With the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) having recently unveiled as many as 1,930 applications for new generic top level domains (gTLDs), experts have expressed the opinion that some of the new gTLDs will fail as businesses.

According to long-time observers of ICANN, some of the new gTLDs will develop into successful businesses, while several others will not. In their opinion, the business plans of some of the applicants will probably be questionable, as will be their technical skill pertaining to the operation of a new gTLD.

Erin Hennessy, a partner in the technology group at the Bracewell and Giuliani law firm, feels that a number of new gTLDs - like .pharmacy, for instance, which could help counter fake drug sales online - will apparently have some advantages; several others seemingly would not have obvious business models.

Noting that there are millions of secondary-level domains - nearly 2.2 million secondary-level domains on .biz and 6.5 million on .info -, Hennessy said that some of the mid-2001 launched .biz and .info domains "have never caught on."

With the ICANN set to commence the application evaluation process, from July 12 onwards, Richard Stockton - a lawyer with intellectual property law firm Banner and Witcoff - said that the application process "almost seemed like a gold rush"; and added: "There's going to be some [gTLDs] that perform and some that just don't."