The worlds most obvious domain name won't be needed for hardcore Trek fans. Certainly not. But this is Hollywood, and for this movie to be profitable (and cover it's large budget), it has to attract people to the theathers. Sure, your die hard Trekkies are a guarantee to see the movie, plus general sci-fi fans will probably check it out as well. But to really make money, this movie has to pull in Joe-schmoe movie goer, and that's a whole different type of ad campaign. These are the type of people who couldn't tell you how many different star trek series have been on the air, who need the easy domain name. If the website didn't instantly provide links to trailers and other staples of generic movie websites, it could potentially lead to said user not going to see the movie.
While there could be many reasons why startrek.com got shut down, this one would not surprise me in the least.
From a purely business standpoint, this makes sense: Why pay a staff to maintain a site that only the hard core fans pay attention to, when they are going to see your new movie (which is all that's in the works for the franchise) regardless?
Use the domain for the new movie, with which hopefully new fans will come to the franchise, and thus, more profit.
I'm not saying that's the only reason the site is being shut down, but it wouldn't be a stretch to label it a contributing factor.
Slashdot Mirror
The worlds most obvious domain name won't be needed for hardcore Trek fans. Certainly not. But this is Hollywood, and for this movie to be profitable (and cover it's large budget), it has to attract people to the theathers. Sure, your die hard Trekkies are a guarantee to see the movie, plus general sci-fi fans will probably check it out as well. But to really make money, this movie has to pull in Joe-schmoe movie goer, and that's a whole different type of ad campaign. These are the type of people who couldn't tell you how many different star trek series have been on the air, who need the easy domain name. If the website didn't instantly provide links to trailers and other staples of generic movie websites, it could potentially lead to said user not going to see the movie.
While there could be many reasons why startrek.com got shut down, this one would not surprise me in the least.
From a purely business standpoint, this makes sense: Why pay a staff to maintain a site that only the hard core fans pay attention to, when they are going to see your new movie (which is all that's in the works for the franchise) regardless?
Use the domain for the new movie, with which hopefully new fans will come to the franchise, and thus, more profit.
I'm not saying that's the only reason the site is being shut down, but it wouldn't be a stretch to label it a contributing factor.