Pinky Brand wrote an article on his blog that is a good read for anyone interested in the domain industry. Whether registry, registrar or investor, Brand gives some decent insight into the new gtld program and doing business in China.
Brand noted that the new gtld’s would have to “kill it” to meet his projections for global market share. Currently they have not killed it.
From the article:
Especially for China. China is HARD.
You will not be successful there, as a foreign registry operator, at a minimum, unless you understand that you will likely lose money or barely break even for several years and are prepared to deal with that reality. You must be in it for the long term. Long term, at a minimum, is 5 years of sweating it out (flying back and forth on a near monthly basis) before things *might* work out.
Over the short to medium term the domain industry is likely to shed inefficient registry and registrar operators and investors, especially some of those who banked on new domain extensions (new gTLDs) that have no real consumer traction—which are many— and can no longer, or are just unwilling, to fund the basic holding/operating costs, let alone fund any marketing team or person.
Read the full article here