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More dot-brands dump their gTLDs
Kevin Murphy,
June 17, 2020, 18:57:20 (UTC),
Domain Registries
A further three new gTLDs have applied to ICANN for self-termination over the last few months, bringing the total to 76.
They’re all dot-brands: .sbs, .rightathome and .symantec.
The most recent application came from the Australian broadcaster SBS, for Special Broadcasting Service. This seems to be a case of a brand owner briefly experimenting with redirects to its .au domain, then deciding against it.
.symantec is biting the dust because the security company Symantec recently rebranded as NortonLifeLock Inc.
.rightathome also appears to be a case of a discontinued brand, in this case formerly used by consumer products firm SC Johnson.
Wow! All this chatter about registrations of fraudulent domains at the registrar level (elsewhere in DomainIncite.com), BUT WHAT ABOUT THE SNAKE OIL SALESMEN who solicited all these gTLD applications while offering their “expertise”?
The upfront cost of 76 withdrawn dotBrand applications at $185,000 each totals USD14,060,000 – yes, OVER 14 MILLION DOLLARS. This figure meets the threshold for “grand theft” in any legal system following the (Neanderthal, property Trumps life) British legal system.
Add to that figure the “consulting fees” charged by such “experts” – such as Neustar, which breathlessly touted the new TLD round as “THE NEXT BIG THING.” Fortunately for those left standing – and perhaps more than a few of those looking for avenues to recoup their loses in the near term, Neustar has now exited the domain name industry … but may not be beyond the reach of the courts.
Neustar’s exit is truly SUCH A LOSS OF SUCH EXPERTISE, MOVING FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH, as they did from their hype of the nTLD round, to their loss of the FCC number portability contract (oops!), to the .AU acquisition (YIKES!), to the sale to Golden Gate. Today, in fact, Neustar appears to be now re-inventing themselves as consulting EXPERTS to those corporations with too much money and too little corporate expertise to know the difference.
One shall not mention the installation of their current “dishonest and week” CEO who, as a “Wharton man,” carries all of the weaknesses – and none of the billions (if, in fact, any) – of the Wharton man currently cornholing the American presidency.
President (and former U.S. General) Dwight D. Eisenhower warned America to “beware the military-industrial complex.” As the love-child of Lockheed Martin and Perot Systems (Perot, as in “crazy aunt in the attic” Ross Perot who, as a third-party candidate, cost George H.W. Bush a second term in favor of Bill – “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” – Clinton) – Neustar has and continues to pursue – albeit to-date fatally – the military industrial complex business model of “whatever the traffic will bear” and remains unWOKE to the concept of “free market forces.”
Quel dommage. How many investors in Neustar stock have to be sacrificed on their CEO’s Altar of Hubris before they realize, as Forrest Gump did that, “Stupid is as stupid does.”
N’import de qui
Spot-on.
I will be dumping 3 of mines by the end of this year. Originally they were just used as a shortcut to redirect to a specific page of the website, but its really not needed.
The .BRANDs were a big mistake after large-scale Domain Tasting ended in 2007. They were largely sold on the basis of brands and trademarks being massively abused. Many of the .BRAND zones are NIC-only zones.
I believe that while most brands indeed fell to the fallacy of defending against abuse, some saw it as a conditional opportunity, one that if people moved away from the dominant TLD (.com in the US, local ccTLD in a lot of countries), they would have hedged their bets.
But this hasn’t happened yet, and might never happen. Metlife looks more like the first, Intel more like the second.
I say they are a great tool and we will sell plenty of them for the next round.
They need time and to get rid of the $25,000 annual Icann tax.
Does any brand actually use them beyond an expensive redriect or a corporate magazine / company information portal? Don’t most if not all even after 8 years still use .com and the local country code for real business and customers?
.intel and .metlife also bite the dust.