I ask myself whether Frank Schilling -- if he were not running a registry now -- would be investing in these new gTLDs as a domainer. He has expressly stated that he won't be chasing SLD strings in the new gTLDs. In the interview, he mentioned lack of time as one reason; and I'm sure that's a legitimate reason. Another reason might be a perceived conflict of interest; but that's neither here nor there. Obviously, we can only speculate what Frank Schilling would do if he were not running Uniregistry.
But Frank Schilling certainly understands supply and demand -- especially the value of scarcity. If the goal is to offer a multitude of cheap catchy gTLD strings to the general consumer, then I can definitely understand his optimism about the general consumer liking the new gTLDs. Would they like them as much if domainers somehow bought them all up and made them expensive like .COM's? I doubt it. Then again, why should a domainer buy 1 domain in 1 of these numerous cheap catchy gTLDs and hope to sell it for 10, 100, or 1000 times its purchase price? He'd be competing against the same multitude of cheap catchy gTLD strings. And why should the end user pay a premium on a domain in some new gTLD when there are hundreds of other options still available to register? Or maybe domainers have bought up ALL the other options? I'm dubious that could even theoretically happen, given the volume of domains involved. But even if it did happen, that means 1 end user would pay 1 domainer a premium price on 1 domain because 500 other domainers have bought up 500 other domains. So 1 domainer wins. The end user pays an expensive price -- just as he now would for a .COM. And 500 domainers lose.
If Frank Schilling weren't running Uniregistry, I think he'd do the math too. And he'd probably mostly avoid investing in domains with these new gTLDs for the same reason I would:
Demand ... the same
Supply ... massively increased
Prices ... ?
If I were Frank Schilling around the time this flood of new gTLDs first began being discussed, I would ask myself how I could get involved with the largest chance of profit and the minimum risk. I would immediately see that prices for these new gTLDs will be driven very low, simply because a massively increased supply will have to compete for a limited-as-ever demand. So the answers would be two:
(1) Avoid investing in particular domains with these new gTLDs (since the profit potential from resale will be far inferior to .COM, where supply is low and demand is high)
(2) Start a registry to get some profit from the interest in cheap catchy creative gTLD brands. There, at least, wholesale volume can make up for the low wholesale prices the inventory will need in order to sell at all.
I'm sure Frank Schilling is also motivated to innovate and be part of a massive change. He doesn't need more money; so his motives are probably as pure as you can get. But he's also smart enough to know not to throw money away -- which domainers would be doing, primarily, if they buy up lots of domains in these new gTLDs.
