IDN.mobi agreement signed in China! To go LIVE summer 2009

[Gerry]

As for the new gTLDs, I think your expectations are too high. I predict that the vast majority will fail or achieve maverick status at best. Okay, I could see some niche TLDs doing fine like .cat today, but on a very limited scale. It is the shaky TLDs of today that stand to lose the most.

My expectations for new gTLDs are not high. I too am cautious as to the success.

However, we are getting ready to enter into an age of the internet where the brand is the extension and the extension is the brand.

Once the trust factor is present for using .brand, all other extensions, typos, squatting will be totally useless.

Imagine someone like Coca-Cola getting the extension .coke. The brand is the extension. The extension is the brand. The extension is closed and tightly controlled by coke. It would be the most successful and best $180K advertising campaign ever launched and spent by coke in their entire history.

Instant brandability for:

new.coke
cherry.coke
vanilla.coke
diet.coke

Also, imagine being an employee of coke and having the email:

email.coke/YourName

Also, country or language specific:

Columbia.coke

In time, a domain like this could easily become the defacto extension as a platform used to launch new products or contests. In short time, people would learn to use new.coke instead of coke.com/newproducts/diet.

With this usage and branding, all other domain names and extensions used by coke would fall out of favor. This is very doable. The cost to do this whole package of marketing and branding is minimal compared to the cost of getting defensive regs. Domainers with typo or TM names would see their traffic dwindle to the point of zero.


Again, my expectations are not that high because I have not read, in detail, someones marketing and promotion plans.

If I am not mistaken, there were 13 applicants on file for .music (dot music). When awarded, if ICANN does not give proper consideration to which applicant has the best plan for usage (irregardless of extension) then the extension may not do very good.

Some are not likely to succeed as the demand is not there.

Some, like .eco and .green, tend to overlap in theme and essence.

Others like .nyc, .berlin, .london and numerous other domains appear to be a done deal. Again, there are multiple applicants on some of these.

I like the concept and theory behind many of these endeavors. That should not be taken as an investment strategy as, presently, I have no investment plans for these.

I do want this to succeed from the point of,

Why not? Why not take the same old internet and give it a face lift and bring it into the 21st century.

From someone who has spent the greater part of his life in advertising, marketing, research, science, and medicine any advances are welcomed.

[katherine]

It won't be the death knell for cybersquatting really, because there are not many corporations that have the financial capability or the marketing power - not to mention the desire - to switch to another TLD even if they have full control. It will be the ultimate branding experience, but only for corporations that already are quasi household names. They already own their .com so their bases are covered.

[Gerry]

98% of this forum are in for a real shock when IDN and new gTLDs are released.

I continue to read too much rhetoric and advice from a decade ago.

It is as if some people are frozen in time.

Make way for the new internet.

[katherine]

I hear ya Doc, but even assuming IDNs and gTLDs take off, how are they a threat to my English dotcoms. I see the Internet pie expanding actually... more opportunities for all (but chaos too). If I am missing something please enlighten me.

[Gerry]

how are they a threat to my English dotcoms.

Three reasons:
Traffic
Traffic
Traffic

In many instances, traffic exists as there were no options.

Give people options and what happens?

You pointed out .nl. Take extremely popular ccTLD's like .nl, .de, .jp.

There may be a decrease in traffic (slight, moderate, or large) to the .com once a site is up in those extensions. Notice, I said SITE, not a parked page.

But one of the biggest areas not talked about by anyone is - those sites are now getting traffic the dot com never had or will ever get.

I have not seen any studies in this area. An extremely successful ccTLD site is now getting the traffic that the .com will not get. It may actually be new, un-referred, type in traffic.

In time, I think people in domaining will begin to see things from a different perspective. It is not:

How can an IDN compete with a .com?

It will be:

How can a .com compete with an IDN?

or even a ccTLD.

When I look at the shear numbers of people in China and India, we are talking about billions of people. That is millions of daily searches going on that all of a sudden will be directed/diverted to a native script in Bengali, Hindi, or Mandarin.

Those two countries along have nearly 3 billion people. India is expected to overtake China in population by 2015 thanks, in part, to China's one child policy.

When you combine nationalistic pride with a ccTLD, you have a recipe for success.

When you combine a ccTLD with a government decree that .cn will be the ONLY permissable TLD used by a country within that country, then you have a huge, HOLY COW!

I still maintain my position that I look for China to break totally away from the connected world by declaring its own root servers and having its own internet. There are too many signals that are showing me this.

It's funny, nearly 4 or 5 years ago, people on domain forums were saying to me (in response to some of my threads),

Why should I care what happens in China?

Who cares about IDN's. It'll never happen.

ccTLD's will never amount to anything.


If you just look back for a minute and look at what has happened within the past 5 years, 3 years, 1 year, 6 months, one month ago in terms of technology and internet usage - it is astounding.

Now we are at a tipping point where, instead of waiting for the technology to catch up to us - all these new ccTLDs, IDN's, gTLDs are about to be released creating a very cluttered and competitive space - suddenly it will be technology having to catch up to us (internet usage) to try and sort things out.

[katherine]

I see what you mean. Right now I'm not very active in markets like China, Japan, Korea or or Russia where IDNs make sense. For that reason I don't see direct, massive implications for my portfolio. As for China breaking away from the root, you most likely are right. Actually they are halfway down the road. I stay away from .cn because of
a) heavy Internet censorship by the Chinese regime
b) too many restrictions on 'proper' usage and too much government interference
c) the uncertainty stemming from these very developments you mentioned.

[snicksnack]

Doc Com : "When you combine a ccTLD with a government decree that .cn will be the ONLY permissable TLD used by a country within that country, then you have a huge, HOLY COW!
"

Do you mean that only .cn domains are allowed to be used within China ? Or for governmental organizations ?

IDN is working and will keep on working so will ccTLDs. Most of my domains are ccTLDs.

I don't think the new gTLDs will be a good success. I can understand that companies like Coca-Cola or so go for their own extension, but for the first 5 years at least they better register for all the ".coke" domains they use for ads, the same .com domain, or .ccTLD.

I don't see that .cars , .fishing, .baseball will be a big success. Of course some companies will be forced to register the enxtensions to protect their TM, but other than that I don't think alot of people will type it in... I don't see much type in traffic on .biz and .info and they are around for a long time already.

[Gerry]

Doc Com : "When you combine a ccTLD with a government decree that .cn will be the ONLY permissable TLD used by a country within that country, then you have a huge, HOLY COW!
"
Do you mean that only .cn domains are allowed to be used within China ? Or for governmental organizations ?

IDN is working and will keep on working so will ccTLDs. Most of my domains are ccTLDs.

I don't think the new gTLDs will be a good success. I can understand that companies like Coca-Cola or so go for their own extension, but for the first 5 years at least they better register for all the ".coke" domains they use for ads, the same .com domain, or .ccTLD.

I don't see that .cars , .fishing, .baseball will be a big success. Of course some companies will be forced to register the enxtensions to protect their TM, but other than that I don't think alot of people will type it in... I don't see much type in traffic on .biz and .info and they are around for a long time already.

It is my understanding that .cn is already being used for governmental organizations.

And with all the talk of new ccTLD's and new gTLDs, you see very little success but see HUGE success for .cm.

[snicksnack]

I don't see new ccTLDs, I only see ccTLDs which have not be used or promoted before.

I never said big succes for .cm, but I see that the domain has potential as it gets type in traffic, be it as typo of .com and .cn, doesn't really matter as it is traffic which can be converted, as goes for .om, .co, .ne and .et. There are a few more extensions, which are "typo" extensions, but they have traffic and it converts.

[Gerry]

I don't see new ccTLDs, I only see ccTLDs which have not be used or promoted before.

Then you should really start paying attention, read news, and read domain industry news if that is the game you want to be in.

[snicksnack]

Then you should really start paying attention, read news, and read domain industry news if that is the game you want to be in.

So which new ccTLDs recently came out ?

[Gerry]

Why do you pretend that you said, or say, or meant something else when it is quoted what you stated?

Your response was based on my noting of new ccTLD's coming out.

me: And with all the talk of new ccTLD's and new gTLDs, you see very little success but see HUGE success for .cm.

Would you say that .cm is a new ccTLD?

Yes, of course you would.

So please google or do what ever you do to find out which new ccTLD's are coming out, have been proposed, or have been denied.

But do tell us how .cm will be enormously successful over other ccTLD's already out (since you brought that topic up) or coming out, like .sco.

[snicksnack]

If you read my post from before, I wrote "I don't see new ccTLDs, I only see ccTLDs which have not be used or promoted before."

.cm exists already a long time, so does .ne, .et, .om, .co.......

They are not new domains have been registered under these extensions before, it is/was restrictive but possible.

I am not sure were you read that I mention anything like this "I don't see new ccTLDs, I only see ccTLDs which have not be used or promoted before." I said it has potential, this is different from the words you want to put into my mouth.

I am sure .cm will get more registrations than let's say .ki for example.I am sure it will not even get close to .de or .cn for that matter, unless they promote the .cm at a price like cnnic was selling .cn (1 RMB).

[Gerry]

Sometimes, on this forum, I feel like I am having a conversation with 1st and 2nd grade children.

[snicksnack]

I am glad that you are so smart and the rest or maybe only me is so stupid. I am sure you are one of the biggest domainers here on this forum. With all your inside knowledge. I wish you could share you wisdom with the rest of us stupid non .mobi believers. I am sure you will be the domainer of the years for the next 10 years with all the knowledge and foresight.

[Gerry]

I am glad that you are so smart and the rest or maybe only me is so stupid. I am sure you are one of the biggest domainers here on this forum. With all your inside knowledge. I wish you could share you wisdom with the rest of us stupid non .mobi believers. I am sure you will be the domainer of the years for the next 10 years with all the knowledge and foresight.

thank you for that generous comment.

It means so much coming from you.

Good luck hawking domains that are a typo of .com and .cn.

I am sure that will go far.

[snicksnack]

I guess in your opinion countries like Niger, Columbia, Cameroon, Oman, should give up their extension, as they might be typo extensions. So should Sweden or Spain give up their extension?

[Wot]

there are not too many IDN.com used in China for actual websites, so I still have my doubt's that mobi will make it here in China. Haven't seen a IDN.cn or IDN.com being advertised in China.

You have not looked hard enough.

[snicksnack]

You have not looked hard enough.

okay, which company uses IDN.cn or IDN.com in China for print or TV ads at this moment in time. I am not saying that IDN is useless or will never be used, but the big companies have yet to get their IDNs, some have done so already others haven't.

[Wot]

okay, which company uses IDN.cn or IDN.com in China for print or TV ads at this moment in time. I am not saying that IDN is useless or will never be used, but the big companies have yet to get their IDNs, some have done so already others haven't.

No idea which companies use IDN, Simply you said that you had not seen idn.com or idn.cn advertised in China.

Having just spent two weeks in China , Shanghai area and Beijing I saw at least 10 billboards/shops advertising using IDN.com/.cn, mainly .com but a couple of .cn.

Last year I saw none!