5 With… Daniel Negari

Daniel Negari XYZAs CEO of XYZ, Daniel Negari has seen the .XYZ extension become the largest new gTLD domain name extension. According to nTLDStats.com, there are nearly 6.5 million registered .XYZ domain names, and the extension has a 27.79% market share of all registered new gTLD domain names. Daniel’s company also operates other extensions such as .College, .Rent, .Security, .Protection, .Theatre, .Cars, .Car, and .Auto.

There has been a considerable amount  of industry talk about the marketing strategies and tactics undertaken by XYZ. For this 5 question interview, I asked Daniel about  other topics related to his business and the new gTLD extensions.

If you have questions for Daniel, you are welcome to ask them.  Please keep your comments or questions respectful, as I have a low tolerance for rudeness and uncivil discussion when people have been nice enough to participate in an interview like this.

Elliot:  What are your goals for .XYZ in the next 3 years and how do you plan to achieve them?

Daniel Negari: .xyz is for every website, everywhere. Our goal has always been to be the go-to domain extension for the next generation of internet users. In other words, .xyz should be the first choice for startups, new businesses, young adults, and people in emerging internet markets who are securing their first domain.

In the first two years of availability, our growth has exceeded even our own expectations. We are currently the #4 most popular generic TLD, after .com, .net, and .org, and we hope to become #2 within the next 3-5 years, if not sooner.

We plan on achieving this by executing on the marketing and awareness strategies we have outlined, which ranges from general domain education, unique guerilla marketing on the biggest stages, hosting our own events, highlighting our favorite use cases in weekly #WebsiteWednesday blog posts, and through our channel of 160+ registrars (and growing).

Elliot:  What lessons have you learned (that you can share) in the last 2 years of operating?

Daniel Negari: The mission behind .xyz to help new internet users get online and connect through the Generation XYZ community is a message that has really resonated with our audience all over the world. It’s great to see people embracing .xyz as a clean slate for their online presence.

Also, it takes a lot of money to build a registry. We have made significant investments to market .xyz to end users and through the channel, develop an industry-leading abuse mitigation system to maintain less than 1% abuse at all times, and even just to pay ICANN fees. My bill for Q2 volume from ICANN was 7 figures – I look forward to 8 figure quarterly bills in the future.

Elliot:  .XYZ has grown quite big in China. Do you see similar growth elsewhere and what is behind the growth?

Daniel Negari: We knew China was going to be a big market for .xyz, as were other parts of Asia, South America, and Africa. That’s because these are all emerging internet markets, where people are using the internet for the first time ever on a daily basis. They need a memorable, affordable, and global domain for their online presence, and as the ending of the alphabet, .xyz just makes sense to them as the ending for their domain.

As of August 8, .xyz is the #1 new gTLD in 87 countries, and top 3 in another 92. Our global adoption is a testament to the clear value we offer internet users, as well as the effectiveness of our marketing efforts to reach this audience, whether it be through our own campaigns or jointly with our registrar partners.

Elliot:  Do the number of UDRP proceedings and trademark registrations concern you, and what are you doing about them?

Daniel Negari: No. There is a relative low amount of cybersquatting and UDRP cases compared to registration volume. We highly discourage cybersquatting and believe in registrant and trademark owner rights.

One thing we do to mitigate risks sometimes associated with trademark infringement is scan our zone for domains that contain trademarks and are being used for phishing or malware. With evidence, we will suspend these domains and report them to the registrar of record.  

Elliot:  Do you foresee industry consolidation, and do you think XYZ will be a participant?

Daniel Negari: It is already consolidating. XYZ originally applied for three TLDs (.xyz, .College, and .Now). We were awarded .xyz and .College, and have reinvested our money to acquire 4 other TLDs directly (.Rent, .Theatre, .Security, and .Protection) and 3 (.Cars, .Car, and .Auto) in a joint venture. So we are one of the larger consolidators out there, and we’re hungry to acquire more TLDs. If you are a registry operator and want to sell your assets, please contact me.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
    • Hi David – Thanks for your comment and reading my interview with Elliot.

      We would be happy to integrate – we often see that people pick up their .xyz domain name with the matching social media handles (adding xyz) to the end of it. Please send an email to hello@gen.xyz and we will get in touch!

      Cheers

      D

      PS (I normally dont hop on comments, please email my team if anyone has any feedback or wants to reach out)

    • Hello Daniel Negari,

      What will you do when Savvy Online Investors start Dumping New TLDS? You probably well know that there will be a Massive move into the Superior .COM Profit Centers ,over the next five years. What ? You say your not aware of this ? We are here to tell you its an Economic Certainty. Think you know more than us ? Good Luck ! We think you were wise to dump ( Daniel Negari and Ambrose sell $2M of Rightside Shares)

      Lets see if you are the Really Smart Money thats going to flee .XYZ extensions as well. If your really smart you will divest yourself of .XYZ Now, not when its too late. Doubt us ? You better check our track record.

      Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger) (Former Rockefeller IBEC Marketing Analyst/Strategist) (Licensed CBOE Commodity Hedge Strategist) (Domain Master https://www.UseBiz.co

  1. I did a double take when I heard a radio commercial last week for a company and domain ended with ,xyz.
    I’m in the business and I was taken back. I wonder if the average consumer will remember the domain? Or, will they remember the ‘left of dot’ but use ,com?

    Funny thing is, I can’t remember the ‘left of dot’ but do remember ,xyz.

    I am not trying to rain on Daniel’s parade. I compliment his success and aggressiveness.

  2. Hello Elliot,

    Thank you for putting together informative back and forth free speech that always, if allowed reveals the truth. We appreciate you and I am sure your readers value your open forum where truths emerge if allowed to.JAS

    Most Google Ad-sense advertisers are drinking Google Kool-Aid and going with the mentality that other extensions other than the Strategic .COM Profit Centers are just as good, as long as they use Google Ad-sense Marketing.

    You will find that 99% of all Google Ad Marketing Agencies are Clueless about the superior Marketing Strategies that All .COM Profit Centers embody. They got it wrong thirty years ago and continue their flawed Marketing Strategies to this day.

    They still don’t get that they lose their clients valuable Rustled Traffic within the Google Traffic Rustling Maze. Actually losing as much Traffic as they gain in the Google Ad System. Utterly Amazing to us that this is still being used by most Uneducated Online Advertising Agencies.

    If their Online website owners knew the truth of the matter, they would be Furious.

    There are two recipes for Online Business Failures:
    1. NOT owning a .COM Profit Center
    2. Using Google Adsense Marketing

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger) Former ( Rockefeller I.B.E.C. Marketing Analyst/Strategist) (Licensed C.B.O.E. Commodity Hedge Strategist) ( Domain Master http://WWW.UseBiz.com)

  3. Daniel Negari,

    the most important is the renewal, you must keep renewal price 2 cents, or something near that if you want a fast increase of registrations, then when it will be side to side to another extension you know wich one you align prices.

    of course more calculaions are needed but all can be done in mathematica , even more, give some numbers and ask domainers to calculate for you, this will be a true open economy that everybody likes 🙂

  4. Hello Elliot,

    Most all Domain Pricing Systems are based on Google-Centric Analytics. As we have discussed many times this Archaic Pricing system is obsolete. There are Economic .COM Profit Center Valuations that are based on pure traffic potential Compounding, that .COM site holders ONLY can enjoy. This can only be accomplished with Marketing Strategies that DO NOT INCLUDE Google Ad Support. Actually most All Good Domains chances of Gaining back ALL the traffic meant for their site, are increased OUTSIDE THE GOOGLE Traffic Rustling Maze.

    So if your analytics are Google-Centric, you may want to reconsider Valuations Outside The Google System as more representative of the true Economic Valuations, some savvy .COM End-Users are aware of.

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger) (Former Rockefeller IBEC Marketing Analyst/Strategist) (Licensed CBOE Commodity Hedge Strategist) (Domain Master https://www.UseBiz.com

  5. Sorry Metal tiger , what google analytics has in common with domain sales ? I mean that XYZ need to keep prices low , it seems it’s EXACTly that that helped them be the biggest new gtld , google treata all ngtld the same, but it’s off topic

    • Yes we wonder what Frank Schilling (Googles acquired Poster Boy) along with his Uniregistry Shennanigans is now up to? We long ago boycotted Uniregistry and its Hording Tactics of keeping the best registrations for themselves, while releasing the Pidgeon Shit for Uneducated Google Advertisers and unsuspecting Domainers. For anyone interested in protecting their .COM property Assets, avoid Uniregistry, they have their mechanisms in place for acquiring your .COM Assets on the cheap.

      Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger) (Former Rockefeller IBEC Marketing Analyst/Strategist) (Licensed CBOE Commodity Hedge Strategist) (Domain Master https://www.UseBiz.com)

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