OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
Roland LaPlante, CMO of Afilias, explains in a video the value of owning a dotBRAND domain name extension for marketing campaigns and user security.
Afilias is the .info registry and also the registry of several new gTLDs, including .BET, .PET, .LOTTO, .POKER, .LGBT, .VOTE, .VOTO, .ORGANIC, .GREEN, .BLACK, .RED, .PINK, .BLUE, .KIM, .SHIKSHA, .PROMO and .移动 (MOBILE in Chinese).
You can watch the video here:
“With over 600 “dot Brands” applied for in 2012, and hundreds now launched, 2017 seems poised to be the Year of dotBrand!
“dotBrands” are top level domains (TLDs) that use the brand name to the right of the dot, as in www.mabanque.bnpparibas or www.home.cern. Many large companies across nearly every industry applied, including Google, Amazon, Citibank, VISA, McDonalds, Sony, HBO, and Alibaba.
While most of the dotBrand applicants had no idea in 2012 what they were going to do with a new TLD just for their brand, many applicants are now hard at word either executing plans or formulating their plans.
Coming into 2017, I’d break the dot brand applicants into 3 major buckets:
- Still Planning (or Ignoring)—these are the brand TLDs with just the mandatory nic site up and running, and includes brands like .UPS, .FERRARI, and .DELTA.
- Trial Phase: These are brands that are testing it out and gaining experience by releasing reports at their dotBrand, or running a program at a dotBrand. Some of these are redirects. These brands are adopting a responsible and conservative approach as they build internal confidence in this new tool. Such brands include .PWC, .CIPRIANI, and .ICBC.
- All In: a growing number of major brands are seriously leveraging their new virtual real estate, including .BNPPARIBAS, .CERN, .ABBOTT, .MONASH (and many others). They have already achieved notable Alexa rankings for some of their second level names. These are the true dotBrand pioneers, and others should observe their progress and learn.
Of course, a few dotbrand applications were withdrawn as too much time passed for approval.
Given the expanding use, it may be helpful to reiterate the benefits of a dotBrand. dotBrands offer tangible and important benefits unavailable in generic addresses. dotBrand TLDs offer 1) complete control over who has a name and what they do with it, which reinforces brand trust online; 2) security benefits that finally deliver a protected space on the internet that your customers can have complete confidence in; and 3) future proofing via unlimited address space dedicated to your brand (critical for IoT brands).
The Next Round? Most brands were left out of the last round and many want a chance to level the playing field. That’s why there is a growing pressure on ICANN to open a new round for the “have-not” companies. As the current dotBrands succeed, we can only expect this pressure to build in 2017. The ICANN community, however, has other priorities than helping corporations, so no one should expect a new round this year. Rather, 2017 will provide great opportunities to watch some brands begin to realize the full potential of this significant new online option.”
OnlineDomain.com - © Copyright 2012-2024 - All Rights Reserved
.Brand is failing. A few years ago expectations were high that large well known companies would be shifting to these. In reality most of those with them got them purely for defensive purposes with no usage intentions. Of those who have tried them a small number launched one or two sites when they first came out a couple of years ago and have done nothing since. You can see from Ronald’s examples, it is companies that most people would have barely heard of and the sites aren’t popular either.
I’d say try to get companies signed up in the 2nd round it is going to be a difficult excercise, most would have held off to see how the first round went, if they were on the fence when expectations were still high why would they sign up now?
Regarding the “benefits”, it is mostly hype. These addresses don’t really offer control or future proofing because they are confusing and the word before the dot is typically superfluous, news.fox don’t make sense, it should be fox.news. Ditto for an other brand you can think of.
As far as the security there is no difference between this and a .com at markmonitor, they are both equally “secure”. It you call yourself news.fox you’ll still have all sorts of issues with newsfox.com, fox.news and every typo in between. This will actually make it more expensive for people to protect their brand and confusion levels will go up if they use them.
They forgot the part about how 28 companies that got .BRAND extensions have decided not to use them. There will be more. 🙂
and they said that in
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
you can cue Sponge Bob 20 YEARS LATER “2037 is the year for gtlds”
In Germany there is a big campaign from amazon using on big wallpapers the domain amazon.jobs. Maybe a good sign, what do you think?
That is not a .brand. A .brand would be jobs.amazon but that doesn’t make a lot of sense as Snoopy said.
Let them die already, the day this non-sense stops getting reported will help people get back to real business