My last post talked about Godaddy and it’s recent .me registration fiasco. Now let’s take a closer look at the question on many people’s minds: what will .me domains be worth in the future?
I think .me domains are highly speculative.
.me is no .com
There’s little question about the value of generic domain names, but .com’s rule that field – by a very wide margin. The .com tld has been branded in most people’s minds as THE default website extension. .net’s and .org’s have historically fetched a small fraction of what the .com is worth.
Lots of other tld’s have popped up over the years, including .info, .ws, .name, .mobi, etc. but none of them have gained much traction. The last well-hyped extension I remember was .mobi – a lot was spent to hype it up and lots of registrars made good money selling them to speculators. Fast forward almost 2 years and the jury is still out on whether or not .mobi will be a winner or a loser when the dust settles.
Even people like Rick Schwartz, who invested the heaviest in .mobi are not entirely sure of their future value.
The more time I spend in the domain speculation world, the more I tend to agree with Andrew that non-.com’s don’t have that much value outside of 2-3 letter and 1-2 high-value keyword domains.
ICANN recently made it easier to create new extensions, but sites such as “microsoft.me” and “microsoft.microsoft” will probably just confuse most consumers. A good percentage will go to microsoftme.com and microsoft.com instead.
I will venture to say that most people buying up .me domain names right now are probably speculators. I doubt that most .me domain name buyers have plans to build out these sites. I am careful of any market where prices are determined by speculation rather than development (real estate bubble of 2005 anyone?)
what about .me?
If you can lock up eat.me or aweso.me or anything that’s a short logical 1-word domain, go for it, but know that’s it’s still a gamble. Possibly a few high-value keywords will be worth something (but not a whole lot, if you ask me).
I like .me better than most other extensions because of the personal nature of “me”, but I don’t buy most of the hype that surrounds this landrush. I think registrars will be the only ones who really profit from .me.
If you disagree, I’d love to hear some arguments about why you think .me’s will appreciate any more than your average non-.com in the comments.
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Dot Me domains present a great marketing opportunity due to their intrinsic nature. A good .ME is both a domain placeholder and a website all in one. Look at insure.me or beerdrinker.me or successful.me as slogans. Check out the sites that are being developed at DotMeWebsites.com for an idea.
Oops … the above link is DotMeWebsites.com for the dot me domain listing.
Hi Mark
I agree with you 100%, the future will be DOT ME, and it will be worth more money. Some people simply don’t want to be honest, and give an opinion so that they can get them all and have no competition on landrush. Any more opinions?
Hmmmmmm. Im tempted to say hype. All of the obvious catchy names such as love.me etc etc are being held back for auction anyway.
The only reason to therefore buy would be to gain a keyworded domain name and I doubt a .me will ever be ranked higher than its equivalent .com tld.
It is a bit ridiculous, whats next .u?
The registrars are the biggest winners.
It is the domain extension for Montenegro so it is not a new thing. Are they cashing in on it or benefitting who knows?
Companies get a nice little marketing package in a dot.ME name.
The message or brand is in the domain name. Something personally targeted like champion.me or stylish.me, even http://www.beerdrinker.me. Think of the possibilities for advertising.
Or even for social networks like http://www.pics.me or even sites like lenders.me, loanto.me or even adult date sites like sexwith.me… All kinds of possibilities.
Fully agree with Mark Kolb.
Certainly, the biggest audience will be the English speaking world. In no time this will be another “.tv”. I believe that this will be much bigger success as “.me” ads a straight link to the buyer.
Try to forget these jingles: free4.me, hotels4.me, jobs4.me, mobiles4.me, phones4.me, pizza4.me or tickets4.me and there is 99.9% that you will not. Tell your friends about fancy.me, remortgage.me, replay.me or unlock.me and they will remember it too.
See more at our website http://brands-and-jingles.com/
Mark
The problem with .me is that it only means me in english, it is restrictive and can’t expect same value of .com, .net, .info or .org who have the same meaning in almost every languages.
Good call, Ben. It’s easy to forget that in our ethnocentric world.
“The problem with .me is that it only means me in english, it is restrictive and can’t expect same value of .com, .net, .info or .org who have the same meaning in almost every languages.”
—
Actually, that is not correct. “Me” means me in Spanish, Italian, and has meaning in several other languages. I think .me has potential. My only worry is how Google and other search engines will determine its rank value.
.ME has great potential. There are over 1.2 million .me sites already built. Google is ranking them. Google registered their own .me domains – youtube.me, gmail.me, google.me etc
I’ve always been a DOTCOM enthusiast, and I will continue to support this extension (which is the gold standard). .ME, IMHO, has the potential to become the silver standard.
Apple has bought ME.COM and has registered its own products in the .ME extension and Apple’s MOBILEME will begin to gain traction.
When is the next ME auction? I think this one has a shot. Mobi — maybe some day. TV -maybe after interactive TV really takes off. But ME shows the most promise, and based on the sales and the potential value proposition of .ME as a marketing tool to target a personalized experience, this .ME could really get, as you say, traction.
Maybe we should keep it quiet, while we can still get some .ME deals, no?
@Hooman: Italian, yes. Spanish, not spelled that way. The majority of the world does not spell .me the same way – whereas .com is branded universally and has been for over a decade. I don’t think rankings will be affected any differently than a .com
@Roger: It has a long way to go to become any kind of standard, and I would personally bet against it – but I’m sure people will make plenty of money on these if they got in early enough. It’s just too speculative for my taste and when you look at the history of other non-.com-extensions and each one’s respective hype early on.
Thanks for your opinions though, I’ve been wrong before :)
Markus – Actually Me is spelled Me in the pronoun form in spanish.
For instance, she hates me -> me odia
or
she gave me the book -> me dio el libro
It also is spelled mi sometimes but mi is also used as “my” in english such as
she forgave my brother but not ME -> perdonó a mi hermano, pero no a mí
The point is though that .me WOULD have the same meaning in spanish as english therefore it adds value to it and can be used in english as well as spanish speaking countries.
don’t forget about French too.
I think most of the the .ME is is really in the “ME” If it pertains to a “you, an I, or a me” then it applicable. For example, pokerplayer.me (IMHO) is more relevant than holdem.me or poker.me. Better yet, gambler.me (once again IMHO) has more brandability and value than gambling.me ever could. I find this interesting because if your keyword is relevant to a person, hobbyist, or profession, etc, etc, then your .me is brandable and makes complete sense. People relate to what they do as a “this is what I am,” e.g. “ME.”
If .me is to have any intristic value it will be in the community website niche. I personally own sportsbettor.me and plan on development for a site for sports bettors.
If you own a .ME then I encourage you to do one thing and one thing only and that is dev’ing it. This is not a trading extention. If people can develop their .me domains and get them “out on the net.” The ext becomes more common web wide.
Yes, “me” is about English. Well also Dutch and Spanish. Nevermind. Did you know that 25% of .me were bought buy Asians?
http://Dot-Me.Of-Cour.se/2009/01/28/me-in-various-languages/
thanks for the clarification about Spanish usage