[September 04, 2014]

New Generic Top-Level Domains Prove Popular, Top 2,000,000 Total Registrations

After only six months of availability, over two million domain names have been registered using new Internet address extensions, known as generic top level domains (gTLD), reported the Domain Name Association (DNA) an industry trade group. These new names provide businesses, individuals, organizations, families and others new choices to enhance their Internet identities.

The new domain name extension program, which is dramatically altering the Internet landscape, hit its six-month anniversary date recently and already boasts over 370 new online naming opportunities for Internet users. The first new name to be released in early February was ???, which means ".WEB" in Arabic and is pronounced "shabaka".

"The innovation and growing number of registrations are an indication of the significant changes ahead for the Internet," said DNA Executive Director Kurt Pritz. "Businesses, cities, and individuals require a strong Internet presence, and now they can create short, memorable and creative domain names to differentiate themselves and fill that need."

Over the next year, approximately 1,300 new domain names eventually will be introduced, including geographic names (e.g., .LONDON, .AMSTERDAM, .NYC); brands (e.g., .GOOGLE, .GRAINGER), industry classes (e.g., .BUILD, .LAW, .MED), sales and product channels (e.g., .SHOES, .SHOP, .STORE), generics (e.g., .GURU, .PAGE, .MENU), and "internationalized domain names" (IDNs) in Chinese, Arabic and other languages (e.g., .??, Chinese for "games," or???, Japanese for "everyone"). The potentially most popular domain names, such as .MUSIC and .APP, have yet to hit the market.

New registry operators include multi-national corporations, small and medium enterprises, and interest groups. The applicant with the greatest number of applications, Donuts, is a start-up itself and has bet on the promise of the new program. There are also multiple new entities operating single or a limited number of domains such as .CLUB, .MENU and .?? (Chinese for ."online").

"We are seeing creative uses for these new domains," said DNA Executive Director Kurt Pritz. "Pop star Demi Lovato launched www.lovato.club as her new fan club website. There are varied uses of city domain extensions such as.LONDON, .NYC and others, and we're seeing forward looking services such as those offered by http://mars.social. People will soon be as comfortable using the new domain names as they have been with .COM or .ORG."

New gTLD Metrics (as of 29 August 2014 and compiled by Namestat.org)

* http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/delegated-strings

Innovations

The program is creating new competition and choice for consumers, making available millions of short memorable domain name choices that have become unavailable at existing registries. In addition, many experts have cited technology and marketing innovation as a core reason for namespace expansion, and the new registries are living up to the promise.

"We've seen some forward-thinking ideas from many of the new registry operators," stated Pritz. "Donuts Inc. implemented a novel approach for protection of trademarks across all its domain name extensions, known as the Domains Protected Marks List (DPML). The National Association of Realtors is working to ensure that each of their 500,000+ members advertise using a .REALTOR domain name. The .BUILD registry worked with the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) to provide new .BUILD domain names to AGC members. We anticipate further innovation and impressive growth over the upcoming months and years."

"Our industry had been slow to acquire online identities in the early days of the .COM-focused Internet," said .BUILD CEO and founder George Minardos. "The industry is now well positioned to adopt a more relevant namespace that actually describes what we do."

About the Domain Name Association

The Domain Name Association is a non-profit global business association that represents the interests of the domain name industry. Members are groups, businesses and individuals involved in the provision, support and sale of domain names, including registries, registrars, resellers and registry service providers. The DNA plays a key role in helping consumers, businesses, public benefit organizations and others understand the benefits of Internet namespace expansion. For more information, visit www.thedna.org.

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