October was the ninth month of existence of new generic top-level domain during which New gTLD registrations pass an important milestone of 3 million. According to nTLDstats.com data, the three million mark was reached on October 24th and by October 31 3083596 names were registered in the new domains.
Domain .XYZ is still a strong leader among new gTLDs with 686793 registrations. However, it should be taken into account that according to different estimates more than a half of the names in this domain zones were given away for free during the promotion. Domain .BERLIN holds the second place with 153659 registrations. Names were given away for free or sold for very low prices during the promotion as well. The third is domain .CLUB – 128268 registrations, however, in a sense it could be considered a leader since the biggest number of names were registered in this domain zone without any free registrations.
The most noteworthy registry is Donuts. 1030998 names, more than a third of all registrations in new gTLDs are registered in its 151 domains. The most successful Donuts’ domains are .GURU and .PHOTOGRAPHY, 6th and 10th position respectively among the first ten. Dan Schindler, Executive Vice President of Donuts, points out that the success of these domains was rather unexpected. “It's fun and everyone can claim to be a .guru," Schindler tells. "Photography has also been a very pleasant surprise. In a world of two and three letter TLDs, it is a surprise longer names do so well.”
Dan Schindler highlights that all names in Donuts domain zones are registered for payment. This is a principled position. Moreover, the registry plans to make renewals quite pricy. «People cherish something they paid for. These names don't have enormous type in traffic so not bought by speculators, bought for longer term investments», explains Schindler.
