I am a Montreal-based marketer who loves social media and technology. With 18 years marketing experience behind me, I understand that social media is only one driver in my marketing toolbox. 
On June 26, 2008 decisions were made in Paris that will profoundly change how the Internet looks in the future. For marketers, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities and challenges.
ICANN, the international body that regulates domain naming, announced their unanimous vote to open up restrictions on top level domains (TLDs). Starting in Q2 2009, it will be possible to apply to have just about anything as a TLD.
So what does that mean for you?
- You are no longer restricted to the current 21 domain extensions like .com .net .org
- Brand names can be used as extensions. Think of .coke .nike .ebay
- You can more narrowly target geography. Imagine .london .nyc .hongkong
- Be more specific with what you offer. Appearing soon .sport .news .sex
- Extensions will not be restricted to 37 Roman characters. Watch out for .العربية .日本語 .Русский
Although cnet and others are reporting that the applications for new TLDs will cost $50,000 to $100,000, ICANN has said it will be “in the low six figure dollar amounts,” according to Dr Paul Twomey, President and CEO of the non-profit organization. The money raised will go to recouping the $20 million in costs for the proposals. “The costs of developing and implementing this policy will be borne by the applicants,” Twomey said.
With the cost of an application fee, it is unlikely that individuals will control new TLDs. What will prove interesting in the coming year is how the generic names will come to be acquired and who will control them. ICANN says there are already consortiums forming to seek control of city-based names. Who will own names like .sport? Well, anyone who’s got the money and resources to seek it in an application. However, according to the BBC, ICANN has said that if their arbitration process fails the extension would go the “highest bidder” in an auction, which could create unprecedented bidding wars.
Heads up if you manage a major brand. Don’t think that you have any rights to your trademarked name as a TLD. ICANN has said that trademarks are not automatically protected. However, there will be an “objection-based mechanism” to hear trademark owners’ complaints. This will open up a whole mess of trouble for some brands if other well-funded entities are able to acquire their name as a domain extension.
Some are saying this news is a non-starter, noting that recent additions to TLDs like .info .mobi and .biz have failed to catch on in mainstream usage, leaving .com to continue to dominate domain demands. VentureBeat reports that these changes may threaten the domain speculators the most if ICANN is sucessful in educating people and persuading them to use the new extensions. Speculators rely on the “type-in” traffic generated by people searching for generic terms ending in .com. This is how some domain names can be auctioned off for millions of dollars, as ReadWriteWeb reminds us how business.com fetched $350 million in that way.
With the addition of non-English characters, ICANN predicts an explosion in TLD applications from Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia. For global brands, this means yet another area of domain management that could represent millions of dollars in applications, arbitration, lawyer’s fees and potential auction bidding to secure names in strategic markets like China and India.
The question to marketers is, how much is too much to spend to protect your brand name on the Internet in other markets? At what point will the variety of naming possibilities become unmanageable for companies? It is easy to think in the short-term and be convinced that .com is the only term that carries clout. But, at this pivotal point in the evolution of the Internet, will global brands be willing to gamble their future on those three little letters?
7 responses so far ↓
1 Benjamin // Jun 29, 2008 at 2:27 pm
All in all I think it will be a good thing. It should ease some of the domain squatting issues and open up some innovation in the TLD space, which has been log-jammed for as long as I can remember.
I agree with you on the brand issue, or rather with regard to trademarks. However, I don’t think the rules have changed there and they seem reasonably workable for most.
My only worry is, does this hand more power to Google? Increasingly people search on a company name, rather than doing companyname.com - if there are a range of TLDs, will this put more power into the hands of a few search engines?
2 Mykl Roventine // Jun 29, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Wow, how did I miss this? I think it will be very difficult to educate users about entirely new TLDs, especially if there are an unlimited number of them. What type of URLs can we expect from this - promotions.coke? Although, to look at it another way: this could all just speed along the demise of the type-in altogether. With tinyurls and the like, coupled with search results, the average user probably isn’t that far from never typing in a URL again.
Thanks for a juicy post with lots to think about!
3 Kim Dushinski // Jun 29, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Wow. I heard something on the news the other day about “anything being a domain name” but I didn’t know what they meant. Now I get it.
This will prove interesting that is for sure.
4 CT Moore // Jun 30, 2008 at 9:16 am
I see squatters making a lot more money…
5 Michael E. Gruen // Jul 1, 2008 at 12:13 pm
What’s going to be really interesting is how quickly the rest of the world (you know, the not-so-computer literate) will adopt the change.
Also, on price, anyone else remember when .coms cost $75/year? I imagine in a year or two, the cost of getting, say, .gruen, will be quite low.
6 Adele McAlear // Jul 1, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Thanks everyone for your comments!
Benjamin - Re: Trademarks - my thinking is that it will be more costly to brands to defend trademarks in virtually any language TLD. That’s a lot of bases to cover and wonder at what point will it simply be not viable to protect your brand globally. ICANN has not made it clear if a ruling in one language will extend across all languages.
Mykl - It will certainly make URLs more diverse and confusing to people when there are more options to remember. I wonder if Google’s suggest feature will default to the browser’s origin and automatically fill in the site name with the local language TLD.
Michael - Sure, .gruen will be low in a year or two IF you’re given the opportunity to have it. If there’s a multinational company named Gruen, you’ll likely never have access to that TLD. Good thing my last name isn’t ebay! (Mind you, I’m not about to spend six figures to secure my own name either.)
7 Charles Corby // Jul 7, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Adele, thanks, from a Little Guy, who (most likely will NEVER be able to secure his last name,) for ‘getting this OUT THERE.’ Some of us, like me, like to dream, and I think it’s better to have REALITY bite ya’ on the nose early-on in the daydreaming process. I agree wholeheartedly with CT Moore, the the squatters (assuming that they have adequately deep pockets) will stand to make the most. If ICANN does nothing to protect trademarks/tradenames it MIGHT take a bit out of the squatter’s ‘bottom line.’For the rest of us, it will, most likely, be a ‘wait-n-see’ game.
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