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• On a total list of 60 applications submitted, 13 were withdrawn (11 were dotBrands plus .AUTOINSURANCE and .CARINSURANCE new gTLDs).
• Just noticed: the .RAM new gTLD now appears as "withdrawn" but the ICANN website says nothing about this (...)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"