats happen with it

  16. I guess that’s what Daniel’s marketing tactics and his 1 million dollar marketing budget was all about from the start: Give tons of .xyz domains for free through netsol and pretend they are all paid for so the popularity of the extension will get a huge boost (most people are like lemmings, if they think a lot of people purchased this extension they will most likely follow, after all they don’t want to be left behind).

    And I assume Daniel believes that by the time the .xyz extension reaches 100K (which will be mostly free) registrations that its popularity will be strong enough by then to grow to 1 million paid registrations.

    • I am laughing my ass off on Daniel, Why blowing whistles when you know its all fake.

    • i am warning to all .com domainers,five years from now,no one will remember .com ever exist.i hate domineers they destroyed .com long time ego and now they want to destroy the web with their F****ing Price.iCANN must stop them of registering many Domains.or probably the only reason iCANN let them to register
      many domains is to destroy .com.go to hell Domainer.

  17. what you mean by disaster? open your eyes ,domineers have destroyed .com
    .taken taken taken taken taken taken Auction Auction Auction Auction make offer make offer make offer ,young generations can not effort 5 to $20000 to buy a .com from Stupid domainers.they have more talent than previous generation but can not effort to buy .com,that’s the reality. we are .eyz generation. weather you like it or not.

  18. Well now that .XYZ is over 200K and growing exponentially on a daily basis, its going to be interesting to see how all of the “experienced” domainers rationalize this.

    • Didn’t you get the news Pat? These registrations are all fake and free to their owners that never asked for them and don’t want them!!!
      180,000 free domains at Network Solutions.
      Rationalize this.

  19. With 6 weeks to go, just under 900K .XYZ registrations. Even with the auto-registrations by NetSol, it’s not a bad performance and certainly not worthy of what Konstantinos said of 1 million registrations in a year’s time, almost a year ago, “that will never happen.” Too close to call. Not sure why so much hate towards .xyz, but to each his own.

    • Sure… I can open a New gTLD tomorrow and have 1 million registrations in 3 days. (If I am fast at registering my own domains)

      You forgot the thousands of $1 domains given out by .xyz.
      .Science is offering free domains too. Who cares how many domains it has?

  20. stop hating on .xyz its a beast extension. You should go get yourself one.

  21. .com is the best, no doubt, but .com is untenable against the growth of online business, the numbers are numbers.

  22. You have described it as a disaster in just 1 year ?

    Yeah they may have provided their domains for FREE or dirt cheap and I see it as good marketing strategy, its a fact that lots of domains are going to be dropped but he also going to gets lots of renewal.

    He partnered with network solutions and gave away lots of domains for promotion, Tell me why he should not do this when he can. Its his company not yours.

    I am not covering his claims of beating .com, but there is nothing wrong in promoting the .xyz the way he is doing.

    lots of keywords are already gone in .com and when we can get it with .xyz why not should we go with that.

    But yeah I see it as a more fun extension than profession. I like it.

  23. I understand it gets cloud info. Is it safe?

  24. abc.xyz is all i have to say

  25. I actually really like the .xyz extension.
    Of course, .xyz domains will never be as valuable as .com domains, but I think .xyz is a great option if .com is already registered.

  26. Curious, with 6.5 Million registrations and it holding the #1 gTLD spot (about 27% of all gTLDs) do you take this article back?

  27. Julian Labuschagne

    After reading your article I can see why you thought .xyz might be a disaster and agree on many points.

    But there comes a time when you have to accept that you were wrong and people will respect you for it. But after reading through the comments you seem very stubborn and biased against the .xyz gTLD.

    I will have more respect for you as a professional and your credibility if you can now just accept that .xyz was not the DISASTER you have predicted.

    Even Alphabet Inc registered abc.xyz for their domain name.

    I can see your point, where they were giving away free domains, and it seems a bit dodgy to inflate their numbers.

    .xyz is definitely not the next .com but it was hardly a disaster either.

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