About three years ago, registration opened in one of the most scandalous new gTLDs – .SUCKS. The very existence of such a domain was fiercely debated. In particular, trademark owners were rightfully concerned about the possibility that their critics, rivals and malefactors could register trade names in the domain to undermine the reputation of the brands.
In fact, this was exactly what the founders of the domain counted on by asking for a pretty high registration price. It worked, at first: many companies opted to register their brands in .SUCKS just to prevent others from doing so. But three years later, it is now obvious that the danger was overestimated. As FairWinds Partners reports, there are currently less than 9,000 domain names in .SUCKS, with 82% of them parked and 4% waiting to be deleted. Thus, the .SUCKS domain did not damage the reputation of large brands and did not gain popularity. Companies that have their brands registered in .SUCKS should think about whether they want to keep paying over $2,000 in renewal fees.
