How do I know if it makes sense for my company to apply for its own TLD?

[recessthegreat]

From a branding perspective, large companies with multiple brands, a presence in multiple markets, or significant threats of online infringement, consider their own gTLD. Nike has so many products that are related to many different sports and industries that it might make sense for them—they could create golf.nike or basketball.nike or soccer.nike, all while reminding their customers that if its not .nike, its not Nike. IKEA was considering an application for the .ikea domain, but they are cooling on the idea, which might possibly be a smart move. They have a high-quality online identity by then, they are not a particular target for trademark abuse, and the costs involved in running their own registry wouldn’t justify the benefits they’d receive.

How does this affect the domains I own now?
New gTLDs clearly aren’t being rolled out immediately, and as you can see, there is still a lot that needs to be worked out, from ICANN’s handbook to its decisions about what new gTLDs will be approved and accepted. Even though people are thrilled about the endless possibilities, it’s really a wait-and-see scenario. The initial new extensions won’t possibly come out until 2013 and the first one could really set the tone for how all others are received. If the first extension captures the consumer interest, you might see a run on new extensions after that. On the other hand, they could be slow to take off as well.

For the foreseeable future, .com will remain king. New TLDs open the door to innovation, but since .com is so engrained in everyone’s day to day internet surfing habits, and brands have established such strong identities with their .coms, it’s hard to see that changing any time soon. If you have a big brand, it might make sense to start weighing the pros and cons of applying for your own gTLD. If not, my advice is to watch closely to see what new gTLDs will be approved, and to stay the course with your domain strategy for the near future. If you’re looking for a domain that’s perfect for a new brand, product or campaign, or one that can be added to your portfolio to help boost SEO, there are tons of good domains out there.