A panel of experts discussed the results of the New gTLD program at the WorldHostingDays 2016 (WHD.GLOBAL) in Rust, Germany.
Most of the experts agreed that registration numbers aren’t everything and that projects by large companies (like abc.xyz by Google) could be a short-term key to success.
The largest mistake the industry could commit, would be missing their own target group, said Marco Hoffmann. “It’s not only about reaching high registration numbers, but about creating a lively namespace”, said Hoffmann.
“This is a story we need to learn from”, said Jeffrey Sass. “Some years ago nobody knew what to do with an Internet address. Companies where wondering what to do with a website.“ Today people are asking the same question. It would be up to the industry to provide the answers, said Sass.
WorldHostingDays hosted a New gTLD auction that sold 34 domain names.
Evolution of marketing.
1990’s – .com
2000’s – Hashtags and social media handles
2010’s – New Gtlds
Saying that, all of those listed above are equally important and one does not take the place of another.
What comes next? Duh, clear the crash of the new golds. Is that a trick question?
Dotless doman names.
Vibrant ( real development ) NameSpace is needed.
Brandable .gtlds, Web Traffic Encryption ( +other DNS model initiatives ) and Open gtlds are already driving traffic away from the traditional NameSpace.
Advertisement Models are changing. Going beyond the Landing Page is key.
The good news is that this is an incredibly welcoming opportunity to anyone with new ideas, and models.
imho.