OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
Mike Mann made a short video for the GDS (Global Domain Summit) 2017 conference in China and posted it on Facebook and on YouTube on what appears to be his new channel.
Among other things he said that “.com is still king and always will be” and that “there will never be another domain extension that will get as high of price on average as the .coms in the secondary domain name market.”
Mike Mann said that he is selling the occasional .net, .org and .co and that the New gTLD market is a bubble. He also said that the average sold price of his .com domains is currently at $3,500.
He said that .com is going up in value and all other extensions are going down in value. Finally he said that the low-end .coms and the New gTLD never had and will never have value.
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My response to that video on social media was as follows: I agree 100% that .com value will continue to be higher than any other extension for a long time, however, keep in mind that new gtlds (not all, only a few niche combinations) still have value. They may not be close to .com’s, but there is still value for the new age/landscape developing and gaining media exposure in our respected industry. It’s fine to pitch and push .com’s, but please give credit where credit is due on new gtlds. One may not get rich off them at this phase of their existence, but they can pay a few bills with the profits of acquiring the right ones. Like with anything though, lots of research is needed before you blindly pull the trigger to invest in them. Personally, I enjoy seeing new gtlds in the wild on billboards, vehicle wraps, business signage, commercials, etc… It reminds us that startups are developing them. The more they do that, the more others will follow in their local communities. We’ll just have to speculatively guess what happens from there. Time will tell, but it’s too early to predict failure today. ?
Quite agreed. Yes, we can’t predict as of now and credit has to be given where it needs to.
Exactly! 😉
The real Domain King
Honest, straight up, no bullshit. The Mann 😉
TM issues? 🙂
No space for 2 Kings, that’s for sure!
You cannot expand globally if you don’t own the .com.
It is like trying to replace the iPhone or google for search, good luck! Why try and make money when less than 1% of sales have been new gtlds!
Don
Iphone and Google are a bad comparison since there’s really no relation. All extensions can rank just as good with the proper SEO/SEM initiative and there are billions of people in this world that use something other than an iPhone.
You can’t expand globally without a .com? Really? Are you saying there are absolutely no global brands on any other extensions in existence? You may want to double check that.
There are very few brands without a .com. And these either don’t have the funds yet, or they can’t get their dream .com or they don’t know it yet that they need it.
Sure, I can see that angle, however, I don’t think we can squeeze everyone in the world into the same bottle. There are plenty of businesses that are seeing success with their new gTLD campaigns/developments. This may or may not lead to a future .com acquisition when they have more available funds, sure. However, we can’t rule out that some already have enough in the bank to acquire the .com version and chose not to. Why? Could it be they don’t feel the need to since their current campaigns are working fine? Maybe the old saying applies: “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it”?
The new gTLD’s current phase has them being developed by start-ups, which most target local communities. These local communities notice the new gTLDs and start getting curious, eventually becoming a start-up themselves and have that as a more cost effective option to develop on. The domino effect will take hold eventually, bringing the new gTLD’s out of local startup communities and more into global landscapes. A few already have.
I look forward to seeing how it all works out in the future. I’m rooting for all extensions (Legacy & New). Consumers/startups want targeted/cost effective solutions and that’s exactly what the new gTLDs provide right now for them.
Are you talking about the 1%? Nobody said 100% but very close to it.
Who are these globally known companies using a new gtld? I know none. There may be very few with a .org or a cctld.
Some may be using new gs but are not globally known yet. They still hope they will be. But until they succeed we may assume that one thing holding them back is the missing .com as this is the norm until today.
Obviously, the first batch/line of globally known companies would be the registries themselves. From there it scatters and you see just a few random ones like coffee.club (It may not be a huge Corp., but it is known in various countries). Don’t forget to check out the list of new gTLDs in the wild over at DNA (Domain Name Association) here: http://inthewild.domains/ – Some of those have global campaigns. (It’s a long list)
There are actually hundreds of other lists of sightings across the internet from various countries, in various languages. The new gTLD phenomenon is not isolated to a specific country, it’s a global epidemic.
Having a small “global” campaign is way far from being globally known.
“There are actually hundreds of other lists of sightings across the internet from various countries, in various languages. The new gTLD phenomenon is not isolated to a specific country, it’s a global epidemic.”
You are talking about individual sites in various countries, not a single New gTLD that is known in many countries.
BTW epidemic has some negative connotations. The registries won’t like this! 🙂
The future is with New GTLDs not .COM, period. You are looking at the light from a dying star in .COM
If you’re investing for the future you’re investing in New GTLDs as well as the existing dominant commodity (com)
But the future is kind to the visionary
Good luck to all
What do you mean by the future? How many years?
And how are New GTLDs going to be better than other domains?
Who promotes domain names to the greater public outside of search? – The large companies using legacy media. None of the new gTLDs have the X factor: Direct Navigation. If you want to globally brand it into people’s minds, be prepared to pay $100 million a year,…. every year. The reason so many large companies/advertisers are staying away from anything but .com is “fear”. The risk is too high and big money will always take the safest path which is .com.
I love all the enthusiasm with something new, but reality pays the bills.
For now. However, one can’t deny that investors and companies using new gtlds are getting bills paid. Maybe not on the million+ level, but comfortably living life and doing business. Maybe what we should do as a united industry is start interviewing companies using ntlds successfully to see what their take is on the claim their brand is worthless since it wasn’t built on .com. I’m sure we’ll find some pretty interesting results. Most may even be offended and provide data to support their business model. Such data can help us understand what’s really happening with businesses using the new extensions. ?
Yes there are a few (very few compared to .com) companies that are paying the bills. But can be said for companies that have a 5 word .com domain name.
Then the problem is how do measure their success? How do you know they would not be doing 2 or 5 or 10 times better if they were using a premium .com? There ARE many companies that have said that switching to a better .com domain has skyrocketed their company.
The interview process should include a checklist of qualifications so that it isn’t one-sided, IMO. It’s great to hear from .com owners/investors claiming higher margins after an extension switch, however, I think for the sake of accuracy, we need to hear from more successful nTLD business models to get a clearer picture.
We should also keep in mind that nTLDs are great for local geo developments. Companies competing locally against the .com owner in their city. In these cases, the .com owner won’t be selling out to their competition anytime soon. Which makes the nTLD competitors interview much more viable of a comparison. Maybe a better approach is to start interviewing both, the .com & the nTLD targeting the same city/region, in the same niche, with the same marketing budgets to get more accurate data.
We can’t rule out the fact that competition is healthy when it comes to business. nTLD’s provide that ability, for businesses to compete in the same markets.
Nice sales pitch, Mike. But he is right about .com being the best domain extension, now and into the future.
Almost everyone in the domain Industry that made their fortune in domains, was because they bought and sold .com domains, and still do to this day. Including people that are now promoting new gTLD’s instead of .com. How do you think they were able to start their new gTLD businesses? Answer: With money that they made from buying and selling .com domains.
While I get your point in regards to investors starting with .com before the new gtlds released, today the ntlds are now available to businesses, where they weren’t before. My perspective is based more on consumer options and consumption (end users) rather than just domain industry investors. One gets a clearer picture looking at multiple sides of this rather just one. Besides, I’m in this business to help smaller businesses compete with those that already own the .com and would never sell it to their competition. I know that as an industry of professionals, we aren’t suggesting that if someone already owns the .com, that all other businesses in their niche market will fail because of it. Businesses need alternatives to compete and that’s exactly what ntlds are for. Which is why they there is still money to be made for investors that research and specialize in such viable competitive alternatives.
I looked at both sides and I chose .com, when I bought NameSelling.com. I could of very easliy chose a new gTLD, but didn’t.
Best decision I’ve ever made, was to buy .com. Instant credibility when you own a .com domain name.
Could not agree more. Portfolio breakdown: 97% .com, 3% .net, nothing else.
Right now in the world .com and cctld’s are what companies are using and looking for, thats reality.
You dont need a crystal ball at this pont, just a little bit of knowledge and common sense.
Funny how many sites that promote the new g’s are on .com’s.
People say if only they were around years ago they would have made so much money with .com,
But i disagree cause if they cant see it now then how the heck are they going to see it back then.
The whole gTLD debate reminds me of the failure of the democratic socialists in the US; they stink, they lost; the stupid excuses of the losers are useless; their fantasy world of the past and the future isn’t helping anyone. Deal with reality, move on.
Hard to argue with Don he does multiple six and seven figure deals with private individuals that are never made public. >com
The iPhone had something different and no one to date has made it better. >com will not be replaced. But like .com is was the first out of the gate now you have followers like .whatevers………Yeah you can make a living with the new gtld’s but hey why make it hard on yourself. You all want to sell Kia’s or BMWS.