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06|13|2012 05:49 pm EDT

Will new gTLDs drive up value of corresponding .com domains?

by Adam Strong in Categories: new gTLDs

Some domainer owners watching the news about the new gTLD applications may have had a pleasant surprise today. Domain owners that own a .com domain that has a corresponding new TLD application may just have learned about increases in traffic and possibly value to their .com holding.

Clearly many of the applicants for new TLDs such as ABC, IBM, FedEx, or Google already own the matching .com domain names, but with this announcement we’ve learned of hundreds of new generic TLD applicants that do not own the corresponding .com.

New TLD proponents will argue that it is unneccessary and maybe even counter-intuitive for an applicant to purchase the .com corresponding to a new TLD that they are applying for, but others in the domain space point to confusion that already exists between other domain extension.  As new TLDs market themselves, a resulting confusion in the marketplace drives more traffic to the .com

A perfect example of this can be seen with the .xxx domain extension and the xxx.com domain name.  The .xxx sunrise ended October 2011. According to Compete.com the traffic to the domain began to increase shortly after the sunrise and has doubled from levels seen prior to the .xxx extension approval.

Domain name broker Andrew Rosener told DNN that the increased visibility, promotion & traffic going to xxx.com has significantly raised the value of his clients domain name. He also stated, “I have several clients with matching .com domains who were very excited to hear the news today.”

Elliot Silver weighed in recently with this prediction on his blog :

Owners of the keyword string .com names are going to be very happy. Some registries will feel the need to buy the corresponding .com names and pay a lot of money for them. In addition, there will likely be a ton of error traffic that pays well.

While millions of dollars are being pumped in to the domain space to set up new TLDs, a handful of .com domain owners may benefit as well. Those with comparable .com domain names should see gains in traffic and exposure from the marketing efforts of the new TLDs launching in 2013.

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  • Fred

    Silver is right. All of the gtld’s are destined to .fail

    How .stupid

  • Gene

    “Will new gTLDs drive up value of corresponding .com domains?”

    Yes, and I’ll repeat why (which I said in a comment on another blog).

    If a firm acquires and manages the dot-widget registry, they’ll pour millions into convincing a few thousand folks to pay $195/yr. to reserve free.widget, blue.widget, and sell.widget. Those small business owners will hit the road with their ‘cool’ new website address(es) plastered on their business cards and brochures. Along comes the guy whose card says Widget.COM, who knocks on the same buyer’s door.

    All things being equal, no one can effectively argue that the buyer won’t view the last guy (with the Widget.COM) address as being more legitimate, and a better risk to do business with.

    That’s the bottom line, and that’s why the answer to your question is “yes, the value of the original, authentic domain name – ending with dot-com – will increase in value; and likely already has after today.”

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