Stronger domain names can strengthen marketing

After dot-com boom, there's a chance to nab dot-cars

GABE NELSON

After dot-com boom, there's a chance to nab dot-cars

COMMENTARY

Gabe Nelson is an Automotive News staff reporter in San Francisco.

April 11, 2016 - 12:01 am ET

LAS VEGAS -- Back in the 1990s, in the early days of the Internet, car dealers could have been forgiven for failing to seize on the right domain name for a website.

Even if they had known how customers would embrace online shopping, what would have been the right choice? .com? .net? .us? As fast-moving speculators snapped up favored addresses for resale, guessing wrong would be an expensive mistake.

Twenty years later, dealers have a fresh opportunity. Since last fall, a company called Cars Registry has been offering businesses the chance to buy an Internet domain name ending in .car, .cars or .auto, thanks to the creation of new suffixes by ICANN, the nonprofit that administers domain names on the Internet.

Cars Registry came to the National Automobile Dealers Association convention two weeks ago to shop its domain names to dealers. A strong domain name is easy to remember, argued Mike Ambrose, the company's COO, and there is evidence that it sends a strong signal about its owner, enticing consumers to spend more time on that company's website.

"A strong domain name is the foundation of your digital marketing efforts," Ambrose said in an interview. "Some dealers spend tens of thousands, hundreds of dollars a month just on Google AdWords, and the strength of your domain name is an indicator of how much time people are going to spend on your website."

Cars Registry applied for the privilege to sell these domain names in 2012, paying $185,000 and filling out a 400-page application to explain how it would administer the new names. It won multimillion-dollar auctions for some of its domains. 

Since last fall, Cars Registry has sold its website domain names at wholesale prices to dozens of website retailers, including GoDaddy.com, which sell the domain names to consumers. The going retail price is around $3,000 apiece. 

Automakers have raced to buy the domain names to protect the digital footprints of their brands. Chinese automaker Geely now uses Geely.auto, while Porsche.cars leads to Porsche.com. Apple and Google have likewise bought names such as Apple.car and Google.car, possibly to stake out future turf. 

For a handful of dealers, the $3,000 is clearly worth it. 

Consider the case of Brilliance Auto, a used-car dealership in Union, N.J., that had used BrilianceAuto.com -- with just one "L' -- because the superior BrillianceAuto.com had already been taken by a Chinese automaker. The dealership now uses Brilliance.Auto. 

For other dealers thinking about taking the plunge, it's impossible to predict whether a domain name ending in .cars or .auto will still be useful in 20 years. But an opportunity to start fresh may be worth a look.

You can reach Gabe Nelson at gnelson@crain.com.

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