Forbes just published a post about Google’s new gTLD initiative and well basically mucked it all up.
The story covered Google’s acquisition of .App for $25 Million but a quick read through the 1st paragraph of the story and you can see the author hasn’t really kept up with developments of the new gTLD program or Google’s applications
Here is the 1st paragraph of the story:
“Buying “.app” for almost four-times the previous record for a gTLD not only raised eyebrows, but questions about the strategy behind Google’s expansive and expensive domain name land grab.
Although the most costly, .app is merely one of over 100 gTLDs, Google had already spent nearly $20 million acquiring.
Early speculation of Google’s motives were quite benign: the company was just making a logical expansion into the domain registry business, challenging the likes of GoDaddy and Network Solutions.
Also, many of Google’s registrations are closed, meaning they will be used only by Google sites. That makes sense for names like .google or .nexus, but things get intriguing when considering some of the generic names Google has locked up.”
So that 1st paragraph contained no less than 3 errors or inaccuracies
1. While .APP for $25 million is 4x the most paid in a public ICANN Last Resort auction for a new gTLD, it’s certainly on par with some of the new gTLD’s obtained in private new gTLD auctions. I’m not sure the author is even aware of the existence of private new gTLD auctions.
2. While Google applied for over 100 new gTLD’s, as we have already discussed they have lost 29 out of 35 auctions now (including winning .app) so they are not going to have over 100 new gTLD’s.
3. The author is clearly confused between registries and registrars. Google applying to become a TLD registry was not to go into competition with Godaddy and Network Solutions which are registrars. Godaddy did start its own registrar but that is seaprate and apart from being a registry. Neither Godaddy nor Network Solutions are domain registries.
The story even lists all of Google’s new gTLD applications although as we mentioned they have withdrawn many of these including those they lost in private auctions including .cloud. .buy and .blog to name a few.
You can read the whole Forbes story here
That’s why I’ll never subscribe to Forbes. The magazine’s prestige doesn’t seem to be backed up by actual quality.
If they’re this lazy and inaccurate when it comes to topics I’m familiar with, then why on earth would I rely on them for news about any topic outside my experience?
Forbes was sold to Chinese investors in Hong Kong last summer (7/2015) for $300M.