Sage17 - 5:41 pm on Jan 11, 2012 (gmt 0)

Oh but there is another choice for Europeans and that is .eu.

.Asia is a complete failure, I think.

.EU never got the recognition that it deserved; hence diminished credibility.

Secondly both are regional extensions. I see no threat for .com at all. This kind of extensions will serve like corner shops compared to a supermarket.

To sum up, I don't see any credible alternative to .com for global businesses. Dot net is for those who cannot afford .com, not because they prefer .net. Dot org has a different purpose and hence is not in direct competition with .com in my opinion.

For local businesses, .com is becoming history (with the exception of US and a few other territories). I take the view that the introduction of city/state extensions will provide an alternative to .com for local businesses in the USA, .com will suffer a lot.

@jmccormac, thanks for the useful information about the .com's history in your first post. I agree with the explanation but I was not talking from historical perspective.