Domain Names in 2007
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The domain industry is understandably linked to the popularity of the internet especially for online shopping. Internet commerce continues to flourish. Yahoo! news reports that while many stores had a disappointing Christmas season, online sales were up 26%. Gift card sales were also up and I am betting that many of those gift cards will be spent online. This gives a good boost for internet retailers going into 2007. Generic names that represent commercial products or activities related to consumer purchases continue to increase in value.
In addition to retailing, the internet is coming on strong as a means for delivering media. I subscribe to three podcasts and wish that I had time to keep up with a few others. With more programming available online everyday, .tv is gaining popularity and value. This is one commercialized ccTLD that people understand. I am interested to see whether people begin using mobile devices for watching online programming and whether .tv or .mobi will benefit if mobile media goes mainstream.
Then we have social networking. We saw Google purchase YouTube.com in 2006 for $1.65 billion. MySpace.com still rules this market with an Alexa ranking of 5. Facebook.com is rumored to be worth about a billion too. Blogging may be near the peak of its popularity, but is by no means dead. However, bloggers and social networks in general seem to succeed with the least valuable domain names; but having a good name may be a big help in getting a new blog started.
Travel, real estate, medical and other industries will also continue to grow on the internet. Anyone can publish on the internet. The challenge isn’t to get on the internet; it’s to get visitors to your site. Having a good domain name will only become more important as content on the World Wide Web continues to grow.
Source: Afternic NewsLetter (afternic.com) By Michael Collins.