As much as 15.57% of new gTLD domain names contain only numbers before the dot, Domain Incite reported after having analyzed nearly 1,000 new gTLD files. In other words, one in seven gTLD domain names are just numbers. The domain .GOLD ranks first with 66.32% of numeric names. In absolute terms, .XYZ tops the table with 867,455 numeric names.
The trend is the result of a continuing domain boom in China. Most Chinese domain investors are not fluent English-speakers and therefore prefer to use the international language of numbers when registering names in English-language domains. The irony is that the DNS system is designated to convert the words in domain names into numbers. But now it has to convert some numbers back into another set of numbers.
