blog

Customized Domains - Will Asset Managers Snap Up Online Vanity Plates?

by Mike McLaughlin

Since the beginning, Web sites have been built around ubiquitous extensions such as .com, .net, .org, .gov, and .edu. These suffixes have both simplified and limited the Internet. Later this year, everything will change in the realm of domain suffixes. But what will the resulting changes be for asset managers and their Web sites?

Farhad Manjoo at Slate.com (one of the five best Web sites in existence) superbly summarizes the pending changes to domain-naming conventions. The gist is that ICANN, the international non-profit that regulates online addresses, is green-lighting a domain-name free-for-all starting in late 2009. With limited legal and (ahem) moral restrictions, individuals and firms will be able to create customized domain suffixes.

Forget kasina.com. Now we can potentially snap up kasina.consulting. Asset managers can go the same route: fidelity.com becomes fidelity.investments. Suddenly the sometimes pesky period in T. Rowe Price becomes an asset, and anyone who uses a first initial and their middle name should be fired up.

However, as Manjoo points out, this flexibility in crafting domains is not really necessary. The reality is that modern browsers and search engines have greatly diminished the need for such complexity. It is no longer vital to have the perfectly crafted domain name and suffix. Internet Explorer and Google are smart enough to find kasina's site without anyone knowing whether we're kasina.consulting or kasina.com.

Although I agree with Manjoo, I think he is overlooking the phenomenon of vanity license plates. Car owners don't need these, but many drivers choose to spend money on this mode of expression. For example, a friend of mine has dreams of getting approval for a vanity plate that contains a disguised expletive.

I think the changes from ICANN will yield similar results. People and firms will not need fancy, specific domain suffixes, but some are going to snap them up anyway. Asset managers are included in this, as I see two potential applications:

1. Branding and Differentiation: Many asset managers end their names with terms like "investments" or "funds", but under ICANN's plan only one firm can own those suffixes. Is there some cachet to have a firm's Web address as firmname.funds while everyone else is firmnamefunds.com? I suspect a few firms will answer "yes".

2. Campaign Support: Pioneer recently launched a microsite to support its View the Values campaign at viewthevalues.com. With relaxed naming conventions Pioneer could instead utilize addresses such as viewthevalues.pioneer, or even view.the.values. In pure-play Web marketing initiatives, funky domain suffixes could have increased appeal.

So, back to the original question: will customized domain suffixes change much for asset managers? Probably not. But the changes that do occur will certainly be interesting.