Countdown to NamesCon Part 2: Will new gTLDs be the hot topic this year?

Last year the hot topic at NamesCon was probably split between the Chinese domain market and new gTLDs. This year there’s only one talk at the conference about Chinese domain names so it looks like this might not be quite as hot a topic as it once was. I think this probably has to do with the fact that Chinese premiums have dropped in price quite considerably since their peak in 2015.

That being said I still think that the Chinese domain market should be a hot topic and I highlighted the one talk that you absolutely can’t miss in this post.

Taking a look at the agenda this year it looks like new gTLDs seem to be one of the hottest topics, but another topic is starting to get some buzz in the industry and that is the actual future of domain names. While the industry seems to spend a lot of time lately throwing new gTLDs under the bus, their demise could spell trouble for the industry as a whole if that were to happen.

Domain Name Wire, one of the most long-standing domain blogs out there brought this topic front and center today:

“Our industry seems to spend a lot of energy battling between the relative value of old top level domain names versus new ones. It doesn’t spend enough time paying attention to the threats that the domain industry faces as a whole.” (Source – Domain Name Wire)

In the article Andrew goes on to talk about voice controlled devices like the Echo being a threat to domain names. I’m not sure this is going to be a huge threat, but I do think it’s one of the many potential threats to domain names.

So while we might put our focus on new gTLDs as an industry (probably because so many people in the industry make big bucks running registries) let’s make sure not to turn a blind eye to real threats to our industry as a whole.

It’s safe to say new gTLDs will be the hot topic at NamesCon this year, but should it be?

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton