The problems with .eu...

[Edwin]

I'm interested in getting a discussion going about potential problems with the .eu extension.

PROBLEM I: Many different languages are spoken across the member countries.

A name like "hotel.eu" or "casino.eu" has huge value because "hotel" and "casino" are words that are common to many languages used across the EU.

On the other hand, a name like "carinsurance.eu" will only be "native" to English-speaking countries, i.e. the UK and Ireland. So it's unlikely to be more appealing than the .co.uk form, and may even be less so given the antipathy many people in the UK feel towards Europe.

The same case could be made for domains that work in a different language but not in English. For example, voiture.eu (car) - this isn't likely to be much better than voiture.fr because you're only potentially "gaining" Belgium, Luxembourg and a little bit of Switzerland... and the downside is that the average person will not be familiar with the ".eu" extension so it might be even less valuable than that.

PROBLEM II: Disproportionate numbers of A1+ generics seem to be landing with a few speculators

As several recent threads have pointed out, the same people are scooping up most of the really "good" .eu generics - and they're not the kind of folks with a long history of building sites. So where's the word-of-mouth buzz going to come from that will drive .eu recognition in the mind of everyday folk? After all, whenever they try something "obvious" as a typein, they're going to hit a parking page...

 

[dodo1]

Interesting post, Edwin.

Regarding Problem I, I think that English .eu domain names will be the most valuable. It is true that English is only spoken as the first language in the UK and Ireland, and it is also true that these countries do not feel very "European", but while there are several different languages spoken in the EU there is still one language all countries have in common: English.

So I expect .eu domains to be of highest value and best use for larger companies and global players who build a portal for their European customers to offer them their services.

In addition, Europe can already be seen as one market, especially since many European countries share the same currency. .eu Domains with English keywords have the best chances to succeed, in my opinion, because they serve the whole European market instead of only offering a service to one or two European countries.

On the other hand, many people will register .eu domains in other languages (i.e. French, German, Spanish...), of course, but I think it is quite unlikely these domains will become very valuable, because those specific languages' keywords are already registered under the respective ccTLDs.

After all, only English .EU domain names will be important for the domain name aftermarket, because keywords from other languages should still be registered under the specific country's ccTLD.

By the way, I believe that it will take a lot of time till the .eu TLD will catch up with such popular ccTLDs like .de or .co.uk - if it every will.

I have not much to add to Problem II though, because it is obvious that those people/companies who register lots of TMs in order to get as many prime .eu domains as possible are nothing but harm for the domain industry. Also, new TLDs can only succeed if there are some useful and established web sites available under them. Parking pages have no real use or value for Internet users. Thus .eu will only hardly go up in value if every second .eu domain will be forwarded to a parking page.

 

[friday]

.eu will have major problems in the secondary market. If I was offered property.eu in the secondary market, I wouldn't touch it. Why? Like so many top keyword domains there are multiple trademarks on names like this. There is far too much risk in buying the domain because you could loose it at any time to any one of the multiple tm holders. You would never be safe from lawsuits. As a matter of fact I foresee a lot of wrangling over domains even when they are awarded to the primary holder with a tm. I guess to some degree it could be argued that timeline takes precedence with one trademark over another. If a trademark owner has a previously registered trademark over the primary domain holder's trademark, then there is going to be lawsuits. So that is the major problem with the major generic first rank keywords. As for second rank domains like carinsurance.eu, I think it will have limited appeal as outlined above by Edwin. .eu will be a mess, hard to see where the value lies for us secondary market domainers.