Thursday, March 26, 2020

Religions and new gTLDs: 2019 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  • One was withdrawn: the .UMMAH new gTLD (note that this was before 2019).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.

.BRAND new gTLD Reports are updated once a month: CLICK HERE !