New gTLDs for Luxury: 2019 in Review

Did you know that there is a domain name extension ending in ".rich" (for the rich I guess)? Well there is one and 100 domain name were registered end of December 2019. Fantastic isn't it? I went to my new Registrar GoDaddy - GoDaddy, which just acquired my actual Registrar Uniregistry - and I had a look at the price of a .RICH domain name: more than €3,000 a piece. That's a lot, but let's imagine that these 100 domain names were registered by real end users (Registrants); that makes €300,000 a year...not bad for 100 domain names only.

There are 28 domain name extensions belonging to Luxury and here is what I noticed for the year of 2019:

• Six extensions are for automobiles: .LIMO (for Limousine) is ont of them and the five other are luxury car trademarks (.LAMBORGHINI - .FERRARI - etc...);
• Twelve from that list are live .BRANDs (.OMEGA - .CHANEL - etc...);
• Four were withdrawn since the launching of the first ICANN new gTLD round and actually two of these were withdrawn in 2019: .CARTIER and .PIAGET
• The only IDN from that list is the Chinese version of .SHANGRILA (which also exists in ASCII);
• One extension has more than 1 million domain names created: .VIP and second from that list is .BEST with 86,000 domains created and third is .LUXE with 15,000. The rest is below 10,000 registrations.
• From that list, one extensions multiplied its registrations by 18 since January: the .BEST extensions is growing seriously.
• Three extensions had less registrations in December than January: .GOLD - .JEWELRY and .DIAMONDS (that is not so good).
• Two Registries maintained significant registration levels throughout 2019: .BEST and .LUXE (French for "luxury").
• One person registered its personalized Top-Level Domain: Richard Li created the .RICHARDLI new gTLD but still does not use it and the Registry sticks to one single domain name creation (since the launching of the ICANN new gTLD program).
• Most Luxury Trademarks, but in the automobile luxury industry, don't use their dotBrand extension: the .GUCCI is on top of that list with six domain names created in total. The rest is below.
• Some TLDs from that list are for sale, contact Jovenet Consulting if interested in making an offer.
• The .HILTON withdrew its application long ago and this move, well...I still don't understand it.

Read the full report here.

Coming: "New gTLDs for the Music: 2019 in Review"

New gTLDs for the Automobile Industry: 2019 in Review

The automobile industry is one of the most active in terms of .BRAND new gTLD usage. There were 50 dotBrand applications submitted to ICANN. Most are car manufacturer trademarks. In total, ICANN received 60 applications from this industry and here is what I noticed:

• On a total list of 60 applications submitted, 13 were withdrawn (11 were dotBrands plus .AUTOINSURANCE and .CARINSURANCE new gTLDs).
• Just noticed: the .RAM new gTLD now appears as "withdrawn" but the ICANN website says nothing about this (...)
• .TAXI is the Registry ranking first in domain name registrations with a total of 6,345. This is a generic TLD, which means that anyone can buy these domain names.
• Only three TLDs have more than 1,000 registrations and you already know which one is number one but the most interesting is that a .BRAND is one of them: the .AUDI new gTLD (from the same trademark) uses 1,380 domain names: that is a lot for a dotBrand.
• There are "twins": new gTLDs which exist in both their singular and plural version: .AUTO and .AUTOS - .CAR and .CARS. These are generic extensions (open to all) but neither has more than 500 registrations.
• Three dotBrand new gTLDs maintained their registration levels throughout 2019: .SEAT - .LAMBORGHINI and .ADAC
• This is what I am impressed with: five .BRAND new gTLDs use more than 100 domain names for their own activities: .AUDI (1,380 domain names) - .SEAT (688) - .MINI (655) - .LAMBORGHINI (226) - .BMW (124).
• If you like Bentleys, you can subscribe to the Bentley Magazine: www.magazine.bentley but I like Bugattis better so I guess that I'll visit its new showroom in Paris soon: https://newsroom.bugatti
• All singular and plural versions of a TLD had fewer registrations in December than January but the .AUTOS new gTLD which started the year with a low 63 registrations, ended it with a (low) 342. I have a very negative opinion about singular and plural versions of a TLD.
• For a reason that I still do not understand, there was an applicant for the .TIRES new gTLD: it had 1,167 registrations in January 2019 and ends the year with 989 (...).
• 11 dotBrand new gTLDs stuck to one single domain name registration since January 2019.
• On a total list of 60 application, one only was an IDN: .大众汽车 (it means "Volkswagon" in Chinese and belongs to Volkswagen).
• 33 new gTLDs had less than 10 domain name registrations at the end of December.
• The last ICANN new gTLD round revealed its applications in 2012 (June the 13th) and I still don't understand why - 10 years after - most car manufacturers still do not consider using city names for better visibility of their .BRAND.

Read the full report here.

Coming: "New gTLDs for Luxury: 2019 in Review"

New gTLDs for the Finance: 2019 in Review

There are domain name extensions (not "domain names") for the financial industry: I call them "Financial new gTLDs". These are operated by their respective Registry: for example, the ".FUND" new gTLD is also called a "the dotFund Registry" and it is the sole legal entity allowed to create domain names ending in ".fund" (instead of ".com") for accredited Registrars to sell them to the public. In 2019, I took snapshots of these registries' evolution at the end of each month and wrote down the numbers.

The 2019 tab from my report shows a lot of "red" (it means that domain name registration figures decrease) but this is because red is noticed first. Financial new gTLDs have lots of Trademarks as clients and many Banks are listed. For this reason, this report is one of the longest from my 20 monthly reports. This is what I noticed on a list of 87 financial new gTLDs:

1. I listed 51 dotBrand (".BRAND") new gTLDs:
1. the .DVAG new gTLD ended the year with more than 2,000 domain names registered!
2. Eight of these .BRANDs have more than 100 domain names created, this is a lot for a personal use!
3. Two have between 500 and 1,000 domains created:
1. .ALLFINANZ
2. .CREDITUNION
4. Five have between 100 and 500 domains created.
5. Eighteen have between 10 and 100.
6. Twelve did not register any new domain name since January 2019 and still have one registered.
7. The .EVERBANK new gTLD was withdrawn during the year. Note that some other financial new gTLDs were withdrawn but they still appear as "Delegated" on the official ICANN website (the .NADEX new gTLD for example).
8. One is an IDN new gTLD: .工行 (xn--estv75g).
9. Some dotBrands did not register more domain names in 2019:
1. .DISCOVER with 101 domain name created
2. .SHRIRAM (28)
3. .BARCLAYCARD (24)
4. .AMERICANEXPRESS (8)
5. .NETBANK (5)
6. .COMMBANK (4)
7. .CITI (4)
8. .HDFCBANK (2)
9. The TLDs with one single registration are not added here.
10. Two were withdrawn long ago: the .CASHBACKBONUS and .JPMORGANCHASE
2. Four new gTLDs exist in their singular AND plural version (but I think I already wrote that in the past):
1. .ACCOUNTANT and .ACCOUNTANTS
2. .LOAN and .LOANS
3. .MARKET and .MARKETS
4. .DEAL and .DEALS
3. Only 10 generic new gTLDs have more than 10,000 domain name registrations and number one on that list has just above 27,000.
4. Two have "unbelievable" numbers to read:
1. the .BID new gTLD had 209,700 registrations in January. It ends the year with less than 28,000.
2. the .LOAN new gTLD had... 2,806,800 (yes: two million) in January. It ends the year with a little more than 24,000.
5. Only one generic Top-Level Domain maintained its registration level from January to December: the .TAX new gTLD which ended the year with 7,450 registrations. Oh... The .TRUST new gTLD registered one more domain name during the year and went from 51 to 52 registrations.

Read the full report here.

Coming: "New gTLDs for the Automobile and Cars: 2019 in Review"

New gTLDs for Sports: 2019 in Review

Are end users (domain name registrants) using TLDs with sport names? Well kind of...but general speaking, "Sports" new gTLDs have not revealed their potential in 2019. Globally speaking, it looks like very few have noticed their existence. This is what I noticed over 2019:

• Of the 29 new gTLDs dedicated to sports:
• 21 are either community or generic ones (that anyone can buy).
• 8 are dotBrands (domain name extensions operated by Trademarks for their own use).
• Five new gTLDs ended the year with between 10,000 and 20,000 domain names. The TLDs in order are:
• .RUN with 19,289 domain name creations (December 2019).
• .BIKE
• .YOGA
• .FITNESS
• .GOLF with 10,148 creations (December 2019).
• .YOGA and .GOLF surpassed 10,000 domain name registrations in 2019.
• These TLDs ended the year with fewer registrations in December than January:
• .BIKE
• .FOOTBALL (!)
• .RACING
• .SOCCER
• .FUTBOL ("football" in Spanish)
• .CRICKET
• These TLDs maintained their registration levels (i.e no declines) throughout 2019:
• .YOGA
• .SPORT
• .SURF
• .AFL (dotBrand)
• .XBOX (dotBrand)
• 12 extensions are below 1,000 registrations but most are dotBrands, except these four generic ones:
• .RODEO
• .RUGBY
• .BASKETBALL
• .BASEBALL
• Two dotBrands remained at one single registration throughout the year:
• .NIKE
• .NBA
• Playstation does not seem to care about new gTLDs but Xbox does with 57 .XBOX domains registered in December.
• The .MLB new gTLD held to the same number of registrations all year: 33
• Something wrong clearly happened in 2019 with these Registries:
• .RACING started the year with 67,458 registrations and ended December with 3,523 domain names in total.
• .CRICKET started with 20,772 and ended with 1,561 creations.

Read the full report here.

Coming: "New gTLDs for Finance: 2019 in Review"

Sunrise Details updated for .BOT new gTLD

Some details from the .BOT Sunrise Period were just updated:

• Trademark Claims Period: 04 November 2020 to 03 February 2021;
• Limited Registration Period: LRP 2 - 5 Dec 2017 to 3 Nov 2020.

Reminder about the mission of the .BOT registry:

• To provide a unique and dedicated platform while simultaneously protecting the integrity of Amazon’s brand and reputation.
• The .BOT registry will:
• Offer a stable and secure foundation for online communication and interaction.
• Provide a platform for innovation.

Learn more about the update here.

New gTLDs for Companies: 2019 in Review

When writing my reports, I often wonder if should add an "s" to my titles and write thinks like "Companies new gTLDs: 2019 in Review", instead of what you actually read; but since I am French and French are always right, I'll probably keep writing my titles that way until someone corrects me.

By the way, what I qualify of "domain name extensions for companies" are the extensions in which I believe that companies should secure their domain name with.

Have new extensions for companies been a success in 2019?
MY first answer is yes because many have seen their registration figures increase. I listed 25 of these new gTLDs and here is what I noticed for the year of 2019 globally:

• 2 are legacy TLDs (old domain name extensions);
• 4 are Chinese IDNs (international domain name extensions);
• 1 is "coming" : the .WEB new gTLD
• 1 was delegated in December 2015, was acquired by a third party then, but still has one single domain name registration: it is the .CONTACT new gTLD, expected to launch soon...for a few years now.
• 3 extensions exist in 2 versions:
• .GROUP and .集团 (corporate group);
• .WORLD and .世界 (world);
• .COMPANY and .公司 (company).
• The .SITE new gTLD has the largest number of domains created and doubled that number between January and December 2019 from one to two million.
• 2 extensions have more than 1 million domain names registered: the .SITE and .ONLINE new gTLDs;
• 5 extensions have between 100,000 and one million domains registered;
• Some extensions clearly "exploded" and more than tripled their initial numbers from January 2019. The extensions concerned are:
• the .BUZZ new gTLD: from 9,500 to 424,640 registrations in one year;
• the .BEST new gTLD: from 4,745 to 86,684 registrations;
• the .PAGE new gTLD (by Google): from 8,544 to 51,370 registrations.
• Five extensions have less registrations in December than when they started the year:
• .COMPANY
• .公司 (company)
• .CEO
• .世界 (world)
• .PRO (legacy TLD)
• Some extensions did stagnate during the hole year;
• Five extensions kept increasing their domain name registrations one month after the other with no interruption.

Read the full report here.

Coming: "New gTLDs for Sports: 2019 in Review"

City new gTLDs: 2019 in Review

I believe that every business should acquire its name in the city where it resides (when the TLD exists) and setup a page just for this: it makes sense to provide that information to the public and let it be indexed; but it also benefits the Search Engine Optimization of the business's existing front page. A link back is always good (as long as it is not copy-paste content). Also, for a company which business is purely local, such domain name extension will always offer more precision than a ".com"...for obvious reasons.

Have City Name extensions been a success in 2019?
On my list of 45 domain name extensions, to which I included 2 generic TLDs which are not city names, here is what I noticed in 2019:

• The 2 generic domain names I included to my list are .TOWN and .CITY : they are no city names but I considered that they should be included in my list:
• The .CITY new gTLD stagnated from January 2019 and even lost a few registrations in December: it ended the year with 30,962 domain names registered in total.
• The .TOWN new gTLD gained registrations but and ended the year with 4,194 domain names.
• .TOURS and .SPA which are not City Names were included too because they represent two famous cities. The .SPA new gTLD has no registrations yet since it was delegated recently and .TOURS gained a small 800 registrations from January to December: not because the French city of Tours attracted Registrants but because "tours" has another meaning in English.
• The .TOKYO is the only extension to have more than 100,000 domain names created. Its follower, the .NYC new gTLD ends the year with 67,220 domain names.
• 16 extensions have more than 10,000 domain names created. The last one of them on the list is .COLOGNE which ends the year with 10,432 domain names. The first one is .TOKYO.
• Just 3 extensions kept gaining registrations one month after the other but such numbers are not significant since they are below 2,500. The cities concerned are (in the order):
• The .MADRID new gTLD which ends the year with 2,156 domain names;
• The .KYOTO ends the year with 898;
• The .STOCKHOLM ends with 80 domains.
• Some extensions kept loosing registrations from January:
• .AMSTERDAM (26,385 creations in December);
• .VEGAS (15,092);
• .YOKOHAMA (4,412).
• 5 extensions had no registrations from January to December:
• .DUBAI stick to 5 domain names;
• .BCN - .HELSINKY - .BUDAPEST and .DOHA (still listed as "Delegated") stick to one single domain name registration.
• Some extensions have a twin sister:
• Barcelona has .BARCELONA and .BCN
• Moscow has .MOSCOW and its IDN, the .МОСКВА new gTLD;
• Cologne has .COLOGNE and .KOELN
• Istanbul has .ISTANBUL and .IST
• 11 extensions are below the 1,000 domain name registrations. The first one of them is the .RIO new gTLD with 910 domain names created.

Read the full report here.

Coming: "New gTLDs for Companies: 2019 in Review"

Sunrise Period coming for .GAY new gTLD

There's an official update from the ICANN on the .GAY new gTLD application: the Sunrise Period was announced on the ICANN website:

WHAT:
What the application says:

Top Level Design, LLC’s mission is to create a dedicated space in the root zone for those involved in the various aspects of gay culture. We recognize the size and diversity of the individuals identifying as LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer and Questioning) and want to welcome everyone underneath a succinct and widely understood top-level domain. Labels for sexual and gender identities are vast and complex, and it is worth noting that there is merit to implementing .lesbian, .bisexual, .trans, .queer, and .lgbtq, but even then those individuals that don’t fit cleanly into the confines of a single identity category are not represented in these root-level distinctions. There are plenty of people that defy distinct labeling, and identify themselves through fluid notions of gender and sexuality. This is precisely why we at Top Level Design, LLC believe that a .gay TLD could never be delegated through a Community Priority application, especially if it claims to represent the entirety of the LGBTQ community. Just because it is often easiest to try to fit others’ gender and sexual orientations into socially constructed boxes, whether heterosexual or cisgender or LGBTQ, does not mean that the minority who participate in multiple self-definitions at any one time can be ignored, or that we have the right to create labels for them. This must be kept in mind as the ICANN community decides how to proceed with a .gay TLD, especially in the case of a Community Application that proclaims the support of the entire LGBTQ community.

The description/purpose of the .GAY new gTLD is rather long so I'd suggest to complete its reading here (PDF download) and go to "18A. Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD".

WHEN:
The Sunrise Period:

• Starts on 10 February 2020;
• Ends on 31 March 2020.

There are 2 other periods:

1. Trademark Claims (11 May 2020 - 10 August 2020);
2. Limited Registration Period also called "Sunrise 2" (6 April 2020 - 6 May 2020).

These dates are announced on the ICANN website but could be modified.