Will 2019 Be the Year That Generic Top Level Domains Breakthrough? VacaRent LLC Believes They Will.
With the rise of generic top level domain (gTLD) registrations, consumers have an even larger array of choices for domain searches in 2019. Two entrepreneurs have jumped into the domain industry, investing over 1 million dollars into www.vacation.rentals and www.home.loans, willing to bet they are right. Early results show they are winning – here is how they are doing it.
Press Release
–
updated: Jan 11, 2019
MIAMI,
January 11, 2019 (Newswire.com) –
Since the beginning of the Internet, dot com websites have ruled supreme both in registration and recognition. According to a December 2018 article in Wired.com, all of that is about to change as generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) are quickly gaining in popularity and acceptance. According to Wired.com,[1] “Registrations for new gTLDs rose by nearly 11 per cent in the last year, compared to an average 3.5 per cent increase across the entire domain landscape, according to Verisign.”
Initially heralded as a great alternative to the domain logjam of dot com or dot net, gTLDs quickly fell by the wayside as gimmicky and useless. Many of the extensions were too niche for a broad market appeal while others simply made no sense. Numerous domain investors snatched up many domain names in the hopes of capitalizing on the flood only to realize too late that they had priced the domains out of reach for the average consumer, eventually releasing them back to the registrar of record who then resold many of the domains at a more reasonable cost.
All of that changed in January 2018 when the domain world was rocked by the announcement of a record-setting sale of $500,000 for Home.Loans[2] to Blake Janover of Miami, Florida. Six-figure sales of a gTLD was unheard of, and the immediate response was that Blake had thrown away half a million dollars on a useless domain. Within two months, Blake’s record was eclipsed by Mike Kugler of Branson, Missouri with the announced sale of Vacation.Rentals[3] for $500,300.