Domain Names in 3D
Ever since CES 2010’s big theme of “3D” went rampant for 2010, so did the domain name market. Domainers are snatching up everything under the sun related to this year’s hottest new introductions: 3D TV and 3D Blu-Ray. Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot left, even though these technologies won’t be hitting the shelves until the summer.
If you’ve been reading tech news for the past couple years, you could have gotten in early to snag a few great 3D TV related domain names when the chatter started in the mid 2000s. Obviously, whoever owns 3DTV.com, 3DTV.net and 3D.TV is sitting on a gold mine. Slated to be a revolution in the HDTV market, 3D TVs fit the requirements of displaying both 3D broadcasting (film shot with 3D cameras, which have two lenses) and being the pre-requisite for the new 3D Blu-Ray format, which has already been set in stone last December by the Blu-Ray Association. Everyone from Sony to Panasonic, LG, Samsung and several other huge companies are taking it very seriously.
I’ve been collecting mostly .com’s and several .net’s relating to both of these technologies in the past half year. It’s been nothing short of a mad dash, almost like a supermarket shopping spree – when a new market opens up, the world is your oyster in regard to domain names, since there’s no landrush period as there is with a new ccTLD. Even the little guy has a chance to get something really, really big.
Here’s the biggest question, though: will these domains ever produce? Are people going to be searching for generic terms like “OLED 3D TV” and “3D TV glasses,” or will they simply go straight to Amazon or BestBuy.com? If they do search for these terms, will they be faced with a cluttered Google.com SERP that’s filled with Google Product results (something you will never appear in, even as a dropshipper), a Google live feed box, and a mish-mosh of Adwords ads with organic results practically pushed on to page 2?
Or, would they be more inclined to go to a “branded” URL like 3Dcritic or 3Dfanatic? Think about it. What’s your strategy? To rank for generic terms and get lots of one-time purchases, or to create a custom URL and brand it, become a popular blogger on the topic, and generate sales through return visits?
The truth is, nobody knows what consumer behavior will be like for this market. Nobody even knows if 3D TV will be a complete flop. Wasting my money on Laser TV-related domains in 2008 proved to be nothing short of that…a waste! And, that was slated to be the “LCD killer.” Nobody even cares about Laser TV technology anymore…now, it’s all about OLED…which is way too expensive for the average person to even consider. Until then, these companies will keep milking LCD and Plasma.
As you can see, there’s a lot of thought that goes into entering this market. As for domains, as anyone in the field would tell you – if you’ve come across anything generic or worthy, just buy it. Drop it later if it proves to be a flop! The point of the matter is that you’ll have a choice, as opposed to crying about “should have/could have” in a couple years. Happy domaining!
