At the Hyderabad event, Crystal Peterson, Director of Registry services at Neustar talks about the origin of domain names and their evolution over a period of time. Further, she also talks about how domain names are valued, the flux in their valuation and why it has become difficult for SMBs to choose a suitable busiess name for themselves.
In addition to this, she also speaks at length about the parameters SMBs need to take into consideration in order to choose a good domain name and stand out in the market.
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business name ideas - 22,200
18. “In the new era of the Internet …
short and memorable web
addresses are critical for capturing
the attention of mobile and socially
connected Internet users…”
PATRICK BYRNE, CEO,
OVERSTOCK.COM
28. “TRASH THE SLASH” IN YOUR MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
With 500+ new domain extensions launched – there are now domain
name options to help drive traffic to your website
Using domain names as marketing channels helps you and your
customers gain insights into user traffic along with website analytics tools
Domain Names can be used as short, memorable marketing tools for
campaigns and collateral
28
Nike Stores (long unmemorable URL for a campaign)
http://www.nike.com/us/en_us/sl/store-locator
http://nike.store
29. “YOURBUSINESS.COM” DOMAIN CHANNELS
“YourBusiness.com” has been in business for the
past 10 years. Not only does YourBusiness have
a local, loyal customer base – they are also
growing outside of in other countries like
Germany, United Kingdom and the USA and
planning marketing campaigns and creating
content to gain more customers in those regions.
29
EXAMPLE
How can we help “YourBusiness” drive,
measure and create memorable
marketing campaigns for their traffic via
domain names?
35. CONTENT IS KING
Modern SEO is all about crafting content so
compelling that other people want to promote it by
linking to it or sharing it, which increases your trust
and authority and helps the pages you want to rank
well for certain keywords.
My name is Crystal Peterson and I am the Director of Registry Services for Neustar. I have a 10+ year history working in the domain name industry. I began with the launch of .mobi (back in 2006) and now work for a Registry Operator for .biz, .CO, .US, .au and also provide services for over 300 new domain name extensions. I’m excited to be here today to share a little bit about the evolution of naming and domain names. I want to share
A Brief History of Domain Names
How we have been trapped in a ‘brand mindset’ or the ‘dot-com’ world
Using Domain Names as channels
And ultimately realize that domain names (and having multiple domain names are not a fad that will disappear)
Our trust has been earned through a proven legacy of managing complex, authoritative datasets:
Neustar provides instantaneous answers to more than 27 billion queries per day from the Internet and answers over 300 thousand questions every second.
Every day, Neustar manages almost 7 billion physical and virtual addresses.
In the US, Neustar also enables 6 billion daily text messages
Manages 5.9 million domain names.
Resolves over 18 billion DNS queries
Enables 4 billion phone calls daily.
Generates geo-location data for nearly 3 billion IP addresses
Enables 3 billion daily internet location searches
Across the world, answers 2.1 billion daily customer client queries every day.
Neustar serves more than 14,000 customers around
the world.
Enough about me! I want to walk us down memory lane.
I want to look at a brief history of Domain Names and how they have evolved over the past 30 years to be where we are today. What’s interesting is that the greatest changes have only started happening in the past 3-4 years even though there have been movements to facilitate the recent changes for longer
Of course, there is history before the first domain names were sold in 1985 like the creation of networks (or the “internet’) to pass digital information, the creation of IANA and the TCP/IP networks onto the Domain Name System to get us to where we are today. But I’d like to fast forward through that period and go to March 1985
On March 15, 1985, Symbolics Inc., a computer manufacturer in Massachusetts, registered the domain name Symbolics.com, making it the first appropriately registered .com domain in the world for FREE.
Symbolics.com remained under the same ownership until 25 years later, in 2009, when it was purchased for an undisclosed sum by XF.com Investments. As it stands today, Symbolics.com is a strange hybrid: part-online museum, part-advertising space. I encourage you to check it out, there are some great factoids about the Internet there.
By the way the first .org domain was registered in July 1985 (mitre.org) and the first .net was registered in 1985 too (nordu.net).
Before 1995, anyone who wanted a domain name could register it free of charge.
That all changed when the National Science Foundation awarded tech consulting company Network Solutions the ability to charge for registration.
Domain prices began at $100 for a two-year registration. Today, prices range from an average of $5 to $10,000 or more for “standard registrations” and “standard premium” options.
In 1998, the Department of Commerce, under President Clinton's urging, issued a proposal for privatizing the Domain Naming System (DNS), which was then controlled by the U.S. government. The document — known as the "Green Paper" — was created with the goal to both increase competition in the market and encourage more participation internationally.
Public criticism of the proposal led to the creation of the "White Paper," which addressed many concerns with the original document and led to the formation of ICANN.
2001: ICANN approved to help increase competition in the domain name space and .biz, .info and .name among others are launched as new gTLDs (generic top level domains) – other gTLDs will launch in the near future like .travel, .jobs, .aero and .mobi
2007 – the most expensive domain name sale to date. The most expensive domain ever sold was VacationRentals.com, which was scooped up for the low, low price of $35 million.
What's more interesting is that its buyer, Ben Sharples, purchased the site primarily to keep it out of the hands of its competitor, Expedia. Another high-end domain sale occurred when ownership of the sex.com domain was sold for a whopping $13 million in 2010.
In December 2013, WhoAPI, a domain data analysis startup, revealed that every possible combination of four-letter .com domain names had been registered. From AAAA.com to ZZZZ.com, all 456,976 combinations have been exhausted. The three-character .com domains have been registered since 1997. In fact, there are certain four-character domains remain available. All four-letter combinations have been registered.
Also, In a study done by .CO in 2013, 57% of SME’s said that finding a good domain name was just as difficult as naming their baby! Oftentimes they feel they’ve had to settle for a sub-par domain name, and have lost customers and business as a result. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
From Verisign’s Q4 2015 Domain Name Brief, there are now 314 million domains registered as of Dec 2015.
Of that, ccTLDs make up about 144 million of the registrations or just under 50%. ngTLDs (new gTLDs) represent 3.5% of the total registered domains. In just 2 years there are more than 10 million new TLDs registered.
What I have not included are also portions of history for ccTLDs including .me, .ws, .CO who have opened globally to also help provide memorable options for customers to brand themselves online. Those too are viable options and with the growth of the ccTLD namespace, consumers and businesses definitely are looking for options outside of just ‘dot-com’.
So, all the history is good – but how do we get out of the ‘dot-com’ mindset with our customers?
There are many brands that have been construed as the noun or generic term.
Bubble wrap (sealed air packaging)
Seeing Eye Dog (guide dog)
How many times have you heard customers saying – “I need a “dot-com”. What we want to really help them understand is that they need a “website” or “online presence” not necessarily an actual dot-come domain name
.com may be where computers began and we are very thankful, but dot-com is not going to be the only place where websites live. It’s A place, not the ONLY place
Slash was really cool – in the 1980’s (back when domain names were new!). The same for how we created website hierarchy. Using the slash was really cool too.
Where customers used to have 1 website name with many slashes to create channels, in the world today with so many options it’s like being able to generate channels to have content found online
Do – we say “Dash the Slash!”
Slash was really cool – in the 1980’s (back when domain names were new!). The same for how we created website hierarchy. Using the slash was really cool too.
Where customers used to have 1 website name with many slashes to create channels, in the world today with so many options it’s like being able to generate channels to have content found online
Do – we say “Dash the Slash!”
YourBusiness.ru (main site)
YourBusiness.com (unavailable parked domain)
YourBusiness.co (global site that leads to international market options)
YourBusiness.de (German market site)
YourBusiness.us (US market site)
YourBusiness.co.uk (UK market site)
Marketing Channels
YourBusiness.tube (video and steaming content)
YourBusiness.club (frequent user deals and upcoming sales)
YourBusiness.org (Non-profit giving channel)
YourBusiness.blog (Blog content)
YB.media (Social media hub for content and community news)
Are there issues? With any new thing, there are some issues to still sort out.
How to you keep up to date?
Universal Acceptance (uasg.tech)
Domain Name Association
ICANN
Can your customers be found with something other than dot-com? YES!
With over 85% of consumer traffic going through search, we know it’s key for small business owners to get ranked on Google and the Search Engines. But it’s not about having the BEST dot-com to get ranked. It’s about creating a good SEM and SEO strategy to help your customers get found on a good domain name (whether that’s a dot-com or a non dot-com)
Getting ranked to generate customers is about good content, not having a “dot-com” domain. If you absolutely want a dot-com, that’s great. But if not, there are many options including tried and true “older domains” like .biz, .CO, .me that have available global and local options for websites
You want to capture the essence of your brand and get the attention of your customers, simple right? The eternal search for a good business name…that’s also an available domain name
Remember Laser Disks or Eight-Track Tape cassettes?
With only a 30 year history, domain names are still young and growing
The namespace is evolving and we have to help our customers adapt and adapt business practices
over 40% of the world has internet connections today vs. 1% of the world in 1995. the Internet and domain names are not a fad to go away soon.
It took 38 years to reach 50 million users for radio, but only 35 days for Angry Birds.
Facebook, and communities like it are great, but ultimately, everyone needs a place to call home. That home online starts with a Domain Name
Freedom of Choice campaign put together by Donuts which is one of the largest applicants for domain names in 2014.
Don’t stick your head in the sand and continue to let your customers think only ‘dot-com’.
Help them think and understand ‘domain names’ (including dot-coms)