Datamation published an article taking a look at Verisign and their recent earnings call. The article delved into comments by Verisign CEO James Bidzos, one area Bidzos commented on was the confusion of that new gtlds are causing, he made the case for some caution when it came to .net as the confusion may have an impact on registration rates.
From the article:
VeriSign holds a unique place in the infrastructure of the Internet, managing root DNS functions and working as the custodian of the .com and .net domain names. Over the course of 2014, hundreds of new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) have entered the Internet, which is now confusing the marketplace, according to VeriSign’s CEO.
Bidzos added that trusted brands always do well. While .net is also a trusted brand, he cautioned that it is likely to be impacted by the new gTLDs and potentially confusion issues.
James Bidzos, CEO of VeriSign, made the comments about the impact of new gTLDs during his company’s third quarter earnings call on October 23. For the quarter, VeriSign reported revenue of $255 million, for a 4.7 percent year-over-year gain. Net Income grew to $95 million, up from $81 million in the third quarter of 2013.
One of the key metrics that VeriSign tracks is the number of active .com and .net registered domains, which grew by 3.3 percent year-over-year. At the end of the third quarter, VeriSign reported that there were 114.9 million .com and 15.1 million .net domain names.
George Kilguss CFO of VeriSign said during his company’s earnings call that .net domain growth has been relatively flat all year. The reason is that .net, as is the case with other top level domains, is being impacted by the launch of all the new gTLDs.
Read the whole article on Datamation
I think we have entered a new phrase of the domain name space where name + extension must make sense. .com is the only exception because its original meaning has been lost along the way. Now it simply means “global” and is the best choice. The others must all be evaluated based on their name + extension meaning. In other words, not all single word .net are premium. For example, business.net (as in business network), alumni.net (as in alumni network) will be highly sought after, but combinations with no meaning will see their value drop.
yeah internet has become lil bit crowded bcoz of all new gtlds.. maybe .net is lost somewhere.