Last Saturday, the new gTLD .xyz marked its 4th anniversary. The domain registry announced in its blog that the anniversary celebration would come with promotions and discounts. But this news surely caused some concern in the domain community. In the past, promotional campaigns and discounts from .xyz proved rather costly for the domain industry overall, as it used to give away domain names or sell them at a giveaway price of less than $1. While this resulted in a huge number of registrations initially, most of the cheap domain names remained unused. Eventually, when the time came to renew the registrations, the domain performance plummeted. Reportedly, in 2017 the domain lost as much as 60% of its registrations. These figures caused a drop in new gTLD indicators, seriously shaking investors’ confidence.
But it seems that .xyz has learnt its lesson. This time, the promotional events and discounts look more reasonable. For example, until June 30, registering a .xyz domain for two years or renewing a domain for one year will cost $6.99. Not much, but still a very different story. Also, the registry promises that $1 from each transaction will go to charitable organizations.
