A blog about New gTLDs and dotBrands (.BRANDs) from the ICANN new gTLD program. You can subscribe to The gTLD Club's Newsletter.
Saturday, December 30, 2023
New gTLD reports: that's 12 months!
Friday, December 1, 2023
New generic Top-Level Domains: a few things I noticed in November 2023
In November 2023, some new generic Top-Level Domains "changed status", here is what I noticed:
- There is an Independent Review Process which is dated 9 June 2019: it is the one about .GCC. The panel was confirmed seven months after it was initiated and as of today: "No hearings are currently scheduled" (more here).
- Five Top-Level Domains (new domain name extensions) were revoked in November and one was transferred. The revoked TLDs are:
- the .VOLKSWAGEN new gTLD
- .ETISALAT
- .اتصالات
- .ROCHER
- .KINDER
- the .PROPERTY Top-Level Domain was transferred.
- Google Registry launches new .MEME top-level domain (more here).
- Funny: the .CFD new gTLD is listed in the Registries' Top 10 with more than a million domain names created (more here).
- Comments on Preliminary Determination were opened for two Top-Level Domains to be terminated (more here):
- .XFINITY
- .COMCAST
- The TLD Startup information page from the ICANN (that actually very few understand) was updated on seven TLDs (more here):
- the .BOFA Top-Level Domain
- .AEG
- .BLOOMBERG
- .PICTET
- .TATOO
- .FOOD
- .DIY ("do it yourself")
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
ICANN new gTLDs: a website full of errors
I noticed something new today about the .FOOD Registry which was last updated on November the 23rd (today). By the way, .FOOD appears as a .BRAND Top-Level Domain (...). What I misunderstand here is what the update is about? There is nothing more but this date and a link which points to nothing more. Some fields are not even filled in: "Trademark Claims Period: to..."
The "Detailed information for food" (the orange button to click onto) points to another page where no more information is found but a broken link to a "URL of Registrars" that seems to be down.
Very good too, the Name from Registry information is different from the one advertised on the link the Registry URL points to.
From what I have learnt, it is precisely the same kind of methods spammers and scammers use to hide and I wish the ICANN checked the information before publishing. I trust the ICANN but their website is turning to some kind of giant database where not much is double checked before publication...for new gTLDs at least.
Come on ICANN, you can do better than this.
Monday, October 30, 2023
New gTLDS from Microsoft and Amazon
The ICANN TLD Startup information page was just updated with information from Microsoft and Amazon. Unfortunately, the teal in charge of setting up this page does not mention what the updates are until one is able to dig on the ICANN website to find the information. Apparently, not much is going on for the .BRAND Top-Level Domains listed from Microsoft but two TLDs from Amazon updated their Trademark claims periods.
Microsoft new gTLD updates:
- .AZURE
- .BING
- .HOTMAIL
- .MICROSOFT
- .WINDOWS
- .XBOX
Amazon new gTLD updates:
- “.書籍” is a TLD in Japanese language characters that mean “book” in English (surprisingly, it is a Chinese language character too).
- “.ファッション” is a TLD in Japanese language characters that mean “fashion” in English.
Saturday, October 21, 2023
New gTLD: a few things I noticed in October 2023
- Amendment to .ONE new gTLD.
- Renewal notice for .BERLIN new gTLD.
- Revocation Report for .CITYEATS
- Revocation Report for .FRONTDOOR
- .BOT new gTLD, Trademark Claims Period: 30 October 2023 to 30 January 2024.
- The .DESI new gTLD was transferred to a proposed Emergency Back-End Registry Operator Program - ICANN.
- The .FLICKR new gTLD was granted the status of ".BRAND". If the date does not exactly match, it is because the info was updated laitely.
- The .CEO new gTLD was acquired by a third party.
- The GAP Trademark; just dropped 2 dotBrand new gTLDs:
- the .BANAREPUBLIC Top-Level Domain and,
- the .OLDNAVY Top-Level Domain.
- The .SCA new gTLD was terminated.
Friday, October 13, 2023
The .CEO new gTLD was just acquired, let's keep an eye on this one
As announced in this press release, the .XYZ Registry just acquired another Top-Level Domain, the .CEO new gTLD.
If this information is of interest for very few, what is interesting here is that .XYZ and its team can be good at developing registries: the .XYZ domain name extension counts 3,678,385 domain names created and it is the new gTLD with the highest volume of domain names created since the first round of the ICANN news gTLD program in 2012.The .CEO Top-Level domain is a niche TLD dedicated to Chief Executive Officers "only" and counts 3,768 domain names today (Octover the 13th, 2023). Let's have a look at this publication in exactly 6 months to check if the extensions kept developing or not.
Below a screenshot from ntldstats.com with numbers dated October the 13th 2023:
Saturday, September 30, 2023
New gTLD Reports were just updated (September 2023)
Reminder, we recently added two reports for two types of new gTLD applications: Community and Geographic.
In regard to the situation on social network Twitter (now "X") and the strange beahvior of its leader about the russian war against Ukraine and its hardly promoted political opinions, we are (probably) moving our announcements to Bluesky so don't be surprised to click on links pointing to this new social media.Wednesday, September 6, 2023
New gTLDs are on Bluesky
We just joined the new App entitled Bluesky where we will probably be migrating from Twitter, (now called "X"). Note that we will keep posting on Twitter since this move is new and the app is not yet officially opened : it requires a invitation code to join.
Once you have joined (and once you have joined only), you can use: gtld.bsky.social and add us. If you have not joined, it will probably take you to the frontpage of Bluesky.
The reason for this move is simple:
- I, Jean Guillon, don't like the way Elon Musk communicates on Twitter because he owns the application: I do not accept his speach on Ukraine. What is going on right now is not acceptable. I like Teslas though.
- Twitter is becoming a spam machine, it happens more and more that I am (automatically?) retweeted by bots dealing with things that have absolutely nothing to do with new gTLDs: accounts from naked women for example. This is annoying.
Also, the non-consensual nudity policy is too hypocritical for me. I extracted this from this policy "Pornography and other forms of consensually produced adult content are allowed on Twitter, provided that this media is marked as sensitive. Doing so provides people who may not want to see this type of content with a warning that they will need to acknowledge before viewing your media". This is pure crap. I have stopped reporting accounts, it is useless and nothing changes.
This is not the kind of tool I want to use for my profession.
Wednesday, August 30, 2023
AUGUST 2023: new gTLDs reports were just updated
Wednesday, August 23, 2023
Registries: where is the Holy Grail?
Traditional methods:
- The network of accredited Registrars (when Registrars want them as a TLD to sell),
- Premium domain names
- Press Release
- Auto promotion in the online press
- Give away for one year
- Promotion at Registrars
- There are probably other ways but I try to be fast in my publications.
New and innovative methods:
- I believe Registries can sell more and meet with adoption when they already have a network willing to buy "now" (and this information should be validated prior to creating the new gTLD application). It is precicsly what community TLDs try to achieve but numbers don't lie and - with experience - I believe this method would be much more efficient if community applications were just generic applications.
- Poiting the Registry DNS to a CMS (Content Management System).
- It is what the .TEL Registry attempted to do prior to the first Round of the ICANN new gTLD program in 2007. They succeeded and then failed. They were settlers but I was a serious fan of .TEL and kept using and renewing mine until Round 1 of new gTLDs in 2010. The .TEL was a directory solution which required to buy a domain name, use a second login and password to access its CMS, which then required to set up the directory: quite complex at the time but very innovative and exciting for the owner.
- It is what the .BEST Registry (participant in Round of new gTLDs) is achieving right now after acquiring the TLD from its initial owner. The domain name is then automatically set-up when downloading the APP onto your mobile: https://app.best/. By the way, registrations are increasing in 2023.
- Using a .BRAND to offer a service using a CMS: the method here is quite simple, it requires to sell a service, not a domain name. If this method does not benefit from the network of accredited Registrars, it kills all other problems met by the .TEL Registry in 2007: one login and one password "only" and operating costs reduced. Want to check for an example?
Tuesday, August 15, 2023
New gTLDs: "Reminder"
- ICANN: "...we anticipate that the AGB will be finalized in May 2025, which enables the application round to open in Q2 2026 (with the goal of April 2026). Any delays to the timeline of the Policy Implementation work stream will cause delays to the opening of the round" (source).
- The .MUSIC Sunrise Period starts 11 September 2023 to 15 November 2023 (source).
- It is over for Jean Lassalle, Former Deputy in the National Assembly of France, to complain about the .LASALLE new gTLD, the Trademark Claims Period eneded on Jul 2023 (source). Note that this is a joke.
- On the .HOTEL Independent Review Process (IRP) documents, there is something new dated July 2023 but good luck with this reading (source).
- The .SPORT new gTLD was transferred in July (source).
Monday, July 31, 2023
July new gTLD Reports:
Thursday, May 11, 2023
Google chose a ".com" again, instead of its ".GOOGLE" dotBrand new gTLD.
Google just launched its Artificial Intelligence engine and it is named "Bard". Surprisingly, Google decided to use a third level domain from its Google.com to launch this new service when it could have used its own .BRAND Top-Level Domain.
Bard can be tried at https://bard.google.com
What about Bard.google?
Friday, May 5, 2023
New gTLDs: so, what happened in April 2023?
A few things that I noticed, checking the real new gTLD numbers, in the end of April 2023:
- In BRANDS, the .DVAG Top-Level Domain dropped 1400 second level domain names.
- In FINANCE (rhe report), the .CREDIT Top-Level Domain keeps growing (the .LOAN too).
- I can't talk about the one I like the most in the COMPANY new gTLD report but I can say that I don't believe that the figures from .ONLINE are real (not fake).
- My eye focussed on the .VOTO new gTLD in POLITICS (...)
- In SPORT, it is the .SPORT new gTLD I keep an eye on with the hope that they reconsider their tules one day. This TLD is the one for sport worldwide and has lesss than 10,000 names created. This number should be 100,000 at least.
- The CITY report is a really boring one as all numbers stagnate and one only has more than 100,000 creations (the .TOKYO new gTLD). The thing with cities is that in many cases, the cities themselves don't even use them for their own service: in Paris for example, the first one that comes to my lind is www.mairie.paris. Cities should show the example.
- In LUXURY, .YACHTS and .VIP keep growing but .WHOSWHO is a question mark to me: I don't understand where such a project is going after 9 years with less than 1000 second level domains created.
- In LAW, the .ESQ new gTLD (by Google) just launched: let's see where this is going.
- In CARS, the .AUTOS new gTLD, which cohabits with .AUTO, grows too (surprisingly).
- In HEALTH, the .SKIN new gTLD grows a lot too.
- In MUSIC, the .LIVE new gTLD grows A LOT but the one we are ALL looking at is .MUSIC which...has launched.
- In CATERING, both .BAR and .REST new gTLDs don't do good and dive.
- In PHOTOGRAPHY, both .PICS and .STUDIO keep growing for good.
- In the FRENCH APPLICATIONS, I am sad that www.saucisse.alsace has not launched yet ;-)
- In COLOR, only .GREEN has grown since January 2023.
- In ALCOHOL: could .VIN catch up with .WINE ? Looks like.
- In ADULTS, only the ugly .WTF performs well.
- .ABARTH
- .ALPHAROMEO
- .FIAT
- .MASERATI
- .LANCIA
- .LINDE
- .MACYS
- .NEXUS
- .LOFT
A few things I noticed on March new gTLD stats
- On the FINANCE report, I am surprised to see a constant increason on .BET and .BID new gTLDs: I wonder who buys these.
- On .BRANDS new gTLDs, many Trademarks have now more than 10 domain names created. Note that this was absolutely not the case in the early beginning of the new gTLD program. The .DVAG is to me an excellent demonstration of how a .BRAND new gTLD should be.
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Creating a new gTLD? Why choosing a Retail Registrar as your provider makes sense!
To avoid being listed next to the 760 existing extensions at most Registrars, here are a few tips I would do when choosing my service provider prior to launching a new Registry in the next round of the ICANN new gTLD program:
- Some providers offer the full range of services: writing of the application (knowledge with legal and financial aspect of the procedure), mandatory back end registry provider (including other services such as Escrow solution...) and existing retail registrar(s). Why then choose different providers if one can make it all? They are not many on the internatinal market but they exist and are probably the ones with the best knowledge and offer.
- Some retail Registrars now own their own back end registry solution provider (this did not exist in the first round of the ICANN new gTLD program): since retail registrars have no obligation to promote a TLD instead of another, negotiating your new gTLD’s presence at your retail Registrar’s provider makes sense instead of choosing a provider who cannot offer such a powerful tool. Remember two things:
- Your objective is to sell domain names.
- Your provider wants you as a client: your negotiation capacity is strong.
- Some retail Registrars sell lots of domain names worldwide and you want to be seen on their front page (and not listed on their list of hundreds of other suggested extensions). If your TLD is generic enough to interest them, negotiating visibility or marketing can make a strong difference in the success of your project.
- Your chosen provider does not necessarily have to be a back end Registry provider owning a Retail Registrar. If he is a retail Registrar with an offer and the price offered to create your TLD is interesting enough, he can be a partner of choice for the success of your project. What matters is his capacity to give visibility to your extension when it launches.
- Presence, promotion and visibility at the retail Registrar are important in the negotiation to become his client (or not) but direct and repeated promotion at his clients by email or through its newsletter can also be an advantage. Remember that combined marketing makes the both of you earn money. If your new gTLD provider doesn't care about your visibility as a partner, then...investigate the contract he wants you to sign: a partner who doesn't care about the success of yout project is not a good partner. A new gTLD must develop and you don't get into such an expensive project to find out that you have had less than 10.000 domains sold after 10 years of existence, or do you?
- Be careful with announcements to your partner’s clients: retail Registrars have the capacity to seriously promote your extension at their clients, and this repeatedly. Corporate registrars don’t do such promotions, they often just “announce”.
- Be careful with too much “blabla” when it comes to selecting a provider, the legal, technical and financial knowledge have now propagated enough and a provider must be able to answer all questions and the better when he has experience but what really matters is the project:
- Developing a Registry and selling domain names or,
- Using the full potential of a .BRAND extension (not dedicated to selling domain names).
- A capacity to fill in my application until validation at the ICANN, with the necessary knowledge would something unexpected happen (objection, auction...);
- A backend registry solution provider;
- A famous retail Registrar.
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Round 2 of ICANN new gTLDs will start no later than 1 August 2023
"As part of the resolution, the Board directed ICANN organization (org) to deliver a comprehensive implementation plan, including a work plan, information for the infrastructure design, timelines, and anticipated resource requirements to achieve the necessary work to open the next round of gTLDs no later than 1 August 2023".
What does it mean?
Well, first, it certainly does not mean that this date will let new gTLD service providers submit their client's application(s). One would even be tempted to think that this is the publication's date of the awaited Applicant Guidebook so service providers clearly know what to tell their clients; but wait...nope...this is not what it means since deliverable 4 says something which ends with : "...that will impact the next Applicant Guidebook".Still unclear
- a methodology: the next new gTLD Applicant Guidebook (also called "AGB"),
- an official date to submit their application.
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
New gTLD reports for January 2023 were just updated
- New gTLDs for TRADEMARKS, also called ".BRANDs" or dotBrands (ie: ".audi")
- New gTLDs for POLITICS (ie: ".vote")
- New gTLDs for LUXURY (ie: ".yachts")
- New gTLDs for MUSIC community (ie: ".band")
- New gTLDs for CATERING and CULINARY (ie: ".kitchen")
- New gTLDs for PHOTOGRAPHY (ie: ".photos")
- New gTLDs for CITY names (ie: ".london")
- New gTLDs for COMPANIES (ie: ".email")
- New gTLDs for LAW (ie: ".legal")
- New gTLDs for FINANCE (ie: ".capital")
- New gTLDs for COLOR (ie: ".green")
- New gTLDs for SPORT (ie: ".hockey")
- New gTLDs for ALCOHOL (ie: ".vodka")
- New gTLDs for REAL ESTATE (ie: ".house")
- New gTLDs for RELIGION (ie: ".catholic")
- New gTLDs for CARS (ie: ".autos")
- New gTLDs for HEALTH (ie: ".hospital")
- New gTLDs for ADULTS (ie: ".porn")
- FRENCH new gTLD applications (ie: ".leclerc")
- Singular VS Plural new gTLDs (ie: ".deal" and ".deals")
Sunday, January 8, 2023
786 .BRAND domains were created in 2022
New .BRAND domain name creations kept increasing since January 2022:
- January 2022: 18,289
- February 2022: 18,320 (+31)
- March 2022: 18,375 (+55)
- April 2022: 18,449 (+74)
- May 2022: 18,674 (+225)
- June 2022: 18,741 (+67)
- July 2022: 18,833 (+92)
- August 2022: 18,894 (+61)
- September 2022: 19,036 (+142)
- October 2022: 19,067 (+31)
- November 2022: 19,025 (-42)
- December 2022: 19,075 (+50)