Some the earliest new Top-Level Domains (TLDs) entered the marketplace with a bit of a splash, albeit short-lived. In late 2013, many registrars shuffled around resources in anticipation of on-boarding the new TLDs in early 2014, driven by a fear of missing out on the ‘domain gold rush’ (no snickering). But as each new TLD entered the market their impact dissipated more and more than the previously released TLD, with the exception of a few notable extensions.
So, what happened?
Nothing. A product like new TLDs takes time to mature and develop and find it’s place in a market that has not seen much change in the previous 20 years. While the original TLDs like .com, .info, .org, and .biz are in their respective maturity lifecycle stages with high levels of awareness, new TLDs are in their infancy and just entering a mild growth stage, whereby usage and general awareness is low.
As each day passes more and more new TLDs are being registered all over the world, but ask any regular web user about new TLDs and they have no idea what you are talking about.
Though it has taken a while, it appears the general industry consensus is that usage of new TLDs is the key to growth and awareness. The more we see in the wild the better.
Each new TLD has examples of great use cases for their extension but it will take more than a popular music artist, actor, or online celebrity to help bring new TLDs to the masses. It will take a tech behemoth that’s brand is recognized worldwide and trusted by consumers. Hmmm….
Enter Amazon. Amazon is more than just an online store. Amazon is a tech giant leading the world in secure, affordable, cloud services. Amazon Web Services (AWS) was originally for techies but as the technology has evolved, Amazon has made the wise decision to move downstream and target the tens of millions of online creators, designers, and small business directly, with their “entrepreneurial spirit that views problems as hurdles, not as limitations” tv and online video ads. And the call to action is none other than buildon.aws. To that, I say, bravo, Amazon, bravo. This might be just the thing we need to help new TLDs get us over the hump.
Don Ruiz 