Diane Heath at AnalystDistrict.com wrote a very good article about the new gtlds and their chances of being a good investment. Heath breaks down some of the misnomers about the program such as whether they were actually needed. Heath also states that touting the new gtlds as innovation that is meeting an implied customer demand is quasi fraudulent.
Heath does a good job of pointing out the differences between .com and the nineties compared to today from both an economical and cultural standpoint.
From the article:
Old model of online ventures is saturated: New gltds are mismatched with their market and doesn’t directly cater to the appropriate demographics. In the 90’s, the internet was unfettered territory and thus there were high incentives for early adopters to compete. New gltds will have competition with millions of dot com websites. Acquiring a domain name is the least of their problems. Since the old model of online ventures is saturated, the high tech skilled entrepreneurs are moving on to more profitable and less competitive ventures such as apps. For ambitious entrepreneurs that still desire to build a platform online, we can’t assume that an appealing domain name is the highest barrier to entry but rather an exciting, innovative idea or concept that attracts investors.
Also ambitious individuals with technical skills have cushy and prestigious career opportunities that sharply diminishes the need to embark on the perilous startup journey. In the 90’s, the tech industry was still blossoming but now they are billion dollar industries that are extracting the top tech talent from the job and start-up market, and possible customers for new gtlds.
Heath is correct that acquiring a new domain is the least of the problems for a new company looking to compete today. The focus needs to be on a creative idea first and then worry about getting around to the domain name.
She is not all negative as she does note the fact that as new generations come up and the culture changes new gtlds could catch on, she does own one and is thinking about a couple more.
Read the full article here
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