The zone files finally updated for Thursday and Friday,and there are now more than 21 million new gTLD domain names registered.
Yesterday we reported the .XYZ passed .info but did not have the actual number of registrations.
Today we know the actual number of registrations for .XYZ is 5,580,532 through the last zone update.
.info according to registrarstats.com currently has 5,509,571 registrations.
.top is the 2nd largest registered new gTLD with 2,497,569.
Back on March 31st we published a post citing that over 53% of all new gTLD’s were owned by Chinese registrants .
At that time there were 16,396,564 new gTLD domains registered.
Now just two months later there are now 21,060,309 new gTLD’s registered, just under 5 million more.
About 3 million of these 5 million domain names are attributable to .XYZ, the vast majority of registered for $.01-$.02.
Extremely cheap domain registrations are what many in the industry have attributed to the high percentage of China based registrants of new gTLD’s.
However as of today ownership of new gTLD’s by Chinese registrants is down to 46.16%
The x-factor in counting the registrations by country of the registrant are those domain names held under privacy (Proxy) which increased from 12.06% on March 31st to 15.54% as of today.
The Cayman Islands had a huge jump of just short of 500,000 domains
Here is how the registrations of new gTLD’s broke down on March 31st.
| Country | Domains | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | China | 8,784,363 | 53.58% |
| 2. | Whois Proxy (Unknown Registrant) | 1,976,721 | 12.06% |
| 3. | United States of America | 1,765,380 | 10.77% |
| 4. | Germany | 507,682 | 3.10% |
| 5. | United Kingdom (Great Britain) | 337,058 | 2.06% |
| 6. | Cayman Islands | 306,234 | 1.87% |
| 7. | Canada | 242,248 | 1.48% |
| 8. | Japan | 239,654 | 1.46% |
| 9. | France | 213,802 | 1.30% |
| 10. | Indonesia | 136,412 | 0.83% |
Here is how the breakdown of New gTLD registrants as of today:
| 1. | China | 9,720,417 | 46.16% |
| 2. | Whois Proxy (Unknown Registrant) | 3,272,750 | 15.54% |
| 3. | United States of America | 2,035,791 | 9.67% |
| 4. | Cayman Islands | 785,679 | 3.73% |
| 5. | Germany | 530,025 | 2.52% |
| 6. | United Kingdom (Great Britain) | 363,970 | 1.73% |
| 7. | Japan | 301,402 | 1.43% |
| 8. | Russian Federation | 241,776 | 1.15% |
| 9. | France | 238,640 | 1.13% |
| 10. | Indonesia | 178,128 | 0.85% |
The Chinese market is pretty much dead right now. What was “cool” 6 months ago, won’t be touched today. Nobody wants anything more than 2-character domains and 2L are even difficult to move. Have something with a premium renewal? Good luck, but you’re probably stuck with it – even if it’s a single character.
This volume is, net-net, a very positive things for the domain name industry, including for aftermarket sales.
Even though I still believe that the vast majority of gTLDs are garbage, the mere fact that they’re causing a world-wide flurry of speculation – as a distinct asset class – is great from a PR standpoint (and monetization) standpoint.
To get specific, what is intriguing about .VIP from an investment perspective is this: It’s NEVER going to reach 5mm registrations, simply because the concepts of ‘exclusivity’ and ‘above-the-ordinary’ is it’s DNA. So sites which are eventually developed atop .VIP will, by default, express to visitors that “you’ve now arrived at a special place, and our good/services aren’t for the masses.” That notion has always been a (profitable) draw for companies, e.g., Ralph Lauren Polo, which built an empire from the middle-class who aspired to be upper-class.
It would be hard to argue at this point in history that ‘domain names’ still aren’t “well known” by the masses. The advent of all these new extensions, along with their hefty marketing budgets, have significantly contributed to widespread attention domain names are receiving. Good examples of recent articles include:
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/02/domain-name-marketplace-sedo-says-54-percent-of-new-gtlds-are-owned-by-the-chinese.html
http://www.etonline.com/tv/190204_bachelorette_villain_chad_johnson_bought_other_suitors_domain_names/
It costs nothing more to chose a jurisdiction for the registration of your domain name but the Cayman Islands is the absolute best place I’ve found to register a name based on an efficient and knowledgeable courts system – strong English based rule of law and small town, big country get things done equitably style of the people that make this Country function.
You get that jurisdiction for free when you use Uniregistry and turn on our Privacy.link product.
I’ve operated from Cayman for 15 years and that base has served me well. Cayman is US centric but Globally minded and independent.
@FrankSchilling
Thank you for letting me know. I didn’t know we would recieve an extra benefit for using your Whois privacy aside from the standard privacy feature. You might want to educate the public about it.
I manage almost 300 .xyz domains using Uniregistry.
Thx for info.
laybe you can point to a comparison between Cayman and EU countries that may be interesting for this purpose and general ?
“Chinese Registrants Fall to 46%”
So did the U.S. regs, not a good sign.
Private went up. Cayman Island’s percentage double.
Good point, Jon. I give the new .craps 60-90 days before they join .mobi and .name in the gtld graveyard. I’ll stick with .com and country codes, thank you.