An Industry Divided

While I have to say I had hoped that the new gTLDs would bring us closer together it is clear now that it has divided our industry more than ever before. On one side are .COM loyalists who can’t imagine a world ten years from now where .COM isn’t the go-to TLD. On the other side are the new gTLD enthusiasts who see a world ten years from now where people brand around TLDs like .BERLIN, .GURU, .CLUB, and .XYZ. I find myself somewhere in the middle.

I have made it no secret that I support a handful of new gTLDs that I believe in, in many cases because of the people behind them. Other Domain Investors like Andrew Rosner, Page Howe and many more have also come-out in support of some specific new gTLDs as well.

Here’s the thing, while it can be easy to find our differences, we all are actually more similar in our viewpoints than you’d think. While I think TLDs like .XYZ, .CLUB, and a few more will hit 1M registrations in their first year I think the vast majority of new gTLDs won’t, in fact, I think most new gTLDs will fail miserably and waste the money of people who invested in them.

I think .COM is king and will be king for the foreseeable future. 90% of the money I am putting into domain names is going into .COM names, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. However is it really so terrible to think 5-10 new gTLDs out of the 1,500+ will do well? Is it really realistic to think that every single new gTLD will fail? Couldn’t 1%-3% do well?

Only time will tell what happens but I hope as an industry we can come together. When I started in the domain industry in 2007 we were all one big happy family, now, not so much. While we all have different assumptions it’s important to remember that we’re all just guessing.

The fact is, ten years from now the domain world will be different, period. The question is how will it be different and your guess is as good as mine. One thing that I do know is that we all need each, so keep the comments coming, keep the dialog going, and remember, we’re all just guessing!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton