Religions and new gTLDs: 20169 in Review

This is the last 2019 new gTLD review from Jovenet Consulting and this one is about Religions.

Reminder
In 2019, we collected datas from each registries from specific industries and took a snapshot of their monthly domain name registration volumes, during 12 months. This is the last report from a list of 20 reviews and it is about Religions.

Religions in 2019
The subject is represented in terms of domain name extensions (domain names which ending is the one of a religion, for example, and different from ".com") and most organized religions are represented:

• I listed 20 domain name extensions with a relation to a religion.
• One was withdrawn: the .UMMAH new gTLD (note that this was before 2019).
• Three are International Domain Name extensions (IDNs).
• The .WED new gTLD now benefits from the ICANN Emergency Back-end Registry Operator program. It is a failed project and you hit www.nic.wed in your browser, you can learn more about this program. It still had 35 domain names created in December 2019.
• Two extensions are close one to the other: the .WEDDING and the .WED new gTLDs;
• Two were ended and .ISLAM is one of them: both were "not approved" by the ICANN;
• The Vatican applied for several extensions in multiple scripts: all mean "Catholic" but the .CATHOLIC new gTLD is the only one in use with 13 domain names created in December 2019. Other scripts are not used and have one domain name created only.
• Two are .BRANDs: the .CBN (The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc.) and .LDS (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) new gTLDs. If The CBN uses five domain names in total, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints created one domain name only since the extension was delegated in November 2014.
• Two generic new gTLDs grew in volume in 2019:
• The .CHURCH gained 900 domain name registrations in one year between January and December and ended the year with a total of 24,955 domain names;
• The .BIBLE new gTLD gained 200 and ended the year with 1,694 domains.
• Two generic new gTLDs lots registrations: the .WEDDING and .CHRISTMAS new gTLDs.
• The .FAITH new gTLD dropped from 53,096 registrations in January to ... 4,182 in December.
• The .ISMAILI (the religion) new gTLD had seven domain names created in December 2019 and is one, with the .CATHOLIC new gTLD, religion to effectively use its domain names.
• The .KOSHER and .MORMON had one single domain name creation in December 2019. Operators of these Registries applied for these TLDs...not to use them. Mormons could launch their directory I believe.
• Generally speaking, Christianity is best represented.

Read the full report here.

UPDATE: The .DEALER new gTLD

The official "TLD STARTUP INFORMATION" ICANN web page was just updated with fresh infos about the .DEALER new gTLD.

Official dates:

1. Sunrise Period: 29 Apr 2020 to 31 May 2020;
2. Trademark Claims Period: 8 Jun 2020 to 6 Sep 2020.

What the application says:

• The intended mission and purpose of the .DEALER gTLD is to serve as a trusted and intuitive namespace for the benefit of Dealer.com, its qualified subsidiaries’, affiliates’ customers and other Internet users. The .DEALER gTLD will deepen and broaden these entities’ relationships with those audiences.
• The .DEALER gTLD may be thought of most appropriately as a “Brand TLD” in that it serves primarily to provide a trusted, hierarchical and intuitive namespace for businesses that use Dealer.com’s broad range of online dealership products and services. Although ICANN has not specifically recognized a Brand TLD category, such as the .DEALER gTLD, in the current round, it is widely anticipated in the brand community that this will become a specialty subset of gTLDs. The .DEALER gTLD is planned to protect Dealer.com’s online presence and identity, expand its marketing and promotion efforts, provide a secure channel for online products and services, and offer a platform through which to consolidate many of the intellectual property activities of Dealer.com.
• Dealer.com intends to initially limit registration and use of domain names within the .DEALER gTLD to Dealer.com and its qualified partners and affiliates. This initial limited use will allow Dealer.com to establish .DEALERʹs operations and achieve full sustainability. This limited distribution coupled with the other requirements set forth in Specification 9 of the template Registry Agreement is intended to exempt Dealer.com from its annual Code of Conduct Compliance requirements.
• After the initial stages of operation, Dealer.com will evaluate whether opportunities exist to carry out the business strategy for the gTLD through expansion that continues the sustainable operations of the registry through fee-based registrations to parties other than Dealer.com and its qualified partners and affiliates.

There are 3 more stages to read in the application.

FAQs from the Registry website

• The FAQ says there are no Premium domain names but their renewal fee are higher;
• The MSRP for .dealer domains is $1,999 USD for the 1st year (good luck with that): I don't understand what MSRP stands for.
• There are no requirements to acquire a ".dealer" domain name: they can be registered by any individual or business, whether they are authorized domain dealers or not, and can be used for any purpose: this has nothing to do with what the application says and my understanding of this - note that this is not the first time - is that the application published by the ICANN was not updated after changes were made. 

Health and new gTLDs: 2019 in review

Many domain name extensions, "Generics" and "dotBrands" like, were created with a relation to Health. I listed 32 of them:

• Ten are dotBrands (also called .BRANDs):
• One of them was withdrawn before 2019: the .MTPC new gTLD. 
• The .HISAMITSU had 24 domain names created in December, that is six more than in January of the same year. It also means that the Trademark uses its personalized domain names.
• The .MERCKMSD still has not found a use of its domains: it had the same number of creations in December than in January: one. I don't understand such behavior: the TLD was delegated in 2017 and the company pays its providers and the ICANN not to use it. The exact same applies for the .MSD and .CLINIQUE new gTLDs.
• The .LUPIN dotBrand behaved strangely in terms of volumes. This is something that I noticed during 2019 with clients from backend registry Verisign: the variation from a month to the other could be very strange: it gained 10 creations to lose them the month after. This is not specific to the .LUPIN new gTLD but to many other dotBrands.
• The other "medical" dotBrands remaining are:
• the .TEVA Trademark;
• .LUNDBECK
• .AETNA
• .LILLY
• There is one IDN new gTLD: the .健康 ("healthy" in Chinese ).
• Two generic Top-Level Domains are similar: the .DENTAL and .DENTIST new gTLDs and three other are kind of close too: .HEALTH - .CARE and .HEALTHCARE.
• The generic .DDS new gTLD did stick to one single domain name creation from January to December 2019
• The bad news if for .DENTIST - .SURGERY - .DIET - .PHYSIO - .HIV and  .健康 new gTLDs: these generic Top-Level Domains had less domain names created in December than in January of the same year and none had more than 3,600 domains in total at the end of the year. These figures should normally have increased. Note that none lost too many registrations. In some other reports (from other industries), some Registries lost thousands of registrations from a month to the other. It is not the case here.
• The good news is for  all other generic TLDs, their progression curve has been constant:
• Four kept growing in volume month after month:
• .CARE gained an average of 200 domain name registrations per month and ended the year with a total of 23,561 creations. The same for .HEALTH which gained an average of 300 per month to end the year with a total of 12,583 creations. The two others are .CLINIC and .VET new gTLDs.
• Other Top-Level Domains had more domains names created in December than in January of the same year: .HEALTHCARE - .DENTAL - .VISION - .DOCTOR - .RIP - .REHAB - .HOSPITAL and .PHARMACY
• I like what the applications for .VET says: ".VET is a versatile string that is appealing to a broad and diverse group of registrants. This includes veterinary surgeons and physicians, and other medical practitioners devoted to the care of pets and animals. The term also refers to veterinary clinics, educational institutions, providers of veterinary products and supplies, veterinary science periodicals, and others operating in the veterinary field. The term VET also refers to persons with significant experience in an area o field, including those with military service records" 😆. The .VET new gTLD gained more than 1,000 domain names in one year and it seems that war veterans are welcome to use its domain names too.
• Believe it or not, I strongly believe that there is a hidden market for .RIP ("Requiescat in Pace" or "Rest in Peace". I am amazed that non major funeral group has considered taking advantage of this extension: such domain name ending offers hundreds of possibilities to leave a trace on Internet after one has died. The .RIP new gTLD gained 200 creations in one year.
• The .SKIN and .MED new gTLDs stagnated with respectively 8 and 3 registrations.

Read the full report here.

Coming: "RELIGIOUS new gTLD: 2019 in Review"? This will be the last review from 2019.

You probably noticed that there are no stats for 2020. In fact, I maintain them but I have decided not to publish them on a monthly basis. If you are interested in such publications, contact Jovenet Consulting.

New gTLDs for the Law: 2019 in Review

I listed eleven new Top-Level Domains (domain name extensions) which are connected to the law: it can be a profession or a generic term. In 2019, nothing extraordinary happened but here is what I noticed:

• One is a Trademark (a .BRAND new gTLD);
• One is a Chinese IDN (Internationalized domain name);
• The .ESQ new gTLD, operated by Google, was delegated in August 2014 and had two domain names created in January 2019, same as December.
• Four of these Registries have more than 10,000 domain name registrations and the number one had 27,324 domain names beginning of December 2019. Surprisingly, this Top-Level Domain is the .TRADEMARK new gTLD in its Chinese version: the .商标 (trademark) domain name extension.
• Two of these gTLDs exist in English and Spanish: .ATTORNEY and .ABOGADO. Note that "abogado" is the name of a fruit too.
• Three of these TLDs lost registrations during the year, it means that they had less registrations in December than in January of the same year: .LAWYER - .ATTORNEY and .ASSOCIATES
• Two had the exact same number of domain names during the entire year: no increase, no decrease.
• One of the TLDs that I like best is the .POLITIE new gTLD: is stands for "Police" in the Netherlands. It is the only one that I found from this kind: it's the only Police in the world to operate its own domain name extension. The application submitted to the ICANN says: "In addition, an Internet portal for the National Police will offer opportunities for partnerships with local stakeholders and provide a platform for local partners to share information concerning a particular incident or a structural problem within a neighborhood" but unfortunately, I was not able to locate that Internet portal. The .POLITIE new gTLD had eight domain names created as of December 2019.
• The .LEGAL and .LAW new gTLDs both gained an average of 600 domain names from January to December. Adoption is slow by end users but it is there.
• The .PARTNERS Top-Level Domain gained 1,000 domain names in one year.

Read the full report here.

Coming: "HEALTH new gTLD: 2019 in Review"

Richemont terminates 2 IDN new gTLDs

Richemont DNS Inc. received its Preliminary Determination by ICANN to Not Transition Operation of the gTLD. This document is dated 16 March 2020. On 17 February 2020, Richemont DNS Inc. notified the ICANN organization of its intent to terminate two new gTLDs:

1. The .xn--kpu716f (for .WATCHES in Chinese script) Registry Agreement which entered into on 22 December 2014, and;
2. The .xn--pbt977c (for .JEWELRY in Chinese script)Registry Agreement which also entered into on 22 December 2014.

I did not even know that .JEWELRY existed as a Chinese IDN new gTLD and if I had, I would have added it to the Luxury new gTLD Report which has been in place for two years.

Politics and new gTLDs: 2019 in review

I was first wondering if I would do a single publication for Politics and Legal new gTLDs but since I just learnt that am stuck home due to the Coronavirus' French containment - and it appears that it is going to last for the next 45 days - let's say that...I have time in front of me...

Political new gTLDs
I was already asked twice that question: "what do you use registrations and creations?" Well, this is a very good question because some domain names are not "bought" but they can be created by the registry. Some Premium domain names for example are created but they don't belong to a Registrant (yet) but to the Registry who tries to sell them.

I listed twelve Political new gTLDs and here is what I noticed in 2019:

• Two have more than 10,000 domain name created: .GURU has 55,680 and .BEST has 86,600. At the moment I am writing these lines, the .BEST new gTLD should approach the 100,000 creations;
• Three strings are very close one to the other: .VOTE - .VOTO and .VOTING can create lots of confusion to Registrants (domain name owners) who would want to build a website around the subject. I would personally register all three of them and use the .VOTE new gTLD since it is the word used in several languages. Two of these strings are stagnating and .VOTING lost half of its registrations since January 2019.
• Three of these TLDs have a negative meaning: .GRIPE - .FAIL and .EXPOSED. This is why I added them to this report. All have their registrations to decline in volume and all are below 5,000 domain names. I did not add the .SUCKS new gTLD. It was added to the Adult new gTLD report.
• Three other Top-Level Domains are seriously political and represent two political parties. None has more than 1,500 domain names created:
• .DEMOCRAT (volume of domain names has declined since January 2019);
• .REPUBLICAN (volume of domain names has declined since January 2019);
• .GOP (volume of domain names has stagnated since January 2019 for a total of 1,146 domain names in December).
• Five Top-Level Domains on a total of twelve had more registrations in December than in January. The .GIVES new gTLD is one of them with...1,774 domain names created in December 2019.
• The only political new gTLD to have "exploded numbers" is the .BEST new gTLD which started 2019 with four thousand registrations only and ended it with more than 80,000 !
• I wonder how long it takes for American political parties to clearly identify under a .DEMOCRAT or a .REPUBLICAN

Read the full report here.

Coming: "Legal new gTLD: 2019 in Review"

How SKY is improving the use of its .SKY new gTLD

I recently shared with Dawn Shackleton, Head of Online Brand Protection (Sky Technology) at Sky. Dawn is also Vice President of the Brand Registry Group so she often meets with other .BRAND new gTLD applicants. Dawn is also the person to talk to for the .SKY new gTLD.

The .SKY new gTLD

I had read about this job offer: a position related to the .SKY new gTLD and the SKY domain name portfolio (which must be an important one). I dug a little about .SKY and noticed that SKY is one of these rare .BRANDs to do something with its TLD. In France, we have the .ARTE new gTLD but I found no reference using a ".arte" domain name but redirections. I then asked her if anything new was coming and here is what I wrote down:

• The use of dotSKY is building month on month;
• Its primary use is for Corporate purposes and the growth of use stems from the decision to move Sky's corporate website over to skygroup.sky from being a sub domain of sky.com;
• The most recent website is productionservices.sky which showcases Sky first class TV production talent and studio facilities for hire;
• Their biggest success to date is the adoption of sub domains of contact.sky that they use where 3rd party agencies are sending bulk emails out to customers or internal Sky people. This gives assurance to people that the email they are receiving is authentic.

This is why you need your .BRAND

Did you read that sentence from Dawn: "This gives assurance to people that the email they are receiving is authentic". There are other reasons to apply for a .BRAND but this short sentence is one of the main reasons why Banks and other major Trademarks should acquire their own dotBrand domain name extension.

Being able to seal an email is one thing that a personalized domain name extension allows: ".com" or any other domain name extensions do not offer that option.

Two .BRAND updates

The TLD STARTUP INFORMATION page provided by the ICANN just updated its details for two dotBrand new gTLDs:

1. The .SELECT new gTLD:
1. Sunrise Period: 06 April 2020 to 06 May 2020;
2. Trademark Claims Period: 06 May 2020 to 05 August 2020;
3. About .SELECT: "The new .select gTLD will operate as a restricted registry, in which iSelect Ltd (iSelect) can create and control domain spaces that promote its brand identity and authenticity. The .select gTLD will be used by iSelect, its affiliates and partners to provide authoritative information and resources to consumers regarding its innovative online comparison and advisory services for purchasing household products in a way that promotes trust, accessibility and utility. Second and third level domains can then be utilised for specific product and service categories and for marketing purposes, with internet users assured of brand authenticity" (read the full application for more details).
2. The .COMPARE new gTLD:
1. Sunrise Period: 06 April 2020 to 06 May 2020;
2. Trademark Claims Period: 06 May 2020 to 05 August 2020;
3. About .COMPARE: "The new .compare gTLD will operate as a restricted registry, in which iSelect Ltd (iSelect) can create and control domain spaces that promote its brand identity and authenticity. In this regard,.compare will be used by iSelect, its affiliates and partners to provide authoritative information and resources to consumers regarding its innovative online comparison and advisory services for purchasing household products in a way that promotes trust, accessibility and utility. Second and third level domains can then be utilised for specific product and service categories and for marketing purposes, with internet users assured of brand authenticity" (read the full application for more details).

Lear more here.