Are new domain extensions like .MOTORCYCLES too long for mass adoption?

motorcycle

Yesterday .MOTORCYCLES launched exclusively for entities in the powersports industry. In a sea of new domain extensions with more launching every week it’s easy for an extension like this to get lost in the sauce, especially one that is so vertically focused. Couple this with more stringent validation processes that go into buying a .MOTORCYCLES domain and it’s unlikely you’ll see a ton of these get registered right out of the gate.

The .Motorcycles registry goes beyond the standard requirements set by ICANN. The registry validates each applicant before releasing a domain name to ensure the applicant is from an eligible category of the powersports industry. This validation gives consumers confidence that any website ending in .Motorcycles will contain relevant content from a legitimate powersports entity. (Source – Yahoo Tech)

Along with a more rigorous validation process the extension is a long one at ten characters which made me think – does this impact the chances of mass adoption? While I don’t think an extension needs to be two or three characters to be a success (just look at huge gTLD winners like .CLUB) – I do think that probably once you get over five or six characters it could make it harder for consumers to easily type or even identify as a domain name extension.

Of course, we are also moving into a new world, a world where consumers are starting to get used to the idea that the main website for a brand can end with something other than .COM. The question is, are new domain extensions like .MOTORCYCLES at a disadvantage because they are so long?

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Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton