Your own TLD! (With cash, that is)

[paulgl]

So, people can start applying for their own domain
extension, like .apple, .yourname, .whateveryoucanthinkof

This will send the domain extension people into a tizzy.

Don't look for many to get in on this as the application
is $185,000

And cybersquatting will most assuredly not be allowed.
The application process will deny all such nonsense, and
you will lose your application money.

The revolution begins on Thursday!

Paul

[patrich]

This will be interesting to watch and see how many large corporations start using their own tld's. I would also expect a few companies to start buying their own tld's and sell domains under them, web hosting companies etc.

It should be great for branding, but I also wonder how Google will be dealing with these new tld's as they start to gain traction in the industry. I can imagine some of the most popular ones will be taken pretty quick, things like .seo or .po*n etc.

A bit out of my price range though lol

[Domainate]

I feel like a broken record about this on various places, but unfortunately most mainstream media articles about the new TLDs fail to grasp all the costs involved. It's one of the myths I talk about in my article published on Business Insider, 10 Myths About The New Top-Level Domains. $185,000 is merely a filing fee (a non-refundable one mind you). You also have to pay:

- Annual fees ($25,000 per year)
- A deposit that ICANN requires you keep with them ($25,000 to $300,000)
- Infrastructure to handle operating the TLD (hundreds of thousands of dollars)
- Marketing costs so that people are even aware of the TLD (from $0 to millions - .co for instance has spent several million in marketing costs and are about to spent a few million more during the Super Bowl)

In other words, entities applying for a TLD would more or less have to have an extra mil lying around and prove they can actually run it.