Thought I'd jump in on this discussion as I spend much of my working life thinking about this topic (and because Virginia is paralyzed by three feet of snow and I can't get to work).
Yes, we agree that usage is critical. We are spending much of our marketing and PR focus on this. I agree with Elliot that we should spend more. I plan to shift even further resource to this area. Many of the programs we run are aimed specifically at usage e.g. the "Best of .BIZ" and "Best of US" programs for website owners, our "High Profile User" campaign and some usage-incentive trials with certain hosters. The new TLDs ARE having success with usage. Last December we commissioned Pegasus Consultants to analyze the usage of our TLDs (the same, independent group that Afilias used for a similar study). Their results show 21% of BIZ names resolve to actual and discrete websites. This compares to about 43% for .COM (although a lot of these are "For Sale" sites), 30% for NET, 24% for INFO and 17% for .US. This shows, I believe, the not-so-startling fact that the longer a TLD is around the more it is used (as long as it has a stable policy base). The new TLDs (BIZ, US, INFO) all appear to have increasing usage rates each quarter. COM launched many years before INFO, INFO launched four months before BIZ, and BIZ launched five months before .US. Usage rates reflect these staggered launch dates. We do have hundred million dollar companies using BIZ or US as their primary URL, just not a lot of them yet. We also have many SME and consumer users. I have lists of US and BIZ sites that I quote to the press when they ask the question - "Who uses your domains?" I'm happy to forward these lists to anyone who would like them, via TUCOWS. An interesting angle, which has been noted by many non-American participants to this list, is that BIZ and INFO do considerably better than COM outside the United States. This is due, in my opinion, to the broader awareness outside the US for alternate TLDs. Simply put, Europeans and Asians are accustomed to seeing a variety of TLDs. Something new, like BIZ, does not seem as "strange" to them. Having said this for BIZ, US and INFO, we do not face the same issue of brand creation for .CN (Warning - advertisement approaching). CN is already the dominant brand in China by a factor of 2 to 1 and with the recent automation of registration processes this ratio is likely to increase. So, in summary, new TLD usage is headed in the right direction. It's just slow relative to the frenzy of 1998-2000. I don't think it's possible to rapidly create a brand with the same usage rates as COM in the current market conditions. However, BIZ, US and INFO appear to be showing healthy and increased usage rates, as well as continued absolute growth. Apologize if this was a bit long. Hope it provides some useful numbers for the discussion. Richard Tindal NeuStar/NeuLevel Registry -----Original Message----- From: elliot noss [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2003 3:00 PM To: Roger B.A. Klorese Cc: Ross Wm. Rader; Patrick; Marc Schneiders; 'Swerve'; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 'Discuss List' Subject: Re: OpenSRS Live Reseller Update [.com/.net & .name] - 13/02/03 You are right wrt .es or .fr, but you are not with respect to .uk and .de. .ca is interesting because Canadians overwhelmingly used .com until registration was liberalized and since then it has shifted significantly (it was 90% .com and 10% .ca and is now probably somewhere at 30-50% .ca (Paul, CIRA should do a study)). The Chinese and Japanese governments recently liberalized registration in .cn and .jp with this goal explicitly stated. Some smart ccTLDs are very real, very competitive namespaces in some national markets. Others are irrelevant and it typically is almost completely a function of how liberal registration policies are. The new gTLDs are another story. I have ragged on both Afilias and Neulevel repeatedly to focus ALL of their marketing efforts on programs that incent usage. Imagine if you regularly received email from someone using a .info name. Think of how subtle and powerful that impact would be. To date they haven't listened. I really believe this is execution not structural. .com will always be .com, but it is a question of how .com .com will be (sorry couldn't resist). Regards On Saturday, February 15, 2003, at 01:38 PM, Roger B.A. Klorese wrote: > Ross Wm. Rader wrote: > >> I think you need to pay some closer attention - .uk, .ca, .de and >> .biz are >> all doing reasonably well as .com substitutes (or as primary choices >> ahead >> of .com depending on the market...) > > I have NEVER received any contact from a business of any significance > in .biz. And as for the country domains, companies in those locales > rush to try to get relevant .coms before considering a domain that > identifies -- and therefore restricts -- their home market. > >
