Frank Schilling Comments on .London

This morning on Twitter, Uniregistry’s Frank Schilling commented on the successful .London domain name launch. As you can see below, Frank said, “35,000 .london names is a great start! It’s only day 1 and nobody knows what these things are! That’s all gonna change.”

I think Frank is right. Out of those 35,000 domain names, I think we are going to see many developed websites. In my opinion, when we visit London in the future, we are going to begin seeing local businesses advertising their websites on .London domain names. Much like those of us in the US who travel abroad, I notice ccTLDs in most countries I visit. I predict that many of the geographic gTLD domain names will become like the ccTLDs, but for a more precise region.

I think usage of the new gTLD domain names is going to drive more awareness and additional registrations. It will be the snowball effect, and when people start learning about the new extensions by seeing them, others will want to reserve theirs as well.

As a domain investor, I am still staying on the sidelines and not making investments yet. As much as I like the new geographic gTLDs, I still don’t see a whole lot of upside for an investor. Perhaps I am missing out on buying at the beginning if the TLDs begin trading at premium levels in the aftermarket, but the nice thing is that I can pivot in the future and invest at a later time. I got a later start than many people in the .com space (2003-04), and I presume I can catch up if necessary.

Whether you are investing in the new gTLD domain names or just observing them from afar like I am doing, it’s exciting to see things change right in front of us.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

12 COMMENTS

  1. How many months/years will pass before people will know about “these things”? I have to wonder if frankie will still be saying that 3-4-5-7 years from now.

  2. @ JZ

    What Frankie says it really does not matter. He said many things in the past which were not true. Just watch conference Schilling vs Schwartz where he said his domains would be available to all at the normal prcie, blabla.
    But later he blocked many domains, put premium prices, and start registering his own domains through his companies.
    Do you really trust or listen to people like that, who lies etc? Come on, dont be naive.

    First day is good, just wait a month it will not be so colorful.

  3. Trouble is anyone can reg (dot) London. You end up with a long classified list with little relevance to central/greater London and doing more harm than good to geo TLD’s

  4. “Out of those 35,000 domain names, I think we are going to see many developed websites. In my opinion,”

    What is “Many”? Out of the 35,000 registrations, what percentage do you think will be developed web sites?

    “As a domain investor, I am still staying on the sidelines and not making investments yet.”

    Yes, but as a Domain Blogger, you’ve been standing on the sidelines waiving your pom poms and shaking your booty cheering on gTLD’s… I’d be careful if I were you, many bloggers have done this in the past especially with dot .mobi and the critics were proven correct… Lot of “I told you so’s coming your way.

    • Waving my pom poms and cheering on gTLDs? Can you share some examples of this because I disagree with your assessment.

      I think I have been pretty even keeled in writing about the new TLDs, and I certainly haven’t done any cheerleading for them. I also feel I am very open about my stance on them, especially considering that I have been very clear that I don’t think they are good investments for my company at this point.

      gTLDs are the biggest story of the year, and I am covering them because they impact the business of domain investing.

    • “I think we are going to see many developed websites. In my opinion, when we visit London in the future, we are going to begin seeing local businesses advertising their websites on .London domain names.”

      “I think usage of the new gTLD domain names is going to drive more awareness and additional registrations. It will be the snowball effect, and when people start learning about the new extensions by seeing them, others will want to reserve theirs as well.”

      You don’t see the bias? I can pull quotes like these from almost every gTLD article you’ve written, You can think whatever you want, write whatever you want, my point is that your articles are reading more like promotions than objective opinions.. And your also reporting on promotions, articles about Frank’s sexy bus and the rapper guy who was bought and paid for by .club, soon to be forgotten, It resembles the kind of hype we saw with .Mobi, and considering the amount of people who respect you in this industry, they will more than likely register gTld’s based on your support of them, They lost a lot of money then and I expect them to lose a lot more now considering the number of gTD;s available.

      I’d still like an answer on how “many” is many when you say; “I think we are going to see many developed websites”

      Thank you

    • Just like every article I write, this is opinion. This isn’t the Wall Street Journal or New York Post. This is my blog, and I think people read this expecting to see my opinion.

      In addition, I write about things that are of interest. I think a big ass .SEXY sign on a bus in Hollywood is an interesting marketing tactic. I did not say anything about the TLD or investing in it, because that wasn’t of interest to me. I was commenting on the marketing.

      I write about things that are interesting to me and share my opinions and observations. That’s the idea behind a blog. If I published every press release I receive, there would be 5x as much stuff. I don’t because most of the news I see isn’t interesting to me and I don’t have an interest in writing about it.

      As I mention over and over, I don’t think these will be good investments, at least in the short term.

      On the other hand, have you seen the utter garbage .com names people submit week in and week out on the Weekly Sales posts? I certainly see a lot of people spending money they shouldn’t and the extension does not matter. Is that the fault of bloggers and news publications that write about .com domain name sales, too?

      Regardless of what I write or do, there are going to be people spending a ton of money on domain names that aren’t worth anything.

      For what it’s worth, I wasn’t exactly a “fan” of .Mobi. Here are a couple examples of articles I wrote a long time ago:

      https://www.domaininvesting.com/free-mobi-domain-name/
      https://www.domaininvesting.com/mobi-madness-mobi-sickness/

  5. “I certainly see a lot of people spending money they shouldn’t and the extension does not matter. Is that the fault of bloggers and news publications that write about .com domain name sales, too?”

    Your smart enough to know the difference, their investing in a TLD that has already proven itself as the most popular and highest resale value TLD there is, If their dumb enough to choose the wrong words that go in front of it then it’s their own doing, without influence

    GTLD’s on the other hand haven’t proven anything, it’s pure speculation like ALL the other nonsense gTLD’s before them, Just because Frank Schilling does a promotion blab about 35,000 registrations on the first day is NOT a measure for success.. What it tells me is that domainers went crazy on opening day, they see the value, NOT end users.

    Your assertion that “Many’ .london domains will be developed is a reckless prediction IMO, how can you say that when domainers are the majority of registrants? Don’t ask me how I know, I just know and so do you.

    • You are entitled to your opinion, just like I am entitled to mine.

      >>>” What it tells me is that domainers went crazy on opening day, they see the value, NOT end users.”

      >>>”how can you say that when domainers are the majority of registrants? ”

      With all due respect, how can you say that without sharing any data to support it? Unless you personally analyzed the registrant data for .London and your statement is based on the results of data analysis, your statement is opinion rather than fact.

      Sorry, just because you strongly believe that your opinion is fact does not make it fact unless you’ve got data that to support it.

      Interestingly, you are calling me out for giving my opinion of something that may happen in the future, yet you are stating an opinion as if it is already a proven fact.

  6. If Frank had the data to support otherwise don’t you think he would have used it to promote the gTLD or any other gTLD?, Who in their right mind would pass that up IF the data supported end users or the generally public were the primary registrants?

    All we hear from gTlD Registrars is the number of registrations but we never hear WHO the registrants are, Anyone with an ounce of common sense can figure it out.. Their hyping the gTLD so more domain dreamers will register them, and that’s what your article helps to do, it fuels the registration machine.

    Domainers are the primary market for this novelty crap, and I don’t need a study to support it, I’ve been in the business long enough to know.. If I’m wrong, feel free to prove otherwise.

    “Despite our differing opinions, I do appreciate your feedback.”

    Likewise 🙂

    • “If Frank had the data to support otherwise don’t you think he would have used it to promote the gTLD or any other gTLD?,”

      Frank doesn’t operate the .London TLD, so he wouldn’t have registrant data to share.

      I also think that determining domain investor from end user may be difficult. If I buy DogWalker.London, you’d probably consider me a domain investor despite the fact that I might wish to expand my successful DogWalker.com operation. It’s a small example, but it illustrates the difficulty in determining who is buying. Further, how can you distinguish whether a brand is buying a .whatever for a local portal or simply defending their brands? In either case, does that mean it’s counted as an end user or a third category aside from domain investor or end user?

      Mike Berkens wrote about .Church today: http://www.thedomains.com/2014/09/15/no-end-users-registering-new-gtlds-check-out-the-first-church-domain-names/

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recent Posts

Squadhelp Adds Escrow.com as a Payment Option

1
Squadhelp has added Escrow.com as a payment option for buyers. The addition of the Escrow.com option was shared by ARIYAS on X this morning: 👍...

Some Thoughts on .AI Domain Names

7
There is no question that .AI domain names have become a hot topic of late. With considerable amounts of venture funding flowing into AI...

Handoff to Dan on Imported Leads Can be Confusing

0
I've been using the lead import option at Dan.com more regularly. Although the 5% commission is not ideal, transactions tend to move more quickly...

ArtificialIntelligence.com Goes Up for Sale

11
I tried to buy the ArtificialIntelligence.com domain name multiple times over the last 10 years. The emails I sent to the registrant went unanswered,...

EU Gives More IP Protection to Food & Drink Producers

0
Did you know that some well-known food and drink varieties are protected intellectual property regulations? Popular types of drinks and foods that are protected...