gTLD update: ’Tis the season for new gTLDs

ICANN has been making a final push this December after a couple sluggish months and has delegated 40 gTLDs since our last gTLD update. Those newly delegated gTLDs are:

• .docs
• .tires
• .dev
• .schwarz
• .iwc
• .osaka
• .sew
• .garden
• .lidl
• .doosan
• .sky
• .cartier
• .samsung
• .商店 (shop)
• .adult
• .porn
• .trust
• .eurovision
• .fashion
• .latrobe
• .irish
• .网店 (webstore)
• .aquarelle
• .memorial
• .legal
• .money
• .coach
• .everbank
• .谷歌 (Google)
• .madrid
• .firmdale
• .グーグル (Google)
• .mormon
• .lds
• .party
• .八卦 (gossip)
• .cricket
• .science
• .reit
• .android

Though ICANN has picked up the pace, there are only a small number of gTLDs about to enter or in the sunrise phase this month.

These gTLDs are in the queue for launching:

And these are in sunrise now:

Are new gTLDs still selling?

More than 3.5 million second-level domains have been purchased within new gTLDs, but many of those registrations are still parked domains; i.e., registered internet domain names that are not associated with any services. It appears that gTLD purchases have dropped slightly since our leaderboard post. In the second week of November a total of 62,666 new second-level domain registrations were purchased compared with last week, when 58,760 registrations were purchased. The average daily registration has dropped slightly from nearly 9,000 registrations to 8,394 per day.

It should be interesting to watch what gTLDs do in terms of sales in 2015 as additional gTLDs are delegated and launched. The top three in terms of registrations have remained constant for the past few weeks, but there has been some movement in the top 10:

Top 10 gTLDs in terms of registrations:

In the top 10 fastest growing gTLD leaderboard, .club jumped to number 2, following .xyz; .website jumped three spots from number 6 to number 3; .nyc fell two spots to number 5, and five gTLDs were replaced on the list with faster-growing new gTLDs.

Top 10 fastest growing gTLDs:

If any of these gTLDs could be of value to you or your brand, or are of concern — remember that as a registered agent of ICANN’s Trademark Clearinghouse, we can help develop and implement your gTLD strategy. For more information, read Porter Wright’s law alert about gTLDs.