OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
Yesterday was the day 1 the .luxury New gTLD as it entered General Availability. .Luxury had about 570 domains registered in sunrise (most of them) and landrush before General Availability started. The retail price for a .luxury domain name is set at about $800 (at Go Daddy) while the wholesale registry price is $400.
.Luxury got about 235 new registrations on day 1. It now has about 800 registrations and at $800 a pop that makes about $640,000 in registrar revenue and about $320,000 for the registry. But considering that maybe 600 from these registrations are from sunrise, ie trademark holders, then I am not sure if there is much room for growth for the New gTLD, considering that day 1 is the day with the most registrations. It will probably be successful for the registry but I don’t know for the domain name owners.
Sunrise ends on July 18, 2014 so there were still many domain name registrations from trademark holders on day 1. I guess some trademark holders ruched on the last day to avoid any others registering their brands:
alexanderwang.luxury
ameritrade.luxury
calvinklein.luxury
lincoln.luxury
xboxfitness.luxury
xboxgames.luxury
xboxmusic.luxury
xboxone.luxury
xboxvideo.luxury
redbull.luxury
ritz.luxury
And of course there were some TM registrations that I am not sure that were done by the TM holder. Pretty strange to be a $800 .luxury cybersquatter with a hyphen:
belvedere-vodka.luxury
There were some domains registered with I see as having a redundant word such as:
bestattung.luxury
bestdubai.luxury
besthotels.luxury
bestlondon.luxury
bestmiami.luxury
bestnewyork.luxury
bestparis.luxury
bestrealestate.luxury
bestvacations.luxury
luxuryhomerealty.luxury
luxuryhotels.luxury
luxuryluxury.luxury
luxuryrealtygroup.luxury
There were some very long or with a hyphen or that make no sense domains:
chicagorealestate.luxury
diamondengagementrings.luxury
diamondrings.luxury (maybe this is somewhat ok but not for $800)
diamondweddingrings.luxury
livingthelifeof.luxury
manhattanbeach.luxury
manlybeachit.luxury
medicalmarijuana.luxury (seriously????)
next-generation-leader.luxury
northmyrtlebeach.luxury
real-estate.luxury
real-estates.luxury
realestates.luxury
sarasotaplasticsurgery.luxury
Again the sane 1 word registrations were the exception:
crazy.luxury
delhi.luxury
escorts.luxury
gay.luxury
hot.luxury
milano.luxury
motel.luxury
nice.luxury
perfect.luxury
russia.luxury
selection.luxury
taiwan.luxury
wearable.luxury
Here are some of the biggest brands that got their names in .luxury domains in sunrise:
amazon.luxury
armani.luxury
bmw.luxury
cartier.luxury
chanel.luxury
dior.luxury
escada.luxury
facebook.luxury
ferragamo.luxury
godaddy.luxury
google.luxury
gucci.luxury
linkedin.luxury
prada.luxury
swatch.luxury
tods.luxury
xboxlive.luxury
Again I checked the corresponding .com domains and found a bunch that were free:
bestattungluxury.com
bestdubailuxury.com
besthotelsluxury.com
bestlondonluxury.com
bestmiamiluxury.com
bestnewyorkluxury.com
bestparisluxury.com
bestrealestateluxury.com
bestvacationsluxury.com
luxuryhomerealtyluxury.com
luxuryhotelsluxury.com
luxuryrealtygroupluxury.com
chicagorealestateluxury.com
diamondengagementringsluxury.com
diamondringsluxury.com
diamondweddingringsluxury.com
livingthelifeofluxury.com
manlybeachitluxury.com
medicalmarijuanaluxury.com
next-generation-leaderluxury.com
real-estateluxury.com
real-estatesluxury.com
realestatesluxury.com
sarasotaplasticsurgeryluxury.com
motelluxury.com
wearableluxury.com
Surprisingly the domain luxuryluxuryluxury.com was registered last year.
What do you think about .luxury? I personally think its a waste of money and i won’t buy any…my god $799 is a lot of dough to splash on a me too extension. It makes sense for brand owners as they are fearful of whats next but in all, I think, with all these so many domains hitting the market, customers are going to opt to stick with the known fundamentals as they seek to differentiate themselves from the confusion.
I think a handful of “relevant” extensions are going to float out and lots are going to drown. The only disappoints I am thinking is that there is a luck of responsiveness from the domaining community.
What I mean is that domainers have the power to sink or float an extension, why because
1. they control surplus inventory
2. they are reliable buyers
When you have those 2, you can respond to market dynamics easy by either
1. participating in tactics that protect or promote your bottom line
2. refraining from assisting competing alternatives from having a viable chance of success.
If serious domineers cut prices on existing surpluses and at the some time refrained from participating in some of these horrible extensions, the seemingly volatile supply chain would stabilize in a few months as management costs would drive the new registries to oblivion and price reductions on surplus inventory would encourage end users to ignore the .whatever and stick to what works…
It would be disingenuous for domineers to claim that they did not see this coming. Yes, these new gtlds are a response to a market access friction and the irony is that we aren’t doing anything to address the problem we created in first place. I am not concerned about the amateur buyer as registration fees and the sheer volume of their buys would be irrelevant to keep the registry lights on. I am concerned about domainers splashing 100G’s in fear of being left behind perpetuating the feel of day one success only to add the out come to the long list of surpluses out there.
Because the domaining industry works in a perpetual cycle of competitive acquisition and pricing, the architects and investors who came up with the Gtlds, got straight to it by seeing through our greed. That could explain why some of those domains are selling for $799 a registration. I think at the end of the day, confusion is going to reign. And no, your .com domain name may not be the benefactor of such confusion. Your now keyword domains may soon become irrelevant yielding power to brand domains. I see a future where yousupercollectionofoneworld.com domains no longer matters in the face of the thing of the internet of the future; trademarked nameofmybrand.com.
If your name is apple and you spend lots to get your brand name know, apple.com or ibm.com or kayak.com will never be lost in the confusion. My 2 cents
I don’t think that vanity New gTLDs are going to be used widely.
Sure some trademark owners bought them but I bet they don’t even know what their money is buying.
They just have a budget for brand protection and their lawyers spend it.
I won’t be buying any .luxury or .rich domains. Hardly anyone will. I don’t even want to have any domains with a renewal fee of more than $50. Although I have little
I have asked domainers to boycott .build because it’s owner has a lot of fake trademarks.
Cutting prices of good .com domains is not the way to go. Some smaller domainers are already selling as to what I see as dirt cheap.
And they not doing a good service to the rest of us.
Yes I share similar sentiments on .luxury, .rich .xyz and honestly, .tatoo, .technology and even .club and all them likes. I don’t see why anyone would want those but in the end, i am concerned with the economics of access. I think, the reason land rush or preorder prices are becoming runaways is because there is so much speculative demand.
I think that all markets are driven by supply and demand. Goods get really expensive simply because either they cost much to produce, there is vanity in them, particularly serve a specific market or are inherently scarce. The later is true for domain names until now.
When you have a product with emerging alternatives, prices are going to have to fall or alternatives are going to look very attractive. You can see how well this is illustrated in the 1and1 ada saying how easy you can now get the domain you’ve always wanted. The thing is, every time supply overwhelms demand or the other way around, there is always a trade off. The question is who gets to be right. One this one, time will tell.