Exclusive new top-level domains: back­ground and examples

There are many reasons as to why some new TLDs are reserved for par­tic­u­lar com­mu­ni­ties or companies. The best way to demon­strate these reasons is with a brief look at the different types of exclusive top-level domain available:

• Ge­o­graph­i­cal TLDs: Many of these new top-level domains are directly related to the ge­o­graph­i­cal location of their re­spec­tive websites. There are some that define a par­tic­u­lar place (like .boston), while others that define a region or a state (like .colorado). As a rule, domain reg­is­trars will only offer these top-level domains to people and firms who can prove that they operate from the cor­re­spond­ing location.

• Topic/industry-specific TLDs: The majority of new top-level domains being offered by reg­is­trars relate to the par­tic­u­lar industry or general topic of the website. Examples of these can be split into cat­e­gories, like health (.doctor, .fitness), industry (.cars, .hotels), commerce (.deal, .discount), or sport (.golf, .hockey). These domains are re­strict­ed to website operators who have clear and specific ties to the topic or industry.

• Brand-specific TLDs: These new top-level domains are the most exclusive of all domains available so far. They refer to par­tic­u­lar brands so the website in question has to have a direct con­nec­tion to the brand in order to use one. ICANN shows pref­er­ence to these top-level domains because they are specific and exclusive. The global online retailer Amazon has secured several brand-specific TLDs, including .amazon, .audible, .kindle, and .prime.

This list demon­strates the strength of these new top-level domains; they allow companies to build a more unique and in­sight­ful web address than the previous options available. Tra­di­tion­al, generic TLDs like .com (company) or .org (or­ga­ni­za­tion) have long since lost their original status and so don’t offer any added value for a homepage. Country-specific domain endings like .co.uk, or .ca do give users an idea of a website’s general location but are still con­sid­ered com­mon­place. And due to the often relaxed reg­is­tra­tion re­quire­ments for these domains, many addresses have already been snapped up.

But the arrival of these new top-level domains doesn’t just mean that internet addresses can be organized into more specific cat­e­gories; it also opens the door to com­plete­ly new domain com­bi­na­tions.

Around a third of ap­pli­ca­tions for new top-level domains are made by brands or trademark owners. ICANN has already approved over 600 of these requests and reserved the domain endings in question. These new TLD owners now have access to the entire inventory of potential second-level domains, and they have the right to exclusive use of the newly acquired TLD in­ter­nal­ly. This means that companies like Apple or Microsoft can increase brand awareness in the future by using a URL that iden­ti­fi­ably belongs to them. The most exclusive TLDs will remain closed to much of the internet forever. We’ve collected a few of these here for you:

Since April 2015, Switzer­land’s Office for Com­mu­ni­ca­tions (BAKOM) has had official control over the dis­tri­b­u­tion of the new top-level domain .swiss. In an initial, re­strict­ed ap­pli­ca­tion phase, companies, in­di­vid­ual business owners, as­so­ci­a­tions, and foun­da­tions, both on the com­mer­cial register and public or­ga­ni­za­tions, could apply for an address with the new domain extension (provided they were from Switzer­land). In January 2016, the reg­is­tra­tion operator BAKOM made .swiss com­plete­ly free for business use, meaning that it’s since been possible for as­so­ci­a­tions and foun­da­tions with no trading record to apply. But a public release for private users isn’t currently planned. More in­for­ma­tion on this new Swiss top-level domain can be found in our article on .swiss.

On March 20^th 2014, ICANN offered the TLD .nyc to the New Yorker De­part­ment of In­for­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy and Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions (DoITT), which has since been re­spon­si­ble for dis­trib­ut­ing them. As this is a city-specific new domain ending, the in­di­vid­ual person and company/or­ga­ni­za­tion applying has to be able to prove that they have a New York address. A .nyc address costs between $25 and $40 a year and is one of the most popular city-specific top-level domains in the world. Offering this reg­is­tered domain to a third party is strictly pro­hib­it­ed.

The internet startup Donuts Inc. was founded in 2010 with the aim of pur­chas­ing the rights to as many new top-level domains as possible. Today, this company is re­spon­si­ble for the reg­is­tra­tion of over 300 different domain endings for a variety of topics, including .academy (since March 2014), .cafe (since July 2015), and .wine (since January 2014). Even if there are no par­tic­u­lar re­stric­tions for some of these TLDs, Donuts Inc., together with af­fil­i­at­ed reg­is­trars, tries to achieve ex­clu­siv­i­ty by ad­dress­ing the targeted clientele directly. Gas­tron­o­my operators or gourmet food bloggers may therefore be offered the ending .restau­rant, while in­for­ma­tive sites may receive an offer for the .fyi (for your in­for­ma­tion) domain ending.

The fact that top-level domains like .islam or .catholic target an exclusive user group should come as no surprise. But the religious nature of these domain endings has proved prob­lem­at­ic so far, with neither of the TLDs being released by ICANN at present.

• .islam: the Turkish company Asia Green IT System has been well placed for a long time as the potential future reg­is­tra­tion operator for the Islamic faith. But ob­jec­tions from India and the United Arab Emirates have ensured that this plan has been put on ice. While India points to the lack of rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the entire Muslim community and the tension that could come from that, the UAE’s com­plaints have mostly stemmed from the fact that the Turkish applicant, Asia Green IT System, is a com­mer­cial company.

• .catholic: the rights to .catholic were awarded to the Pon­tif­i­cal Council for Social Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, a de­part­ment within the Vatican. The council reserved the new TLD according to pre-for­mu­lat­ed reg­is­tra­tion con­di­tions that would allow them au­tonomous control over which Catholic in­sti­tu­tions would have the right to register a .catholic address. On similar grounds to the Islamic domain .islam, The United Arab Emirates in­ter­ject­ed with the view that this couldn’t possibly represent the entire Catholic Church, insisting that the Russian and Oriental Orthodox Churches would be excluded. Even though this argument was rejected by ICANN, the con­clu­sion of the contract agreement with the Vatican is still pending.

The release of new TLDs through ICANN is already in full swing. The case studies listed above are just examples of the future op­por­tu­ni­ties (and potential future problems) as­so­ci­at­ed with control and dis­tri­b­u­tion of these exclusive top-level domains. Since reg­is­tra­tion operators have different aims and agendas con­cern­ing TLDs, future con­di­tions for them remain difficult to predict. And even though these new domain endings demon­strate in­di­vid­u­al­i­ty, ex­pres­sive­ness, and ex­clu­siv­i­ty, they’re still currently living in the shadows of the World Wide Web’s address system. But some modern endings certainly have the potential to represent par­tic­u­lar groups, in­dus­tries, or topics in the long term. Whatever happens to these new top-level domains, they have already helped increase variety and cause great debate among the internet community.