TechCrunch.com, just covered the launch of Juan Calle latest venture Pop.co
“Basically, Pop.co is a bundle of online services”
“You just pick the .co address that you’re interested in (assuming it’s available, and if it’s not, Pop.co will suggest alternatives), then the company automatically claims it for you, and you can either use Pop.co’s simple web page editor to create the page with just a little bit of typing, or use its simple DNS editor to point the website to a page you’ve created on another service like LaunchRock or Barley”.
“Pop.co also signs users up for a Google Apps account at their .co address.
This product actually ntegrates Google apps so your mx records and DNS are set up immediately — and you have a Google apps account with Google drive/calendar/email etc. all built on your domain.
Ultimately, Calle said he wants Pop.co to offer “a catalog of great apps that plug into your site immediately.”
The fee for the service according to the article is “after a free trial period, users pay a $5 a month”
“Pop.co’s founders have invested $1 million in the company, and they’re currently splitting their time between Pop.co and .Co. Calle said the idea could eventually be expanded to include other top level domains too.”
Of course some registrars are offering a similar service. 1 and 1 has been running television commercials in heavy rotation offering website created from templates bundled with domain name registrations although the Pop.co product seems more encompassing.
You can expect a lot of new gTLD registries to have added on services and sell a lot more or offer with the domain registration a lot more than just a domain name.
In this regard registries may wind up competing with registrars
Its all about selling domains.
Whether they are used or not has no relevance – but good for him and all the upcoming new gTLDs
Quite a cunning, and clever marketing idea. I like it.
“In this regard registries may wind up competing with registrars”
And Designs.com will compete with all of the above.
@bwick
Isn’t it obvious that their objective by providing easy tools to get a business online is to get them to use the domain and not just about selling them?
The registries know that without adoption and use their model is not sustainable. That’s why we’re starting to see specialized services targeted specifically toward their particular registrants.
It’s clearly not just about selling domains, but more about providing value added services and collecting recurring subscriptions for monthly web services.
We won’t see .com offering specialized services for prospective clubs and associations for getting a clean professional site up, with tools to help manage and recruit members. But .club will be offering that.
Yes Tom –
That all sounds great – but in the end – many will use those great tools that they buy with other stuff that is packaged for free – but I still think the jury is out for how many production sites will be using these non.com’s – that is all.
Essentially you are giving them all this great stuff to make them feel good about renewals of a domain they will never effective use