This recent tweet by MarkMonitor, referencing Verisign’s latest Domain Name Industry Brief, illustrates the continued weak total domains under management (DUMs) performance of the new domain extensions sector (new gTLDs) within the industry.
It caught my eye, as I posted thoughts regarding The Great Domain Correction of 2017 last August, when the sector totaled 7.7% of the overall global total. Now it’s down to 6.2%.
This is unfortunate, especially in comparison to the far less amount of legacy TLDs, introduced over a decade ago, that in total managed to capture a similar market share at the time.
Of course the current situation is throwing out different circumstances and challenges. Some new gTLD players are doing well, some are doing just O.K. Others are sucking wind.
Some market, execute and innovate like hell. Some just sit back. Both strategies have their pros and cons depending upon your their role, resources, experience, and ability to execute and scale within the ecosystem.
Total DUMs for a TLD don’t mean everything, and that’s why I’d like to point out that every single one of those legacy TLDs are still operating, as some survived by acquistion.
I suspect we will see more of the same in the new gTLD sector. It’s possible a Registry Operator business or two might fail, but the TLD will likely survive, especially if acquired by a saavy Registry Service Provider or well-heeled and patient investor group, and because of ICANN’s Emergency Back-end Registry Operator (EBERO) requirement.
Total DUMs are important in other ways, especially to ICANN’s budget and even possible cuts to funding for a new round of TLDs. Also channel registrars, vital to many new Registry Operators, carefully look at DUMs, trends and the registry operator itself to determine how they will use their resources to deal with every single TLD out there.
That brings me to an article I posted six years ago (2012) before the new gTLDs were introduced. The Inside Track to TLD Success. For the most part it all still holds true today.
Beyond those comments from long ago, my next post will talk about some other basics that registry operators should employ in order to grow their business.
The industry will evolve, and use of the new gTLDs will evolve, even if market share remains at a lower level for now. There is still opportunity to make a difference.
But the “build it and they will come” days are over. Gotta work for it.
PINKY BRAND 