Will .SOCCER or another gTLD Win by the Next World Cup?
June 26, 2014
By jbourne
The soccer bug has bitten FairWinds Partners – how could it not? – and now we’re eagerly watching how the new top-level domain (TLD) applications for .SOCCER, .FOOTBALL, and .FUTBOL will pan out.
Several applications each for .SOCCER and .FOOTBALL are currently in contention. .FUTBOL has already been delegated into the root zone and thus has a head start. We’ll have to wait and see which TLD of the three will be the most popular by the time the next World Cup rolls around in 2018. At that point, the new extensions won’t be new anymore but a familiar piece of the Internet landscape.
One factor to watch is the potential change in demographics of the groups watching soccer. Different countries and cultures may not only have different words for a sport, but may also have different online navigation preferences and rates of adoption for new gTLDs.
The Economist recently published an article (“A Game of Two Halves“) about the fact that, despite soccer’s global appeal, the world’s largest nations – China, India, and the U.S. – haven’t been deeply involved with the sport.
But, as the piece notes, that might change in the coming years. Americans are filling soccer stadiums in larger numbers than ever before. Average attendance is at around 18,600 people per match in the U.S. and the sport is “second only to American football in its popularity with Americans between the ages of 12 and 24.”
China is heavily investing in soccer as well, building a major soccer academy in the province of Guangdong. And India’s younger generation is likewise poised to usher in greater support for the sport with the aid of Bollywood actors who are helping to promote the Indian Premier League.
Whatever the future of the sport (and .SOCCER, .FOOTBALL, and .FUTBOL) might be, count us among the millions of people now tuning in to the World Cup – on to Round of 16, Team USA!
