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.Melbourne - It's a Dud

Is .Melbourne a dud?

  • Yes

    Votes: 27 79.4%
  • No

    Votes: 3 8.8%
  • Unsure

    Votes: 4 11.8%

  • Total voters
    34

snoopy

Top Contributor
In my opinion there is a lot of things about this extension that is NQR,

-The term is in the wrong place. “Melbourne” should be at the front of the domain most of the time. Melbourne Musuem, Melbourne Airport, Melbourne Acquarium, Melbourne Film Festival. All these geo extensions have the same problem.

-Length? 9 letters. How long is a full domain going to be with this extension? This one is well beyond practical to type.

-It is a small market, especially compared to other geo tlds.

-Much more practical city name new tlds are not doing well. e.g. .berlin with 25 registrations a day.

-Even the backer, Melbourne City Council is not using it, not that it would make much sense for them anyway given the Melbourne is again at the front of their name. MelbourneCityCouncil.Melbourne? MMC.Melbourne? However you construct the domain the extension part is just duplication.
 

Bacon Farmer

Top Contributor
Sometimes you look at one of your domains that are up for renewal and go WTF was I thinking.

.Melbourne is just a bigger more embarrassing version of that.
 

helloworld

Top Contributor
I was thinking more about these tlds last night. I really think longterm the value will be in branding excercises like book.now or something along those lines but it will never replace .com/.com.au
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
If the local government is not using it, i do not think it bodes well for it long term

I think it is a big vote of no confidence when they market it for other to use and will not use it themselves.

Lets see if they come out with some specially manufactured site so they claim to be using it, (like the .club 50 cent site).
 

findtim

Top Contributor
i was at the melbourne auIGF yesterday, other dntrade members were there so they may want to harp in on my commments.

disclaimer: this is just my opinion and also opinionated, i'm ONLY detailing this so others don't have the same issues i have had + for the benefit of people who could not attend.

i went to the " .melbourne " seminar , so i thought my feedback would be of interest to members.

Adrian Kinderis from ARI spoke mostly and overall i felt it was a sales pitch

rather then an information session, mingled in with some statistical data from other worldwide gTLDs successes and failures.

it seems that overall they have a good view on how to handle the new gTLD with the victorian government basically handing it over to ARI for their current knowledge and partnerships with melbourneIT and crazyD for registrations.

there was question time at the end and i did manage to get a couple of questions in ( surprise surprise )

my first was " why does MIT show domain available and CD show domain taken ?

the answer was " teething problems", but given we are now in "priority phase till 27/9/14 and it started on 29/7/14 i would have thought "teething" would have been sorted by now.

it was politely suggested that i shouldn't be concerned to which i replied " try to tell my client that "

MIT guys talked to me after the session and here's what came from that:

firstly, nice guys willing to help and i think a little embarrassed by my questions and the failure for thier system to work as i opened my laptop and even the MIT guy struggled to place an order !!!!

the bottom line EVENTUALLY came to be that everyone can try to register a

.melbourne during this current period and if you and someone else wants the

same name then its going to be an auction between you 2, 3, 4, 5,6 etc

the actual auction process was described like the other gTLDs like .web .sex process where the winner pays the underbidder but the winner gets the extension ( PLEASE correct me if i am wrong )

ALSO names have been allocated as unregisterable eg: collingwood would probably be one , then others have been classed as premium eg doctor.melbourne and a price has been placed on them, ......price unknown ?

so if you think you can get a good generic for $65/$133 a year i think you will be disappointed as it was staed that the premium price of the domains was to prevent cyber squatting and also in my opinion the premium keyword names have been allocated for later sale just like they did for "hobart" , "sydney" etc.

although my personal view right now is after the session is they are thinking " wholly sh^t we need to justify the purchase + all the extra costs we didn't

know we would have so the sooner we break even the more chance the people in the government who made the decision have of keeping their jobs "the government has taken many domains out eg: travel. , art. ,springcarnival. etccccccccccccccc no doubt, accommodation, hotel, tours, visit bla bla bla ???? how many are there ?

but dig this ! if you go to register dentist. at MIT it shows available, at CD it shows registered. which means you can not register at CD which is $65 p/a with a minimum 3yr rego, so your ONLY alternative is to enter the "ballot" at MIT which is $400 total for 3yr minimum.

BUT you can register at MIT casino.melbourne and pay, then you can come back again and register it again and pay !!!!!! as its all going into the ballot.

teething problems !

it seems trademark holders RULE, which i think is fair.

But small business is going to be a problem as someone else bought up in question time with an question about "theatre." being TAKEN already by marrineer ( ambassodor ? ) where there have many theatres in melbourne ( by the way theatre shows as available on MIT )

.melbourne isn't going away, its here to stay, they have put themselves into a position of no return, they just have to go forward, doing "my numbers" it will make profit, i think its going to take at least 5-8 years though.

ummmmm, sorry, didn't count in loss of interest so 8-10yrs at least

problem is 10 years is a longgggggggggg time in the internet these days.

thats just a quick over view

tim
 

findtim

Top Contributor
firstly: i don't intend to buy but i have to give the info to my clients so thus the research, they can then make a decision.

more info gained, just got off the phone to MIT who rang me because of the point outlined above and it appears you have to phone them to order a domain,

its not able to be done online yet.

also i asked them about 3 different domains, the first one i was told was a "premium listed domain" ad was not $400 for 3 years but $6750 then it would go back to $400 per 3 years, 2nd domain also premium but only $2250, 3rd domain standard price.

i can't tell you the names sorry but it was like a "netfleet buy it maybe " as the last domain has more value then the 2nd domain but they just don't know it !!

the first domain is 6 times more expensive then the current .com.au equivalent i own.

they are just pulling prices out of their hat.

tim
 

findtim

Top Contributor
i split these posts up so easier to read.

snoopy just to let you know they are also considering registering .victoria, .vic , and maybe .melb or .mel

they said they were considering them but "ran out of time and the opportunity closed so now they have to wait till the next time they can do it in a few years"

as if people are beating down the door to pay to have an extension.

comments were made like NAB, commonwealth, ANZ all grabbed theirs and " westpac missed the boat "

they said the session was streamed but i don't have a link sorry.

tim
 

StuartB

Regular Member
.Melbourne - Opportunity

Snoopy - couldn't disagree more.

While I agree the preference will always be to have the domain name text in the same order as the Business name - Nightclubs.Melbourne is still a pretty good name. So is Airport.Melbourne

I suspect most registrants will use the domain purely as a marketing tool - not necessarily as a lead generator. ie: If you see CoffeeFestival.Melbourne, you will remember this enough to do the google search. I know this flies in the face of the arguments we make as Domainers, but I suspect this is where it will end up.

The generic names will still be valuable - Dentist.Melbourne is a good example. As for the length of the extension - don't think it is a big deal.

This is only a small market domain - but there are still plenty of opportunities.

Disappointed to only find out today, that the famous FindTim was the same Tim asking the tough questions. Would have liked to have met in person. Next time.

I still maintain that there is a Political risk with this gTLD. It is owned by Melbourne City Council and the State Government - with ARI running it for them as a delivered service. Yes Adrian was doing a sales pitch - cause he is being paid to do it.

Tight legal contracts and Chinese walls won't stop a future Politician trying to deregister LiberalSuck.Melbourne or ALPricks.Melbourne . This is not the same as in the .au space, where there is is no "direct" owner in the same way as .Melbourne

I don't subscribe to the new gTLDS as being a fantastic new frontier. Most will fizzle out to nothing. I can see the value of .IBM, just from an internal rollout benefit. But struggle to see the business model for many others. But hey - they are the guys investing the big bucks.......so they must know what they are doing. .Melbourne was a very good strategic acquisition and I would hope that they go for .Victoria if there are future rounds.

I also suspect that anyone with a .CEO domain might be better registering with .Wanker. Just seems a bit indulgent to me.
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
Yet you don't seem sad …….:eek:

No reason for anyone to be sad except the registry and registrar. These are extensions that are not needed or desired and the market is placing a big "no" vote next to them. For anyone in the UK .co.uk is the ideal choice.
 

Data Glasses

Top Contributor
I knew i'd get a bite, i am happy to say it's gonna take a generation if ever for these type of domains to take off, until someone like facebook or the like gain worldwide attention with something new that gains the attention of the critical mass
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
I knew i'd get a bite, i am happy to say it's gonna take a generation if ever for these type of domains to take off, until someone like facebook or the like gain worldwide attention with something new that gains the attention of the critical mass

I think it would take a huge number of co's to use it before others follows, e.g. delicious used a .us for a long time and it got very popular, it did nothing for the .us extension though.

For .melbourne it is up against every business in the country, they all use .com.au, it is the standard for all businesses. A couple of very popular sites in a new tld is still not going to change anything.

Once a site does get popular on a new tld though they change to whatever the standard is in their market because of all the confusion. So it never actually lasts anyway. e.g. delicious move to delicious.com and overstock is another good example.
 

FirstPageResults

Top Contributor
Heard an advertisement for .Melbourne on the radio this morning.

They where talking about thousands of businesses "winning" with .Melbourne domains :)
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
Heard an advertisement for .Melbourne on the radio this morning.

They where talking about thousands of businesses "winning" with .Melbourne domains :)

I wonder what they are winning exactly? I can't even find one in Google aside from the registry.

Has .melboune even even got "thousands of businesses" as registrants? I think the first day total was 1700 registrations and I'd guess a big % would be people with multiple registrations.
 
Has .melboune even even got "thousands of businesses" as registrants? I think the first day total was 1700 registrations and I'd guess a big % would be people with multiple registrations.

Summary from a few weeks ago, about 5K reg so far.
 

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