Clever: Radix Bolsters New gTLD Adoption Through Sponsored Startups, Buzz, Goodies

NEW YORK – They say that ‘money talks and bullshit walks’ (at least that is what my father used to say) and no-one likely knows this better than domain registry Radix, who maintains and operates several new catchy gTLD domain endings such as .tech and .online. Since 2016, Radix has been helping startup companies by putting a little money where their mouth is and providing new startups sponsorship covering sometimes as much as 100% of their expenses for exhibit booth fees and branded merchandise at massive industry conferences such as Collision, Web Summit, TechCrunch Disrupt and more.

Participants who are approved by Radix’s “Startup League” are assured that ‘making their mark’ will be that much easier as Startup League will cover their costs and use their vast resources including a $45 million dollar investment (that’s what their startup solicitation email outlines), to help get affiliated startups noticed with free PR and marketing goodies specifically set aside for this purpose.

There is only one requirement of said startups…

They must be willing to register and use one of the nine (9) new Internet domain names Radix operates. In other words, they must use one of the following domain name extensions for their primary website address which would then end in, .TECH, .PRESS, .SITE, .SPACE, .STORE, .ONLINE, .WEBSITE, .FUN, or .HOST.

If they do agree and are willing to switch domains (which Startup League will also help with and give them a free domain for a year), they can be evaluated for sponsorship and potential inclusion in this select group of innovators which will likely save them a great deal of cash letting them keep more of their money focused on innovation and less on marketing endeavors (my words not theirs).

This seems like a great idea in promoting the new gTLD domains because rather than throwing money at the wall and just seeing what sticks, Radix is helping startups grow by giving money instead of spending money, while creating opportunity for ad-campaigns that actually grow their own legs. Plus, ‘giving’ anything at all to someone in need always comes with a positive connotation as an added bonus.

Here are some reasons why I feel this was a good strategy:

1. Startups are probably having a hard time finding a good short domain name anyway and since they are very new, have little to lose.
2. Startups need all the help they can get with publicity and marketing so they are very likely to be interested and adopt.
3. Startups have the ability to generate a unique vehicle for promoting the domains as they emulate innovation and fresh new ideas, such as and such is very much like these new domain names.
4. Startup events attract a tremendous amount of business owners, executives, entrepreneurs and tech leaders (see list of attendees), I’m not sure if you could find a much better audience to show off your new URLs in use.
5. Startups often attract venture capital or investment firms and with hundreds of participants, a few will likely be ‘home-runs’, further contributing to the gTLDs marketing reach through true media rather than entirely on its own dryer TLD launch PR.
6. Startups will place the new gTLD ‘strategically’ in the news, while keeping it aside from being ‘the news itself’ which would likely only get it canned as a marketing message. This is more of a subconscious marketing tactic much like product placement on television and in movies.

All in all I think this was a very clever way of promoting new gTLDs. Worth mentioning is that all of Radix’s nine (9) new domains are ranked within the top 100 new gTLD performers, with the majority of them within the top 30.