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6 July 2016Jean Guillon

Keeping an eye on domain name trends

New domain name extensions related to the finance industry are among the most represented in the ICANN new generic top-level domain (gTLD) programme.

There are now domain names for the finance industry: instead of ending in ‘.com’, they can now end in terms such as ‘.finance’, ‘.fund’ or ‘.capital’.

More than 60 of them are currently registered: some are generic domain name extensions such as ‘.bank’, ‘.bet’ or ‘.exchange’; others include trademarks such as ‘.bnpparibas’, ‘.hsbc’ or ‘.axa’.

This article is about registration volumes and provides information on each new gTLD, in this case gTLDs related to the finance industry.

Generic TLDs can increase significantly but domains including trademarks, also called ‘dot brands’, normally have fewer registrations because they are dedicated to the operations of one single brand on the internet while generic TLDs are available for sale to the general public.

The blue numbers on Figure 1 show that there has been a significant increase in domain name registrations, while red shows a decrease and black shows that registrations have been constant.

Each week, the report is updated and allows readers to keep an eye on what is going on in the financial industry on the internet.

When a generic domain name extension, for example ‘.trade’, has a large number of registrations, it can mean that trading businesses have noticed the existence of these domain names and have started to buy them.

“Registration volumes clearly demonstrate that the vast majority of new domain name extensions are a success since domain name registrations increase week by week.”

When a ‘dot brand’ domain name extension, for example ‘.bradesco’, has a large number of domain name registrations, it can mean that it has a strategy to develop its own websites for various services or cities.

It can also be a test but some companies, including Barclays, is using its ‘.barclays’ domain names to deploy a variety of websites: http://switchtobetter.barclays/ is a good example.

When a generic extension remains in ‘the red’, it can mean that registrants have not renewed their domain.

When a generic extension has one single registration, it probably means that it has just been delegated. Wait for a few more weeks and its registrations should increase.

This week, the ‘.bid’ and ‘.trade’ new gTLDs increased significantly. The ‘.save’ and ‘.deal’ were just added.

Registration volumes clearly demonstrate that the vast majority of new domain name extensions are a success since domain name registrations increase week by week, even though they increase slowly. At this stage, we can declare the ICANN new gTLD programme a success.

Figure 1: gTLDs related to the finance industry

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