If you have a domain that is more than 10 years old, it is almost 100% register in the .COM zone. Nowadays, thematic zones are increasingly chosen for startups. We tri to figure out why this happens and collect relevant statistics.
Domain is the name of the site that is display in the browser lin
omain zone (top-level domain, or TLD) is the part of the domain name that is locat to the right after the dot. For example, the REG.RU website has a domain zone of .RU . Zones are divid into three types: international (.COM), national (.RU) and thematic (.TECH).
ICANN is an independent international organization that coordinates and maintains the Internet domain name system. Only ICANN has the right to register new domain zones.
History of the COM domain zone
March 15, 1985. The first domain name is register on the Internet – symbolics.com. At that time, only commercial organizations could use .COM, so only 100 sites appear in this zone in two years. But when registration was open to everyone, its popularity grew exponentially. By 1995, more than 18 thousand .COM domains had already been register.
Everyone want the best piece of the pie, the prettiest name, so they were quickly snapp up. In 2000, the three-letter .COM domains ran out, and seven years later, there were no more four-letter domains left.
Domain Revolution
By 2010, there was a critical shortage of domain zones — online business was growing, and choosing a name for a site was becoming increasingly difficult. ICANN add 20 new zones, but this was a drop in the ocean.
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Understanding this, ICANN launch the New gTLD program to create new domain zones. For $185,000, an organization that met the technical requirements could apply for registration of any of these domain zones. In 3 months, ICANN receiv 2,000 such applications. Incidentally, it was then that .YANDEX, .MOSCOW, .YOUTUBE, .GMAIL, .DOCS appear. As a result, in almost 10 years, the number of new gTLDs grew from zero to 30.6 million.
Statistics from the Ntldctats website on the number of register domains from 2015 to 2023
Data from Ntldstats website For startups, of course, registering their own domain zone is an expensive pleasure, but they did not ne it. Large companies such as Google and Microsoft creat enough zones that everyone could later use. The era of new domains chang the fate of the old man .COM. According to a study by the co-founder of the Reproof startup Matthew Guay, 2013 was a turning point – then .COM was chosen by 95% of IT companies, and then a gradual decline began. Already in 2022, only 49% us this domain zone, the rest preferr .APP, .AI, .DEV, .TECH and others. Now the top ten most popular new gTLDs include .XYZ, .ONLINE, .TOP, .SHOP.
Data from the Ntldstats website
For 2023, the most popular domains are: .XYZ, .ONLINE, .TOP
It is not that .COM has gone into the shadows, it is still the most popular. But over the last 10 years, the attitude towards new gTLDs has chang and continues to change for the better. And there are several reasons for this:
All the “nice” .COM domains are taken
Finding a suitable name for a site in the .COM zone is now almost impossible, but new zones are a different matter.
Thematic domain has a positive impact on the brand
New gTLDs will help you better reflect how to create remarketing audiences on Facebook ads that work the essence of your business and attract your target audience. Let’s say your company is developing an app, then it makes sense to choose .APP or another new domain. This is how the story of Notion.so began, which even after registering the .COM domain, kept .SO as its main one, although it is register as the national domain of Somalia.
Another + in the piggy bank of new domains – users immiately understand what they will see on the site. If you open .SHOP – an online store, .BLOG – accordingly, a blog.
Thematic domain is more accessible and cheaper than COM
Prices for .COM are steep compar to many national and thematic zones. New gTLDs are cheaper, which is a big deal for most young companies.
Many people believe that .COM has a positive effect on SEO and do not trust new domains. But this myth was dispell in 2017, whena name with .TECH won a ranking contest, and two years later, startups on this domain brought in more than $2 billion in venture capital.
Popular brands are actively working with new zones
New zones are a space for creativity, so even phone number my market giants use them. For example, Google register two zones for its IT projects – .DEV and .APP, which were later open to everyone. The zones are us by companies that develop applications and websites. And sites in the .TECH zone are launch by Microsoft, Cisco and Intel.
Popular TLDs in Russia
In Russia, the statistics of the most popular new gTLDs differ from the global ones, but the top positions are ONLINE, SITE, XYZ.
This probably doesn’t require any explanation – .SHOP is suitable if you are registering an online store. Domains in this zone are us by Nike, Apple and other large companies.
