20th
Is .Com Dead?
This weekend while on TechCrunch I saw this ad from GoDaddy about the new domain extension .co:
There is an ever increasing amount of Generic Top Level Domains (GTLD), as of right now there are over 20, these include extensions like .info, .jobs and .biz. In addition to the generics each country has a domain, for example bit.ly uses Libya’s extension .ly and VC blogger Mark Suster uses Spain’s .es extension for his site, bothsid.es. The trend towards using alternative extensions continues to gain tractions as fewer and fewer .com’s are available.
ICANN, the group that manages these top level domains is going to be increasing the number of these dramatically, allowing anyone with a nice sized check to have their own top level domain, for example ATT could have .att.
As the number of extensions increase I keep hearing that the value of .com’s should go down. That would be bad for me as I continue buying in the aftermarket what I consider to be valuable .com addresses.
But there is a method to my madness. I actually expect the opposite to happen, as the number of options increases the value of .com will go up. Why? Because I think that the average consumer is confused as shit by all of these other extensions, which is only going to get worse.
I associate .com with being the Rodeo Drive of the internet in terms of location. While you can be successful with an alternative domain, I think you will always be fighting an uphill battle with anything other than a .com.
