Backend Registries don't speak French

One might be surprised by such title but as a person involved in creating and promoting dotBrands and other generic new gTLDs, there are a few things that I see...and one that is now obvious is that Backend Registries don't speak French (but a very few).

Creating a new domain name extension requires to think upfront about a strategy but also...about service providers. The Backend Registry is a mandatory service provider when creating a new Top-Level Domain but unfortunately, the offer is limited in France because of our language: Backend Registries don't offer French as a language.

No French? You don't exist

There is a demand in France and interested parties in creating their domain name extension usually proceed through their accredited Registrar, sometimes their Law Firm and sometimes...directly through the Backend Registry provider. I usually talk to the Backend Registry first and fortunately for me, I speak, write and read English.

I like to go straight to the point and just like everyone in business, I like to limit the number of subcontractors. In more simple word, if I had the project to create a new gTLD, I would talk directly to the appropriate service provider and to me, that provider is the Backend Registry: the better when he  has a presence in your country or speaks your language.

I will speak french for you

There are coming Backend Registries (preparing their offer for the next round) and existing Backends; but from my Top10 list, one website offers French only and I believe that this is potential lost business for the others because addressing to one in his language breaks the first barrier to business. 

As a new gTLD Consultant based in Paris, I will offer that service to introduce your Backend Registry offer to French, contact me and will explain how.

Innovation comes with the .RIP new gTLD

The first time that I heard about the .RIP new gTLD (which stands to me for "Requiescat In Pace" or "Rest In Peace"), I first thought: who's mind is tortured enough to invest money in creating such a new domain name extension and...WHO ON EARTH is going to buy domain names ending in ".rip" ?

My way of thinking

The thing with new gTLD is that it take time to adapt to a new domain name extension: end users - who absolutely don't care about domain names (but professionals) - can only be surprised to read a new domain name for the first time, and when it does not look "standard", one can doubt. I imagine one can doubt when it reads a domain name ending in ".rip".

Thinking twice

Many have gone through the terrible experience to go to the cemetery and bury a loved one. I have and I really loved that person. When going through such a terrible experience, some need to go forward and leave past behind, but some need to return to the cemetery to spend a moment thinking, in front of the grave. It is my case. This is where I believe the .RIP new gTLD makes sense to people like me.

The .RIP new gTLD

If "rip" can have a negative meaning, it can have a very positive one too and that's what I realized a long ago after listening to so many people say : "wow, this TLS is gloomy".

The truth is that the .RIP new gTLD answers one question that the funeral industry has not yet imagined: what is that useful service I could sell to that person who wants to visit his loved one's grave when the distance to the cemetery is too far away? I answered that question.  

"Do it yourself"

A few years ago I though that the funeral industry would jump on that idea and the .RIP Registry would become a success. I also thought that if I was in that business, I would build a business on this. Recently, I checked the stats from the .RIP new gTLD and noticed a small 4,000 something domain name registrations so I understood that no funeral business found a way to use these tool as  a service they could sell.

A few weeks ago I thought about it again and while I had time to spend at home, I realized that such a service should not be so difficult to created: very hard to market and sell but not so difficult to build online, so it is wad I did.

Tombe.rip

The need was a product, an presentation of that product and a way to buy that product. It is what I created on Tombe.rip : a service to buy a grave for the loved one...on Internet. This service is available in French right now.

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.

The .EVERBANK new gTLD is terminated

This is no surprise since EVERBANK changed name between the moment its application was validated by the ICANN on May the 15th 2014 (signature of its Registry agreement with the ICANN) and June 12 in 2017, when TIAA, "announced the completion of its acquisition of EverBank Financial Corp and its wholly owned subsidiary EverBank. The transaction was originally announced August 8, 2016. On June 4, 2018 TIAA announced the launch of TIAA Bank, bringing together EverBank and TIAA Direct under a new name and brand" (source Wikipedia).

Notices of Termination and Status of gTLD

• Date of Termination Notice: 4 June 2019;
• gTLD (Registry Operator): .everbank (EverBank);
• Type of Termination: Termination by Registry Operator Section 4.4(b);
• Comments on Preliminary Determination:
• Open Date: 13 August 2019;
• End Date: 12 September 2019.
• Preliminary Determination by ICANN to Not Transition Operation of the gTLD (13 August 2019).

Purpose of the proposed gTLD was:
Extracted from the application: "Applicant EverBank is the banking subsidiary of EverBank Financial Corp, a diversified financial services company that provides innovative banking, lending and investing products and services to approximately 575,000 customers nationwide through scalable, low-cost distribution channels. We market and distribute our products and services primarily through our integrated online financial portal, which is augmented by our nationwide network of independent financial advisors, 14 high-volume financial centers in targeted Florida markets and other financial intermediaries. These channels are connected by technology-driven centralized platforms, which provide operating leverage throughout our business".

There is a lot more said in the application but I focused on what mattered to the end user.

So: which new gTLDs are becoming mainstream?

I went through the exciting exercise of checking all March 2019 new gTLD reports to extract which domain name extension shows an interesting learning curve (or something strange happening). This is what I noticed for the 20 categories of TLDs:

1. In the list of new gTLDs for Politics, the first new gTLD to have been delegated from the ICANN new gTLD program - .GURU (63,000) - lost 2,000 registrations since January 2018 (not 2019). I was very excited to grab one when it launched, but I dropped it then. Globally speaking,these extensions, some being negative, don't attract consumers so much.
2. In Luxury, the .VIP (840,000) and .BEST (12,000) Top-Level Domains keep growing but surprisingly, many .BRAND new gTLDs like .GUCCI - .CHANEL or .CARTIER seem to have found no use of their extension yet.
3. In Music, the .LIVE new gTLD goes up with 332,000 registrations and increasing but .PARTY seems to die little by little. The .BAND and .DANCE new gTLD have an interesting progression curve: they've kept growing in volume since January 2018.
4. Multiple Registries operate more than 5 new gTLDs: Donuts, Radix and Google are growing in volume significantly.
5. Singular or Plural? Some of these extensions are clearly failures... Is it so because they exist in two versions and no one would invest in such a risk? That's my opinion but I also know that most registrant, when registering one of these domains, don't necessary know about the existence of a second version of the extension. I call these a trap. I think that the .HOTEL, when it launches, will make sense for a hotel and I would definitely buy my name as a hotel.
6. The Catering report shows that the .FOOD new gTLD has now 6 registrations instead of one in January and February: will it launch soon?
7. In Photography, the .ART new gTLD stands out of the crowd with a very interesting learning curve: it has more than 50,000 registrations today.
8. City name new gTLDs are a little disappointing but Japanese cities like .TOKYO (first city to have more than 100,000 domain names registered), .NAGOYA and .OKINAWA grew in March 2019.
9. The listing dedicated to companies keeps showing that I was not wrong about on the new gTLDs that companies should register their domain name with. Some of them I would not buy but basically, all are growing in volume. 
10. In "Law and Justice", not many TLDs and not much is happening.
11. The Finance report is an interesting one for .BRAND new gTLDs, it is the opposite of the Luxury report: many brands are using their TLD and registering dozens of domain names.
12. Colors: there are 6 of them and one is a Trademark: .BLUE - .PINK and .GREEN are growing slowly below 10,000 registrations.
13. In Sports, the .YOGA - .RUN and .FITNESS have kept growing since January 2019. Owner of the .NIKE new gTLD published a job offer, let's hope that part of the role will be to develop the TLD.
14. Alcohol: guess what: .WINE - .BEER and .VODKA grow in volume: slowly but they grow.
15. The Real Estate report is a long one and 3 new gTLDs are of interest in March: the .REALESTATE - .CASA (house in Spanish) and .HOMES
16. In French new gTLD applications, .BRAND extensions are truly used and many domains are being registered.
17. None of the religious TLDs are of interest in March and .WED (for "wedding") remains silent.
18. None of the TLDs dedicated to the automotive industry has more than 10,000 registrations. Surprisingly, some .BRANDs have more registrations than some generic TLDs dedicated to selling domain names to the general public through the network of accredited registrars! The .AUDI new gTLD registered more than 1,330 domains already.
19. The .HEALTH and .DOCTOR are growing in volume below the 10,000 registrations and .BRANDs are still searching a use for their TLD.

All new gTLD reports are available here.

Note that I often use "new gTLDs", "Top-Level-Domains", "TLDs" or "domain name extensions" not to make these publications too boring. Also, some TLDs listed and losing traction month after month belong to the same multiple registries.

New gTLDs and Politics: one Year in Review

There are domain name extensions dedicated to politics. Right after is a link to my recent article published on CircleId and which covers the year of 2018 with a few notes on registration volumes. The article is entitled "Political New gTLDs: One Year in Review" and this is the list of new gTLDs covered:

1. .DEMOCRAT
2. .EXPOSED 
3. .FAIL 
4. .GIVES 
5. .GRIPE 
6. .GURU 
7. .GOP 
8. .BEST 
9. .REPUBLICAN 
10. .VOTE 
11. .VOTING 
12. .VOTO ("vote" in Spanish)

And by the way: "happy new year"!

Happy New Year! Latest new gTLD reports are dated 30 December 2018!

We are happy to announce the last new gTLD reports from the year 2018. A happy New Year to all! We'll return with the next update of these reports on January the 30th, 2019.

1. NEW - New gTLDs related to POLITICS (.gop - .vote - .republican - .democrat - etc...);
2. New gTLDs related to LUXURY (.rich - .yachts - .chanel - etc...);
3. New gTLDs related to the MUSIC community (.music - .band - .hiphop - etc...);
4. Multiple Registries : Registries operating five and more domain name extensions;
5. Singular VS Plural versions of a new gTLD : these are domain name extensions which exist in their singular and plural version (ie: .gift and .gifts);
6. New gTLDs related to CATERING (.restaurant - .kitchen - .bar - etc...);
7. New gTLDs related to PHOTOGRAPHY (.photo - .film - .gallery - etc...);
8. New gTLDs related to CITIES : these are city names only (.london - .tokyo - etc...);
9. New gTLDs related to COMPANIES : new domain name extensions that we believe a company should keep its eyes on;
10. New gTLDs related to the LAW and LEGAL matters (.legal - .attorney - .lawyer - etc...);
11. New gTLDs related to FINANCE (.credit - .capital - .finance - etc...);
12. New gTLDs related to a COLOR (.orange - .pink - .green - etc...);
13. New gTLDs related to SPORTS (.hockey - .basketball - .ski - etc...);
14. New gTLDs related to ALCOHOL (.beer - .wine - .vodka - etc...);
15. New gTLDs related to REAL ESTATE (.realestate - .realtor - .villas - etc...);
16. FRENCH new gTLD applications : applications submitted by French companies only;
17. New gTLDs related to RELIGION (.catholic - .bible - .church - etc...);
18. New gTLDs related to CARS (.taxi - .auto - .car - etc...);
19. New gTLDs related to HEALTH (.health - .doctor - .hospital - etc...);
20. New gTLDs related to ADULTS (no comment).

A complete guide to SEO and new gTLDs

I tend to download most guides dealing with new gTLDs that I find on Internet but I admit that I never read them all completely. The reason for this is that there is nothing new and the guides are often used as promotion tools. This one, from English backend registry Nominet, is 8 pages and I made the effort to read it until the end.

These are the topics covered:

• What TLDs are and why organisations are using them;
• Different types of TLD and how they can be used;
• Benefits of TLDs including: improved brand recognition, better online security and more;
• How Google and other search engines treat new gTLDs;
• Explanation of ‘DotBrand’ – a particularly powerful type of gTLD for global organisations;
• How organisations are embracing new TLDs for greater SEO benefit.

And this is what you will find inside:

1. Introduction
2. A beginner's guide to Top Level Domains
3. The introduction of new gTLDs
4. What is a .BRAND ?
5. How do search engine treat new gTLDs
6. Interesting: SEO tips effectively utilizing a .BRAND

The last point on SEO tips utilizing .BRAND domain name extensions is one that I found interesting: it is short but it is a must read for applicants with the intention to use their extension. Such section should be read before creating the first ".brand" domain name.

Missing

It is always interesting to read what one provider can add to such guides but I found that the new URL redirection strategy used by some .BRANDs was not covered.

A dotBrand Top-Level Domain is a powerful tool for branding mixed with SEO, not SEO only: a trademark will be able to do SEO without its own extension using other domain names that will probably cost a lot less money.

Download the guide

The guide can be downloaded on the Nominet website. Nominet is a backend registry service provider for 37 new gTLDs. It offers service to extensions such as the .VIP registry with more than 800,000 domain names registered, .BLOG - .LONDON - .BEER and .BENTLEY

The .BEST Crypto-Currency

The BestCoin token is the upcoming crypto-currency being developed by the recently acquired .BEST registry.

One could think about "just another crypto-currency" being dropped to consumers on the Internet but the concept here is quite innovative from what we've seen before. The BestCoin crypto currency makes sense because of the "territory" it becomes a part of:

1. a Digital Territory (".best" domain names);
2. a Crypto-Currency (the BestCoin token) and;
3. a Community (a new social network technology).

This combination will allow some owners of a ".best" domain name to generate an income from their reviews and traditional Registrants will also be able to choose to use their domain name in a traditional way for their website.

A detailed article was recently published about the .BEST crypto-currency: "A Mobile Payments Social Network? The Best SAS May Be Working On It".

The Vatican launches 4 new gTLDs

The Trademark Clearinghouse just published the dates for 4 Sunrise Periods. The Vatican is launching four "catholic" new gTLDs, one ASCII and three IDNs:

1. The .CATHOLIC new gTLD, when:
1. START: Wednesday, 16 May, 2018 - 16:00;
2. END: Friday, 15 June, 2018 - 16:00.
2. The .天主教 (catholic) new gTLD, when:
1. START: Wednesday, 16 May, 2018 - 16:00;
2. END: Friday, 15 June, 2018 - 16:00.
3. The .كاثوليك (catholic) new gTLD, when:
1. START: Wednesday, 16 May, 2018 - 16:00;
2. END: Friday, 15 June, 2018 - 16:00.
4. The .католик (catholic) new gTLD, when:
1. START: Wednesday, 16 May, 2018 - 16:00;
2. END: Friday, 15 June, 2018 - 16:00.

What for?

What the .CATHOLIC new gTLD application says: "The mission⁄purpose of the .catholic TLD is to share the teachings, message and values of the Catholic Church with its own members and with the wider global community, by creating a dedicated, authoritative online space for the exclusive use of the Catholic Church and its constituent institutions, including dioceses, religious orders, institutes of consecrated life and organizations affiliated to the Catholic Church, and for the benefit of its adherents globally. The .catholic TLD will serve as an important method of communication for the Church, by establishing a formal and official channel for online communications via the appropriate channels of the Catholic Church. This function of the TLD is consistent with the Church’s core activities, as communication is important in the life of the Church insofar as it facilitates the sharing of information and helps build a sense of community and belonging amongst its adherents. The .catholic TLD will complement the Church’s long established global network of communications activities including print and digital media, television and radio".

Who for?
The applications says that these domain names won't be available for registration (note that this can change): "All domain name registrations in the .catholic TLD will be registered to, and maintained by, the PCCS for the exclusive use of the PCCS and the constituent institutions of the Church. The PCCS will not sell, distribute or transfer control or use of any registration in the TLD to any third party that is not identified within the TLD Catholic Community. As such, individual adherents will not be eligible to register or be granted use of .catholic domain names. Dioceses, religious orders and institutions as found in the “Annuario Pontificio” (the official annual directory of all the institutions related to the Holy See) are recognised as members of the TLD Catholic Community, by virtue of their being formally recognised by the Catholic Church. This recognition is primarily, though not exclusively, evidenced by inclusion in the Annuario Pontificio. The PCCS will maintain a list of institutions formally recognised by the Holy See as falling within the Catholic Church.
Each diocese, official religious order of the Catholic Church and Church-affiliated institution, may be granted use of an associated .catholic domain name to facilitate the establishment of formal and official channels of online communication for the Catholic Church, and promote the overall mission⁄purpose of the .catholic TLD. The use of the domain names by these institutions is subject to internal acceptable use policies".

Religious new gTLDs
Once a month we update new gTLD registration volumes for Religion at Jovenet Consulting, check for "religions" in our list of reports.

Check the Trademark Clearinghouse Calendar for more.

New gTLDs and Health in 2017

This is a sum-up of 2017 focusing on new domain name registration volumes related to Health related new domain name extension. I listed 30 of them:

• 19 are generic domain name extensions. I included in these applications, the one are restricted and the one that say they are restricted :-)
• 10 are Trademarks (specification 13 of the applicant guidebook);
• The .MEDICAL new gTLD was withdrawn.

10 .BRAND new gTLDs

Some Trademarks started to register domain names in the end of the year: .LUNDBECK - .LUPIN - .HISAMITSU and .TEVA created between 9 to 30 personalized domain names. The rest of these applications mostly stick to one single domain name registration but .LILLY which had three in December.

Deep blue

One extension has been highly successful and never lost registrations from one month to the other: the .CARE Top-Level Domains gained 4,000 new registrations in one year to end with more than 17,000 registrations. Same for the .DOCTOR TLD which sticked to the blue during the year. It started from 2,118 registrations and ended to 3,751. The .HEALTH extension has been doing good as well as .HOSPITAL and the restricted .PHARMACY : all kept receiving registrations from January to December.

What about the red?

Health related volumes of domain names are increasing globally and it looks like registants are renewing them but within 3 extensions: .DIET - .SURGERY and .HIV. I believe it will take time for private surgeons to realize that there is an online identity created "just for them" but I think that .DIET should be adopted much faster.

The .RIP new gTLD
I have been asked several times why .RIP ("Rest In Peace" or "Requiescat In Pace") was added to this report and I still have no answer to that question. I wanted to keep an eye on this string because it is the only one that gives websites a perfect identity for a content dedicated to someone who passed away. I wonder when businesses related to the death take advantage of this (online cemeteries, French pompes funèbres...) because these are lucrative and the web is full of messages dedicated to people who passed away. The .RIP new gTLD can give them a strong identity...up to 10 years in packaged offers.

Check the full report here (the report is now available in French too).

Generic new gTLDs (to replace ".com")

From company names to trademarks and online boutiques to pornography, I like to call the ".com" domain name extension a generic one because it used for everything. If new gTLDs offer the advantage to differ from ".com" by bringing precision right in the domain name extension; some, by trying to compete with ".com", are offering another advantage: AVAILABILITY. Remaining generic new gTLDs, they also offer the possibility to remain global.
In simple words: you can buy a new domain name from the latest ICANN new gTLD program with an extension that has the exact same meaning as a".com".

9 generic TLDs
I listed nine generic domain name extensions which, I believe, have the same use as a ".com":

1. The .GLOBAL new gTLD;
2. .SITE
3. .WEBSITE
4. .WORLD
5. .ONLINE
6. .INTERNATIONAL
7. .CONTACT (not "really" launched yet)
8. .HOME (not launched yet)
9. .WEB (not launched yet)

Are these TLDs successful?

When comparing with ".com" domain name registration volumes, the .ONLINE new gTLD had 782,790 registrations in December 2017 when .COM had 128.548.420 so we have a 128 million registrations difference between .COM and its closest competitor (...)

Does it mean that generic TLDs are not a success? Certainly not since .ONLINE gained 215,000 new registrations in one year. This is noticeable.

In the blue

On these 9 domain name extensions, two remain to be launched, the .CONTACT new gTLD has sticked to one single registration during the entire year (my feeling is that the applicant...well...who cares if he is about to sell his TLD to Afilias) and one has lost a little less than 50,000 registrations.

The TLDs after gained registration from January to December: .ONLINE - .WEBSITE - .WORLD - .GLOBAL and .INTERNATIONAL. When .CONTACT launches, I am confident that it is a success too.

We don't need more

While I find this positive to be able to register a domain name using a generic extension, I also fear that it could become a risk. The .SITE new gTLD lost a lot of registrations between January and December 2017: could the existence of the similar .WEBSITE extension be a reason for this? Note that the registry's method to install its domains on the market could also be a reason why a TLD loses registrations: the fact that many registries have tried the same methods to give names away (or at very low prices) could start to show signs that the method was not such a good one.

Also, the presence of so many similar generic TLDs on the market could also push to registering domain names in niche extensions which have no close competitor and which offer precision. We clearly don't need more generic extensions.

Check the full report here (the report is now available in French too).

Religious new gTLDs: blue or red?

There are a certain number of domain name extensions related to religions: most are catholic and almost all of them have received more domain name registrations in December 2017 than what they had in January 2017, this is a good point.

20 new gTLDs

On the list of 20 religious new gTLDs:

• The .FAITH has more than 50,000 registrations;
• The .WEDDING and .CHURCH new gTLDs have more than 10,000 domain names registered;
• The .BIBLE and .CHRISTMAS have more than 1,000 domains registered;
• 3 of them are IDNs with one domain name registered;
• 2 are .BRAND new gTLDs representing a religious organization: .CBN and .LDS

Only 8 TLDs "launched" with more than 5 domains registered on a total of 20 and 8 of them sticked to one single domain name registration during the entire year (12 months). My brilliant analysis is that these registries still have absolutely no idea of what to do with their costly domain name extension. This is something that I don't understand: can the only reason be that the Vatican fears that a third party would have submitted an application for the .MORMON new gTLD ? Come on...

Blue or red?

Only two of these extensions lost registrations from January to December: the .CHRISTMAS Top-Level Domain lost 940 domain name registrations and .WED ... seems now like an example of a failed TLD: it only had 108 domains registered in January and 37 in December (we already wrote about this).

The .FAITH Top-Level Domain ended the year with 4,000 more domains registered: 51,400 in total and .CHURCH had almost 5,000 more by the end of the year.

Will they ever launch?

The .UMMAH application was withdrawn but two applications remain in "On -hold", which means that no one can tell if they will ever see the day. The two religious TLDs concerned are .HALAL and .ISLAM

I want to keep an eye on the .ISMAILI Top-Level Domain which gained 4 more domains in December 2017. The .CBN gained one more in december too.

Check the full report here (the report is now available in French too).

French new gTLDs in 2017

French companies have submitted 49 new gTLD applications to the ICANN:

• 33 have been delegated and are active;
• 15 have been withdrawn;
• 1 has not been processed.

From that list, 34 are Trademarks but some have been withdrawn. Note that the .OVH new gTLD for example is a trademark too but its domain names can be purchased so it is not listed as a trademark.
Four extensions represent French regions: .CORSICA - .ALSACE - .AQUITAINE (the application was then withdrawn since the region changed its name after the ICANN submission process) and .BZH (for Brittany).
The .PARIS new gTLD is the only city extension from a list of 39 city new gTLD applications (note that .BCN and .BARCELONA city TLDs are counted as one city and not two).
There was just one IDN new gTLD submitted, the .欧莱雅 IDN but it was withdrawn (It means .LOREAL in Chinese). Note that the .LOREAL new gTLD was withdraw too and this came as a huge surprise from our industry.

Different meanings

If the volume of domain names registered - AND PAID - is very important for a registry who sells its domain names through the network of accredited registrars, its signification has a different meaning for a .BRAND new gTLD (specification 13 from the ICANN new gTLD program). For .BRANDs, it means that trademarks have inserted the "new gTLD tool" into their branding, and maybe, long term marketing strategy: the .BNPPARIBAS new gTLD is a good example of this.

Blue or red?
Some registries have been successful installing their domain names:

• In regard to .BRAND domain name extensions, it should be noticed that .MMA had 1,700 of its domain names installed by december 2017: this is "huge" for a Trademark. Then .BNPPARIBAS - .LECLERC and .WEBER had between 100 and 200 names created. Surprisingly, most French .BRAND new gTLDs start to use their domain names: four trademarks only had less than two domain names created.
• In regard to extensions dedicated to selling domain names through accredited registrars, we can say that they are few but the .OVH new gTLD (a retail registrar itself) had less domains created by December 2017 than in January 2017: this represents more than 50,000 domains still. the .PARIS extension lost 2,000 form January 2017 to December 2017. Interesting: the .BZH and .CORSICA new gTLDs are growing very slow...but they grow.

A lot of interest in the next round

Following my discussions with various trademarks and French law firms, it appears that there could be interest for 200 French applications in the next round of the ICANN new gTLD program. There could be similar figures in other countries. Let's just hope that the ICANN won't limit the number of applications.

Check the full report here (the report is now available in French too).

Jovenet Consulting in French

For the second time, I spent the necessary hours to translate the second version of the Jovenet Consulting website...into French.

This is now done and I will be adding a few more things soon.

Finance and new gTLDs: blue or red?

There is a lot happening in Finance "and" new gTLDs. In fact this report on monthly domain name registration volumes is one of the longest from the Jovenet Consulting new gTLD reports. One of the reasons for this is that lots of Trademarks in the finance applied for their .BRAND new gTLD. The top of the report clearly is about generic domain name extensions dedicated to selling domain names but almost two thirds of it is about .BRANDs. Surprisingly, half of the .BRAND TLDs...are just not being used.

54 .BRANDS and 34 generics
Some Trademarks have put their personalized domain names in use and have registered more than 100 for them: .CREDITUNION (500 domain names) - .DVAG (200 of them) .BNPPARIBAS - .CITIC - .BLOOMBERG - .BRADESCO and .BARCLAYS

Between 10 and 100 .BRAND domains
15 financial .BRAND Trademarks have registered between 10 and 100 of their domain names. The interesting thing about this is that the volume of these registrations has kept increasing: a sign that .BRANDs are finding adoption?

No news from Boston Ivy
The registry in charge of operating .FOREX - .MARKETS - .TRADING - .CFD - .SPREADBETTING and .BROKER shows small signs of development and such niche TLDs with their low number of domain names registered seem to find difficulties to recruit registrars. Note that the price of these domains has already been lowered but...have all solutions been considered? Not sure.

Abandoned .TRUST new gTLD?
The .TRUST new gTLD received no more registrations on a one year period of time and sticked to 51 domains from January to December 2017. We found interesting titles used such as a "Domain Assured Portal" which could be an attractive service for owners of domain names at high risk of being stolen, wrongly transferred or..."and more".

Generics: blue or red?
What about generic financial new gTLDs? These are the domain name extensions dedicated to selling financial domains through the network of accredited Registrars: have they been successful in terms of volumes of domains registered?

First of all, it is important to note that 10 of them kept receiving registrations month after month and never lost one single registration (and when it was, more other domains were registered). This is a good sign for a registry (when it does not cheat). The extensions concerned are: .MARKET - .FUND - .CASH - .CAPITAL - .EXCHANGE - .FINANCE - .CREDIT - .FINANCIAL - .INVESTMENTS and .MARKETS

Then we have extensions which behaved strangely: the .LOAN gained 1,3 million registrations during the year. This is a lot and there is a story behind this...of course. It lost 1,8 million domains between June and July (...) The funny thing is that the plural version of this same TLD - the .LOANS new gTLD - gained registrations too but only has 3,584 registrations in total. Strange, isn't it?

Some TLDs lost (a lot of) registrations: The .BID new gTLD lost 90,000 registrations between January and December and .ACCOUNTANT lost 39,000 (its plural version - .ACCOUNTANTS - only has 2,573...in total. The .TRADE Top-Level domain lost 2,500 domains.

Finally, only five TLDs like .DIAMONDS lost registrations between January and December and 22 .BRAND extensions sticked to one single registration in one year.

Check the full report here.

City new gTLDs: blue or red?

Which have been the number of domain name registered for city names as a new domain name extension in 2017?

From January 2017 to December 2017, we took a monthly snapshot of each city domain name registration volume. There are 42 of them to which we added 2 domain name extension related to cities:  the .CITY and the .TOWN new gTLD. Tours is a famous city in France so we added it too.

Blue or Red?
As usual, blue is for the city names which gained domain name registrations from a month to the other and red is for those who lost some.

In general, we can see that there's not so much red in the table but for a few TLDs. This is not the case for other groups of TLDs. As you will notice below the problem with city TLDs is that...they stagnate.

Some cities are successful: the .TOKYO Top-Level Domain gained 25,000 registrations in one year and 16,000 for .LONDON while the .NYC gained almost...no registration on a 12 months period of time.

There is an interesting project out there which explains the success of the .CITY new gTLD: one registrant own 22,000 of them: let's hope that this project is a success! The .TOWN knew a constant progression curve until beginning of december 2017. These two generic TLDs do progress.

If .TOKYO is a success, the .VEGAS is another one, it gained 6,000 registrations in one year and never went backward from a month to the other. Other city TLDs which have sticked to the blue:

• The .BOSTON new gTLD which launched in September 2017;
• The .YOKOHAMA Japanese TLD;
• The .TOURS (not a city TLD but I don't mind, it is a city too in France);
• The .BRUSSELS extension;
• The .OKINAWA extension from Japan;
• The .KYOTO extension from Japan.

Some city TLDs are still in "we have no idea what to do with our TLD" mode and have registered very few domains: .DUBAI - .MADRID - .ABUDHABI and .STOCKHOLM (when a TLD registers a very limited number of domain names, it can mean that it is doing tests and there nothing more coming).

January was better than December
Some cities had more domain names registered in the beginning of the year, in January 2017 than in December 2017. It is the case for .NYC - .BERLIN - .KOELN - .HAMBURG - .PARIS - .MOSCOW and its IDN, the .МОСКВА new gTLD - .WIEN - .ISTANBUL - .MIAMI - .IST -.QUEBEC - .BARCELONA - .COLOGNE - .DURBAN and the .RIO new gTLD. Some of these registration volumes stagnate, let's hope 2018 will be better year.

Check the full report here.

VOLVO is not testing the electric car...

...is is testing its .VOLVO new gTLD :-)

It is quite usual that Trademarks to have acquired their expensive .BRAND new gTLD don't do anything about it. When you look at the list of Automotive .BRANDs, you wonder why these companies applied for their extension: most of them have sticked to one domain name registration for the entire year.

Then, it happens
Tracking new gTLD domain name registration volumes allows to see when suddenly, something changes, and it is precisely what is happening with Volvo which had registered one ".volvo" domain name since 24 October 2016, the date when the TLD was delegated.

Volvo registered 26 more during the month of November. As a person used to noticing these registrations, it does not mean that the company is going to use them. First registrations are often a test but these also send a sign that the Trademark could start to deploy...its ".volvo" domains.

Project John Wolley for new gTLDs

The concept of a universal directory does not exist on Internet. There are thousands of directories of all kinds and online Yellow Pages in many countries. All of these websites are different, accessed differently and operated differently: for example, Yellow Pages in France are different from their equivalent in Spain and Italy. There is no standard directory operated behind a same name worldwide.

This is what project John Wolley offers: a universal directory operated behind a single domain name extension.

Read my complete article on CircleID.

Some new gTLD contacts...are gone

A "new gTLD contact" is a contact that you find in any new gTLD application: there is a primary and secondary contact.

I checked new gTLD applications to investigate about a question that I have: are primary or secondary contacts still in place? This question is important to me because they are the local point of contact to operate the new domain name extension.

Method used
I proceeded as follow:

1. I checked all new gTLD applications from a specific category from the Jovenet Consulting new gTLD reports;
2. I searched for either primary or secondary contact (full name and email);
3. I went to LinkedIn and checked if this contact still worked in the company (or if she is still linked to it).

In some cases, it is the Registrar or service provider in charge of operating the TLD which is used as primary and/or as secondary contact. This is a good choice when a .BRAND new gTLD doesn't want to have to take care of this. Some backend registry service providers also offer this as an option for generic TLDs, as well as other mandatory services to operate a new gTLD.

In other cases, the person's name and surname hadn't changed and had left the company or had changed position with an email still getting through to "someone". This is not so important as long as someone is in charge of reading these emails but I'd suggest to change this to the person in charge within the company.

I also found Gmails addresses used as primary contacts. That: I don't understand it. I am the first person to say that Gmail is a great and very well secured service but I'd certainly not use an email that does not match the domain of the registry's project, nor an email on which I don't have full control of.

I even  found an email using a domain names available for registration. This means that no email are going through and returning with an error. It also means that a third party registering that domain name could set up a "catch all" and receive all emails sent.

What to think about all this?

A new gTLD is a serious responsibility: like a domain name, it is not supposed to end after a website has been launched (unless maybe when your company's name is Whatever Engineering and you'd consider redirecting your ".com" to truly use your ".engineering" domain name).

Operating the emails of primary and secondary contacts have consequences : in the end, they are the same story as operating a domain name when only one person knows about the complete story. Don't forget about what can happen when it's time to pay or talk to ICANN: what if you miss that email? Same when planning to sell your TLD: this is probably where I would send my offer.