The trend for companies to refrain from using dot-brand domains that were granted to them during the first application round of ICANN’s new domain program continues. It was recently announced that two more companies contacted ICANN in order to terminate their contracts, refraining from further use of their domains. One of them is the American analytical and consulting firm Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, which never even started using its .DUNS gTLD.
The second case is more remarkable – and sadder, too. Australian insurance company iSelect opted out of its .ISELECT gTLD despite having tried to find a use for it. According to recent estimates, there were over 90 registered names in their zone file, which is quite a lot for a dot-brand domain. Most of those, however, were used to redirect users to various sections of the company’s main website at iselect.com.au. It seems that iSelect eventually found this idea unfeasible, failing to find a different use for the gTLD.
The total number of terminated domains reached 52, with most of them being dot-brand domains. Over 10 percent of dot-brand domains that have been delegated since 2012 were rendered unnecessary by their owners, Domain Incite reports.
