Fidal put out a very detailed report on new gtlds and how brands are using them. They conducted a survey that delved into a lot of topics that brands face when dealing with the new namespace.
I read the whole report and I think it is well worth your time to take a look at and bookmark to refer back to.
From the report:
Characteristics of the surveyed companies
Over 35% of the surveyed companies operate in the services industry (mainly B2B), followed by the retail (19.1%) and manufacturing (17.9%) sectors (excluding the food industry). Companies in these latter two sectors are broadly present on the Web, mainly because of the expansion of e-commerce, and have an interest in developing real positioning strategies to strengthen their presence and promote their offerings. It is interesting to note the participation of companies in the construction/real estate (6.8%) and food (5.6%) sectors, which reflects the general trend of developing online communications across all industry sectors and aimed at all target customers.
55% of participants are from companies with less than 49 employees, whereas 45% come from companies with over 50 employees, confirming how SMEs are more and more sensitive to protecting their intangible assets.During the course of 2014, we conducted a survey among our clients to find out how their domain name portfolios are currently structured and managed and what they know and intend to do in view of the changes in the Internet naming system.
The 255 responses we received to our questionnaire are analyzed below.The aim of the survey was to decipher business practices, both in terms of the management of trademark/domain name assets and in anticipation of
this new program, during the transition period when the new gTLDs will be released. It is therefore a particularly propitious period for these reflections.
They asked 16 questions which you can read in the full report here.
Conclusion
While the release of the new gTLDs has gathered pace over the past year, the process will continue until 2016. Millions of domain names have already been registered (3 million to date) and these figures will undoubtedly continue to rise as some of the most sought-after TLDs are not yet available (.book, .radio, .hotel, .vin).
Those who are skeptical of this new system will note that the volume of .com registrations in 2014 is just as high as all the new gTLDs put together. It will probably take some time to get accustomed to the new gTLDs and for them to become the way of life in the digital world. Some studies say that the equilibrium will be reached in 2020.
This revolution in the naming system is nevertheless essential,if only because domain names should now be treated as real assets increasing the visibility of companies online (e.g.: taken into account in search engine optimization). This challenge is an opportunity for businesses to rethink their online communication strategy, and to better protect and defend their brands.
