Demand for gTLDs Appears Strong

While the data can be skewed because there is no cost to reserve a gTLD domian name using Pool.com and Quintaris’ system to reserve gTLD domain names before their registries are even created, the companies are indicating that the market for gTLDs is strong. According to the companies, 10,000 gTLD domain names were reserved every day during the first month in operation.

An interesting observation that was noted is “Early results show a stronger market for generic-named registries, like .sport than for those being pursued by a specific city or region. Farrow noted that “no city gTLD has cracked the top ten on the pre-order list.” This doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t a market for geo names in extensions like .nyc, but it shows that generic categories like .sport or .sucks are popular.

If you have any interest in reserving a gTLD, I think this is the place to do it. There’s no risk – although there’s no guarantee either. I haven’t reserved any gTLD domain names yet, but I might – just in case.

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Comments (9)

Reece Berg

May 21st, 2009 at 12:55 pm

I had that impression as well myself Elliot until I realized that there were 55 different extensions people were backordering. If you break it down that way, the average extension is only getting 180 backorders per day which would at that rate lead to about 66,000 backorders per extension on the year — less than I believe .mobi got. When you consider the fact that it’s currently “free” to backorder, it’s not the strong showing Pool gives off with that 10,000 number.

Elliot

May 21st, 2009 at 12:58 pm

@Reece

I didn’t look at it that way, but you’re right – it really doesn’t average out to a lot, although, I am sure some of the extensions have significant interest, while others have very little interest.

However, I still think it’s fairly strong considering these aren’t binding and few people know they can back-order non-existent domain names.

David J Castello

May 21st, 2009 at 1:03 pm

Elliot:

Pool.com’s #1 goal is to bang the drum as loudly as possible that there is big public demand for new TLDs.

The truth is there isn’t. 99.99% of these “requests” are from speculators (most of them probably newbies) hoping to cash in on the next gold rush. I would also bet that a good portion of them are obvious TM violations.

The dead giveaway is the low demand for Geo TLDs because those are the most likely to be developed.

wannadevelop.com

May 21st, 2009 at 3:23 pm