Does Amazon want to get into the VoIP game? It appears that may be the case according to some revealing generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) that Amazon has registered through ICANN. ICANN allowed new Top-Level Domain to be registered with the apparent goal of increasing competition and choice. Personally, I think we have enough gTLDs and if you thought typing .org, .com, or .net was too long, wait for .coupon, .restaurant, or .lamborghini (registered gTLDs). Really?
The new gTLD application window opened on 12 January 2012 and closed on 30 May 2012. ICANN published the full list of all of the gTLD strings that were applied for during this round, including the company that registered for them.Well, Amazon.com had some very interesting registrations. The most interesting ones were .call and .talk, which indicate Amazon is strongly interested in getting into the VoIP arena. It could also mean they're interested in mobile phones, but they also registered .mobile so wouldn't that domain be used for that?
We already know Amazon is moving beyond selling good such as books and electronics and is strongly investing in entertainment via their streaming video Amazon Prime service. Amazon is competing with Netflix, which is embedded into Blu-ray players and TVs. Skype, the most popular VoIP app is often embedded in some Blu-ray players and some TVs. I suspect Amazon will look to embed their video/movie streaming service into hardware devices at some point, but they will also look to embed VoIP and video calling functionality as well. They could leverage the SIP standard or partner with Microsoft/Skype.
Amazon has a HUGE ecosystem of third party sellers that sell their goods and services on Amazon.com. Perhaps the largest in the world. Two big problems are shopping cart abandonment and customers wanting more information before buying. Imagine if you could voice or video call the 3rd party seller to ask a question? Imagine if you see two retailers selling on Amazon but one retailer is $10 cheaper and you simply want to ask if they'll price match. Imagine if you are having a technical or installation issue with a product you already received and want to have the retailer guide you using video? The possibilities are endless.
Amazon.com could become the largest SIP registrar in the world connecting Business-to-Consumers (B2C) using VoIP and video. Amazon can easily solve the issues with Spam over Internet Telephony (SPIT) since users must be authenticated and they solve the issues of privacy acting as a middleman between the customer and the 3rd party business.
On a side note Amazon also registered .coupon (sorry Groupon!) as well as .zero, which I find kind of strange. Who wants to own a website associated with “zero”. Zero money to be made? Zero revenues? Not good for an e-tailer. Not to mention the Coke Zero disaster!
If curious, here's the list of Amazon's registered gTLDs. They obviously picked up .author, .audible, .buy, .book, and .read.
AMAZON |
APP |
AUDIBLE |
AUTHOR |
AWS |
BOOK |
BOT |
BOX |
BUY |
CALL |
CIRCLE |
CLOUD |
COUPON |
DEAL |
DEV |
DRIVE |
FAST |
FIRE |
FREE |
GAME |
GOT |
GROUP |
HOT |
IMDB |
JOT |
JOY |
KIDS |
KINDLE |
LIKE |
|
MAP |
MOBILE |
MOI |
MOVIE |
MUSIC |
NEWS |
NOW |
PAY |
PIN |
PLAY |
PRIME |
READ |
ROOM |
SAFE |
SAVE |
SEARCH |
SECURE |
SHOP |
SHOW |
SILK |
SMILE |
SONG |
SPOT |
STORE |
TALK |
TUNES |
TUSHU |
VIDEO |
WANGGOU |
WOW |
YAMAXUN |
YOU |
YUN |
ZAPPOS |
ZERO |