Lastminute spurns new domain names

Travel and ecommerce site Lastminute.com says it sees no real business benefit in investing in new domain suffixes, and is only doing so to protect its brand.

Speaking exclusively to Computing, Lastminute's managing director, Helen Baker, said the company has invested heavily in building its brand, and the new range of suffixes will do little to bolster its online presence.

"It's diversionary, it's not really going to impact our business. We buy them [domain suffixes] to make sure no-one else is going to use them," she said.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) released seven new domain names in May this year. Two of the new domains, .biz and .info, are set to go live in the next six weeks, closely followed by .name.

The organisation, which controls the internet naming system, claimed the new additions would boost ebusiness by broadening the range of available options.

But Baker says there were more than 1200 web addresses registered with 'Lastminute' in the title, even before the new suffixes were released.

"Where is it going to stop? Sometimes we end up having to buy names just to make sure that no-one holds us to ransom," she said.

She believes that the advertising slump has led some content providers to seek Lastminute's expertise in online transactions.

"If there is tightening of the belt as far as advertising in concerned, that is a big opportunity for us. Some of the people we are talking to about adding transactional capabilities to their site may not have had such open ears a year ago when they were getting strong advertising through," she said.

Baker confirms that the company has about £60m in cash reserves which, with a current burn rate of about £3m a month, gives it a few months' grace if it fails to reach its stated target of achieving profitability in a year's time.

But she adds that the company is actively seeking to drive down the burn rate.