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Veronika Vilgis

In 2000, Joost Zuurbier, a Dutch citizen from Amsterdam, visited an island that you can only reach by first flying to Samoa, then boarding a ferry that runs only every two weeks with a variable schedule. The island Tokelau is a remote group of atolls in the South Pacific Ocean. Tokelau was home to just over 1,600 people in 2019, and back in 2000 there were those who had a difficult time grasping what Joost was trying to do. Most could never imagine the future of their nation’s country code top-level domain (ccTLD)—not even the man himself.

Zuurbier’s vision was to identify an unused ccTLD and make it freely available. He discovered that Tokelau’s ccTLD, .tk, was unclaimed and inactive. However, launching and expanding .tk came with three significant challenges. First, he needed to communicate his plan to the people of Tokelau and gain their approval. Second, navigating the bureaucratic process posed another obstacle—he had to secure official approval and delegation of the ccTLD from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Lastly, due to a requirement from IANA that the servers needed to be built on the island, all the equipment had to be taken to one of the remotest islands in the world. At the time, Tokelau had only three computers for 1,500 people, with only a 9,600 bits per second (bps) connection for e-mail with no attachments. For reference, one million bits make up one megabit (mb), and a good modern download speed is 100mbps.

Fortunately, the final challenge was resolved with the help of an Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) employee who had visited Tokelau in the 1970s. Understanding that hosting global servers from the island was impractical, the employee recognized that some level of internet activity was still necessary for Tokelau to claim administrative control over its ccTLD. This meant that before anything else, Zuurbier had to introduce internet connectivity to the island.

Once this requirement was met, Zuurbier and the islanders reached an agreement on how the revenue from the ccTLD would be used. With their case prepared, they presented it to IANA. As a result, both initial challenges were also overcome, and IANA officially delegated .tk to Teletok, the company overseeing Tokelau’s telecommunications from 1997 onward, while Taloha, Zuurbier’s organization, managed the technical administration of the domain.

Because .tk domain registrations were free, the extension quickly gained popularity and became one of the most widely registered country code domains, surpassing 25 million registrations. However, the free model also drew the attention of cybercriminals. With the ability to create websites anonymously and in large numbers, scammers exploited .tk domains for various malicious activities, including phishing for passwords and payment details, hosting intrusive pop-up ads, and distributing malware.

Until recently, domain registrations for the .tk ccTLD were managed by OpenTLD B.V., part of Freenom, a registry that manages several freely available TLDs. In November 2023, ICANN terminated OpenTLD's accreditation due to multiple breaches of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). Despite this termination, the registration and maintenance of .tk domains remains under Freenom. As a ccTLD, .tk primarily operates under the authority of Tokelau and is not governed by ICANN's RAA.

Given the controversial recent history of the .tk ccTLD, we were curious to look at the domains currently active online. In our database, we detect a total of 6.3 million .tk domains, which includes domains that are no longer active but were at some point within the past twelve years. However, as of January 2025, only 8,862 of those are currently active, 2,430 are redirects, and another 18,231 do not allow crawling. Of the redirects, 53.5% redirect to a .com domain, 10% to another .tk domain and 6.8% redirect to .cf (ccTLD of the Central African Republic).

Among the active domains, just over a third can be traced to Ireland, followed by the Netherlands, and then the US (Figure 3). In terms of security, over 50% have no or an invalid SSL certificate, as shown in Figure 4. 

The rise of the .tk domain was a remarkable story of growth, driven by its unique offering of free registrations that attracted millions of users. At its peak, .tk became one of the most registered country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) in the world. However, its rapid growth came with a dark side, creating a haven for malicious actors who exploited its anonymity and accessibility. The association with online fraud damaged its reputation, and as a result, it became known for its role in hosting dubious websites. Despite efforts to mitigate abuse, the damage was done, and .tk's image has never fully recovered.

Digital colonialism and the future of .tk

The rise and fall of the .tk domain also highlights the broader issue of digital colonialism. Tokelau, a small, remote territory in the Pacific, found itself at the center of a global internet phenomenon. While Tokelau's local population had limited internet infrastructure, the income generated from .tk registrations—millions of dollars, some years—provided vital financial support to the territory. This arrangement, however, raised ethical concerns about digital colonialism, as a foreign entity (Freenom) controlled the domain's registration process and its profits. The revenue, which was meant to benefit Tokelau, was regularly diverted through intermediaries, leaving the island with limited direct control over the wealth generated by its ccTLD.

With the uncertain future of .tk, Tokelau faces potential financial ramifications. If the domain's usage continues to decline or becomes further restricted, it could impact the income the territory has relied on. Although the digital space has provided an economic lifeline, the loss of .tk’s popularity also exposes Tokelau to the realities of digital dependency. The implications go beyond simple financial loss; they reflect the challenges small nations face in navigating the complexities of the digital age and how they manage valuable assets like ccTLDs, which can be both a source of income and a symbol of sovereignty.

Today, while .tk domains can still be registered through Freenom, the landscape is uncertain. Despite the possibility of registration, the reality is that most domain names appear unavailable, and new registrations have effectively stagnated since October 2024. No new registrar has been announced, and the lack of clarity about the future of .tk raises more questions than answers. It’s clear that while .tk still exists, its glory days may well be behind it. What remains is a small, largely insecure domain extension that continues to attract a few unsavory characters, but for most legitimate users, it’s a relic of the past. The future of .tk remains up in the air, and its tarnished reputation means that it will likely never regain its former prominence in the world of domain registrations.

Domains

Tokelau is a remote island in the pacific. You can reach there only by a ferry that runs every 14 days. But it is the third most-visited island. How so?

From tiny atolls to digital dominance: the .tk story

The .ai domain has experienced an unprecedented surge in popularity, with the past few years seeing registrations skyrocket. Initially affiliated with the small Caribbean island of Anguilla, the .ai extension has become a highly sought-after digital asset, largely due to its association with artificial intelligence. Tech companies, startups, and even large corporations have rushed to secure their slice of this internet real estate, making it a go-to choice for AI-related branding. We look into the data to see what’s really behind .ai domains and if the rise is just a hype.

The growing interest in artificial intelligence has elevated the .ai domain from a relatively obscure country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) to a trendy choice for tech companies worldwide. Companies like OpenAI and Stability.ai have embraced the extension, making it synonymous with cutting-edge AI innovation. Just as investors flocked to AI stocks, domain investors have rushed to secure .ai domains, viewing them as the domain market’s next big thing. Eager to capitalize on potential resale opportunities and future value appreciation, they have snapped up as many premium keywords as possible, leading even generic or non-tech terms to be registered with “.ai.”

While the surge in .ai domain registrations is impressive, the quality and usage of these domains tell a different story. As of October 2024, there are 204,700 active .ai websites, including online stores, blogs, and parked domains. A closer analysis reveals that placeholders and parked domains dominate the landscape, making up 61% of all active sites. Business and e-commerce websites account for 23%, while content-focused sites make up 11%. The remaining share consists of low-content sites, frame sites, forums, and blogs.

To understand the meteoric rise shown in Figure 1, we examined whether the total increase is primarily driven by increased placeholders. Our analysis found that between October 2023 and September 2024, the number of placeholder .ai domains surged by an astonishing 2,271% (Figure 2). The majority (88%) of these placeholders are managed by registrars affiliated with Team Internet Group PLC (formerly CentralNic Group PLC), including 1api.net, Centralnic Canada Inc., and Hexonet Services Inc. Furthermore, 92.3% of the placeholders are hosted by Amazon.

The influx of parked and placeholder domains comes with drawbacks. For one, it can create a misleading perception of activity within the .ai domain space. Although registration numbers are high, many of these domains do not provide value in terms of content or active use, which can make it harder for genuine startups to find available and relevant domain names. As our previous analysis of .com placeholders showed, many of them have a short lifespan.

Additionally, the practice of domain parking drives up the cost of acquiring .ai domains, as owners of premium domains often set high resale prices. For cash-strapped startups, this presents a significant barrier to obtaining a domain that truly fits their brand.

Growth in Business and E-Commerce Websites

While the growth rate for business and e-commerce websites is lower compared to placeholders, it remains notable, with increases of 477% and 734% over the past 12 months, respectively (Figure 2). These websites are predominantly located in the United States, followed by Germany, India, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the Netherlands (Figure 3).

Next, let’s take a look at the topics associated with the different business, e-commerce, and content websites of the .ai top-level domain (Figure 4). The “Software & Data” category unsurprisingly dominates nearly half (44.9%) of all topics, confirming that software development and data analysis are central to the AI conversation. “Marketing & Advertisement” follows as a distant second at 14%, indicating AI's growing role in transforming digital marketing strategies. Other notable sectors include “Telecom” (7.4%) and “Entertainment” (4.6%). Topics like “Financial” services (4.4%), “Art & Design” (4.1%), and “Science” (3%) highlight AI's diverse applications across various fields, though they trail behind the more dominant themes. Meanwhile, “Health & Medical” (2.5%) and “Business & Careers” (2.2%) represent emerging areas where AI is making significant strides, albeit with a smaller share of the content focus.

With the entry of large language models (LLMs) and generative tools into the mass market, AI has been widely hailed as groundbreaking and revolutionary over the past year—and the surge in .ai domain registrations reflects this excitement. However, most of these websites are placeholders or parked domains, often created solely for resale, essentially just occupying space until replaced by something more substantial. As we have shown in a previous analysis of .com placeholders, many tend to disappear quickly. For the remaining business and content-driven websites, it remains to be seen how stable the trend will be. As the initial hype cools and doubts emerge about the true capabilities of AI, it’ll be worth watching how demand for the .ai top-level domain evolves in the coming months and years.

Ultimately, the .ai domain's future success will depend not just on the number of registered domains, but on how many of these domains are actively contributing to the advancement of AI and technology in meaningful ways. For startups and businesses in the AI space, building an active online presence with a .ai domain could offer a significant competitive advantage—if they choose to go beyond just reserving a name.

We’re seeing AI in every nook and cranny online, and the realm of top-level domains is no different. The amount of active .ai websites has skyrocketed in the last year, and now they’re everywhere—right? We dive into the data to see what’s really going on in the .ai domain space.

The .AI domain boom: what the websites behind the trend reveal

Loura Kruger-Zwart

Navigating the digital landscape is hard enough, let alone introducing the drama and politics of domain names. Throw in nasty behavior and some lawsuits, and you’ve got an introduction to the world of cybersquatting.

Going beyond just simple domain registration, cybersquatting is a complex and evolving practice in the digital landscape. At its core, it involves the bad faith use or registration of domain names, often with the intent to deprive rightful owners or profit from others' trademarks. This practice has expanded to include username- and handle-squatting across online and social media platforms, extending its reach beyond just domain names.

Digital troublemakers have developed a range of techniques and forms of cybersquatting over the years. The traditional form, domain squatting, involves the registration of domain names similar to established brands or trademarks—the registration of netflix-movies.com would be an example. The practice has evolved to include username and handle squatting on social media, meaning that bad actors claim the names resembling known brands or public personalities. Typosquatting, another common technique, involves registering domains with common misspellings of popular websites—think netflux.com or netfllix.com. You can see these in action in Figure 1: there are many ways to manipulate a domain name for cybersquatting purposes.  

Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) cybersquatting utilizes visually similar characters from different scripts to create deceptive domains—netflíx.com looks just like the true domain until you notice the accent on the ‘i’. In Figure 2 we see several real examples of IDN cybersquatting, extracted from the Dataprovider.com database.

The motivations behind cybersquatting are primarily financial or malicious. Many cybersquatters attempt to sell domains to trademark owners at inflated prices, seeking financial gain, while others use these domains for more nefarious purposes, like phishing, scams, malware distribution, or just redirecting to competitor websites. In some cases, cybersquatting is used for political leverage: individuals register domains related to political figures or movements, as seen with cases from Australian senators to US presidential tickets, for negative consequences. These activities create a complex and often problematic ecosystem, affecting businesses, individuals, and the overall integrity of the internet.

Cybersquatting extends across various languages, exploits different top-level domains—like by registering netflix.jp before the company itself can—and employs sophisticated techniques to bypass traditional safeguards. It is absolutely not limited by language or geography. The introduction of new generic TLDs (like netflix.film) has added another layer of complexity to the cybersquatting landscape, both in terms of new opportunities for squatters and new challenges for brand protection. While most cybersquatting is profit-driven, there are non-commercial forms such as cybergriping, where individuals register domain names to criticize or parody organizations: ex-South Park writer Tony Morton is (in)famous for creating spoof websites and using humor to combat hate. However, this raises questions about the balance between free speech and name or brand protection.

At Dataprovider.com, we developed our own system to identify cybersquatting for the top 100,000 websites, based on the traffic they receive and a few other indicators.

Take a look at the number of cybersquatting domains we detect for each of the ten target domains in Figure 3. According to our data, nearly 2,400 domains targeted the main domain of the US based airline United in September 2024, while YouTube.com and 3m.com were targeted by 1,040 and 1,014 cybersquatters, respectively. We also see three major adult sites among the top 10: explicit links are popular targets for cybersquatters because they attract large volumes of traffic, making mistyped or similar domains highly profitable through ads, affiliate links, or redirects. Additionally, adult sites generally face weaker brand protection, allowing cybersquatters to exploit misspelled URLs and monetize them with less resistance from site owners.

Understanding cybersquatting means understanding the domain ecosystem. Key players include ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), which governs the domain name system globally, registries that manage top-level domains, and registrars that facilitate the registration of domain names. This ecosystem establishes the backdrop against which cybersquatting occurs. and the foundation on which it can be combatted. 

Legal proceedings, often through the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), have become a common recourse for companies and individuals fighting cybersquatting. Recent high-profile cases illustrate the complexity of these battles: Canva recently secured 174 domain names through legal proceedings, demonstrating the scale of cybersquatting targeting major brands. Conversely, the case of GigPig highlights the potential for abuse of anti-cybersquatting measures, with the company being accused of reverse domain hijacking. These cases underscore the intricate nature of cybersquatting disputes and the challenges in fairly resolving them.

New elements of brand protection have emerged in response to the threat of (commercial) cybersquatting. Preemptive domain ‘warehousing’ is a common response to these kinds of threats: companies register as many domain variations as they can think of to protect their brand. This proactive approach, while effective, contributes to the saturation of the internet's domain space.

Besides proactive domain management, AI and machine-learning tracking technologies are being developed to help detect cybersquatting. Digital tools and databases—like what we've developed at Dataprovider.com—are solid resources for monitoring particular domain names and identifying cybersquatting attempts. Many businesses implement redirection networks and systems that redirect traffic from similar domains to the legitimate website. There are now more ways to try and mitigate the issue, but it's what happens after the fact that remains an issue. On the legal front, companies and policymakers are utilizing existing laws and pushing for new legislation to address emerging forms of cybersquatting—but it remains a murky and complicated realm. 

As the internet continues to evolve, so too will the challenges and solutions related to cybersquatting. We can expect to see enhanced tracking technologies emerge, offering more sophisticated tools to identify and prevent cybersquatting attempts in real-time. The legal landscape is likely to expand, with the development of more comprehensive international legal frameworks to address cybersquatting across jurisdictions. Maintaining the delicate balance between robust brand protection measures for business, while preserving the principles of fair use and free speech in the digital space, promises to remain a hard task. With the growing popularity of emoji domains and TLD developments, we'll never be rid of the risk, but it's not impossible to keep on top of it. This digital ecosystem challenge will requite ongoing vigilance, technological innovation, and legal adaptations to address its evolving nature and impact on businesses, individuals, and the integrity of the internet as a whole.

Brand Protection

Bad manners, grudges, and name-calling… sounds like playground antics, but this is the online world of cybersquatting. Including domain squatting and typosquatting, this illicit digital activity is usually for malicious, political, or financial gain but is a popular stunt among satirists too. Read on to learn more about cybersquatting and the efforts to combat it.

What is cybersquatting? Preventing domain hijacking and brand misuse

The modern history of emoji domain names began in 2001, when the first emoji domains—☮️.com, ♨️.com, and ♨️.net—were registered. These domains were made possible by the use of Punycode, which converts Unicode characters like emojis into ASCII, allowing them to function within the Domain Name System (DNS).

While these were just a novelty at first, emoji domain names gained real traction around 2015 as mobile internet usage soared and emojis became a more central part of everyday digital communication. Emoji domain names are managed by only a few registries, and the most frequently used are .ws (Western Samoa’s country code top-level domain), .to (the ccTLD is assigned to the Kingdom of Tonga) and .fm (the ccTLD of the Federated States of Micronesia).

Emoji domain names provide an opportunity for creative and memorable branding. Budweiser, for example, registered the domain 🍺.ws, cleverly aligning its product with the universally recognized beer mug emoji. Similarly, Coca-Cola previously launched an innovative marketing campaign by registering all variations of the happy face emoji: a creative example of how to use emoji domains as a fun tool for modern marketing.

But just how many emoji domains are out there? In our database, we detect 8,262 domains with an emoji in the main name—however, the vast majority have no active website associated. As of September 2024, only 423 emoji domains have a working website, and of these, 27% are websites that provide informational content and 5% are associated with a business or company (see Figure 1). The remaining websites are placeholders, parked domains of low content websites, which typically only have one page and little overall information. Close to 1,600 emoji domains are redirects, while the rest—a large majority—return no response when queried. These low numbers suggest that emoji domains are definitely not a trend (yet), but it also means that plenty of prime domains are still up for grabs and likely to be reasonably affordable. You can check the availability and prices of emoji domains with this handy tool at i❤️.ws.

Next, let's take a look at the top-level domains (TLDs) associated with emoji domains. Only three registries actively allow registering domains with any emoji: .fm, .to and .ws. Having said that, there are certain types of symbols that can be classified as emojis, such as © or ®, that are allowed as part of other TLD registration policies. Figure 2 shows the top 10 TLDs (by number of emoji domains) that feature at least one emoji in the domain name.

Indeed, ©, ® and ™ are the top 3 most frequently occurring when we look at emojis used in .com domains. Many of you might say these are not ‘real’ emojis, but don’t fret! We’ll give you the top 20 most frequently occurring real emojis across all TLDs in Figure 3.

Our favorite red emoji tops the ranks, which is both reassuring and perhaps a little surprising. If you’ve lost faith in humanity, it’s nice to know that the internet still has heart(s). Perhaps this would be more reassuring if the laptop emoji wasn’t ranked second—the machines are catching up. 

Some emojis listed in the top 20 make sense and are in agreement with observations reported elsewhere, such as the fire or rocket emoji, and the notorious eggplant emoji being popular is not unexpected. Less obvious are the bikini emoji or the bride with a veil, but perhaps these (and a few others) hint at a certain adult-themed trend among emoji domains.

Curiously, we didn’t find a single emoji face in the top 20: no 🙂, 😆, 😂, or even a 😡, which is contrary to what we’d expect given their frequent usage in short messages or social media posts.  

Digital creatives are already making use of emoji domains to push the boundaries of the ‘usual’ internet. Take full-stack developer Ben Stokes, for example: he decided that if emoji domains were possible, then emoji email domains should be possible too… After some tests and trials, Mailoji was born. Ben writes:

Since emoji domains transcend language barriers, providing a universally understood mode of communication, there’s a cultural impact to consider. This languageless-ness makes them particularly attractive for brands and initiatives aimed at diverse global audiences. The simplicity and directness of emojis can convey emotions and ideas more effectively than words in some cases, enhancing the appeal of emoji domains in a multicultural digital world. However, there maybe challenges across cultural and generational lines if groups interpret the same emojis differently: what looks like a friendly domain for eggplants to one person, could represent something else entirely to another. Similarly, not all emojis are displayed equally across devices and operating systems. And, the fact that emojis still need to be translated to text means they are often displayed as just a random selection of letters. For example, the domain name 🍺.ws mentioned above is converted to https://xn--xj8h.ws/—which looks a lot less appealing and trustworthy, defeating the purpose of recognizability.

Emoji domain names face certain limitations and challenges, despite their charm. For one, not all top-level domains (TLDs) support emojis, restricting their widespread adoption. Nevertheless, as technology continues to advance and internet usage becomes even more integrated into daily life, the demand for distinctive and memorable digital identities is likely to grow. It'll be interesting to see if more registries open emoji domain registrations in the future, and there's also the possibility of introducing emoji TLDs. We've written extensively about new generic TLDs: over the past years, more than 2000 new TLDs have been created, from .ninja to .dog and .yoga—there is now likely a TLD for your favorite hobby or industry. Is it just a matter of time until ICANN introduces the first emoji TLD? 

Ultimately, emoji domain names represent an intriguing intersection of technology, communication, and creativity. From their humble beginnings in the early 2000s to their current status as a novel branding tool, these domains are carving out a unique niche in the digital landscape. Emoji domains offer a playful and powerful way to stand out online, and while challenges remain, the future holds potential for further expansion and increased adoption. As emojis continue to permeate our digital interactions, the allure of emoji domain names is likely to grow and makes them an exciting area to watch in the world of internet domains.

In this ever-evolving landscape we call the internet, emoji domain names represent a quirky and captivating innovation. Combining the ubiquitous and expressive power of emoji characters with the functional utility of domain names, these digital novelties offer a unique blend of communication and technology. From their origins to their current status and future potential, let’s take a look at the fascinating world of emojis.

Emoji domains explained: a data-driven analysis

The domain extension .com is undoubtedly the largest and most well-known top-level domain (TLD) on the web. Operated by Verisign, the same company that runs .net, .com’s history dates back to the early days of the internet. It was one of the original TLDs established in 1985, along with .gov, .edu, .mil, .org, .net, and .arpa. It quickly became the most popular TLD due to its association with commerce and companies, most notably during the late 1990s, as businesses rushed to establish an online presence. Solidified by its namesake relation to the dot-com boom—and subsequent dot-com bubble burst as many internet-based companies collapsed in the early 2000s—.com has since become synonymous with the internet itself.

Currently, the .com TLD remains the most widely used and recognized domain extension globally. It continues to be the preferred TLD for many businesses, startups, and individuals seeking to establish a strong online presence. And, despite the introduction of numerous new gTLDs in recent years, it retains its dominance and prestige. 

But what can we learn about the internet from just this one TLD? As it turns out, plenty: the global prevalence of .com means it captures a rather interesting snapshot of the total web in comparison, giving us a glimpse into the hosting, management, technical, and content details of the online world. Time to dive in and explore what this means!

We love details, so let’s take a deeper look at the .com zone file—the text file that contains mappings between all currently registered domain names and their corresponding IP addresses. As of August 2024, there are just over 158 million registered domains in the .com zone file. In Figure 2, we see that active, available websites make up 50% of those registrations, and the remaining 50% are redirects, return an error response, or deny access to crawlers. 

Forty percent of these active websites are placeholders, 25% are business, and 6% are e-commerce websites, while the remainder comprises content pages, blogs, or framed websites. To put these numbers into context, we created a comparison set of 100,000 randomly selected active websites that are not .com. Can this comparison set show whether .com reflects overall web trends, given its global appeal and size? The random sample is made up of 65% country code TLDs, 19% generic TLDs, 16% new generic TLDs, and less than 1% sponsored TLDs. Our dataset here is made up of 32% of business and 6% e-commerce websites, though the number of placeholders is lower, at only 33%. The e-commerce trends are comparable, but .com is made up of overall more placeholders and fewer business websites. This is surprising since we think of .com as the commerce-focused TLD, but it seems like businesses overall prefer local (ccTLD) or themed new gTLDs.

The vast majority of .com domains are hosted in the USA, followed by Germany and Canada (see Figure 2). However, .com domains are hosted all over the world, from Zimbabwe to Monaco and Turkmenistan— basically every country hosts at least a few .com domains.

Those top three hosting countries are reflected in the global data, too: the US, Germany, and Canada host the most websites regardless of TLD, showing the broad appeal and impact of .com as it reflects global trends so closely. In our comparative sample, the US and Germany also rank at top two, with 41% and 14% percent respectively. Ranks 3, 4, and 5 go to France, the Netherlands, and Russia. These results aren’t unexpected, given the large proportion of ccTLDs in the comparison group.

Content management systems and social media

Next, let’s take a look at some website statistics: if we’re seeing that .com reflects overall web trends, then choice of content management system (CMS) is no exception. WordPress is the most commonly used CMS among .com websites, with 54% of them built with WordPress. WIX (12.6%) and Squarespace (10.7%) rank second and third among .com’s CMS providers. With some percentage point differences, these top three also dominate in our comparison sample, with WordPress at 66%, WIX at 7.4%, and Squarespace at 4.2%.

Tracking the popularity of social media platforms mentioned on .com sites, as seen in Figure 3, reveals that Facebook is still the dominant platform, followed closely by Instagram. X (Twitter), LinkedIn and YouTube come next, while TikTok ranks sixth with only 2.6% of .com websites mentioning the short-form content platform. As TikTok gains more traction as a business and marketing tool, we’re curious to see how these numbers change in the months and years ahead. The rest of the web has a very similar distribution of social media mentions on websites. Our comparative sample indicates that Facebook is also most common on the rest of the web, along with WhatsApp. X (Twitter) is more prevalent on .com websites than on the combination of other TLD websites. Not shown on the graph, but still noteworthy: Telegram made it into the top 10 globally with mentions on 2.2% of all websites, but did not rank in the top 10 for .com.

Average incoming links, pages, and word count

The majority of .com websites have no incoming links. For 82.5% of them, no other websites link to their address—this number aligns with the comparison sample, where 82.1% also show no incoming links. At the other extreme, 16,941 websites (less than 0.1%) have more than 1,000 incoming links, which means that over a thousand other websites link to that one (non-redirecting) website. A .com website has 18.2 pages and an overall word count of 248 words per page, on average, and these numbers include all types of websites, including placeholders. If looking only at .com websites classified as  ‘business,’ the average number of pages increases to 34 and word count to 558. In our global comparison sample, ‘business’ classified websites have 599 words and 36 pages on average, considerably more than on .com sites in general. 

How secure are .com domains: SSL coverage

Lastly, let’s take a peek at website security, specifically SSL coverage. Figure 4 shows that of all .com websites, 68.4% have a valid Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate—in contrast to the 73.6% of websites globally—and the remaining 31.6% have either no or an invalid certificate attached to them. Of this remainder, the majority are Placeholders (64.5%) which means they don’t necessarily have content or visitors to secure. Nevertheless, the other 5.8 million content, business, and e-commerce .com sites are operating under reduced security conditions.

Dot-com domains remain a critical part of the global digital landscape and a good indicator of overall web trends. Due to its universal recognition and appeal, .com domains can be found in every country, and it's widespread hosting locations demonstrate its popularity around the world. The majority of hosting is concentrated in the USA, where even though the .us ccTLD exists, .com is the go-to TLD. Despite this global prominence, however, many .com websites remain relatively small in scope and lack significant external engagement. Companies like Amazon and WordPress dominate their field in the .com space, which reflects the state of the broader digital landscape. And, even though many .com domains have adopted SSL security, a considerable number still operate with insufficient protection—indicative of the ongoing struggle to keep the internet secure against malicious actors. 

Tracking the .com TLD helps us understand the online world just a little better: it highlights continuing challenges in securing the web, the global use of gTLDs versus ccTLDs, the performance of web tech and tech companies, and the various demands of the online world on our physical one. There is more data out there than could be combed through in a lifetime, but taking .com as a little snapshot of a vast digital picture makes understanding the internet just a little bit easier.

A brief overview of the .com top-level domain

Mathijs Baas

As humans we are much better at remembering names, like dataprovider.com or wikipedia.org than remembering a sequence of numbers. Computer algorithms, however, are much better at processing numbers. When it comes to communication across the internet, each connected device, including the servers that host websites, has a unique numerical identifier called an IP address. So when you put dataprovider.com into your browser's address bar, it needs to be translated into a number. That’s where the DNS comes into play. It is often likened to a massive, ever up-to-date phone book, that translates the domain names into computer-friendly IP addresses.

The DNS relies on a distributed, hierarchical system of servers, each with a specific function in the process of resolving domain names:

Root servers: They are at the base of the DNS hierarchy. Root servers provide the initial starting point for DNS queries, directing them towards the appropriate top-level domain (TLD) servers.

TLD servers: These servers manage collections of domains organized by their TLDs, such as, .com, .uk, .info. In a second step, they offer a more precise direction for the query, narrowing down the search towards the correct authoritative server.

Authoritative servers:  These servers store the DNS records that definitively map domain names to IP addresses. Typically managed by domain owners or their web hosting providers, they provide the final answer to any DNS query.

Recursive resolvers: The workhorses of the DNS. Usually configured on a local device or provided by an internet service provider, they initiate the lookup process, diligently contacting other DNS servers and caching the results for future efficiency.

In Figure 1 you can see the process for the domain name www.abc.com. First, the root servers provide the information for the location of the TLD servers, in this case .com is located at 1.1.1.1. In a second query the .com TLD server is now queried for the location of abc.com which returns the address of the authoritative server, here 2.2.2.2. Lastly, the authoritative server is queried and returns the full address of www.abc.com.

Understanding the difference between authoritative and recursive resolvers is crucial for understanding the workings of DNS. Let's break down their roles.

Think of authoritative servers as holding the master key for specific domains. They store the official DNS records, providing the final, definitive answer when someone ask for a website's address. Because they are managed by domain owners themselves, they ensure traffic is directed to the genuine, real location of the website. But authoritative servers are more than simple address books. They store various DNS records that serve different purposes:

A Record: The cornerstone – this maps a domain name to its IPv4 address (example: www.xyz.com = 231.345.378.39).

AAAA Record: Like an A Record, but for the newer IPv6 addresses.

MX Record: Crucial for e-mail delivery. It indicates which mail servers handle incoming emails for a specific domain.

CNAME Record: Creating aliases – allows multiple domain names to ultimately point to the same IP address. For example, multiple subdomains such as team.abc.com or shop.abc.com will have a CNAME record that points to the root domain abc.com.

TXT Record: Flexible and versatile, used for things like domain ownership verification, security mechanisms, and other custom data.

Recursive resolvers are usually operated by an internet service provider or public services. Their purpose is to speed-up the lookup process. To do so they track down the answer to the DNS query and then store this information temporarily in a cache of recent lookups, making repeat visits to websites much quicker.

A key feature that optimizes DNS performance is DNS caching. DNS caching shortens the look-up process and makes internet browsing quicker and more efficient. It temporarily stores recent DNS query results, enabling faster access to frequently visited websites. When a user requests a specific website, the DNS resolver checks its local cache first. If the IP address is found, the resolver returns it immediately, bypassing the full DNS look-up process. 

Caching can occur at multiple levels, including at your device, at the internet service provider, and the recursive resolver level, each maintaining its own cache for a specific Time-to-Live (TTL). After TTL expiration, the cached record is discarded, and a new DNS look-up is performed. In essence, DNS caching streamlines the look-up process, ensuring quicker website access and reduced load on the DNS infrastructure.

DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) plays a crucial role in making the DNS look-up process more secure by preventing malicious activities like DNS spoofing or cache poisoning. For instance, let's say you want to visit "abcbank.com" to access online banking services. In a DNS spoofing attack, the attacker intercepts your DNS query returning a false IP address that points to a fake "abcbank.com" website under their control, ultimately stealing your login credentials. DNSSEC combats this issue by incorporating cryptographic signatures into the DNS system, allowing DNS resolvers to confirm the authenticity and integrity of DNS responses.

When a DNS resolver receives a DNSSEC-enabled response, it can validate that the information originates from the correct authoritative DNS server and hasn't been tampered with during transmission. This ensures that users reach the intended, genuine websites rather than being misled to potentially harmful ones designed for phishing or other nefarious purposes. In essence, DNSSEC bolsters the reliability of the DNS infrastructure and provides a more secure internet browsing experience by verifying DNS responses through cryptographic signatures.

As an individual internet user, understanding the DNS might not seem like a top priority, but it plays a crucial role in your daily online activities. Every time you visit a website, send an email, or access online services, the DNS works behind the scenes to ensure smooth and secure communication. Recognizing the importance of DNS caching, for instance, can help you understand why you might occasionally need to clear your browser's cache or flush your DNS resolver cache to resolve website access issues. Moreover, awareness of DNS security extensions highlights the significance of safeguarding your online activities from malicious attacks, such as DNS spoofing and cache poisoning.

The internet seems so effortlessly simple; you type in a website's name, and it magically appears. However, behind all of this lies a complex system – the Domain Name System (DNS). In this post we’ll dive into the intricacies of the DNS, what it is and how it works.

Internet Basics #5: How DNS works

A ccTLD is a two-letter domain extension that signifies a specific country or territory on the internet. These extensions, such as ".es" for Spain or ".uk" for the United Kingdom, play a role in identifying websites and online resources associated with particular nations. 

The process to grant a ccTLD to a geographical region is overseen by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) together with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). When a country or territory wishes to establish its own ccTLD, it must submit a detailed request to ICANN. This application needs to showcase how the desired domain extension aligns with the country's identity and why it's needed.

ICANN and IANA review this request using specific eligibility criteria. Key factors considered include:

the region's unique national or territorial identity

the region's capacity to manage and maintain it efficiently

Once a request gets the green light, ICANN and IANA work closely with the requesting region's designated authority to finalize terms and responsibilities. After establishing an agreement, the ccTLD is integrated into the global domain system. The designated local authority then assumes the role of managing and ensuring the domain's smooth and secure operations.

National or territorial organizations known as ccTLD registries are responsible for managing and issuing the domain extension. Their tasks include maintaining domain names and offering registration services within their designated countries or territories. They also set the  criteria for registering.

Requirements can differ considerably from one registry to another. For example .ca - Canada has very strict rules, the registrant must meet Canadian presence requirements, which typically means being a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or a legally recognized Canadian organization or corporation. Registering a .no - Norway domain also comes with conditions, only Norwegian entities or individuals can register, and there's a limit to the number of domains one can register.

In contrast, some examples of ccTLDs that can be registered by anyone are .co (Colombia), .cc - Cocos (Keeling) Islands, .io - British Indian Ocean Territory, .me - Montenegro, .tv - Tuvalu or .ws - Western Samoa, all of these have minimal restrictions and are available to global registrants.

According to this very nice map over at Nominet (the ccTLD registry for .uk), the largest ccTLDs by registrations are .tk, .cn, .de, .uk and .nl. The ccTLD .tk tends to top the list because it’s free to register a domain name. But these are only registration numbers - which don't mean all these ccTLDs are active websites. Based on our data, the top five ccTLDs with the largest amount of active domains are .de, .uk, .ru, .nl and .br. You can explore the numbers by world region in Figure 1. Among the smallest ccTLDs are .ss (South Sudan), .nr (Nauru), .kp (North Korea), .er (Eritrea) and .mh (Marshall Islands).

The inception of gTLDs dates back to the early days of the internet. In the 1980s the DNS was established to replace the ARPANET's host.txt system. At that time, the initial gTLDs, such as .com, .org, .net, .edu, and .gov, were introduced. They categorized domains based on the nature and purpose of the entities they represented. For instance, .com was primarily intended for commercial entities, while .edu was designated for educational institutions.

The responsibility of administering and overseeing these domains was initially vested in the U.S. Department of Defense. Today however gTLDs, like ccTLDs, are overlooked by IANA and ICANN. The .com TLD is no doubt the most popular, well-established and well-known TLD in the world. Due to its lack of geographical specification, it is often favored by large international corporations that have a global presence. The popularity of .com domains is also reflected in its pricing, as you are typically more likely to pay more for a .com domain than for a respective ccTLD (although not always).

In Figure 1, we compared ccTLDs to each other, based on the total number of active websites. In Figure 2, we look at select countries and compare the share of .com websites to the country’s share of websites with that ccTLD extension. Who wins in which country? 

Perhaps not surprising, due to the liberal registration policies in Colombia and Montenegro, these ccTLDs win over .com in their respective countries. But as we discussed above, these are ccTLDs open to global registrations and are therefore different from most other countries. When we take these two out of the equation, the top three countries with the highest share of active domains using the ccTLD are Chile, Russia and Brazil. On the opposite side of the graph, countries with a much larger share of active .com domains are Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Thailand and Canada. Like the US, Canadians may ride the .com train to create an overall wider appeal. It may also reflect strong trade ties with the US. Both .ca and .sa have strict registration policies, so it makes sense that the proportion of ccTLD domains is low. Right in the middle we see the Philippines, Lithuania and Ireland. The ratio of .com to ccTLD domains in these countries is about 1:1.

Of course we did not look at other TLDs that might be popular in these countries. The numbers may shift once you include other TLDs. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see how the distribution changes from one country to another. What might be the reasons for such a large variety? Could national pride be linked to whether a ccTLD or the .com domain is more popular in a given country? 

To test this hypothesis, we correlated reported percentages of national pride with the percentage of domains using the ccTLD extension. In Figure 3 you can see that the two variables are poorly linked, so national pride is not a good indicator whether a ccTLD is popular in that country or not. Obviously, there are many other reasons that could play a role, most likely the ccTLD popularity may just be a reflection of the different registration and pricing policies of the respective registry.

ccTLDs can establish localized trust, creating instant recognition with local customers. They signal that the business or website has a physical presence or caters to a specific country. This effect extends to search engine optimization (SEO), where local search results often favor websites with ccTLDs. ccTLDs are also useful when a business or website needs to comply with regional rules and regulations, especially in critical industries like finance and healthcare, where adherence to local laws is paramount. Lastly, they can help in forming a cultural connection with the target audience. By using a country-specific domain, it implies that the content might be tailored to the local language and cultural norms, thus enhancing the user's experience and engagement.

On the other hand, gTLDs provide a sense of universal recognition and international appeal. Globally acknowledged extensions like .com transcend geographic boundaries, allowing businesses to reach a broader market without being confined to a specific area. gTLDs offer wide availability and diverse applications. Their global nature typically gives more options when choosing a domain name. And the nature of specific extensions like .org or .edu can align with an organization's mission. gTLDs can also assist in uniform branding across different regions, building recognition and reliability.

Choosing between a ccTLD and a gTLD isn't just a technical decision but a strategic one. If you want to focus on local presence, cultural connections, or compliance with regional regulations, a ccTLD may be the perfect fit. But if your vision is global, with an ambition for an expansive reach and flexible branding, a gTLD like .com might be the preferred option. In the vast digital landscape, your choice is a statement about your identity, whether embracing local roots or building a global brand.

Your web address is your unique identifier, and the top-level domain (TLD) plays a crucial role in shaping that identity. TLDs can be categorized into country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs), representing specific countries or territories, or generic top-level domains (gTLDs) like .com or .org. When people register a new domain, they have to decide under which TLD they want to register. In the case that both are still available, which one should you choose? And what are other organizations in your country using? Below we’ll take a look at which ccTLDs dominate the web and we dive deeper into the numbers when we take a look at the proportions of websites per country that utilize the respective ccTLD versus the .com generic TLD.

ccTLDs vs. gTLDs: Who wins and where?

Yigit Cem Ozturk

It all has to do with the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) of the Cocos Islands: .cc. A ccTLD is unique for each country or autonomous region. Most of these extensions are subject to geographical restrictions. Often you can only get a website with that ccTLD if you have a business or offer services in that country or region. But sometimes they can also be issued to third parties operating outside the corresponding territory. Opening up their unique ccTLD for outsiders can sometimes return a healthy profit for a small nation. Territories like Palau (.pw), Tuvalu (.tv) and Montenegro (.me) were able to earn quite some money from their ccTLD. The same goes for the .cc ccTLD of the Cocos Islands.

In 2021, there were 544 people living on the islands and 414 internet users. Disproportionately, we currently track nearly two million domains with the .cc extension. Of those, 404,590 are active, meaning there is a website behind the domain or the domain redirects to another domain. Lacking any geographical restrictions, .cc is used all around the world.

The popularity of .cc lies in its use as an acronym. CC can stand for a flotilla of things; Christian Church, Catholic Church, community college, call centers, country clubs, cycling couture, creative commons and many others. In addition, .cc is not far off from .com or .co. It is used as an alternative for companies whose preferred domain name ending with .com is already taken. The .cc ccTLD is currently owned by a sub-company of the US tech giant Verisign. They are also responsible for the .com and .net TLDs, making them a technologically reliable partner to get a domain from.

In contrast to this reliability, there are issues surrounding .cc. In 2021, Australian authorities were urged to take control over the domain to thwart scammers and child abuse sites which had set up shop on the .cc ccTLD. Similar issues led to the complete removal of all .co.cc domains from Google’s search engine in 2011. At that time, the extension was heavily used by scammers and phishers. Despite stricter regulations implemented regarding the domain, Dataprovider.com’s Trust Grade shows that there is still work to be done to make .cc more credible.

Our proprietary Trust Grade gives an indication of how trustworthy a website is. It is based on parameters such as the presence or lack of an SSL certificate, contact information, number of changes made on the website as well as other indicators. 

Trust Grades are given by the letters A, B, C, D, E and F; A being the highest grade and F being the lowest. In Figure 1 you can see that 56.7% of .cc domains have a Trust Grade below C, suggesting many of these domains are still lacking basic security measures or authentic content. To put this into context, the distribution of Trust Grades for .com or .co domains is quite different; only 28.7% of .com domains have a Trust Grade of D or lower and for .co the percentage is 28.8%.

Repurposing a ccTLD and removing geo-restrictions can benefit a small nation. But it also makes them an easy target for malicious repurposing. In this scenario, .cc has become the target of these attempts due to its similarity to .co and .com. Scammers can easily bulk purchase these domains, making it hard to track their activities. Similar to many disputes in international relations and international law, supranational legal structures have limited jurisdiction. And the balance between freedom and security makes it hard to make decisions on the non-territorial sphere of the internet, let alone implementing measures.

Cocos (Keeling) Islands is an Australian autonomous territory, located in the east of the Indian Ocean, far off the Jakarta coast and more than 1,000 kilometers away from the mainland. The just over 500 people living on the Cocos Islands are predominantly Muslim (66%). But yet they appear to have a genuine connection to the Christian Church. And there also appear to be a very large number of country clubs affiliated with these islands, without there being a single country club located there. How can a remote group of islands, with just a few hundred, mostly Muslim, inhabitants be interesting to the Catholic Church? And why are country clubs interested in the islands, despite a total lack of country clubs on their territory?

The curious case of Cocos Islands’ ccTLD

The .io top-level domain is commonly associated with tech startups and companies in the tech industry. There are many reasons why tech companies opt for the .io domain, seven of which have been stated in the blog post by InterNetX. However, there is an ongoing controversy surrounding the use of this domain. 

The .io domain is actually the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), a small group of islands in the Indian Ocean. BIOT’s political existence is in question, which brings up a couple of questions about the future of the corresponding .io domain.

The extension is used by many tech companies as I/O stands for input/output. Among the 1,223 TLDs we identify in our data, .io ranks 49th with 221,191 domains that have an active website. Over the past years, .io has seen slow but steady growth. .io has largely been adopted by US domain owners; in fact, we can trace 58% of the active .io domains to the US. The country with the second largest share of .io domains is India (11%). The remaining 31% are globally distributed.

BIOT is a British Overseas Territory consisting of a set of islands in the Indian Ocean known as the Chagos Archipelago. The Mauritian government claimed its sovereignty over the islands, leading to a decision by the United Nations in May 2019 that the islands should be ceded to Mauritius by the United Kingdom. This decision could mean the de jure end of the BIOT.  

But what does this mean for the .io domain? If the territory it represents comes to an end, does .io cease to exist? The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) oversees these issues, and according to their standardization ISO-3166, the .io extension might cease to exist, much like .cs which was discontinued following the end of Czechoslovakia and was gradually phased out over the course of two years from 1993 to 1995. A more contemporary example would be the fate of the .eu domain in the United Kingdom.

It is possible to see a steady decline from 2021 onwards, as .eu re-registries in the UK were not allowed. This represents an example of how political decisions have an impact on the web. A similar trend could be on the horizon for the .io domains if the decision taken by the UN is implemented. 

But what does this mean for the website owners? The potential disappearance of the domain name could mean that many businesses might be forced to find an alternative TLD. This could cost them customers as they might not find a TLD that has the same level of recognition. Website owners could take preemptive measures to ensure a smooth transition, such as investing in 301 redirects and leading the traffic to the new domain.

But there should be no urgency as the fate of the .io is nowhere near to being settled. If the islands are returned by the United Kingdom, there are still many parties that will have a say in the domain’s future, such as the Mauritians, the Chagossians, ICANN and the internet community itself. For example, the .su domain, representing the Soviet Union, still exists today due to the demands of the Russian internet community in the 90’s and despite the removal efforts of ICANN. According to our data, there are currently 34,401 active websites under the .su TLD. 

Depending on the course of action taken by the British and the Mauritian governments, .io has an uncertain future. Alongside the domain issue and serious geopolitical and international legal issues surrounding the BIOT and .io dispute, there is also a financial one: what will happen to the revenue generated by the .io domain sales?

The .io top-level domain is commonly associated with tech startups and companies in the tech industry. However, there is an ongoing controversy surrounding the use of this domain.

When TLDs cease to exist: the uncertain future of .io

Dataprovider.com

When the internet was first conceptualized, the only top-level domain (TLD) available was .arpa. However, as the internet began to gain popularity and the number of websites grew rapidly, the need for more TLDs arose. In 1985, five TLDs were introduced, namely .com, .edu, .gov, .mil, and .org. These so-called legacy TLDs became the foundation for today's domain name system (DNS). However, with the explosion of the internet and digitalization, there has been a growing demand for more TLDs to accommodate the ever-increasing number of websites and online services. In 2012, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) launched the first new generic top-level domain program. As a result, hundreds of new gTLDs have been added in recent years. A program for a second round of new gTLDs has already been announced and is set to increase the opportunities in the namespace even further.

New gTLDs have been around for a few years, becoming an increasingly popular option for website owners who want to stand out. What are the most popular new gTLDs today? The answer can be found in the Global Domain Report 2023, a comprehensive study of the domain industry conducted by InterNetX and Sedo supported by Dataprovider.com.

New generic top-level domains (new gTLDs) are extensions in the domain name system (DNS). They were introduced in 2014 to address the growing need for more domain name options, as the traditional ones like .com, .net, and .org were becoming increasingly saturated. With the launch of new gTLDs, businesses and individuals could start registering domain names that are more relevant, descriptive and memorable, enabling better online branding and differentiation. For example, if you run a pizza business, you can choose a domain name under the .pizza extension. Similarly, if you are in the fashion industry, you can choose a domain extension such as .fashion or .cfd or .style. If your business is located in the German capital, you could select a domain under .berlin, while .nyc is perfect as a city brand for New York. Such domain extensions help your website stand out from the crowd and indicate what your website is about or where it operates.

In summary, new gTLDs offer greater flexibility, creativity and branding opportunities for businesses and individuals to create a successful online presence. They are an exciting development in the domain name system that can help businesses and individuals stand out in a crowded online world.

In the ever-evolving landscape of the internet, new gTLDs emerged as a groundbreaking development that aimed to expand the DNS and offer more choice and flexibility for domain names. However, as with any novel concept, it took time for them to gain recognition and establish themselves as viable options in the online world. Today, digital-native brands are increasingly using their entire domain name as their brand name, including the extension. New gTLDs have been adopted, particularly in specific niche markets or innovative sectors, since they allow businesses to create meaningful connections with consumers through their visual identity. This is something that is otherwise not easily achieved due to the saturation of "traditional" TLDs. Despite the potential benefits, the general public's awareness of new gTLDs still needs to be enhanced. This can be attributed to several factors, such as the sheer number of new gTLDs introduced, the lack of mainstream adoption by high-profile businesses and the continued dominance of the more established domain extensions in popular culture and general discussions.

The new gTLDs category is in the process of carving out its place in the digital landscape. While niche markets and innovative brands have embraced these new extensions as their brand name or for targeted campaigns and creative marketing endeavors, major brands continue to depend on the tried-and-true legacy gTLDs and ccTLDs for their primary online presence, demonstrating that new gTLDs have yet to fully establish themselves as a mainstream choice.

The Global Domain Report, produced annually by InterNetX and Sedo, is an in-depth assessment of the domain industry. In its fourth edition, this year's report provides insights into the world of new gTLDs. Among the many exciting facts, it sheds light on the top 10 new gTLDs based on the number of domain registrations in 2023.

The new gTLD scene is broad and manifold. In 2022, the new gTLDs .icu and .cyou showed the highest growth year-over-year (yoy), while registrations under .vip dropped significantly. Among them all, there is one extension that has managed to create a significant market share for itself over the years, namely the TLD .xyz. The extension got its first boost in 2015 when Google registered abc.xyz for its holding company Alphabet Inc., bringing new gTLDs to the general public's attention. Today, the registry collaborates with blockchain, crypto and NFT players to establish itself as a leading TLD in the Web3 sector. This is well illustrated in the research "Crypto & NFT: an analysis of two trending keywords in domain names." The data shows a vigorous increase in domain names containing these keywords, with.xyz being the first new gTLD for this kind of domain name. It’s not surprising to see the extension .xyz gaining popularity among domain investors in the aftermarket and being the most frequently traded new extension on the aftermarket. This TLD greatly outperformed .online in the past years and made it into the top 10 of the most frequently sold TLDs for the first time this year.

Where are most websites under new gTLDs located?

Dataprovider.com delivers a dataset of almost 121 million  domains under new gTLDs (as of March 2023). An analysis of the geographic distribution of websites under this TLD category reveals an interesting fact. The Asian continent is leading the way for new gTLDs: 56.2% of all websites under this extension type can be allocated to this region. North America is second, with 30.4% of the websites, followed by Europe with 11.5%.

Zooming in, we can see in which countries new gTLDs are most popular. China accounts for 43.0% of all websites under new gTLDs. The United States is the second largest country by volume of websites under new gTLDs, accounting for 27.9%.

What is the state of development for websites under new gTLDs?

According to the available data regarding website response, 82.5% of new gTLDs result in a "host not found" response, meaning no record can be found in the DNS. Only 8% return an “available” response and 2.8% redirect to other TLDs, of which 56.9% redirect to a .com website.

Additionally, 58% of websites that use new gTLDs have yet to develop any content or are not developed at all. On the other hand, 42% of websites under new gTLDs are developed and display content.

With regard to content and purpose, 40.3% of new gTLD websites are placeholders, which means they are websites without content provided by a registrar. 30.5% show developed content, 11.7% are parked domains for sale, reserved or just showing ads. And 10% follow a business or commercial purpose.

What is the outlook for new gTLDs in 2023?

In 2012, the domain industry experienced an unprecedented opportunity when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) launched the first round of the new generic top-level domain (gTLD) program, introducing over 1,000 new domain extensions. This groundbreaking decision enhanced competition, innovation and consumer choice in the digital landscape.

Fast forward to 2023, the prospects for new gTLDs are more promising than ever. As documented in the Global Domain Report 2023, this is evidenced by the consistent growth in domain registrations and aftermarket transactions. Various industries and niche markets are increasingly adopting new gTLDs, signaling their growing popularity and potential for even greater expansion. This surge in adoption can be attributed to factors such as easier access to meaningful domain names and the ability to create a stronger online brand presence. Asia and China, in particular, have emerged as two key contributors to this growth, with their booming digital economies and rapidly increasing volume of internet users. As the domain industry continues to evolve, the new gTLD program can further revolutionize how businesses and individuals establish their online presence, paving the way for a more diverse and competitive digital landscape in the years to come.

This article was written by Simone Catania, who currently serves InterNetX as Global Content and Communications Manager. He is responsible for the content across InterNetX's blog and other channels and helps users understand the underpinning mechanisms behind the internet. Simone is an ICANN fellow and a member of EURALO and UASG.

Which are the most registered new gTLDs worldwide? Who uses them? And where are websites under this TLD category located? Let's look at the current situation in 2023.

Who, where, how: the 10 most frequently registered new gTLDs

Our web crawler currently recognizes 107 languages and 25 scripts (like Latin, Hebrew, Han Chinese and Arabic). The list also includes some minority languages like Welsh or Catalan. Today we look at languages on the web: What are the dominant languages? How many websites make use of lesser-known languages? And how are specific languages used on certain geo TLDs?

What’s the primary language on the web?

Half of all websites globally are in English (51%), which is a very high share compared to other languages. The second most common language on the web is Chinese (ZH). Roughly 10% of websites provide their content in Chinese, followed by German (7%), Spanish (4%) and Japanese (4%). But this is perhaps not that surprising, so let’s look at the other end: what are the languages that occur least frequently on the web?

What are the least common languages on the web?

In Figure 2 you can see the 30 least common languages on the web. Yiddish, Pashto, Laothian, Amharic and Punjabi are among the rarest. Together, these five languages occur on nearly 4,600 websites. Despite the low overall share of these 30 languages, it’s nice to see that websites using less common languages and even languages at risk of becoming extinct still exist. 

According to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Frisian and Basque are classified as ‘vulnerable’, meaning most children still speak the language, but it may be restricted to certain domains (e.g., at home), and Yiddish has been classified as ‘definitely endangered’ indicating that children no longer learn the language as their mother tongue at home. Creating internet pages in these languages may help in the preservation of those languages and make them more accessible to younger generations. However, it may not always be easy to find these sites.

Do geoTLDs provide a home for less common languages?

In order to carve out a specific space on the web to promote a certain cultural or linguistic community, geoTLDs were introduced in 2012. While these primarily focus on geographical regions (other than countries), they more generally aim at providing domains for local digital identities; examples include .cymru or .wales for Wales or .cat for Catalonia. In Figure 3, we show the language distribution for a few select geoTLDs that could also be related to a specific language. 

GeoTLDs .cymru and .cat are good examples of making use of the local language. The share of websites for these two geoTLDS written in the respective language is 61%. This is in contrast to .scot, where only a meagre 0.05% use (Scottish) Gaelic. We also included the .eus geoTLD for the Basque Country. The language distribution here is 45% Basque, 42% Spanish and 8% English (5% are in other languages). Altogether this shows that the new geoTLDs can provide a good home for websites in local languages.

English is by far the most used language on the web. But what’s also interesting to see on the other end of the spectrum is the use of minority languages, where the web can be a great outlet in helping preserve not only a unique language but also important cultural knowledge and practices. When a minority language is lost, it can also have serious consequences for the individuals speaking it. It can lead to a lack of access to educational and economic opportunities, as well as a sense of marginalization and exclusion from the wider society. Websites are an important contributor in helping protect minority languages. Even better, websites hosted on dedicated geoTLDs can be found more easily and provide the perfect home for local languages.

According to Ethnologue.com, there are 7,151 languages in the world. This isn't a final number, as new languages are 'discovered' regularly. Additionally, languages are constantly evolving and transforming as they are spoken and used by communities that are part of a globalized world. The main reason 40% of languages are at risk of disappearing is because they have less than 1,000 speakers. On the other side of the spectrum, only 23 languages are spoken by more than half of the global population. 

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