M+M sees 200,000 .london names in its future
Minds + Machines CEO Antony Van Couvering reckons the company’s forthcoming .london new gTLD could see as many as 200,000 domains under management, just from small businesses.
He told DI the target is realistic following the results of a YouGov survey of 1,001 London-based small businesses, which found that 26% were “likely” to buy a .london name.
From this, YouGov extrapolated that there are at least 218,140 companies ready to register a .london.
Van Couvering would not put a deadline on hitting the ambitious goal, but said that registry Dot London Domains and M+M as technical provider are “going to do our best to make the launch well-publicized and successful.”
Judging by the gTLD’s official web site, which carries quotes from the likes of Selfridges, the London Eye and Carnaby Street, there’s been a fair bit of outreach to recognizable London brands already.
Dot London backer London & Partners is the Mayor’s office’s official PR agency, so you can imagine there’s going to be some decent marketing resources thrown at marketing.
The .london gTLD is due to launch April 29 this year, according to the registry.
It’s been contracted with ICANN since November 14, so is running well over the average time to delegation of 70 days.
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I like the city TLDs and think .london will do well.
That said, I found the press release sent out by London and Partners this morning rather funny:
“More than 200,000 small businesses in London say they are likely to register a new .london internet address when the domain names go on sale at the end of April.”
Actually, only 250 small businesses said that.
Tricky market, a lot going on with .co.uk, and .uk. I think estimate of 25,000 in first month is more plausible.
I wonder if the survey mentioned a price. .co.uk domains are very inexpensive.
true but soon you’ll have to buy a .uk name as well…prices are going up
A target without a date is really not a target. If you can reach 200,000 registrations within a year, that’s impressive. If it takes you 50 years to achieve this number, then you are doing a very poor job. So, he has not said anything about the target.